October Holiday
Sportscamp
This holiday, like in many other countries, this is also a free time for adults so we got one week of as well from teaching. The administration went home to families and some of my colleges took the opportunity to go abroad and discover new parts of Asia, since the flights are so cheap and distanced not that far. Others load their batteries in the city to be able to perform good at work next 10 nonstop weeks before Christmas.
In our contract it says we need to work some holidays at sport camps that sport for life arrange. And if I did this now, I didn’t need to do it in Christmas so I could stay longer back in Sweden and Norway. So most of signed up, but because there was so few kids registered for this week we only had 2 camps and 2 workers at each = 4 people got the possibility and I WAS ONE OF THEM. I was even more happier when I heard I was partnered up with Joe, head of basketball, since he is so experienced and a really nice, funny and chilled person I get along with very well.
So last week, 9-15.00, I spent at the beautiful and luxurious compound Season villas together with 10 kids between 3 and 9 years old. The youngest went home at lunchtime so afternoon me and Joe alternated going home earlier. So Tuesday and Friday I left already 13 so it was a chill out week also with a whole weekend (I usually only have Sundays off..).
First day before lunch I just assisted Joe and hold creative movement class in the afternoon. I felt nervous in the beginning since I don’t have any experience teaching other activities than dance so it was nice to have a more observant role to start with. But I surprised myself this week and coached a variety of activities from running, arts and crafts, swimming, games, breakdance and football. It was really fun to challenge myself and find creative approaches to teach other sports and I felt like I grew e few inches through this experience!
Hong Kong/Shenzhen
After finishing earlier on the Friday I took a plane to Hong Kong.
As I’ve mentioned earlier I need to go abroad every 3rd month because of the visa.
But because the flight was delayed I missed the last metro taking me across the border again back to china (But only with a marginal of 15 min). Luckily I met a nice Australian guy and in the que for arrivals so we shared a cab, which was very convenient because he could speak Chinese and I did not have the hotel address written down in Chinese letters…
The bus from the island, where the international airport is located, to Hong Kong mainland was super expensive If you compare with typical Asian price. 330 Hong Kong dollars for a 45 min ride. And the metro times 5 the amount for a single ticket than in shanghai. I did not really see anything of the city but I will probably return soon anyway and then hopefully more prepared with more money in my pockets.
The hotel I booked was so much cheaper than in HK city but when I did my reservation I did not think about that I actually was living in a part of china, so I had to cross the border again. So I was quite nervous on my way back (2 days later) if there would be any problems with immigration but everything went fine.. They just asked me couple of questions since I still haven’t booked a ticket out of the country again, which in my case will be for Christmas. But no sweat.
I stayed 2 night at The Westin Shenzhen and had like a small minivacation of my own to load the batteries. It was one of the most luxurious hotels I have ever stayed at with a jungle theme executive room with an amazing comfortable bed, rain shower, chamomile teabags and soft robes and slippers! As a benefit of the room, I had full access to the Westin Club lounge with free drinks, and small buff’s throughout the day. I think I had one of the most delicious breakfast of my life her (with a lot of local treats) and I read books while sipping on bailees on the rocks haha.
Of course I also visited the fitness center and did both interval running and Pilates and finished off with throwing myself into the outdoor infinity pool. I got super clean in the sauna collected some hotel soaps to take home- of course.
It all sounds like a dream but thankfully It was a very real and nice hotel experience.
Arriving at a new place means discovering. So I put my Asics on and stroll down more narrower streets than in Shanghai. The climate was a bit more humid and around perfect 27 degrees, comparing to the drop of temperature in Shanghai to around 20 degrees these days.
I went to an art museum but unfortunately it was closed due to renovations, so I picked another on. Although over there, it turned out it was a western exhibition I wasn’t really traveling to south of china to watch Rembrandt…
Across the hotel was a theme park called Window of the world. Since I had a perfect view from above I did not have to pay entrance fee but did a bird edition tour out if it. They had put a lot different buildings and nature Fennomen across the world, in one park so that you could walk from the Eiffel tower to the great wall in 5 min, which maybe gives you a god Idea on what actually would be nice to see in real life… In the evening they had a Chinese entertainment show it was nice to watch. The clingy music was so loud I could hear it up to my room. The used HUGE props like dragons, that were pulled across the stage on wagons and colorful lightning along even more colored costumes in silk. The movements reminded me of the Chinese entertainer I saw, and posted a video of, at the Season villas event about a month ago. Strong and acrobatic and contrasting smooth work with the wrists.
