Happy Halloween!

   I actually celebrated Halloween on Saturday. And I even made an attempt to dress up (although failing miserably). I had made plans to head out with 2 of the ladies that I met at the Oriented happy hour. Carol is the one that already had plans to head to a party being thrown by one of the westerner monthly publications called "That's Shanghai". The theme of the party was "Heaven and Hell" and I had decided that I wanted to find a halo and go as an angel...see I don't really get dressed up for Halloween anymore so all I wanted to dress up with was a halo, plain and simple. I started my search about mid day on Saturday by looking up a costume store in Shanghai online. I found 1 address and soon took off in hopes of getting my halo. I made it to the "mall" where the shop should be and couldn't find the store anywhere (the mall isn't like an American mall, more like a space with lots of large stalls of vendors. I swear that I looked everywhere and just couldn't find it so I checked the mall across the street, another mall by People's square (an underground space connected to the subway stop) and finally back in my nieghborhood at Taikang Alleys. I just didn't have any luck.

 On the left, the underground mall by People's Square. On the right, the subway

crowd on a normal Saturday afternoon. Not even close to the number of people

during rush hour during the week (I'll be sure to capture that also).

   I made it home with lots of time to get ready so I decided to order some food and relax. I ordered from that place called The Funky Chicken. It turned out to be pretty good and I got a half of a chicken so that I would have leftover meat and bones for stock and soup the next day. It was a perfect meal to keep me feeling good for a couple of drinks out on the town.

   I decided to leave a few minutes early so that I could explore the area a little beforehand. I grabbed a taxi and headed to a part of town I've never been, my Lonely Planet calls it Hongkou and North Shanghai. The building that the party is in is even in my LP. The building is call "1933" and was an art decco style abattoir which has been transformed into a shopping complex.

 The 1933 building

The area around the building wasn't actually all that
interesting, there was just this canal.

 I was about 15mins early so I watched as people did all the last minute setting up.

I ended up with a Witches hat from my new friend Carol.
This is not Carol that I'm with but one of her friends.

This was the group that I hung out with. I only know the 2 on  right, Carol and Joan.

The party eventually got big, maybe 1500 ppl.

I had fun but only stayed until midnight since I had to get up early to run the next day.

P.S. Nothing beats homemade chicken soup! Just finished
making it tonight and enjoyed a big bowl.