Quarantine Diary Day 2: Settling In

Even though I was so tired, having been on the road for more than 24 hours, I still woke up pretty early thanks to jetlag. I was excited to see (through the dirty window) that I had a view of clear sky from certain angles in the room, despite being only on the 4th floor. (My room number started with 5, but because of superstition the hotel skipped floor 4, as reflected in the elevator too). And there was a big patch of trees right outside the window.

There wasn’t a lot of “surface area” to put all of my things, so I used the big window alcove as a kind of snack/condiments/workout gear station of everyday needs. It’s the window straight ahead that opens to the outside. The “window” that is on the right side is more of an opaque glass that actually opens onto the A/C compressor. It was good to have reassurance that our A/C units were individual for each room, rather than a central system where there could be cross-contamination among rooms.

Inside the shoebox were more of my snacks!

And besides the waters provided by the hotel, I also had several from the plane.

At about 7:25am, or a few minutes earlier than the 7:30am time noted on our check-in sheet, breakfast was dropped off on the stool outside the door. There was a package of warm soy milk, but this was 豆奶, which besides soybeans, water, and sugar, also included added dairy cream.

There was also a hard-boiled egg, and two pieces of steamed waxy corn.

There was also a meat bun, but the meat texture was a bit dry and strange. Underneath that, there was a chewy steamed bun, kind of a like a cross between mantou 馒头 and baitanggao 白糖糕. More chewy than as if it were made only with wheat flour, but translucent as if it were made completely of rice flour.

I was glad I brought not only the salt and pepper shakers from the Residence Inn, but also those from the flight. (And one might recognize my “place mat” is a napkin from United.)

Note, from “Quarantine Diary Day 10” onwards, I’ve written the posts the same evening at the end of the day. But I’m writing this makeup post almost three weeks after the fact. So I’m going to try to reflect on this as if it were that same day, but I’m inevitably looking at these pictures with some hindsight!

Lunch was supposed to come at 12:30, but it came at 12.

There was corn with 鹹魚 salted fish, and what looked like frozen carrots and peas (maybe the corn was frozen too).

Sliced fish (with some bones!)

Winter melon 冬瓜 with carrot and edamame.

Spicy 紅燒牛肉 braised beef

I wrote to my family that day, “It was a very good lunch! Glad to have fresh food. Only complaint was that it was a bit on the salty side… But the beef and fish (to lesser extent) were nicely spicy.” (Now I look at this three weeks later, and know that the rest of the meals at the Homeinn would continue to use a lot of salt or MSG, and I also notice how already from day 1, all of the dishes were very saucy and soupy.)

“Looking at other pictures from my flight’s WeChat group, and hearing from one of the Americans in my other WeChat group who has done multiple quarantines in 2 different cities, and also based on my own experience, this formula seems to be pretty standard - 4 菜dishes plus rice.

Looking back at my notes from last year, in addition to 4 菜plus rice at the Jianguo hotel, they gave fruit at lunchtime (alternating between banana and mandarin orange), and soup at both lunch and dinner. Let’s see if the Homeinn does the same…”

Dinner came at 6pm… with a Coca Cola?! Maybe they thought we needed caffeine at dinner to help with jetlag?