The Hopkins of Hangzhou

By Katy

So one of the things that Hangzhou is famous for is their tea. As we’re not allowed to leave the city right now we are getting the chance to do some of the things that we hadn’t got around to before. This Sunday’s trip was to the tea plantations. After getting dropped off in slightly the wrong place we managed to get to where we needed to be. Unfortunately getting into the main village required us to both show our healthcode and give our passport number. We would be fine with this if it was also required by Chinese people but currently there are a small minority of places treating foreigners differently. This is particularly frustrating as there is absolutely no logic to it at this point. Even under the assumption that a foreigner had somehow managed to avoid quarantine (very unlikely given the consequences of getting caught doing so) it is now impossible for a foreigner to have been here for less than 14 days due to the flight ban. Fortunately most places do not do this and we have never experienced any ‘personal’ racism.

Anyway, we got past this and were rewarded with the incredibly beautiful tea terraces. It really is amazing to have such beautiful countryside so close when you live in a city. We knew we were going the right way as we saw many tea pickers wandering the same way! You can actually go and pick tea but we decided to just have a little walk and then go to a teahouse. We had what passes for Chinese afternoon tea and an incredibly expensive cup of green tea. The food was good but unfortunately the tea was somewhat disappointing. We practised our Chinese which is getting increasingly better now that we are trying to practise every day! Perhaps I’ll write a post about learning Chinese at some point…

The other striking thing about being out was the very relaxed attitude to wearing masks. Many people are not even wearing them at all now. Our complex is also starting to relax their protocols and have even opened the main gate again. All of this is in stark contrast to school where we will be required to wear a mask at all times. Nevertheless, it seems a very positive sign that the risk of contracting the virus is now very low.

Well now that we are out of quarantine, obviously the most important thing for us to do is go to Ikea. Me and Katy love Ikea. Some may say even too much. Hector however does not seem as invested. This morning I woke him up in bed with a piece of toast and told him. “Hector we’re going to Ikea…this was his response.”

He said that…he likes…bread. Not really sure what that had to do with anything to be honest. Regardless, I dragged him and Katy into a strangers’ car and began our journey to Ikea. A journey which mandates the singing of the Ikea Song. A song which captures the majesty that is…Ikea.

Long ago in days of yore
It all began with a god named Thor

There were Vikings and boats
And some plans for a furniture store

It’s not a bodega, it’s not a mall
And they sell things for apartments smaller than mine
As if there were apartments smaller than mine

just some oak and some pine and a handful of Norsemen

selling furniture for college kids and divorced men

Everyone has a home
But if you don’t have a home you can buy one there!

So rent a car or take the bus

Lay your cash down and put your trust
In the land where the furniture folds to a much smaller size

Billy the bookcase says hello

And so does a table whose name is Ingo

And the chair is a ladder-back birch but his friends call him Karl

Ikea!

just some oak and some pine and a handful of Norsemen

selling furniture for college kids and divorced men

Everyone has a home
But if you don’t have a home you can buy one there!

plywood, brushed steel

Meatballs…tasty…

Ikea: Allen wrenches
All of them for free
All of them for me

I’m sorry I said Ikea sucks
I just bought a table for 60 bucks

And a chair and a lamp

And a shelf and some candles for you

I was a doubter just like you
Till I saw the American dream come true
In New Jersey, they got a goddamned Swedish parade

just some oak and some pine and a handful of Norsemen

selling furniture for college kids and divorced men

Everyone has a home
But if you don’t have a home you can buy one there!

Katy does not like this song as much as me…anyway we got to Ikea, with our masks on (everyone seems to be wearing medical masks in China still) and found that to get into Ikea we had to pass a couple of guys in hazmat suits. So that was a bit freaky. Still all we had to do was flash the code on our phones and put a glob of hand sanitize onto our uh…hands.

We went up the several floors it takes to get into Ikea and went straight to the restaurant. We were fascinated to see how the Ikea restaurant had clearly adapted to the presence of the virus. No fountain drinks, no lining up to get your food, nope. Instead we were assigned to a table and able to scan a QR code to order Ikea staples like meatballs and mashed potatoes on our phones. It was a pretty ‘okay’ experience, and a bit of a novelty. Never have we seen table service in an Ikea before!

Next I uh, got lost…Ikea is a terrifying labyrinth of twists and turns you know. Eventually I found Katy and Hector again and we journeyed together into a realm of plastic containers.

We slowly but surely made our way through the shop and really noticed just how many people were out today. The store was packed in places, if they really cared about social distancing then they were failing in a big way today. Then again, maybe they don’t need to care about social distancing anymore. China barely see’s any new cases of Covid-19 every day now and there is definitely a growing sense of ease/confidence amongst some of my Chinese friends out here.

That said pre-cautions are definitely still being made. For example, after we bought our furniture/kitchen goods I made a journey to the candy section to find this:

Candy under quarantine. The pick and mix section (Or I guess Bulk Food section for our Canadian readers?) had portions of the sweets pre-wrapped into little baggies.. There was also an Ikea employee on hand to ensure my hands were utterly soaked in disinfectant. I suppose I should feel lucky to get so much rubbing alcohol for free!

In the end we had to have our purchases delivered back to our apartment. A bit annoying, but naturally one of the downsides of no longer being car owners. Still, at 10 GBP to have it all delivered isn’t so bad.

Any who, thought it’d be nice to do a more slice of life sort of post. Me or Katy will be back soon with more updates I’am sure!

By Katy

So I am officially free now. I haven’t actually been outside yet (it’s 3AM here and we were only supposed to leave the apartment from midnight) but am very much looking forward to my run in the morning. Tom on the other hand set an alarm so he could go outside. As an introvert I’ve always been happier to spend more time inside than Tom has. He was happy to discover that his bike was still there, if in much need of a charge and that not many people were wearing masks anymore. Both of us have found the mask thing concerning for two reasons.

One: a number of doctors suggest that their use is either for if you are sick or if you know you will be in contact with someone else who is sick. They are not thought to offer a lot of protection in everyday life as generally people do not wear them correctly. For example, if you wear a mask at an airport you will be asked to lower your mask multiple times and there is a chance you will touch your face more both because of this and because masks are inherently uncomfortable. Most people we saw wearing masks while traveling in Asia would have got little to no protection from them.

Two: getting Hector to wear a mask is a ‘challenge’ to put it politely. Although we were only asked to put one on him once on the way home we have been concerned about our ability to use Didis (China’s Uber) because of this.

This is what WHO have to say on the subject:

https://www.who.int/emergencies/diseases/novel-coronavirus-2019/advice-for-public/when-and-how-to-use-masks

I have been surprised at some of the benefits of quarantine. One has been reconnecting with my family. I’ve always spoken to my parents reasonably often, sometimes once a week if we’re not out doing something on the weekend. However now I’m speaking to them several times a week. I had also rather fallen out of touch with my sister and brother since moving to China so one of my favorite things about Quarantine has been actually talking more frequently with my family. This was the last time we were all together:

Tom and I hope that we can come back over Christmas. But there’s so much uncertainty still. When the outbreak first started my parents had booked their flight perhaps only a few weeks before. As it had not spread to the UK at the time Tom and I felt confident that things would be resolved in China by July, when they were supposed to arrive. Given the scale of the virus it seems clear now that this is not going to happen. Hopefully Virgin will also soon realise this and do right by their customers! Although it has apparently not been widely reported in the UK currently foreign nationals are not allowed to enter China.

The virus is pretty much over here. This does not stop China doing things with an abundance of caution. We still need a health code to move freely. I know that this may offend Western sensibilities but honestly it makes me feel safer to know that people’s health is still being monitored. Not that this is foolproof. There are many systems in place but they don’t always seem to communicate with each other. For example, we have had a green healthcode for the entire 14 days we have been in quarantine. So on the one hand we have the code required to move freely around the city but on the other we had to sign an agreement stating that we would abide by the rules of a very strict 14 day quarantine!

Unfortunately with stories about the virus hitting the young as well as the old it is clear it is far from over for our friends and family around the world. We think about you all the time. Although the death toll is still rising in the UK I am reassured that the measures, although too slow to be put in place, seem to be strict enough to combat the virus. I am most concerned for anyone is in the US as Trump seems to be taking things to an all new low by trying to reopen America. Tom, as stated in the previous blog, is never surprised by his actions but I cannot help be appalled knowing how many people will die as a result of his action.

Nevertheless there is hope. Even Wuhan is stopping it’s lockdown soon. Both China and South Korea have shown that this can be beaten with the right measures. So stay strong and stay home!

By Tom

Still here, still alive, still bored. We have gotten an actual release date and time now, 9 am on Saturday. Took a bit of prodding to get an actual time though. To be honest I thought we wouldn’t be getting out until Sunday at around 5am as that is the time that we arrived at our apartment. Maybe they are starting the clock from when we landed in China? But wait that was at 7pm on Saturday. Maybe it doesn’t really follow any particular system of logic.

I have really been struggling to write lately, primarily because of how lethargic/out of it I have felt over the past few days. Maybe it’s just because I have no way to really burn energy but I’m finding myself struggling to sleep lately. Been going to sleep around 9:00pm and waking up at 1:30am and finding it nearly impossible to get back to sleep.

Hector has finally started to have online classes. These are interesting but I feel like me and Katy are getting more out of them than he is, despite being back in China for nearly two weeks now we have heard decidedly very little Chinese. Hector on the other hand seemed excited/happy to see some of his teachers from nursery again, but he doesn’t seem to find their talking heads interesting enough to hold his interest. Lately Hector seems to be growing more restless too, he hasn’t really made an effort to escape the apartment, but he does seem to keep trying to go on the balcony/is throwing things a lot more. Hopefully he’s feeling better/less aggressive in a few days when we’re finally let out of here.

I am finding world news progressively harder to pay attention to/care about. Katy’s definitely sticking to it more closely than me. I can tell just because once every two to four hours she’ll come to me with an aghast expression drawn across her face and state something along the lines of; “How can Trump be such a monster.” “Can you believe this?” At this point it feels more like a form of crude entertainment, predictable entertainment. I mean, being shocked/horrified/aghast at anything these people do now seems like being shocked at water’s ongoing insistence on being wet. Katy asked me this morning, how many people do I suspect will need to die in the States before people actively start blaming Trump/holding him accountable. I’d put a low-ball figure at around 50,000. Although I suspect it would need to be considerably higher than that.

On the bright side things here in China are getting much closer to normalcy again. Most of the bars are open and putting on great specials to encourage people to come back out. I’m just hoping by the time Shanghai Disneyland opens again I’ll actually be able to travel outside of Hangzhou and back without being put into a quarantine again! As for our work, it looks like we may be opening again soon! NO official-official word on it, but they asked the parents to fill out a medical report for their kids stating that the local government will require all parents to have done such a thing 2 weeks before the school reopens. Could mean we’ll see the school reopening in two and a half weeks! I hope so, online teaching really isn’t the same as teaching in a classroom.

Sorry this is a bit of a downer blog post, just feel like I’m running out of things to post/write about. Or maybe I’m just feeling too tired.

By Katy

Time drags on. I have seen many lists of all the things you can do in quarantine. But when it’s actual quarantine it can be hard to motivate yourself to do those things. The temptation is to scroll too much and scare yourself by reading social media posts. When I read posts from journalists in Wuhan I didn’t want to believe some of what I saw. But now I’m seeing similar posts from people in the UK and can only conclude they were telling the truth.

We’ve had some concerned messages about the so-called ‘second wave’ here in China. I think it’s worth pointing out that this second wave is all imported cases. I’ve heard of maybe one locally transmitted case a day. These imported cases aren’t too much of a concern in China due to the way that you are treated when you arrive here. The steps to get back to your home are:

• Wait on the aeroplane for 2 to 4 hours. Temperature checks on the plane.
• Fill in an online health declaration
• Fill in a paper health declaration
• If your code goes anything but green have an interview where you are asked all the questions you have just written down. Temperature check.
• Get your traffic light themed sticker and be escorted to another holding area
• Use another app to get another code for unspecified reasons
• Be escorted to luggage area to collect your luggage
• Go through the color coded door to in our case another holding area. Temperature check.
• Wait for the bus to your district
• Get on another bus to your city after another health interview and temperature check.
• Get on a minibus when you have arrived in your city which takes you to your apartment, if you’re lucky.

Now nobody is allowed to do their 14 day quarantine in their apartment. Which is why the ‘second wave’ is not something to be concerned about. It’s all centralised in hotels so we just feel very lucky to be in our apartment. Or we should. It is hard not to feel just a little resentful of all the people who feel that they ‘need’ running for their mental health who say they just don’t know what they’d do if they were in lockdown when we’re in such an extreme quarantine that we can’t even go to the shared garden area of our apartment building. What’s worse are the people who went to the beach this weekend or who leave their apartment because they couldn’t cope with the boredom. That is why quarantines like this have to happen and they are so hard.

https://www.skegnessstandard.co.uk/business/business-usual-fantasy-island-market-ingoldmells-2504423

It seems inevitable that the UK will have to go into full lock down as too many people are ignoring the advice. Perhaps this is for the best given the number of young people who seem to be badly affected. Just because young people can fight it off doesn’t mean that they can’t get seriously ill with it. And if the NHS becomes overwhelmed they won’t be able to save people who they should have been able to save.Ultimately it feels selfish to be moaning about quarantine when there are people putting their lives on the line. We as teachers were able to run away from the virus. Well, we were already out of the country and we just stayed there. Teachers in China have never been asked to risk their lives due to childcare issues. Childcare is a lot more community based here. Children are not just brought up by their parents but often they are brought up by grandparents. China never made a distinction between more or less vulnerable groups but just tried to protect everyone equally. So for whatever reason there was never a question of schools not closing. But if we were in the UK we would be asked to be on the front line to ensure that key workers can do their jobs. I have seen many posts from fellow teachers pleading with the general public not to send their children to school unnecessarily as advice from the government has been less than clear on this.

Not to mention the healthcare professionals, my brother included, putting themselves at huge risk on a daily basis. Reading a post from a nurse of the lengths she is going to to not infect her family it was hard not to cry.

I mention these two professions as they are close to home but there are so many people who will have to continue to go to work to keep the country functioning. All of whom will find it difficult to get food in the coming months because of the selfishness of those panic buying.

So I guess my take away from this is social distancing is really tough, particularly if you are going to the lengths of self-isolating. You will feel very low at times. But it’s the least we can all do if it helps keep our key workers a little safer and means they have to do this for less time.

By Katy

So the days are starting to merge together so much that I actually had to check the previous post to check what day we are on. I’m not sure if this is a good or a bad thing. I’ve been feeling a bit low today. Knowing there’s lots of things I could be doing such as:

• Practising my writing (for Chinese)
• Doing some Duolingo lessons
• Reading my book group book

But somehow instead I end up just scrolling on Facebook and watching Little Baby Bum with Hector. Hector’s grandparents know this show too well. Those of you with kids may also know it. It is the only show that Hector has any attention span for so for anyone who doesn’t here is a small taster.

Before this we did also have some fun with trains. I think Tom and I are more excited by watching the train go round the track than Hector is however.

So I suppose it’s time for some reflections on coping with a child who’s in quarantine. I am seeing more and more friends with children worrying about how they will cope. I should say that with only one I do think it is easier. I have so much respect for anyone who is entertaining not one but two at home. Particularly if, like us, you also have to work from home. As we’ve said before we have been pleasantly surprised by how Hector is coping. We are certainly starting to rely on the TV a bit more towards the end of the day when we are all tired and cranky. I know that this might not be ideal but really in these circumstances I don’t think anyone should feel guilty for doing so.

As a potentially bilingual child Hector’s language is also a bit behind where it might be at this stage. With 2 months of travelling he also hasn’t had as much ‘academic’ learning as he might otherwise have had. So we’re trying to make sure we do some numbers, ABCs and colouring each day. At least one of these normally happens and the benefit of LBB is that it is 100% educational as it focuses on nursery rhymes and these basics. I’m not really sure where I’m going with this except to say that ‘home schooling’ is a challenge and you should just do what you can.

There has been a bit of a debate as to whether parents should home school their kids at all. I have to say as a teacher who has now been teaching online for nearly 2 months I do think some kind of online instruction is good, particularly for slightly older students (my youngest students are about 9 years old). The impression I have is that it gives the students a sense of routine and normality in an otherwise very uncertain situation.

So to all the parents out there – you’ve got this!

Welp we’re still locked up here. I mean, not that it is a huge surprise. There have been a few foreigners snapping recently and running out of their apartments and kicking/ignoring security. Yeah…they’ve all been escorted out of China.

I suppose in some ways this entire quarantine/isolation measure is a great way to determine just how dedicated Expats are here in regards to A: Their Job. B: China. Being stuck in one place for two weeks is objectively horrible. Heck I wish I could go outside, hop on my scooter and dart around the streets. But I realize this would put myself, my family and my community in danger. Instead I must endure and consider from this experience just how:

A: Just how pro-China I am

B: Just how afraid of the Virus I am.

C: Just how bored I am.

Katy has been telling me and showing me news stories published here in China about Expats (foreigners) being rather crappy and actively ignoring quarantine rules. Even stomping out of their apartment after being put into a similar position as me and Katy. Now 6 days in I can appreciate the sense of isolation/dread/fury/desire to get out, but what I can not process is how someone could be that stupid. I mean, just to work and live in China as a foreigner you need some form of post-secondary education. Consequently no one working out here can really claim to be uneducated/stupid…and yet…We’ve got foreigners screaming and running around security guards. Foreigners who are out of quarantine utterly refusing to wear masks. Doesn’t make the rest of us look good, I often hear about a rising anti-foreigner rhetoric amongst people here and I’ve never seen it. Yet I can totally see how some foreigners behavior could encourage it. China has tried so hard to repress this disease and now the only people causing it are returning foreigners like myself. Annoyance against foreigners in China makes more sense to me than people in Canada dragging Asian-looking people out of grocery stores because…racism?

The before mentioned Canadian-Asian was dragged out of a Metro (solidly middle class grocery store in Canada) because they were wearing a mask. Now I will admit that the masks are functionally not as useful/life saving as a lot of people make them out to be. They are uncomfortable/hot, and make you touch your face a lot more than you normally would. Furthermore there is no concrete evidence suggesting they protect you from anything. ALL THAT SAID HOWEVER. It’s important to consider the role the medical mask plays in Asia. When a Chinese or Japanese person get’s sick the put on one of these masks. Not because they are horrified by how infectious they are-but because they feel responsible/duty-bound to not infect other people as much as possible. The mask is…in an admittedly strange way a form of what can only be described as patriotism/solidarity out here. A way to tell others: “I may or may not have this virus, but I’ve taken action to not infect you.”

It’s why I feel so…quite frankly, angry. When I see news stories out of Canada about Asian-Canadian’s being forcibly dragged out of convenient stores in Canada just because they are A: Canadian-Chinese. B: Wearing a mask. I mean let’s be real here. The mild-to-extreme racism tied to this virus is just silly/absurd. Did anyone call Swine Flu the USA-VIRUS NUMBER 1? Did anyone call Ebola the Sub-Saharan Virus? Heck no. I will admit, as a white-Canadian, I’m not really in a strong position to point out and rail against the onslaught of anti-Chinese behavior that seems to be spiking in Canada. That said, in me and Katy’s brief time in Canada, we had family refusing to see us because we live in China now (Even though we had been outside of China for 8 weeks!) . So in a decidedly small way, I feel like I’ve gotten a taste of what baseless/idiotic prejudice feels like. Nothing more than a taste, but enough to see just how asinine and ridiculous some people in the West have been about this virus.

The reality is that this virus doesn’t give a damn about your ethnicity. No country inexplicably created it (If it was a real bio-weapon we’d see a loooooot more deaths at this point, so shut up you wacky conspiracy-theorists!). It did start in China, but then, why does that matter? Pandemic’s a beautiful and horrible opportunity for humanity to shed it’s illogical walls. Arguably the best way to deal with a threat like this would be for all countries to fluidly communicate/pass laws together which would help limit the spread based upon evidence and experience. I mean, this thing has been bouncing around for 2 months and we’ve still got the President acting as if it’s all a surprise and one countries fault? It’s absurd. At the risk of sounding hyperbolic, when the Aliens descended in Independence Day, the American’s didn’t try and blame India. No they haphazardly worked together to deal with an unforeseen threat. If any positive comes out of this whole experience I really do hope that it’s a greater sense of global cooperation to prevent virus’ in the future. Corona is no joke, but it could be a great testing ground for our governments, a way for them to consider how they respond to a more dangerous pandemic in the future. I hate fear mongering, but I think we can all assume that there will be another, perhaps far more viral virus in the future. Heh…alliteration.

As for me and the rest of the Hopkins’ we’re just locked in our apartment for a further 8 days and can’t do anything other than observe. All we can really do is recommend that you our friends out side of China try to take this seriously and stay at home as long as possible. This is not out of a desire to make others suffer as we have, it is just to see this nonsense ended as soon as possible. Me and Katy really do hope that the strictness of China is not necessary…but apart of us does worry if no countries outside of China will be able to duplicate just what they’ve done here in the last 2 months. Right now it seems for every school shutting in the USA. you’ve got 65,000 teenagers descending upon Florida for Spring Break.

Oh well…

I just want to go back to my classroom. -_-;

Today this is how Tom and I were feeling this morning:

There followed a sing along while looking wistfully out the window. Hector was very confused. Quarantine does strange things to you.

After being accused of having no hobbies I have purchased the following with the magic of the aforementioned Taobao:

• A train set for Hector
• A new jigsaw
• A zumba game for the Swith
• A yoga mat so I can actually do some strengthening exercises, something I always neglect in favour of more running

This morning I woke up and all I wanted to do was go for a run. I have in fact booked two races, one in Taizhou and one on the Great Wall, both of which will inevitably be cancelled. So it seems right to share my thoughts on all the races that have been cancelled in the UK.

I cannot imagine how I would have felt if Manchester had been cancelled when I was training for my first (and only) marathon. To put in such an incredible amount of work, often resulting in becoming physically ill, to not be able to complete it would be heart breaking. So I really feel for all the runners who are in this position, particularly if it is their first half or marathon. Many runners enter the ballot at least 5 times before getting into London. Nevertheless, I think this was the only possible decision. To continue would have meant putting people at risk.

Recently I have seen many posts on my running groups about what to do if not allowed to go outside to run. These can get quite aggressive unfortunately with the person asking sometimes being made to feel selfish. It shouldn’t be underestimated how much runners value running for their mental health. I am feeling this myself. So when runners stress about not being able to go outside it’s not a trivial thing to them. Many also refer to a treadmill as a ‘dreadmill’ due to the monotony. I was amazed and impressed by the dedication of runners in China.

So all you runners out there, even if running outside is banned, there are ways! I can’t say I’ll be putting on my trainers until our quarantine is over. I’ll be using it as an opportunity to try and do some of the kinds of exercises I never get round to doing.

On a serious note some fitness experts also suggest running at full capacity may not be the right idea anyway right now due to the stresses it can put on your immune system. Or possibly the increase of oxygen to your bloodstream. Not sure if the latter one has been verified.

If you’re interested it is worth searching on Youtube for other videos of how Chinese people got through quarantine. It may give you some hope!

So the party continues and by party I mean being stuck inside the apartment. Maybe it’s still too early to say this but so far this hasn’t been so bad! Maybe it’s just because we spent nearly 8 weeks travelling/living mostly in hotels, but I haven’t felt as stuck/shut in as I thought I would. Then again we are managing to stay pretty busy. As Katy mentioned in the Day 3 diary, I’ve got my Warhammer models to build…which I’m running out of….oh no. Ah-ha…well I’m sure new ones will be here soon!

Ha-ha yesss, I’ve been wanting to build up my Battle Sisters army for awhile and…wait a second…

It’s okay, this happens all the time. Welcome to the magical world of Taobao. Where you can buy just about anything for nothing/a reasonable price. In addition you get the fun/joy of never really knowing when it will show up! It could arrive the day you ordered it, oooor in the case of Christmas wrapping paper, 3 months too late.

Generally Taobao is pretty great, you can even track shipments in the online shopping version of Facebook Stalking. You know, when you message someone, and it reads ‘Seen’ or ‘Read’. Then the person who has clearly seen your message chooses to not respond for 1 hour to 2 months? Yeah Taobao deliveries are kind of like that. Still it does have cool features like being able to search by image. While I was in Canada looking at some Warhammer to buy I was curious to see if it would be much cheaper to buy in China. So I took a picture with my phone

searched and wallah, the website found me dozens of examples of the product I wanted…it was oddly enough cheaper to buy a model kit produced in the UK and then shipped all the way to China than it was to buy it in Canada (About 35% cheaper or 92 CAD in Canada VS 61 in China…even strange it would have cost about 66 CAD in the UK.) I know what your thinking. Everythings made in China, especially pieces of plastic. You are mostly correct, but I can tell you from personal experience that one of the many reasons Warhammer miniatures are so expensive, is because they are sculpted, designed, produced and even packaged in Nottingham (Lenton Lane, under ground).

Wait no below that room. IN THE UNDERGROUND!

Ha-ha, yeah…I miss Warhammer World…but anywho back to Taobao. Taobao is a bit of a tricky thing to get your head around at first. To navigate it easily you need to probably be using Google Chrome which will automatically translate the Chinese characters to…MOSTLY accurate English.

You then need to generally not even bother using english words to search for things. I know some expats keep a word document loaded with key phrases, I personally just use Google Translate or…in a pinch…Bing Translate, to turn my english words into Chinese characters. This isn’t perfect however, as a lot of things do not directly translate. For example if you are looking for a Battle Sister Squad, you ain’t going to find much. If you however type in, Fighting Nun Team Together you’ll get some characters which give you what your looking for.

Another problem caused by Taobao and the preference towards online shopping is that there really aren’t any big department stores like Walmart…except of course for Walmart. Which is in China. In fact if you can be bothered there are plenty of store chains out here which vaguely or very much reflect what you may call a ‘big box store’ in North America. However they are not particularly common. There are H and M’s, but due to the scale and size of Hangzhou it makes going out clothing shopping a bit more of a hassle. Yes you can get a cab ride to a Western style clothing store and find prices around the same if not a bit more expensive than you would at Old Navy, but you’ll soon find it’s the only store within 2 miles. China has shopping malls, LOTS OF SHOPPING MALLS, but they aren’t…like the malls your used to in the West, they largely function as a place to hang out and look at expensive brands and be seen looking at them, almost like a giant multi-floor 34th street. So…if you want a pair of shoes, a shirt, a novelty set of giant Mickey Mouse gloves, your really best off doing as most Chinese do and ordering it off of Taobao. Naturally the immediate problem here is that you can’t try on the clothing and often sizes here vary wildly. A small in one shop is a large in another, principally because you damn American’s keep making sizes bigger and much of the products on Taobao are also shipped wholesale to Europe, USA, Australia etc. Consequently you may order a medium expecting it to follow Chinese measurements (More like a small in Canada or XS Small in the USA) and getting a new set of single piece pajamas because it’s a medium shirt meant for distribution in Texas (Everythings bigger there). Still the price is often ludicrously low and return policy is pretty good as well.

Any who, the quarantine trudges on. Me and Katy continue to teach remotely. This has felt a bit more real and tactile lately since we’re actually teaching classes daily. I’m actually finding this to be a great relief/distraction. I had really missed teaching and though this is a much more limited way of doing it wherein I am basically talking at 60 students for much of the time, it’s also really nice to never be interrupted as their microphones are generally muted. Right now I’m really looking forward to getting back in the classroom though, it’s a lot harder to be physically re-enacting historical events on a webcam. I have only two classes a day but it certainly helps fill the time a bit.

As Katy highlighted in the last blog post, we’ve had a bit of difficulty with getting things delivered up here. I think there is a system put in place. There are shelving units each with stickers on them to indicate an apartment under quarantine. In theory people delivering things should leave stuff on a shelf with our name and we then contact the building manager to take these things up to us (We are usually notified upon delivery). However I think the delivery drivers are probably facing all kinds of systems that some just leave stuff on the floor by the gate, which is not usually checked. So you know…fuuuun.

In other news I think Hector may have been very tired as he slept for 16 hours or from 2pm to 7:30am. He seems really happy now though. So that’s good. We attempted to take down the barrier of his crib today, but that didn’t go well. Somehow we lost the low level guard and so we will need to just get him a new bed. Good thing I’ve worked out how to use Taobao!

See below pictures I took on one of the first days we were back. Usually you can’t see quite this far. Wish I could go up to the roof and take photos from there, one of the best parts of living up atop of a apartment tower is the views!v