Today was my first full day in Nanjing. The hotel we are staying at is a resort hotel near one of the lakes in the area just west of Nanjing proper. My room is a lovely suite and there is a beautiful lanai that looks out over greenery and other buildings in the resort. I am free to enjoy this view from the safety of inside my room (the doors are sealed shut). There are small windows that open in both rooms and this afternoon there was a fantastic afternoon thunderstorm that reminded me of the summer storms in Vermont, where I grew up.
The daily routine set by the hotel is the same as in the hotel in Shanghai: Covid testing on a schedule and three meals delivered at regular times. There is also a WeChat group of everyone staying here (which I think I missed joining in Shanghai) where we can ask questions and where we report our temperature twice a day with a thermometer provided. I stuck with my gym routine and tried to do lots of walking and stretching throughout the day. I am one of two people in the hotel who communicates only in English, so I am shy about typing anything in the group chat, although there is a translate button on each post that makes it very easy to get the jist of what's going on. I wrote that my temperature was 87 instead of 37 in one of the reports today and had to quickly correct it-- an anxious moment! (Frequent readers are no strangers to my propensity for typos.)
As I read everything I could and talked to folks about people's quarantine experience prior to arriving, one of the things that came up was cleaning: there is no housekeeping services for the duration of quarantine. I brought some lysol wipes and a sponge, soap and disposable kitchen towel, and the hotel provided some disinfectant for the toilet and a small spray bottle with tablets to mix with water for surfaces.
Rubbish is picked up daily outside of your room at a specific time. Today I was surprised at how excited I was for 6 pm trash pickup! Every time the room to a door opens here, an alarm sounds, so I found it kind of exciting to open it without someone knocking (for a test or meal delivery). I re-read the instructions (which were provided in english, fortunately) double bagged my trash (mostly the bento plates from meals) in the provided biohazard bags and closed it with a zip tie as instructed. Then I put on my K-95 mask, opened the door to the piercing alarm tossed the bag in the hall and quickly closed the door. I watched through the peep hole with excitement as one of the hotel employees in full haz mat gear (white suit with booties, mask, face shield, gloves) came by to retrieve the waste. There were other great things about the day-- listening to podcasts, weaving, working, talking to friends and family-- but you know what those are like; the excitement of the trash pick up generated an unexpected and delightful child-like wonder! Aren't new experiences fabulous?!
The daily routine set by the hotel is the same as in the hotel in Shanghai: Covid testing on a schedule and three meals delivered at regular times. There is also a WeChat group of everyone staying here (which I think I missed joining in Shanghai) where we can ask questions and where we report our temperature twice a day with a thermometer provided. I stuck with my gym routine and tried to do lots of walking and stretching throughout the day. I am one of two people in the hotel who communicates only in English, so I am shy about typing anything in the group chat, although there is a translate button on each post that makes it very easy to get the jist of what's going on. I wrote that my temperature was 87 instead of 37 in one of the reports today and had to quickly correct it-- an anxious moment! (Frequent readers are no strangers to my propensity for typos.)
As I read everything I could and talked to folks about people's quarantine experience prior to arriving, one of the things that came up was cleaning: there is no housekeeping services for the duration of quarantine. I brought some lysol wipes and a sponge, soap and disposable kitchen towel, and the hotel provided some disinfectant for the toilet and a small spray bottle with tablets to mix with water for surfaces.
Rubbish is picked up daily outside of your room at a specific time. Today I was surprised at how excited I was for 6 pm trash pickup! Every time the room to a door opens here, an alarm sounds, so I found it kind of exciting to open it without someone knocking (for a test or meal delivery). I re-read the instructions (which were provided in english, fortunately) double bagged my trash (mostly the bento plates from meals) in the provided biohazard bags and closed it with a zip tie as instructed. Then I put on my K-95 mask, opened the door to the piercing alarm tossed the bag in the hall and quickly closed the door. I watched through the peep hole with excitement as one of the hotel employees in full haz mat gear (white suit with booties, mask, face shield, gloves) came by to retrieve the waste. There were other great things about the day-- listening to podcasts, weaving, working, talking to friends and family-- but you know what those are like; the excitement of the trash pick up generated an unexpected and delightful child-like wonder! Aren't new experiences fabulous?!
