August 9th - Xinyi City Night

Night Out on the Town

Saturday turned out to be great. It started out like my weekends at the Kung Fu School usually do: talking with friends and family, cleaning up my room, eating some food and so on. We all knew there was a plan to go to Xinyi for hot pot and KTV today since two of our classmates, Shilat and Philip, will not be returning from Shanghai. This was their "goodbye celebration" and I think it was a good one.

"干杯！Ya Crazy Foreigners"

Hot Pot ~ 火锅

All of us went to the hot pot/barbecue place that we went to last week because it is that good. This time, we all wanted to order some "different" items on the menu. Last time we ordered some frog, which was good, but we wanted more. Brains, octopus, beef princess and lots of watermelon were ordered. We ate the food so fast because we all were starving from the week's training but we also had a lot of good conversations.

 

"A Beef Princess, Some Smart Brain, Sweet Rolls and Octopus... all part of a good hot pot!"

I think that is what I like most about hot pot, not the eating but the experience of eating this unique food with other people. Sharing what sauces you make, seeing others not being able to handle the spice, laughing at good stories/jokes, and just enjoying where you're at in the moment. What was really 2-3 hours of eating and talking felt like a few minutes. The Xinyi City adventure wasn't over yet.

Blue Door Cafe ~ 你好，旧时光

While Shilat, Philip and Matt went to meet up with the Masters at a KTV place. Josh, JD, and I decided to go and buy stuff in preparation for Shanghai. The night life of Xinyi is quite active (up until 11 pm) and there is so much to see on the main, and side, streets. Josh ended up buying a backpack and we followed him back to the KTV place where everyone was at. JD and I didn't want to go sit around at a karaoke bar so instead we decided to explore some more of Xinyi.

Since I haven't been to Xinyi as much as the rest of them JD showed me around. Underground mall, underground food court, the narnia elevator, a cool park, some side streets with food and "handmade" goods. Xinyi, in China standards, is a small city. We only walked around a few blocks of this place and saw so much. I can't imagine what else there could be in other parts of Xinyi that we don't go to. Towards the end of our exploring we went to a place JD called, "The Blue Door" which is this awesome coffee shop/bar in the middle of Xinyi right next to a KFC. The atmosphere (or "vibe") of the place is super relaxed. It also is out of the way, meaning not too many people are there and it isn't noisy. Its a nice place to sit down on a sofa, talk with friends, and drink some drinks. I highly recommend it if you can find it.

That was Saturday, super chill, super fun, super full.

Enjoy your weekend!