Pancakes and KTV with the Meet Up crowd

It started off another rainy day with a thunderstorm which woke me up around 9am and left me in bed for an hour contemplating if I should still go to the Meet Up or not. By 10.30am it had stopped thundering but it was still raining and I thought to myself I'm sure people of Shanghai can't stop their lives because of heavy rain and that I should try my very best so I headed out.

I underestimated the rain from the 13th floor it didn't look that heavy but when I got to the front door it was pouring and pouring. I put up my umbrella and took a brave step outside. It isn't cold and still a bit humid and as I got to the main road I saw a taxi. I thought someone had just got inside as I saw it leave the kerb but I waved anyway and to my surprise it came for me!

I went to Julu Lu to Mr Pancake House and there I met some people from the Meet Up website. At first there were only 4 of us but soon we had about 12. I had breakfast pancakes which cost 42RMB and is very filling.

Afterwards a few of us went to Party World as Lucy, the organiser of the event, had booked a karaoke room for a few hours.

KTV here seems quite relaxed and they didn't seem to mind us bringing in outside food and drinks. I'm not too sure the price of the room per hour though as I didn't pay but Lucy assured me it wasn't much. So we had English, Mandarin, Cantonese and Japanese songs which was interesting and all very good fun. People came and left throughout but I stayed until the end.

Around 5pm I got a taxi with a friend and went to Berlinda's place and watched a movie there with Jorge. Another friend, Sho, came and joined us and we headed to Koala Bar nearby for dinner and drinks. I see this bar on HuaiHai Xi Lu as it is near the university and the sign says its a coffee bar but it is more of a drinks bar and has a pool table in the back. The atmosphere was nice, we sat outside to eat and the waiter could speak and understand English which is a bonus.

Burgers cost around 50RMB and breezers around 40RMB which is a little steep I think.

I'm hoping tomorrow's weather is ok and that the predicted typhoon has moved away so that I can do some exploring with my friends.

When it rains in Shanghai...

The weather out here can be rather unpredicable and when it decides to rain it decides to pour! It started with a trip to People's Square, I thought I would go to Book City on Fuzhou Lu. When I arrived at the station I decided to get something to eat and all the fast food places were insanely packed so I went to Pizza Hut where I can sit down and be served instead.

At 230 degrees this plate is hot!! Also very fatty so it wasn't so tasty to be honest. Service was also incredibly slow in this place and when I finally got my food I finished in less than 10 minutes and had to wait another 20 minutes just for the bill.

I headed to the exit of the station only to find it pouring with rain and people coming into the station for shelter - great. So I started walking around the station which luckily has quite a number of stores and even a small market area. I managed to buy some cross stitch kits for 5RMB each and tried to waste some time walking around. I thought there would be a way to go to other shopping centres but I had no luck and in the end as it was still raining, I decided to head to Xintiandi where I know I could be indoors without needing to go outside at all.

It is very useful to remember which stations have tunnels that lead to shopping centres and so I spent my day hopping on the metro trying to stay dry and busy.

Wifi can be found in most places although I have to say Coffee Bean wifi is really awful and sometimes decides not to work at all! Starbucks in Metro City in Xujiahui is really big and probably because there are so many people this wifi is also very bad so I would avoid it. When I am in Metro City I would opt to go to Saint Marc's cafe because it is less busy, good service and I've never had a problem with their wifi which is powerful enough for me to log onto VPN.

I have found a new school to study in for the summer and my teacher gives me these free magazines. She tells me you can pick them up from Starbucks or most Western restaurants. The website for City Weekend is also very good and I like to regularly check it for upcoming events.

(sorry my Blogger isn't rotating this image)