Gritty, yo

So while I was staying in Shanghai, I was crashing at my girlfriend's place near the center of town.  It was a really good location, actually, I think.  What was challenging, however, was getting from the ground floor to her actual room without tripping, falling or dying.  You had to go up these immensely steep, concrete stairs, then up some brick ones, then up wooden ones, through another family's house, then up another steep set of wooden stairs and creaked and announced your arrival.  

Yes, you read correctly, THROUGH another home.  You can see their kitchen in the hallway in the bottom left photo, which consisted of a few stoves.  It was kind of strange as I felt like I was always intruding, but they would barely glance at me as they busied themselves with their daily chores and equal attempts to ignore me.

Old Shanghai Jazz Club

I thought I'd start sharing some of my photo captures from my China trip in July.  I have so many photos that I've been dragging my feet on sifting through all of them.  

Here's a few from a really cool jazz club Henry took me to one evening.  It was called JZ Club and it's supposed to embody Old Shanghai.  It was beautiful and one of my favorite experiences while I was out there.  The band was great; the female singer had the most crystal clear and beautiful voice you could hope for and there was even this Santana-esque Japanese guitar player who would really rock it.

Unfortunately, my camera skin got stolen right from under my nose while I was snapping away!