Shanghai Dancing

My adventure abroad is getting closer to the finish line but let’s rewind a bit in the timeline because a lot has happened lately.

Last weekend I had 3,5 days off because some schools that I have been teaching at had already closed for holidays. So I used the visa trip allowance-had to go abroad one more time beacues of the visa- to travel to Seoul in South Korea. It was amazing and I really liked the city.
The people where so friendly helping you out as soon as you looked confused at you map and could speak English even at 7eleven. The people also seemed bigger in comparison to Chinese that even I sometimes feel like a giant and I am a quit small Viking.

It was greener than Shanghai and I enjoyed spending time outside discovering tourist attractions and spontaneous treasures like;

Gyeongbokgung Palace
Beautiful buildings built centuries ago and for formers royal families of Korean. Like miniature of the Forbidden City (Beijing) in terms of architecture and style but more water pavilions. What I also liked about this capital was that it was surrounded by mountain’s which is a weak spot of mine when it comes to landscapes.
The performance of royal guard change gave me Goosebumps and it felt like I was thrown back in Korean history. Just look at the nice costumes and there presents.

Seoul tower and Namsan Park
Built on a 262 meter peak so you got a great 360 degrees view and got to ride a cable car for the first time since…ehm… ski trips in Austria as a child?

 

National Folk museum (which reminded me of how fascinated I am in cultural history..)

 

this list really shows that china struggles with amount of population… .The metro and bus system was as great but of course I managed to go the wrong direction first day and ending up 40 min late (first top) in a neighbor town… well, what doesn’t happen when you go of on adventures?

 

I have been trying to understand why my immune system has been so low in my year of china but I pretty sure it has to do with the smog/air quality. Within 3 weeks I was on 3 different antibiotics because of an infection of my impacted wisdom tooth.

Week 1 (dance show week Pudong): Discovered infection, a lot of pain, no change to open mouth/speak and a lot of bleeding. Dentist said it had to be extracted but had to wait until infection was over.

Week 2 (dance show week strikers): Antibiotics did not help properly and dentist's answer was because I did not rest. I was still teaching 6 days a week, running in morning and dance classes’ evenings and did not think it would affect the healing. Sometimes I question my iq for real… So I had to take a 2 days sick leave and once again find alternative methods to teach on low energy level.

Medication finally worked and I got a time for the removal of the problem tooth. BUT, after x-ray the found out it was a complicated case so a special surgeon had to be contacted.\

Week 3 (day after coming back from Seoul); Surgery time! “You are a tiny girl but your wisdom tooth is massive. This is going to big a big trauma afterwards. Please sign these papers of probable risks and complications before we start”.

Since not all anesthesia and pain killers works on me (proven in earlier cases) the stitching part was without so I shared a lot of tears and first 24h almost unbearable, and as a dancer I would think my pain tolerance is pretty high. 2nd day I asked to switch painkillers and finally I could do something else than just sleep to make time pass. Every day it got better (This was last week and the 3rd version of antibiotics) and now I am finally free and had my first glass of red wine yesterday.
This whole situation of course affected my life quality, but hey, what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger.

I have just done first week of sport camp, since Sport for life’s semester 2 is finished. It was great together with 33 kids between 5-13y on 2 more coaches, because a lot of people sharing the same activity creates such a mass of energy!

Next and final week I will be having hip hop camp for 8 kids between 4-6y at a beautiful location a worked in when I just arrived in shanghai. So it will be like going back to where it started and a nice ending of this chapter of my life. Who knows what comes next!