New Sky Place

Friday, I did some work with Excel, which is good practice. Also a bit on the long and tedious side, but that is the price of a perfect spreadsheet, and it is one I'm willing to pay. Apparently the hot weather means we order food for lunch, and today I got some delicious fish. I'm definitely starting to figure out the things about the office that I think are done poorly, but I'm through 40% of my days there, so it's about time to start getting frustrated I think. (I don't know why I started obsessively counting my days, but I really like being aware of exactly where I am in my experience.)

I decided to come up with something low-key to do tonight since I will hopefully be leaving early tomorrow morning. Spent a lot of time on shanghaiexpat.com and smartshanghai.com looking at restaurants with WiFi, and picked one out that's in Xintiandi, this really nice area that basically consists of restaurants (and cafes and bars, and of course shopping since it's Shanghai). It's my first time in Xintiandi (which translated to New Sky Place, roughly), and although I'm somewhat ashamed of enjoying an area that looks really "western" to me, I think I get to just enjoy being in a big city with cool neighborhoods, even if they're not "Chinese".

The place I went for dinner was pretty good, but I decided to look around for a better place for desert and sitting around in AC with my computer, which was the ultimate goal of the night. (I've realized that being uncomfortably hot at home really takes the fun out of my short post-work evenings.) Walked around a bit, and found Jamaica Blue, which has been a perfect place to eat a lemon-coconut bar (I doubt any of you approve of that choice), watch Grey's, and enjoy WiFi. I've taken some pictures of the area, but I'll have to wait until I'm home again to load them. I might just do a big photo post in a couple of days.

Today I downloaded some songs by a Chinese artist that Sarah recommended, and subscribed to some news and China-related podcasts, so hopefully my time in transit will be more educationally-spent in the future. And now I'm going to try to do more research on Suzhou before my computer runs out of power! Have a good Friday/weekend, everyone.