And End and a Beginning

Helene and I are now in Montreal, dazed and slightly jetlagged, now trying to figure out our next steps: finding an apartment, getting back in touch with friends, figuring out where 3 years in China leave us back home...

And so... This is the end; the end of this blog, that is. I started it 2 years ago with the goal of sharing my experience of living abroad with friends and the occasional straggler, and in those respect it's been a phenomenal success for me.

I will soon restart this blog and rename it Gaming Moments; as I did during the days leading up to E3, I will try and share the life of the videogame industry experts, as I join Ubisoft Montreal and get ready to once again get into the grind of AAA videogame production.

So, watch this space! And thank you so much for taking the time to read this blog.

再见！

The Last Night

This is it. My last post as a resident of Shanghai... at least for the time being.

Tomorrow at 10 AM, our landlord comes around the apartment to take care of the minutiae of final checkout. Then, with our suitcases and Xi Shi in her cage, we take a cab to the airport. I've left Shanghai through Pudong Airport so many times now, it's gonna feel awfully weird to know I'm now leaving and not returning for a while.

As with every departure, I've been through rounds of spending time with dear friends drinking, chatting, and otherwise signifying to each other how we will stay in touch and see each other in the future for sure. I don't know if I'll see everyone again; I sincerely hope so, because I've met some incredible people while living here.

With so many people at Ubisoft Shanghai having moved on to greater things now that Splinter Cell Double Agent has shipped, spending time here almost feels like I'm visiting the Ghost of Shanghai Past; it's an empty place, almost, already filled with memories. I miss some of my friends already, but am comforted by the fact I will see my friends in Montreal again.

And here we are now, all done, Helene and I, save for some last-minute packing (you know, such as dirty underwear and last-minute presents), and a bottle of white wine to empty before we sleep. In approximately 12 hours, we will be ex-Shanghainese.

We came to Shanghai with barely a suitcase each, and no friend on an entire continent. I now leave with so much, it barely fits in my head and my heart.

Splinter Cell Double Agent now Gold

Aaah, the sweet moment we expect throughout the entire production of a videogame...

Splinter Cell Double Agent X360 has now gone gold and is now being manufactured for distribution. This means it will hit the shelves on October 17th in North America.

Three days before I arrive myself. :)

Of Uni and Onsen

Hello from Tokyo!

Two weeks into our Japan trip, I have to say, Helene and I are having an absolute blast. We started out in ultramodern Tokyo, enjoying cozy little bars in Shibuya, and late night izakaya rampages filled with delicious food and umeishu (plum wine.) Afterwards, we zipped to Kyoto by shinkansen (bullet train.)

Kyoto, for very personal reasons, turned out to be something of a disappointment. This owned mostly to the fact that we ended up in a ryokan (traditional japanese inn) on the wrong side of the train station, and entirely too cruddy and small to enjoy. This made getting out a chore in the morning, and we ended up shopping quite a bit, and seeing just a little of the innumerable temples dispersed throughout the city. The highlight for us was Grotto, a cozy izakaya near the shopping district with its delicious Kyoto-style pizza, and the nightingale floors of Nijo palace, special floors emitting a soft bird-like whistle when a would-be ninja stepped on them.

Slightly deflated from our 5-day stay in Kyoto, we were in for a treat, however: off we went to the outskirts of Shimoda, a small town (pop. 40,000) on the Izu peninsula, reknown for its seafood and its onsen (hot-spring baths.) We stayed at Kanaya Ryokan, a delightful inn featuring reputedly one of the best onsen on the peninsula. Our room was not just spacious; it felt positively royal after our small Kyoto cubicle. What followed was 5 days of pure relaxation, as Helene and I multiplied leisurely baths in hot springs, and quick outings to nearby Shimoda. On Thursday night, I achieved some sort of culinary holy grail, by eating traditional sushi in a small family-owned restaurant near the ocean. The meal was absolutely divine, and made all the more pleasant by the quiet owner who held her sleeping daughter in her arm while she expertly cut nori for her sushi chef husband. The uni (sea urchin), my favorite sushi by far, was so absolutely perfect and delicious I had to order two more and close my eyes to enjoy them properly.

And so, a little bit sad, and a little eager to return to civilization, Helene and I made our way back to Tokyo on Friday night. We're now in a modern little Western-style hotel near Roppongi, which is a drastic if somewhat pleasant contrast to our delightful ryokan near Rendai-ji station. At least, as Helene would surely be quick to point out, we can surf the web without worrying about the 8-inch monster millipede sleeping on the wall. (True Shimoda story, I'm afraid; I'm sure the pictures will make it on Helene's website soon. I initially wrote '6-inch', but Helene made sure to correct me. 'Including antennaes,' she asked me to add.)

Come Thursday, we'll be back in grey Shanghai, then one week later, will be bound for Montreal. But fortunately, we still have 4 days to wander around Tokyo and sample its many delights and surprises!

Endings and Beginnings

Two days more to go, and Helene and I are finally on vacation. For me, it's also the end of the road at Ubisoft's Shanghai studio - at least for the near future. I'm checking out tomorrow, turning in my PC, clearing my desk... and off I go. 3 years of employment in the studio come to an end.

Splinter Cell Double Agent is almost done, and now everybody, from the team to the CEO, are pretty confident we have a hit on our hands. We're actually running out of problems to fix, and the game's really starting to feel finished... A few glitches left, and it's a wrap. I have spent a year and a half on this project; as a matter of fact, half my time in Shanghai was spent being a member of the SCDA team. It feels weird to know it's almost over, at last.

And so, Saturday begins 'hang time': the top of a basketballer's jump, when he just seems to float in the air, between rising and falling. Between an ending and a beginning.

We're off 3 weeks to Japan, something which excites Helene and I tremendously. Then, back to Shanghai for one week, to say farewell to everybody and pack our stuff.

Landfall in Montreal is on October 20th. Three years, two months and 20 days after we arrived in Shanghai. 1177 days.

Farewell, North Korean style

Many of us on Splinter Cell Double Agent are being phased out of the project. Myself, as Producer, I would have stayed until the very bitter end... but since I am joining a new project in October in Montreal, the Senior Producer of the project will handle the final weeks, and then post-mortems, employee evaluations, etc.

So, I organized a last get-together for the expatriates on the team, last Saturday. And since this was intended as a night to remember, we took it to a very memorable place: the North Korean restaurant where I have celebrated my last two birthdays, possibly my favorite restaurant in Shanghai.

The restaurant was, I think, a huge hit. Approximately 20 people made it, which is a feat considering how the squeamish expats usually avoid any kind of 'weird' food. Yet there they were, nibbling merrily on some dog meat, and drinking, and sometimes even enjoying, North Korean alcohol made with fur seal penis(!!).

For Helene and I, the most memorable part of the meal was not the canine meat, but rather a 10-minute conversation we had with one of the waitresses. She was obviously fascinated by the rowdy crowd of foreigners in the restaurant, and she noticed that Helene and I spoke enough Mandarin to get by. So she approached us during the meal and chatted with us in North Korean-accented Mandarin.

When I think back on it, I realize just how far I've come in my experience of the world. Laughing and talking with this young woman, seven months fresh out of North Korea for the first time, was just a wonderful experience, and one I could never, in a hundred years, have experienced in Montreal. It was made all the more exciting by the fact that Mandarin was our common language. She was geniunely curious, had a very happy disposition, and seemed shy but excited about living abroad.

At some point, she asked Helene and I if we were brother and sister, since, according to her Korean eye, we looked alike. Ah, probably because we're white, and you know how all whites are the same! We corrected her by saying that Helene was my girlfriend (女朋友, "Nü Peng You") a term that seemed to confuse her. Before we left, she asked us to clarify in English: "Is she your Lady, or your girlfriend?" Ah, here it is: she was asking if we were a real couple, or a casual girlfriend-boyfriend pair. For some reason, this need to clarify this aspect stuck with me; it seemed very important to her, in order to fix her mental picture of us.

Before we left the restaurant, she insisted on giving us a small gift. We waited a few minutes, and the staff brought us some extra kim chi, seeing as we had asked to bring what remained on our table as a doggy bag. I think somehow, we made them a hell of a compliment by asking to take away their kim chi, which is a great source of pride in both North and South Korea. I was oddly touched by this offering.

And there you have it: right now, sitting in my fridge and stinking up everything forever, is kim chi made in Pyongyang, North Korea. Never have I been so proud of anything that stinks so much!

Kobe Beef Weekend

Man, what a weekend we just had. Here's the invation I sent to everyone; let's just say it turned out to be a very accurate description...

Aaaah, the life of a Kobe Beef… You spend your life immobile, eating food designed to make you taste good, drinking alcohol so you remain placid and complacent, and you get body massages to make you as tender as possible.

FORTUNATELY! You don’t need to wait to die in this life and then reincarnate as a cow to enjoy the life of the Kobe Beef! Because we’re gonna have a Kobe Beef Weekend!

Here’s the program:

Step 1: Fattening the Cow

Place: Gintei Teppanyaki
Time: Saturday 7h00 PM
Cost: Approx. 180 RMB

Concept’s simple: we eat. A lot. We drink. A LOT. We have a good time.

Step 2: The Cow Goes Moo

Place: Partyworld Karaoke – Fuxing Park
Time: Saturday 9h00 PM
Cost: Approx. 200 RMB

A happy cow is an expressive cow. Come and belt out your favorite Sinatra or Elvis song! Plenty of alcohol, also, so if you’re afraid of being mike-shy… You obviously haven’t been to karaoke with us!

Step 3: REALLY Fattening the Cow

Place: Westin Sunday Brunch
Time: Sunday 11 AM
Cost: Approx. 350 RMB

Hope you worked off the calories on Saturday night, because we’re gonna go at it again on Sunday! Westin brunch, with plenty of seafood, caviar, sushi, chocolate… and free-flowing champagne!

Step 4: Tenderizing the Meat

Place: Green Massage
Time: Sunday 3 PM
Cost: Approx. 200 RMB

A 2-hour massage to top it all off. Gotta make the meat as tender as possible.

Step 5: Abattoir

Place: Go-Kart
Time: Sunday 5 PM
Cost: Approx. 100 RMB

Just in time for the end of the weekend, we go around a go-kart circuit at breakneck speeds and still buzzed on champagne. Every time one of us dies, secretive cooks come and pry us of the carcass of our karts, and cook us for the enjoyment of rich Japanese tourists who like their expat meat to be of the highest grade possible!

And off we went to one crazy weekend. Separately, all these activities are a lot of fun... But together, they amounted to an insane weekend. When we finally made it to the karting circuit, most of us had what could only be called party fatigue. After a heavy night of drinking and singing, eating brunch at the Westin then going for a massage was an overpowering experience.

That being said, none of us killed ourselves on the race track, so the rich Japanese guys were unfortunately deprived of their dinner. It's too bad: I'm sure I was especially tender...