Liberation Day!
At midnight last night, I already started hearing cars on the big road outside. I’d never really noticed a lot of road noise before, because a lot of other buildings are buffer against the big road. But after two months of silence, I suddenly noticed them again. It’s Liberation Day, finally!
In the morning, I went for a quick walk to check out the scenery.
Gate was unlocked, and the guard was not wearing a mask!
The fruit sellers were open for offline sales (legally now!), and shoppers were about.
As compared to late March, no hoarding this time - and check out how the trees are completely full of leaves, compared to completely bare in this picture from before, and how people were wearing jackets! (More pictures here in that original post.)
The restaurant where my jianbing lady usually sells out of was doing massive cleaning…
…as was the dumpling place Shandong Dumplings 山东水饺. I can’t imagine their states, two months after they were given only a few days to prepare for a “4 day” lockdown.
The wet market was still closed…
…with the sign from the end of March saying that they were temporarily closed for PCR tests.
The barricade blocking that “party triangle” was removed.
Lots of people were waiting in line for the bank. So much of banking has to be done in person in China; I’m sure there were many delayed transactions to be made. I’m glad I wasn’t one of those who moved out of China during lockdown, because my money would have been stuck until “the next time” I could come back.
I shared pictures on Saturday of people getting their hair cut on the sidewalk. But today the trees were getting their hair cut!
I came across the people setting up for the PCR test station in the park.
That was my little walk for the first day of freedom!
I came back and had breakfast: glutinous rice shaomai, tea egg, tea.
This morning, entryway leader said she would distribute “PCR cards” “核算卡”… I left a bag on my doorknob for her to drop it in, so she wouldn’t need to knock and I wouldn’t need to get out of whatever meeting I was in.
What is it for? Apparently our subdistrict has the one testing point that I went to this morning, which is dedicated for us, so we need to show our card to use it.
For lunch, I had leftover paella. It’s actually a quarter of what I had made on Sunday. I ate half on Sunday, which was a lot, but a quarter was kind of light for lunch.
For dessert I had a dried pear.
In the evening, around 7pm, I went back to the park to do a PCR test. The results last 72 hours from when you test, so if I wanted to go somewhere on Friday, I would have to take one today. The line was very long!
But very quick. I waited in line for only about 10 minutes.
When I came back, I passed by that party triangle, and wrapped around the entire block there was a line for another subdistrict’s testing point.
For dinner, I had rice with leftover stir-fried green beans, TVP, and salted olive vegetable, and di san xian 地三鲜. So yummy! I love the texture of the fried then stir-fried potatoes, even if they aren’t crispy.
I then did my workout of the day, strength training, and then had a banana and tropical fruit mix (from Costco) smoothie with protein powder. Very refreshing! It’s also kind of a nice feeling to be able to dip into my “emergency supply of fruit” that I had in my freezer.
