Quarantine Diary Day 3: Lantern Festival, and Getting Connected
The testing lab in San Jose had set up a big WeChat group chat for everyone on the February 12 UA857 flight, and that group has over 300 people in it. The group has been a useful place to get information, especially when we were doing the tests and applying for the health code. We all had the same questions, like, when is Day 1 on the Health Monitoring Form (Day 1 is the day you get the 7 day pre-departure PCR test), and when can you submit the documents for the Health Declaration Code (the customer service person said you can submit anytime after 00:05 on the day before the flight, because you still need to do your 7th day temperature check for the Health Monitoring Form).
That group, and the other WeChat groups I’m in (a roundtrip China-US group, a group of Americans trying to get to China, and a Shanghai quarantine group), are really great places to exchange pictures. For example, today is Lantern Festival 元宵节, when it’s traditional to eat tangyuan 汤圆 or yuanxiao 元宵, filled rice balls. Other people shared in several groups pictures of the tangyuan that they got in their quarantine hotel - for breakfast! I wondered if our Homeinn would provide such an amenity.
Today, one person in that group started a spinoff group for the people in the Homeinn Selected. (I found out later through this group that people on the opposite side of the hotel didn’t get any sunlight, as they were perhaps facing north, and facing a building.) This morning the pressing topic was why our breakfast hadn’t been delivered.
Someone in our spinoff group called the front desk, and reported back that he was told that doctors were in the building, and they had to wait for them to leave before they could deliver our breakfasts.
In the end, we got breakfast 2 hours late, at 9:30am! By this time, everything was code. But we got tangyuan！
There was a hard-boiled egg and sausage.
Vegetable bao.
And black sesame tangyuan - black sesame is my favorite! Though it was cold by the time I had it, it was still delicious, and I appreciated the gesture on this holiday.
We were also given packaged “Hong Kong Style” egg waffles - from Bimbo, the global bread brand from Mexico! I saved this for later.
My office sent fruit, coffee and water. This hotel also called up and said I wasn’t allowed fruit!!! Only pre-packed things with expiration dates over 6 months. Why?!? 😭 They told me what was in the package - strawberries, cherry tomatoes,… Last time in Jianguo Hotel, they didn’t allow cut fruit, but whole fruit was allowed, and I was grateful for the fruit that the office sent.
Thankfully, the delivery person said he would refund me, and then the store called me to confirm that they were refunding the delivery of fruit. That was good customer service.
The water, instant coffee, and room fragrance(!) did make it through.
And then they called and said I had too much water so they would send it up little by little (I think too heavy for the delivery people and delivery cart).
This morning, my subdistrict office called me to tell me I could not go home for the last 7 days of home health monitoring. Previously, that was the setup, but after someone in January turned positive on Day 21, and infected other people in a boba shop in Shanghai, most communities are refusing home health monitoring, unless you live in an independent house, or they’re willing to invest to put sensors, cameras, on your door and station someone to monitor them at all times.
I had been considering to ask the hotel if I could stay here for the 7 days of hotel quarantine after the first 14 days. I don’t think it’s really possible, because it’s a different category of hotel. But by this time I was already kind of down on the Homeinn, and didn’t mind to roll the dice with another hotel.
Lunch came with a fresh orange! I was quite excited about this.
Cabbage.
Red-braised chicken 红烧鸡.
Warm cucumbers, I think with pork?
Salt and pepper shrimp 椒盐虾. These were horribly dry and shriveled, lending a hard texture to them.
Dinner came in a differently shaped container.
The change in shape was maybe to accommodate the breaded and fried bone-in pork cutlet. This was pretty good.
There was also shrimp stir-fried with egg, peas, and black fungus 木耳. The eggs were cooked until dry.
Bok choy was cut up into small pieces.
Also cut up into small pieces, were the chicken and mushrooms swimming in a kind of thick, sweetish gravy with peanuts.
We also got a sweetened yogurt for dessert! It has a kind of runny consistency, so people drink it like a beverage, hence the straw.
I monitored my group chats into the evening. While many people in my flight group got tangyuan at some point during the day, others waited all the way until dinner and still their hotel did not give any tangyuan. I’m glad that Homeinn gave us tangyuan for Lantern Festival 元宵节, and I’m also very glad for my WeChat groups to provide support before and during this whole quarantine experience!
