My Life in Shanghai

We went out for dinner while the sun was still up. Went we came out and went back, it was already dark and we walked across century park from north to south, trying to get a little bit of exercise.

School

I rememeber taking long subway rides to courses and presentations. And how I crammed so much medical knowledge into my head 2 weeks before the finals to past the exames. I'm proud that I made it.

The 4 campuses are very spread out.

• Handan: In the final year I only went there once, for the FCT k0mputer exam.
• Zhangjiang: leisure
• Fenglin: courses, finals, thesis presentations
• Jiangwan: MSN Group meetings

https://microfeed.teddysc.me/i/fucking-hell-fudan-_1zC-HchtOG/

Housing

Pudong. We were staying close to the Longyang Road Station for the most part.

From there the subway takes us to work (Line 2) and school (for me it's Line 7), and other parts of the city (2, 18). Line 16 is for suckers (less fortunate people who had to live too far from the city. There's nothing to see long the line, besides the perfectly round lake at the other end of the line.).

Pudong library is where we went when we couldn't bear with the noise pollutions.

Clothing

I didn't want to buy clothes in China because everything's so much more expensive than here. I did basically wear the same thing every day. God I'm glad I stopped doing that and learned to dress smart.

I wore her CNY10 taobao floral print shirt for fun. I wore it to work even. I didn't have any button up shirts and that one looks surprisingly good for the price.

She had so many clothes and I was always amazed how she managed to stuff everything into that small suitcase. She's very organized and space-efficient, using the cavity of a cup to store items.

Food

Meals

Breakfast and lunch: I mostly eat easy-to-prep foods from Sam's (delivered) and Aldi (we went to the Fuhui Plaza one a lot. My fav from Aldi are discounted deli bowls and the BBQ section.)

The most frequently bought items from Sam's include: CNY128 beef rolls (for hot pot, and we bought so many bags of tomato soup for hot pot that we weren't ever going to finish), veges, mini-tomatos, 6-pack air-fryer-friendly angus beef cheeseburgers, Tyson chicken products (frozen or fresh).

I made and ate a lot of chicken wraps, with cheese and those tiny tomatos. And air-fried a lot of burgers from Sam's.

For dinner we ate out.

We went out for dinner at 肥汁米蘭 (kinda awkward refills, but it does taste good) while the sun was still up. Went we came out and went back, it was already dark and we walked across century park from north to south, trying to get a little bit of exercise. It was hot.

She loves durian and durian-anything (like pizza).

I'm kinda a picky eater, and sometimes while presented with lots of not-so-interesting options, I just followed her and saw if the place she picked was good (and got a few bites).

Restaurants

肥汁米蘭.

The always-50%-off Papa John's at Legend Plaza in Zhangjiang (the mall seems semi-abandoned, that's why). We even went to the BBQ event at Fudan Zhangjiang Campus, and it sucked. Not surprised.

That American pizza place with wine promotion. She drunk.

餛燉 place at the corner.

Spicy (really, spicy) food places with Sichuan place names in it.

1 or 2 fancy places that I can't remember the names of.

And I cannot omit Longyang Plaza here. It's at the best location, so close and with a list of ok restaurants. Saize. Dimmed lighting, greasy cheesy rice and pasta. Unbeatable price.

Pizza Hut at Damuzhi.

Lots of DQ's (I don't eat them anymore).

IKEA Pudong and Jingan. Besides food the place is fun to walk around too. Meatballs, salmon, mashed potato with gravy, raspberry sparkling water, CNY3 ice creams. Large windows and nice desks.

Getting Around

Subway, ebike, shared bikes, on foot. Never the bus. Seldom Uber.

Home -- ebike --> subway stations [1] -- subway --> subway stations [2] -- shared bike / walk --> destination

Bypassing xx-hour Negative COVID Check at every place (2022)

https://csm.teddysc.me to deal with the low lives. If you don't know this site is, you don't have access.

SAP service elavator from basement to bypass online check at the main entrance.

Cops that Went After bikes and ebikes

These are bad. You gotta be on the look out. They go after people struggling to make a living and are disgusting.

Where to Go?

It's completely flat. No hills, no mountains, no elevation, no sea. On most days the sky's gray and the UV is lethal.

Waterfront (Huangpu River)

Kinda far. Big ships shipping sands. Flamboyant ferries with ads in your face. CNY2 ferries to take you cross the river.

We biked from Pudong, south of Lujiazui to Lujiazui.

The river waterfront is long, besides multiple bunds we also went to the Xuhui waterfront.

Century Park

Boring but oK choice. Close. You get to see some water and plants. She found a secret entrance on the south side and I love not having to going through the securities.

I jumped on the stone near the main south entrance, because it was fun and reminded me of me at 2 years old.

She spent a lot of time staring at the water and captured fish, shrimps and more with just a tiny net. Shrimps became food for her fish at home.

The Park on the Way to Sam's

A pond with geese and ducks!

We fed them with Aldi biscuits.

Malls

We explored like ~30 malls. Our favorites are probably Fuhui Plaza (with Aldi, very spicy foods, a cinema and outdoor marketplace / vendors), Kerry Parkside, Century Link (Godiva chocolate milkshake! It's large and chocolatey :) ) and ifc. And Lilac for the foods!

Oh and we bought coconuts (easy-open, straws included) and coconut juice from Aldi.

While in Anting we had only 1 mall by the subway station, it has RT-Mart and stores and restaurants you'd expect from a mall at that place.

Disneyland (where tickets not required)

End of Line 11.

Lake and themed stores. Disney music everywhere. There's also a free park near by and it's kinda large too.

Grocery Shopping

Sam's

CROWDED! Long lines! After we discovered the delivery option we came a lot less.

Lots of Asian easy-to-prep foods, all kinds of noodles, pasta

2nd Best place for a frozen meal junkie like me!

Worst purchase: discount Cheesecake Factory cheesecake. It was just sugar!!!

Costco

Line 18 -> Line 11. No delivery, sadly. Mushroom pizza from food court is good.

Best place for a frozen meal junkie like me!

Cheap cheese. The 2 large jars of salsa was a mistake.

Aldi

Your friendly neighborhood store. Small. Lots of old folks at 7 PM when the discount items are out.

Good choices for items, but not usually the cheapest one.

We miss the sister store Trader Joe's.

RT-Mart (Anting, and Pudong furthur away from city center)

We only went to this one because there wasn't other options.

Entertainment

Movies (home / cinema), malls, foods. She loves board games. I got tricked into a haunted maze where there's bascially no light, scary music, and real person dressed like a ghost chasing you in a tunnel, swinging a chain at the walls. Fuck. I was really scared and all I knew was to run.

We went to swim once in Shanghai.

We got so bored that we tried billiard and kept coming for more.

And we explored lots of places.

Gaming: It Takes 2 on a windows laptop that's not mine with joysticks.

Weekend Hiking Trips Away from the Flat City

We went on 2, one in Zhejiang another one in Anhui. Both were in 2023.