This week has been hectic. We started real lessons (at a pace of about 6 or more hour of preparing for every 3 hours of class) and Stefano has been in shanghai on holiday. I have been to Puxi roughly every day. Indeed, now I know a quite a few more bars :)

Sunday night we went for a walk at The Bund and to have a mojito at Bar Rouge:


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Next day, Monday, I didn't have class and I was not yet aware of the amount of time I'd need to prepare them. Well, I didn't do anything and went for a walk downtown with Stefano and Christian (a classmate) willing to get a better grasp of this metropolis. The idea was to walk around the Franch Concession (MaoMing Nan Lu!!), but we ended up in the Old Town:


As you can see, it is charming without cars

On one of these streets, we saw a man who owned a noodle-making store:


Will it meet Sanity standards? Luckily, noodles are boiled.


The most surprising thing e saw on that walk was, that amongst these luxury and sophisticated shops, we found a French bakery. It has been son nice to have brioche with jam for breakfast for the next 3 days in a row. Ah, one of these little daily miracles that make life better.

The rest of the days Stefano was here, I had already classes and, at most, we caught up for dinner or to have some drinks (wine at Napa and drinks at Barbarrossa), so I'll spare you the details of what we did or what we didn't.

By chance, I was dressed in red!


The second best part of Stefano's visit (obviously, the best was the visit itself) was the discovery of places in the ciy I had not yet visited. I still think that the real city is Puxi and, maybe, the pat of Pudong closest to the river (around Pudong Avenue). I like that area. I am more and more thinking of the possibility of, later in the year, if the rythm of classes allows, trying to find a flat there and enjoy a little bit more the "Shanghai experience". However, being the school placed where it is, I'll spend a lot on taxis. We'll see.

Nex big event are the holiday in October. We have to decide what t do (high season and that, in China, means a lot of people) and buy tickets. One option is Hong-Kong, but I would be tempted by something more in the countryside (I was about to write some more wilderness, but HOng-Kong can be pretty wild, depending on the point of view).