Health status update

I got myself in a bit of a bind over the weekend with my health status code. I traveled to Suzhou with my friend Ye. As we arrived in that city I got a notification that I wasn't to leave Hangzhou. The notification let me know that I was about to be yellow coded meaning I would have to quarantine for three days.

I tested as we arrived back into Hangzhou at the edge of the city. A few hours later I was still green. The next morning? Still green.

I will have to test Sunday and Monday. My HR person keeps telling me it might turn Yellow, but she also doesn't seem confident in that assessment. It feels like there's quite a lot of inconsistency with this. The locals roll with it. It's the sort of thing that would drive Americans nuts. We saw that with requests to wear masks back in the states. The Chinese are much more compliant with government requests. Given their history I understand why. That said, it's not just compliance.

There's a sense of "we" that doesn't exist back in the states. Perhaps it's easier to see when you realize there's NO diversity. The more I travel around and mingle in larger crowds I can't help but play the game of find the non-Chinese person. It's super rare. Like, less than 1%. I'm sure it's more than that because I would have a hard time being able to tell who is from Japan, Korea, or Thailand. Regardless, the nationalism is strong here. They are proud to be Chinese. The name of the country in Chinese is actually Zhong Guo. It quite literally means Middle (center) Kingdom. Like, they see themselves as the center if the universe. That name has been used for over 3000 years. Is there another country on the planet that has that same sort of long term history? Perhaps Egypt? Dang. That's a long time.

UPDATE: I just got word that I'm not allowed to teach my classes on Monday. That means I have to prepare for a sub. I'm still green coded and have tested every day since last a Friday. F me. This is laaaaaammme.