Day 25 – Internations & The Camel

Friday I went to a meetup that was organized by the Suzhou chapter of Internations.org. (If you haven’t heard about Internations before, definitely click on the link and learn what the site is all about! You might find that being a local in a city or country where you did not grow up can be made easier by connecting with people in similar situations.) The event was branded as a monthly mixer where you can network and connect with other members of the organization. Since I don’t really know anyone here in Suzhou I figured what the heck — let’s do this!

It stormed pretty good on Friday and the event was going to be held outside, so I was a bit worried I’d get to that part of town and find that the event was either cancelled or crammed into a really small room. Fortunately that was not the case as the rain stopped about an hour before the event started.

The monthly mixers are held at different locations throughout the city, allowing members to explore new areas and making it easier for some to attend. June’s event was held at the Crown Plaza, at the northwest corner of Jinji Lake (金鸡湖).

During the event I met a number of interesting people from all over the globe. As the official language for Internations is English, it was pretty easy to communicate with everyone. I spoke with people from England, the USA, Denmark, Sweden, Italy, Croatia, Canada, Mexico, Romania, and Poland along with some members who are from other parts of China. Everyone had interesting points of view on many topics, and one of the hot topics — to avoid in my opinion — is anything having to do with the current political environment in the United States. Next subject, moving on …

Wine, beer, and softdrinks were free flowing — and free, with the cover charge for the event which was about $20 — and some really delicious appetizers were passed around. Towards the end of the event there was a raffle prize give away for a number of gift cards for places around town. There was even talk about going to one of the bars at Ligongdi Road (李公堤路）, but I wanted to make sure I could get home before I missed the last bus. In hindsight I should’ve gone to the bar because I did miss that last bus; it’s always 20/20, that darned hindsight!

A couple of the people I met on Friday night wanted to go out and celebrate Canada Day on Saturday — after all, the day is marking Canada’s sesquicentennial! Special on Moosehead beer, Fireball (who knew that was a Canadian drink?!), and bowl of Poutine were to be had at The Camel Sports bar, a place I hadn’t been before but had heard good things about; a few of us decided to meet up there.

The Camel is a pretty interesting place, quite loaded with expats and pretty cheap happy hour prices on beer. (A 0.5L of Carlsberg beer was only 20元, or roughly $3. For China, that’s a great price for an alcoholic drink from what I’ve seen!) Tons of TVs live streaming sports (mostly tennis and soccer that night) and a couple pool tables highlight the inside while there are a number of tables and seating outside with a huge projection screen that was showing a tennis match.

Getting to The Camel is really simple if you take the subway Line 1 and get off at Xinghai Square (星海广场) as there is an exit just to the left of the #3 exit at that stop which puts you right at the outdoor seating area for The Camel! If I move to Times Square, it’ll likely take only 10-20 minutes to get to The Camel via subway or bus. It’s a shame they don’t have poker nights like Ollie’s!