Following our company grand opening celebration, the rest of the week was a blur of working by day and partying by night. 
Part of the reason for this was that my visit happened to coincide with ChinaJoy, a game industry trade show aimed at developers in China. We met up with friends and colleagues for more than a few drinks, discovered some awesome new places to hang, and even tried the Chinese version of some American hangouts. Who would have thought that singing and dancing in a conga line at Hooters would ever happen, let alone be so much fun??
Achievements this trip:
Found awesome unlimited food and drink Japanese restaurant near our office:
大渔é“æ¿çƒ§(百è”ä¸çŽ¯åº—)
上海市普陀区真光路1288å·ç™¾è”ä¸çŽ¯è´ç‰©ä¸å¿ƒ4楼
Da4 Yu2 Tie3 Ban3 Shao1
4F, No.1288, Zhen Guang Rd., Putuo District, Shanghai
Checked out MUSE, a popular night club in Shanghai. It was huge, packed, and pulsating with some great mashups mixed by a badass DJ. They make a mean mojito.
- Battled my addiction to bubble tea. I’m down to one serving per day.
- Got even better deals on cheap knock-off merchandise than I did last time - from the same merchant!
Check out the pics!
posted by Jesse at 11:16 pm
Exigent Shanghai is officially open for business! We just threw our grand opening celebration at the new studio (don’t miss all the pics; Facebook no worky through the Great Firewall of China). People came from far and wide to celebrate with us, including Garland’s entire family. I miss them so much and it was great to see his wife and all the kids.
We started with a studio open house with snacks and drinks, and then had a ceremonial unveiling of our brushed-steel logo in the lobby after some speeches by Garland and our primary outside investor. The mood was very excited and upbeat as we laid out our plans for global domination.
After some more mingling we moved on to dinner at a nice hotel. Paul talked a little more about the company and the people while George and Sarah continued to translate everything into Chinese (they had been doing this all day). We ate and schmoozed until about 8 PM and then called it a night!
Well, except for Paul and I. This IS Shanghai, afterall.
posted by Jesse at 8:04 pm
Finally. So it turns out my flight yesterday was cancelled without my knowledge. And I don’t mean simply cancelled at the last minute; I mean HELLA cancelled like 2 weeks ago. I found this out at the airport at 2AM, of course. TII.
So I rushed home and booked another ticket on Air India/Dragonair for the evening so I wouldn’t miss our Shanghai office grand opening party on Sunday afternoon. I promptly slept all day long, went to the gym, and then headed to the airport.
Everything was going smoothly until I got to security check and realized I had my nice black Swiss Army Knife with me. I’m not checking any bags so this was a problem; fortunately the security personnel worked with me to get the airline to check it for me, receipt slip and all. Score one for improved service at IGI Airport.
Every time I come to IGI things are getting nicer and running more smoothly. They’re even covering up a lot of the garish marble with nice faux wood flooring. Oddly, however, for the first time ever at IGI I had to ride a bus out to the tarmac to board the plane.
Speaking of which, I feel like I’m flying straight back in to the 1970’s, here. This Air India plane is VINTAGE, complete with gaudy color scheme and ash trays in the arm rests, presumably unused for decades. Will report back on the service later. Zai4 jian4!!
UPDATE: My Air India flight was late, so I missed my connecting flight. Fortunately the next flight is only 1.5 hours later. Any more set-backs and I’m going to miss our company celebration!
posted by admin at 11:05 pm
I really enjoy taking my camera with me on my daily lunch walks. After working here for 2 years I started taking for granted how much there is to see all around me. I narrowly missed a monkey leaping through the air a few feet from me; I got the shot framed quite nicely, but it’s much too blurry (my shutter speed was too low).
There’s a family who seems to live and work on one of the back roads. I stopped to take their portrait and I’m going to get some prints made for them tomorrow. It occurred to me that they may not have any at all! Maybe I can make a difference in the world through photography!
“Naptime”
“Noida Family Portrait”
“Escape”
“Snooze”
“KEEP OUT”
“Stone Sink”
posted by Jesse at 7:22 pm
Recent photos…
“Wild Woman”
“Two Yellows”
“Roadside Trees”
“Company Vehicle”
“Roadside Scale”
“Scorched”
“Let me back in!”
posted by Jesse at 10:52 pm
Part of the reason for this was that my visit happened to coincide with ChinaJoy, a game industry trade show aimed at developers in China. We met up with friends and colleagues for more than a few drinks, discovered some awesome new places to hang, and even tried the Chinese version of some American hangouts. Who would have thought that singing and dancing in a conga line at Hooters would ever happen, let alone be so much fun??
