Day 2 Quarantine in Shanghai

One of my biggest goals on this adventure is interacting with and learning from folks that live here. Who are the Chinese people and what makes them unique? Being in quarantine is making me realize that this is a big deal to me. There are employees here delivering food and picking up our garbage just outside the door, but I can’t interact with them. That sucks. I just want to ask them questions and listen. What’s important to you? What do you do for fun?

I’m hoping the language barrier won’t be too much of an obstacle. Riding in a bus from the airport to this hotel I saw signs everywhere that had both Mandarin and English all over the place. Street signs, speed limits, advertising, and even license plates had both languages. I’m hopeful that this concept of labeling everything in both languages means that English isn’t that much of a stretch for the average citizen. Sure, I’ll try to use as much Mandarin as I can, but I already know it’s going to take a long time. We’ll see…

That reminds me of one of my favorite scenes from a movie. Gust described the “we’ll see” concept so well in Charlie Wilson’s War. Do yourself a favor and click that link to his two minute speech.

Another of my favorite things to do is allow wait staff to order for me in restaurants. I figure they know what’s good there and the concept of chance and variability will expose me to new and different things I wouldn’t choose on my own. I’ve rarely been disappointed. Being in quarantine is a similar situation as I’m not able to choose what’s coming on my plate. I’ve never been thrown aback by something truly weird, until yesterday. My lunch was staring back at me…

I ate it. Not bad, but had to be super careful with the bones. Again the veggies were all crisp and soaked in butter. Good stuff.

Yoga on a beach towel with a slippery marble floor was rough yesterday. Had several “oh shit” moments where I was close to a face plant. Thinking I’ll try the bed today. What could go wrong?