I didn’t realize that being in quarantine would be so hard! We have been in a nice hotel room for a total of 3 weeks. I thought I would enjoy the rest – after I broke and dislocated my toe the day we left! But I hated it.
So it’s a Tuesday and we got picked up at 8am, and taken to a hotel 20 minutes away. Ascott Maillen in Shenzhen. We have a 1 bedroom apartment.
We are in southern China, see marker on the map. China is huge and we are very close to Hong Kong but right now the borders are closed.
Our contact here, Iris who is from Macao, China. She speaks English and helps us do everything! We had a health examination, it was quite extensive. You have to have an app on your phone with a green code, this confirms that I have been Covid free for 21 days, been tested several times and I am safe to be out. Masks are worn in high traffic areas like stores and transportation, in addition to your temperature being checked whenever you enter a building. I am happy with these requirements to keep me safe.
We walked to the school for lunch which is about a mile away. Lunch in the cafeteria is a set menu and you go the counter for the meal you selected and get to choose from those items. This is baked goose, lotus root and fruit including Dragon fruit. The food was very good.
First day in the classroom for Jason (Computer Programming) and actually get to meet his students. The Trimester ends this week so we were lucky to make it here.
We then went to sign up for a phone plan. The plan was inexpensive, for 30gb of data it was 90 RMB (yuan) which about $15 a month. I used an extra iPhone and Jason bought a Chinese brand smart phone called Vivo for about $250.
We were in an area called Sea World, which reminds us of Epcot, an area with restaurants from around the world, including that huge boat which is a microbrewery on a lake. We ate at a Thai restaurant. They even had a British Pub, George and the Dragon. It was short walk back to the hotel.
