Today I decided that I want to join the millions of other crazy bike riders of Shanghai, and so I purchased a bike :-) It's a "GIANT HUNTER 1.0" Mountain bike...
"Wow, what a nice bike, it must have been expensive!" - you might say...But no, in fact it was only ¥550 ($80). I found the bike on Craigslist Shanghai, then I called the guy who posted the ad, got his address, grabbed a friend, and we went to his place. Inside of his apartment was a small 'workshop' of bicycles, he probably had about 30 bikes in stock, at least. It was pretty wild. He was an Indonesian guy who loves bikes and so he buys them, fixes them up, and resells them on Craigslist and eBay with his Chinese wife out of their apartment. He gave me an awesome deal, showed me how to lock up the bike properly so that no one steals it, explained his 6 month warranty, and also said that within a year I can sell it back to him for 50% of the price that I paid. So I figure it was a pretty awesome deal - I don't think I'd ever find such an inexpensive, well conditioned bike in the U.S. I'm hoping that I might be able to sell it for the full price on Craigslist or something before I leave.
In Shanghai, many people ride bikes, scooters, and mopeds, and there are bike lanes all over the city streets. I'm thinking it will be a good way to exercise, and it will be much easier to get around the city to areas where taxi's and the metro are inconvenient or expensive modes of transportation. For example, the Boxing Cat Brewery. The metro is actually a pretty decent way to get to the BCB from my apartment, but I think riding my bike will be fun, more convenient, and cheaper overall - It's only a 15 minute bike ride. My only concern about the bike will be preventing it from being stolen. It stays in my apartment when I'm not using it, and I bought a chain to lock it up, but I once had a bike stolen from me so I'm a little nervous about it.
Speaking of the BCB, I went in to meet my boss this afternoon and she seems pretty awesome. Her name is Kelley Lee, and she owns about 5 or 6 restaurants in the Shanghai area. We sat down in the brewery, had some beers, and talked about what I'll be doing during my internship. I met a few people also: Lee, (who runs some of the BCB operations), Gary (the brewmaster), and Mia (employee manager of the brewery). I think that Lee will be the guy that I kind of report to and someone who will show me how they do what they do at the BCB. Kelley said that the only way for me to figure out how to start a brewery/restaurant is to know the ins and outs of the business, and she's leaving for a one week trip to Hong Kong next Wednesday, so starting next week Mia will be training me to become a server and I'll work my way up into more operational stuff from there :-) It should be fun! Mia's day off is actually Monday, so I won't start until Tuesday at 4pm. I'm thinking that my hours will probably be from about 4pm to late night/early morning, which I'm totally cool with because I'm not at all much of a morning person. =) ...Kelley seems to be very head-on, honest, and hard working - necessities as a female entrepreneur in Shanghai. I think I'll learn a lot from her. The BCB is a real cool place overall. It has a very 'American micro-brewery' feel to it, and the atmosphere is great. They play a lot on the words 'Boxing' and 'Cat' in all of their promotional ads and decorations around the restaurant. They have something called the "12 Round Challenge" (round as in boxing and round as in 'another round' of drinks), where a participant attempts to drink 12 rounds of beer pint glasses and if successful, get's his/her picture on the wall :-) ...Sounds awesome! I think it's going to be a very good place to work.
I'm still missing my backpack :-(
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PMM
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