Doing the Impossible

You know those big events, good or bad (or both!), that pitch camp in your brain so that they’re all you can think about for weeks/months? And they throw all-night parties with Anxiety (because Anxiety likes to invite itself along to everything, insistent bugger ) so even at night you’re not safe from thinking about them? Maybe it’s a wedding, or knowing you need to break up with your partner, or the first day of school, or meeting someone on a blind date… As you get closer and closer to The Big Event, you start to get that countdown going: “A week from now, this will all be over.” “In three days, I won’t need to worry about this anymore.” “By this time tomorrow, I’ll have done it.” Well, as I write this, sitting in my hotel room in Shanghai, China, I can finally say: I did it.

So let’s hop back in time a few days and go over everything, shall we?

After the wonderful women in my HR department found me a flight, I spent the majority of last Friday night looking for a COVID test appointment. Here’s the thing about international travel right now, or at least international travel to many countries: in order to board the plane, you must have negative COVID test results from a test taken within 3 days of your flight. In my case, in addition to those results, you must also have a stamped and authenticated Health Declaration Form from your embassy, verifying that you are, in fact, COVID-free and safe to travel. No exceptions. Which meant, on Friday night at around 2:00 am, while processing the shock that I would be leaving in the next few days, I was frantically looking for somewhere to get a test that Sunday. Long story short, harder than it looks. First, most places that provide testing (that I found) only had appointments available Monday-Friday, and I had to have my test done on Sunday. Second, many testing sites required a doctor’s note and health insurance, neither of which I had. Third, there were next to no available appointments; understandably, many people are getting tested, and so looking only one day in advance was challenging. Finally, I was able to book one of the three available appointments left at a CVS near my parents’ house. Check.

Let’s revisit that “3 days before” rule, shall we? Test MUST be taken no more than 3 days before the flight or it will be considered invalid. However, upon getting my test done, CVS said the results would be back within 2-5 days. Once I received the results, I would have to email them to my consulate to have them authenticated, sent back to me, and then printed; the consulate said to allow 24 hours for this to be completed. Okay. So….2-5 days for results, plus ~24 hours for authentication, and all of this HAS to be done within 3 days or I can’t get on the plane. Now I’m no math whiz, but those numbers were not adding up very nicely. (And no, to answer your question, I have not slept much in the past week, thank you for asking.)

To condense what was an incredibly stressful few days into a paragraph (so we can get to the good stuff without this blog turning into a short novel) — my COVID results (negative!) came back around midnight the night before my flight. I immediately emailed them to the Chinese consulate in NYC with the subject line “URGENT – FLIGHT TODAY!!” (didn’t want to seem desperate, right?) as well as emailing every other contact within the consulate I had spoken with up to this point. After three hours of sleep, I woke up the next morning and we packed the car to drive up to NY for my flight, still not knowing if I’d actually be getting on the plane. At 9:00 am when the consulate opened, I called to see if there was anything to be done. “You have to email them, I can’t help you. You’re supposed to allow 24 hours.” T-minus 7 hours to the flight, still no document. I readied myself to email the consulate every hour to stay at the top of their inbox. Then finally – contact! After about an hour of back and forth emails, I received my stamped Health Declaration Form. We pulled over at the next Staples to print it out, and I was on my way!

When we reached JFK Airport, we (my parents insisted on staying for as much of the process as they could) got into a long line to check in for the flight. My passport, visa, and freshly printed Health Declaration Form were checked, and I was given a QR code to scan. (This story will involve many QR codes. Just warning you now.) I filled out another health declaration form, and was given my own QR code to say that I was healthy and cleared to fly. Checked in my luggage (miraculously managed to keep everything under 50 lbs) and received my boarding pass – it was time to go! Said my goodbyes to my parents, and headed off into security, very thankful that the anti-anxiety meds had started kicking in.

Getting on the flight was pretty easy; the first thing I noticed that screamed “hey remember, you’re traveling during a pandemic?!” was that as we walked up to the entry to the plane, we were greeted by the staff of flight attendants all wearing hazmat suits. (To me, all wrapped up in white puffy suits with blue tape and goggles, they looked like silly astronauts.) The astronauts gave us hand sanitizer and took our temperatures, then we were able to board. I found myself in an aisle seat, with an empty seat next to me. Not too bad!

For being an almost 15 hour flight, it really wasn’t bad at all. By this point, I think I was still just processing the fact that this was all finally happening, so my brain/body finally took this as a chance to rest for a bit. That’s really all I did for most of the flight. I never truly slept (I will never understand people who can sleep on planes – how do you get comfortable??) but I closed my eyes and let myself just be, which, after the past few days, was glorious. We flew way up north, up through the northernmost tips of Canada and through the Arctic, then back down through the northeastern tip of Russia. (I found great joy in thinking about the fact that we were probably flying over walruses in their natural habitat. It’s the little things, you know?)

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When we got close to landing, the astronauts made sure we all had our health declaration QR codes ready to go. We had our temperatures checked once again, then we were off to the complicated arrival process that followed. Luckily, there were many more astronauts stationed throughout the airport, all helping to shuttle us where we needed to go. It felt a bit like being queued up for a ride at a theme park. Each station involved a passport check, a temperature check, and a QR code check, so just insert that in with each new step so I don’t sound like a broken record. I’ve probably had my temperature checked 30 times in the past 24 hours.

First stop after exiting the plane was a desk where we all (once again) filled out a form saying we had no COVID symptoms or exposure to it, then were given a little test tube to take to our next station: the COVID test. The astronaut giving me my test didn’t speak any English, but had a document with her questions written in English so I could respond: had I ever had reconstructive surgery on my nose? Any kind of alterations that would affect my nasal passages? After gesturing I had not, she gave me my COVID test. Not an enjoyable experience, but, I can handle a minute of discomfort if it means that I am not risking anyone’s life or potentially spreading the virus.

Next stop: immigration. While this would normally be the point where I would be nervous about having something go wrong with my visa, by this point, I doubt anything could phase me. My passport was stamped, and I went to pick up my luggage and move through customs. Following that, a new astronaut gave me a new QR code to scan to fill out a form indicating which part of Shanghai I was headed to, so they could begin the process of finding me somewhere to quarantine. Through a combination of a few astronauts’ limited English and my gesturing, I received my new QR code and was directed to another area of the airport. It felt like a college welcome fair – tables and posters set up along either side of the hall with a few astronauts at each table, and various people checking out each table, but instead of advertising a sorority or after school film club, each “booth” correlated with a district of Shanghai. I found the section for the Changning district, scanned my code/got my temperature checked/showed my passport, then took a seat while I and the other people headed to my region waited to be told what to do next. After about 45 minutes, one of the astronauts told us that a bus was on its way to pick us up, and it would be about an hour’s ride to our hotel. (He very kindly typed his message into a translator app in his phone so I could read it in English.)

After another code/temp/passport check by a new table of astronauts, we were led to our bus and ushered aboard. I really tried to stay awake – my first time driving through Shanghai! – but all I remember is a cool garden sculpture, noticing that they drive in the same side of the vehicle as we do in the States, and then…I must have been rocked to sleep.

When we reached the quarantine hotel, we got off the bus and all of our luggage was sprayed with disinfectant by a new set of astronauts. We then were led down a long bumpy ramp to the basement of the building to check in. This was almost my breaking point, if we’re being honest. I was so exhausted (physically, mentally, emotionally) that trying to get my luggage down that ramp was just about the end of me. A very nice astronaut saw my struggle and grabbed two of my suitcases for me, saving me the embarrassment of bursting into tears, which was probably about 30 seconds away from happening. Down in the basement, we were each given a packet of paperwork to fill out – where had we been for the past 14 days? Did we have any COVID symptoms? Name, birthday, phone number, contact in China, their address, their phone number… My Very Nice Astronaut knew a bit of English, and so helped me with my forms. I was given a room key, and a few more papers (all written in Mandarin, thank goodness for the translate feature on WeChat) explaining how the quarantine process would work, then the Very Nice Astronaut helped me with my bags and brought me to my room. After having landed in the airport about 6 hours earlier, I was finally in my home for the next 14 days.

Today was Day I in quarantine. Each day, I will get 5 knocks on the door: breakfast, temperature check, lunch, temperature check, and dinner. My meals are left in a little bag outside my door – I am to wait 5 minutes after hearing the knock to collect the bag. So far, it’s been a fun little surprise: what food are they going to bring me this time? Will I know what it is, or will it be something I’ve never tried before? (I am sure that, two weeks from now, this will no longer be such a fun little surprise. But I’m enjoying the excitement while it’s still here!)

I have one little window in my room that I have enjoyed being able to look out. I eat my meals on the floor by the window so I can people watch. Across the way is an apartment building, and it’s been fun seeing people out on their balconies watering their plants or hanging out their laundry to dry. I hear lots of birds chirping, and I wonder what kinds of birds they are. The sounds of frogs and bugs sang me to sleep last night. (And today. I’ve mostly just slept today. And am about to go to bed for the night. My body and brain are TIRED, okay?!)

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Over the past few days, to make it through all of the stress and chaos and anxiety and uncertainty, at first I tried to think of someone brave and confident and adventurous to try to emulate. What would ________ do? (I like having characters to root myself to when I need a boost, maybe it’s the actor in me.) But at some point I realized: I didn’t need to think of a character who would do all of this, because I was doing this. I didn’t need to picture someone who was able to get on this flight, to go through this complicated airport pandemic saga, to figure out how to get to her hotel room without speaking the language – I already was that person. What would Madison do?? Madison was already doing it. I don’t say any of this to try to pump myself up or make it seem like I am anything special, but rather because this discovery really opened my eyes. How many times do we doubt ourselves, question our abilities, over things we have already proven ourselves to be capable of? Keep an eye out. Chances are you are doing things you never thought would be possible.