For the fourth day we were in Shanghai, we roamed around the city without any itinerary and surprisingly ended up going to pretty interesting places. Before lunch, we headed to East Nanjing Road, which is closer to the city’s center, if I’m not mistaken. We went to The Bund, from which we could see the infamous Shanghai skyline from across the river (Wusong, I think).

We were then able to go see an interesting exhibit at the Museum of Contemporary Art, which was very near a nice park in People’s Square. At night, we went to Xintiandi, which is gorgeous. It’s a very popular area with lots of restaurants and bars. Most interesting: the architecture and feel of the place. Very traditional meets modern; I quite loved looking around here.

Then, we had excellent shao mai and dumplings for dinner.

Brother.

I don’t know, I like taking photos of strangers.

More photos under the cut; of the exhibit, Xintiandi and some more
from The Bund, and the walk back home.

Park! They were planting in a new tree.

Lots of table games, and lots of spectators.

I must admit, I do not understand.

Best shao mai in the world, pretty much.

My tea & a book.

The walk back home.

Cherries!

On our second day in Shanghai (June 8th), we went to the World Expo. To be honest, I thought the interior parts of the pavilions were a little underwhelming (but then again, I had no idea what to expect anyway), but the architecture and designs were insanely good. We didn’t get to see a ton of the insides of the pavilions; mostly because the place was packed and the lines were super long, but it was worth it to see what different places all over the world came up with.

I don’t have photographs of all the pavilions, because it was hard to get great shots without people blocking the way, and I wasn’t used to the 35mm lens I was using (no wide angle shots, I’m afraid) but I hope these photos give you an idea of how massive it all was.

On the way inside.

Family picture, minus me. LOL.

Expo ticket with the mascot.

China Pavilion.

Brother & Sister.

UK.

Italy.

U.A.E.

Denmark. (I loved Denmark’s.)

They flew in The Little Mermaid for the Expo!

And made a short film of her journey.
There were other excellent short films.
Made me want to visit Denmark and/or move there.

More photos under the cut. I hope you look at the photos,
because there really were some beautiful things that I saw that day.


Strange seating! They also had a bike lane.
And a funny fountain.

Sculpture by the entrance.

Philippines. To be honest? It was meh.

Themed Pavilion! This one is called “Urbania,” I think.

Children!

Group shot of strangers.
For I am a creeper.

Singapore and Malaysia.

Germany.

Austria.

France. Switzerland in the background.

The Netherlands.

Tiny Dutch pancakes!

Wooden clogs.

Australia.

Russia.

Sister; Romania in the background.

In line for one of the pavilions.

Latvia & Estonia.

Finland.

Israel.

Luxembourg.

Here are photos from the first and third day. We went to the Expo on the second day (June 8th), but that is such a huge photo post, it deserves its own post.

My sister, chillin’ like a villain.

Hong Kong stop-over.

Day three under the cut.

H&M.

Uniqlo. Pretty socks!

We missed the Germany pavilion, so here’s a photo I took of my sister with a photo of the pavilion.
She’s taking a German minor right now.

And then, yay! Duck for dinner.

1. The Next Time Around • Little Joy
2. Jogging Gorgeous Summer • Islands
3. Glue Girls • Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin
   (this was in my last mix, but I love this song a lot.)
4. Walk in the Park (Acoustic) • Oh No! Oh My!
5. This Time Tomorrow • The Kinks
6. Honey Bee • Voxtrot
7. My Hands Are Shaking • Sondre Lerche
8. It’s Been Another Day • Ciudad
9. What Can I Do For You? • Illinois
10. Fine Day • Fairways
11. Let’s Get Known • The Unicorns
12. You Are a Light • Pavement
13. Thank You Mario But our Princess is in Another Castle • The Mountain Goats and Kaki King
14. Patintero/Habulan/Larong-Kalye • Ang Bandang Shirley
15. I Thought You Said Summer Is Going To Take The Pain Away • Hello Saferide
16. We are Not a Football Team • Minus the Bear

Download Here: .zip file

Bonus Track: “Having a Coke With You” by Frank O’Hara. Read poem under the cut:

Having a Coke With You
BY FRANK O’HARA

Convenience stores & gas stations.

Sunrises.

Sunsets.

Talented friends. (Hi, Jan!)

Gorgeous views.

Soy milk.

Pretty jewelry.

Happy people.

Funny car rides.

Wading.

Throwing rocks and fistfuls of sand into the ocean.

Ripples.

Good music.

Good literature.

The ocean.

I have some more photos here & here, although the video that Jan & Co. shot will be shown during the Blue Roast program. This excites me, as I haven’t seen it yet.

To close, here’s a video of the day, set to another Thing I Love, a song called “The Next Time Around” by Little Joy.

• a reminder from Billy Corgan & Co.
• iCarly¹
• wonton soup <3
• collaging

For the past few days, I’ve settled into a sort of after-graduation “summer mode” that tends to stretch into a deep and dark Oblivion, also known as Unemployment. I’ve been drawing a little (mostly letters), and writing a little (mostly about feelings), eating a lot and watching a lot of television that I missed when there were still things I needed to GIT ER DONE. Oh, and I’ve been collaging a little and it really feels good to be doing it because I hadn’t been making anything with my hands in so long, I was afraid I’d maybe forgotten how to.

Here’s another one that I made tonight:

Tomorrow, I have to run a couple of errands and attend a meeting. On Tuesday, I will probably be at the beach, but to do PA stuff, and I really, really want to start taking good(-ish?) photographs again, because it used to be such a big part of my life, and it’s kind of sad how, suddenly, it’s not.

Yeah. I told you this post was about nothing.

———
¹ You’re not allowed to make fun of iCarly. It’s one of the funniest shows in the world. Sure, there are cheap, obvious jokes here and there, but there’s a lot of really unexpected, genuinely laugh-out-loud moments. Plus Freddie is adorable. YOU CAN’T MAKE ME NOT WATCH IT.

1. Today is the first day of Hogwarts, aka my real school.
2. Today is the birthday of someone who will not be named because I am ashamed that I know this birthday. Ahem.
3. Today is the beginning of my birthmonth!

As such, I got this pretty stupid, ambitious idea to blog here everyday for the whole month of September. They’re not going to be big-ass, profound posts, just random what’s-its from day-to-day. Obviously, it’s not going to just be stupid things everyday either. Just. I’ll just be around more is all. Yay.

So, yesterday, I bought a Flickr Pro account. I had been thinking about getting one for a while, but kept on putting it off so I finally asked my dad if I could borrow his credit card and he obliged. After entering the information, and confirming my order, I realized that I probably couldn’t afford it right now (given that my current laptop is still being paid for. By me. HEH.) but then I justified this (seemingly) impulsive purchase by telling myself that it’s a birthday gift. To myself. So, I spent a few hours yesterday updating it with old photos that I had lost the will to put up on my Multiply account, which used to house all my photos.

Because I am a needy loser, here are a few of them:

After tinkering with the interface a bit more, I realized that it actually was a good purchase, since there was so many things you could do for a relatively small amount of money. And I don’t know, it seemed really useful to me, since I plan on hosting my photos over there from now on.

I actually missed taking nicer pictures when I was looking through my old things.

In case anybody wants to look at it, here is my Flickr account: PRESIDENTS. Add me if you have one, too. I only have 28 contacts, so far. It’s getting a little lonely.

Observe the overwhelming affection. He loves me.

I mean, clearly.

Anyway, I’ve never been to Cyma before and my parents had been raving about it, ever since they’d first eaten there. So that’s where they thought we should eat.

In an attempt to be slightly more journalistic, I wanted to started off with saying that ‘Cyma’ is Greek for so-and-so, but Babelfish told me that ‘Cyma’ is Greek for ‘Cyma.’ So that was a bust. I will pummel you with pictures instead! This is what I had:

Lamb on some sticks. With pita bread.
But it’s called something else fancy and Greek.

My brother had some lamb in a pile.

My sister ate the same thing I did, but she’s a bit more health-concerned.
So, hers is chicken instead of lamb, and salad instead of bread. Look at that feta! ♥

My dad had grilled mahi-mahi. (“Make that just one mahi, then!” LOL Anna Faris.)

… And my mother had some soup! I’m not sure what’s in it, but I’m betting it’s filled with chicken.

The menu! Or, where all the good things come from.

My sister.

My dad.

My mother + my sister.

What I wore todaaaay.

It’s surprising how much time we spent eating dinner. We had dessert after (chocolate baklava,which was SO GOOD it should be illegal, and some sort of cheesecake sorbet, which was also pretty tasty) and goofed around. I don’t know, I guess we just wanted to spend more time with le brudder, even though he’s only going to be gone a few days. Then again, if all goes well, he might be gone for a little while longer.

Which means I have more time to spend with his flatscreen TV.

Just kidding. Or am I?

Don’t be fooled by his face of lies. I know he loves meeee.
He wouldn’t have shown me how to turn on his PS3 + TV + stereo if he didn’t.

The reason why I haven’t been around is because I went to the beach for a week. It was there that I found out about my incapacity to be a tourist. Here is a list of things I didn’t do:

1. Parasail, ride a banana boat, hop on islands
2. Get a henna tattoo
3. Get my hair braided and beaded
4. Get so piss-ass drunk that I pass out on the beach
5. Basically, everything someone does on vacation in Boracay.

However, I did tan myself silly and read a couple of books, so I guess, all in all, it was a pretty O.K. vacation. I even find that I would (kinda) like to go back there in the near future. Especially when the weather here in Manila is horribly grey, and while I do enjoy the general raininess, it seems a little wrong when it happens in the summer. But anyway.

I do have a plan (!) for the future of this website. But to tide you over, here are a few more pictures from the trip, after the jump, of course.

Yeah, I think I’d very much like to go back.