Big news! (Not really.) I watched tons of TV yesterday and today. On Day 7--August 1-- I got something close to bored, but was able to distract myself with weaving, exercise, opening up the furikake seasoning that I brought and even better, chatting with family and friends. By Day 8, I had a pang of "oh man, soon my alone time in this luxury hotel will be over!" That feeling was quickly overtaken by excitement about getting to school.
Most of the other occupants of the quarantine cohort in the hotel were released on my day 7 to home monitoring for the final three days of their quarantine. The only real impact that has on me is that there are fewer messages in the WeChat group to translate for no reason ("Can I have more tea in 8509, no green tea please", "1/4 rice please! So much waste!", "When will I be let to leave?" and I only get to monitor the body temperature (also via WeChat) of a smaller group of people.
I am leaving the city of Nanjing, which is why I am waiting out the full 10 days here. In addition to my every other day COVID tests, on Day 9 I will undergo an additional layer of "environmental sampling" which means that I will be provided a kit to swab "high use" areas of my room for COVID (high use = phone, door handle, toilet handle and counter surfaces). If this proves to be COVID free, I should be free to go day after tomorrow, on Thursday early afternoon.
Today, there was a WeChat message from the hotel team "At 2:30 on August 4th, we will have someone take you away." I spit out my tea when I read that. Awkward translations CRACK ME UP (and I am likely more punchy than normal!). Another favorite: Last week while I was still in Shanghai one of the health coordinators was arranging my transport to Nanjing and said (via chat): "I am planning to take you from the hotel tomorrow at 8 am. Now I need to take some personal information from you." When I said that I would like to add my colleague to the chat to help facilitate the conversation (and frankly to make sure I wasn't about to be kidnapped) he replied "Did you not travel to China completely by yourself?" Yikes! I did in fact travel to China alone, but found the funky translated tone unnerving, until it was funny several minutes later when I confirmed this was a real person and not some WeChat kidnapper troll.
Debriefing that interaction with an American colleague later she reflected that starting from a place of suspicion with things like that is just a little different here and it made her think about how she would have to shift her lens if she were to return back to the US. Super different! In the US, if I got a Facebook message from someone I didn't know that said "I will take you from your hotel. I need your personal information, since you are here alone." the response would be block, report phishing, ignore, delete.
But here, trust and verify! I'll continue with that and maybe add LEARN to the list. I know that being here in this very different place from the one to which I am accustomed requires more trusting than might be comfortable for some, but I am grateful for the many people who have made this experience happen. I'm grateful that I have been in a position to trust, verify and learn! On to day 9!
Most of the other occupants of the quarantine cohort in the hotel were released on my day 7 to home monitoring for the final three days of their quarantine. The only real impact that has on me is that there are fewer messages in the WeChat group to translate for no reason ("Can I have more tea in 8509, no green tea please", "1/4 rice please! So much waste!", "When will I be let to leave?" and I only get to monitor the body temperature (also via WeChat) of a smaller group of people.
I am leaving the city of Nanjing, which is why I am waiting out the full 10 days here. In addition to my every other day COVID tests, on Day 9 I will undergo an additional layer of "environmental sampling" which means that I will be provided a kit to swab "high use" areas of my room for COVID (high use = phone, door handle, toilet handle and counter surfaces). If this proves to be COVID free, I should be free to go day after tomorrow, on Thursday early afternoon.
Today, there was a WeChat message from the hotel team "At 2:30 on August 4th, we will have someone take you away." I spit out my tea when I read that. Awkward translations CRACK ME UP (and I am likely more punchy than normal!). Another favorite: Last week while I was still in Shanghai one of the health coordinators was arranging my transport to Nanjing and said (via chat): "I am planning to take you from the hotel tomorrow at 8 am. Now I need to take some personal information from you." When I said that I would like to add my colleague to the chat to help facilitate the conversation (and frankly to make sure I wasn't about to be kidnapped) he replied "Did you not travel to China completely by yourself?" Yikes! I did in fact travel to China alone, but found the funky translated tone unnerving, until it was funny several minutes later when I confirmed this was a real person and not some WeChat kidnapper troll.
Debriefing that interaction with an American colleague later she reflected that starting from a place of suspicion with things like that is just a little different here and it made her think about how she would have to shift her lens if she were to return back to the US. Super different! In the US, if I got a Facebook message from someone I didn't know that said "I will take you from your hotel. I need your personal information, since you are here alone." the response would be block, report phishing, ignore, delete.
But here, trust and verify! I'll continue with that and maybe add LEARN to the list. I know that being here in this very different place from the one to which I am accustomed requires more trusting than might be comfortable for some, but I am grateful for the many people who have made this experience happen. I'm grateful that I have been in a position to trust, verify and learn! On to day 9!
