Valentine's Weekend

So my weekend started Friday night with me doing my best to stay up until midnight. I think I can safely say I am totally over my jetlag now. It only took a week. Saturday I had plans to meet up with Isabelle for brunch. We both ended up getting big salads (mine was a warm spinach salad...yum) and mango smoothies. Then we went back to my apartment and knitted for about 300 hours. Ha. We listened to some CDs and watched some Friends and chatted and knitted. We left my apartment around and met up with Lucy and her friends around 9pm.

We met at a bar called Bluesroom. When we got there Lucy and her friend Audrey were already there. Then her friend Lynn showed up. Then randomly a friend of Audrey's showed up with three friends of his own. This was the whole group at Bluesroom.
The three guys are Eddie, a concert master violist man whose name I sadly forgot, and Jonathan. The girls from left to right are Audrey, Lynn, Lucy, me and Isabelle. Do you like the scarf Isabelle is wearing? That was a birthday present from me! She gave me a birthday present this weekend too. It was kind of perfect. The two times we hung out before we ate cheese, listened to CDs and knitted. Her birthday present was two burned CDs, a bag of yarn, and some cheese!

Anyway, after Bluesroom we walked to this bar called Sin (don't you just love ridiculous bar names?). Apparently it was free drinks for ladies until midnight but we didn't get there until about 12:15. Alas! Once Lucy sends me the pictures from that club I will have to post one. Sin had these couches with HUGE flowery backs. Like...you would look at it and think Louis XIV had designed it. We met up with some other friends of Lucys there. We had some drinks, did some dancing and lots of chatting. I got home around 3. I had one of my cheapest late-night cab rides back and I think it was because the driver didn't know where he was going. I had to direct him where to go and I took him on a back route. Go me!

Sunday I slept late, did some lesson planning, grading and cleaning. I met Lucy for dinner and a show. June had given me these tickets on Friday for a show at the Shanghai Circus called "Era: Intersection of Time". It's supposed to be a big famous show. It's really mostly aimed at tourists but I figured "Hey! Free tickets!" It ended up being a pretty cool show. There was a lot of acrobatic/Chinese show standards. Contortionists, a big guy throwing around vases, tossing bowls and balancing them on your head, jumping through hoops...pictures weren't allowed but I found this picture online from the show.
One of my favorite acts, and one that surprised me, was the classic American circus act "motorcycles in a big round cage". I didn't expect to see that in a Chinese circus. It was kind of insane. At one point there were 7 motorcyclists going at breakneck speed in the one cage.

Lucy's favorites was the aerial dancing with the couple holding on to long white sheets of cloth. This is also a picture from the show.
Yes. That woman is flying up in the air with nothing to support her but her partner's neck. There was no net, no safety harness. It was very graceful and breathtaking. After that I headed back to my apartment, corrected more homework and went to bed.

EDIT: While I was writing this post, Lucy sent me her pictures. Here is Isabelle, Lucy and Me in one of those ridiculous couches. Isabelle and I talked about sneaking one out when we left, but I guess we forgot.
Now it's Monday and I'm back in school. :-P

Anyway, sending love!
Stephanie