Bird Tweets and Mystery Meats

Hello, outside world! I’m finishing up Day 3 of 14 in my quarantine here in Shanghai, and am starting to settle into a pattern. Will this pattern change 18 times over the remaining 11 days I am in here? Probably. But for now, in an attempt to settle into some kind of normalcy after the whirlwind that was last week (getting my visa, booking a flight, taking a COVID test, saying limited goodbyes to those I was near, racing the clock, flying to China, being put in quarantine — you know, just a typical week) it has been nice to have some calm after the storm.

My first day here, I spent the entire day sleeping. Other than to answer the knocks at my door for meal deliveries and temperature checks, I was out. I didn’t unpack anything, I didn’t get out of my pajamas – I sent a few messages to friends and family back home letting them know I’d made it, FaceTimed my parents, and passed out. Yesterday, when I was slightly more functional, I unpacked a few things and decided to organize my room a bit; though I know I will be leaving in 2 weeks and don’t want to have to repack everything again, if I’m going to be trapped in this room for 336 hours straight, I may as well make it feel like somewhere that I don’t mind being. I pulled out a few books, some art supplies, the snacks I had packed, my fitness bands — just enough to give me something to do all day.

One of the main struggles I’m going to be coming up against, if the past few days have been any indication, is the lack of ability for movement. In my “normal life” (pre-pandemic, if you can remember back that far) I am very much a walker – it is not uncommon for me to spend at least 3 hours of my day walking. Walking to work, walking to run errands, walking so I can have dedicated time to listen to an audiobook… In this room I can get in about ten paces, if I walk from the very edge of the back wall up to the front door. (I counted. Then walked it back and forth about 150 times today. Had to get in some audiobook time!) Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy a nice lazy day, and this king size bed is fulfilling all of my sideways sleeper dreams, but… let’s just say I would not be mad if there were a human sized hamster wheel in here. (Otherwise known as a treadmill; I guess that’s already a thing… Come on, Madison…)

To try to fight the aches and pains that come with being stagnant all day, I’ve been starting my day by doing some bed yoga. What’s bed yoga, you ask? Well, bed yoga is a weebly wobbly attempt at waking my body up with some movement, but here’s the thing: the floor is lava. (And also, there is not really any floor space big enough/clean enough to lay down and stretch out on. Small, dirty lava.) Sure, I can’t stand all the way up without knocking into the ceiling, and attempting to find balance while on a mattress is a bonus challenge, but it could be worse – I could still be stuck back in the States! Besides, it gives the “namaste in bed” joke a whole new meaning!

In true Madison fashion, another way I’ve been occupying my time is by… researching random things! (Who me? With my notebooks full of random facts about random things? Never!) Each new meal sends me off on a Google spiral trying to figure out what I’m eating, how it’s made, any cultural traditions surrounding it. Looking down at the bushes beneath my window, I’ve noticed the strange leaf pattern and tried to discover what kind of plant it could be. (So far, no luck. Anyone know anything about Chinese plants?) While flipping through TV channels, I stumbled on some cool fantasy movie, which then sent me into a Chinese mythology rabbit hole. Perhaps one of the most surprising things I found myself looking up information for today was: birds. All day long, I hear birds chirping outside my window, but I’m not able to see them. Suddenly, I realized something — I am on the opposite side of the planet from everything I’ve ever known! These birds could be some completely new kind of bird that I’ve never even heard of before!! My strange, obsessive Ravenclaw brain kicked in and suddenly I HAD to know what kind of birds these could be. I spent about 2 hours on Google looking up birds local to Shanghai and then set out to find recordings of their calls so that I could compare and contrast. I was a (bored, quarantined) woman on a mission. So… it’s Day 3 of isolation, and I’ve already reached the “birding” phase. All bets are off on where else my brain will take me before all of this is over.

(For what it’s worth, I eventually settled on the light-vented bulbul and the long-tailed shrike.)

Now, to answer the question I’ve been most asked about: what’s the food like? Three times a day, a small bag of food is dropped off outside my door. (I don’t have any say in what I receive, it just appears – like magic!) Breakfast comes between 7:30-9:00 am, and usually consists of: some type of congee (rice porridge!), a warm soy milk-based drink, a hard boiled egg, and an extra treat – so far, that’s included a brown sugar steamed bun (I think), a rice-filled dumpling, and a veggie-filled bao bun. Breakfast has been my favorite meal thus far… so many fun surprises! I’ve had millet congee, pumpkin congee, and babao congee, and they all come in plastic cups with a big straw – before I knew what they were, I assumed it was going to be some kind of smoothie or bubble tea based on the way it was packaged! I was also initially surprised that all of the milk drinks came warm. Certainly not what I was expecting!

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Lunches and dinners follow a similar formula: a big serving of white rice, a serving of meat, greens (usually bok choy), a soup, a spicy side dish that usually involves peppers and more meat, a piece of fruit, and a warm yogurt. Admittedly, these meals have been a bit harder for me; I lean mostly vegetarian at home, so opening my lunch the first day to see a whole pig’s foot sitting on my plate was a bit of a jolt! I am taking bites of the meat here and there, and I will definitely work myself up to eventually eating meat more regularly – when in Shanghai, eh? – but for now I’ve mostly been filling up on the rice, fruits, and veggies. Even though I’m not eating all of it yet, it’s been kind of cool getting all of these new foods delivered to me without my having a choice in what I’m receiving; where I normally might have wanted to lean more towards comforts of home as I adjust to this new country, I don’t get that option here. 3 of the 4 foods included in my first meal were things I had never heard of or tried before – and maybe never would have ordered right away! And while that can feel a bit intimidating as I push myself towards being a more adventurous eater, I’m really happy that I’ve been shoved off into the deep end. Sometimes you’ve just got to go for it!

Yesterday, while I was video chatting with some friends, my breakfast was delivered in the middle of the conversation so I brought my phone to the door with me to pick up my food. I started opening my meal and showing them what I’d been given, joking that I felt like one of those 12-year old YouTube kids who has thousands of followers and does “unboxing” videos. (If you haven’t heard of that, look it up! Or don’t… it’s a strange rabbit hole to fall into, and one that I don’t entirely understand the appeal of…) My friends, however, were delighted – they wanted to hear all about what I had been given and what it tasted like! So now, each time I get a new meal, I send them a short video “unboxing” my food and tasting it for the first time, and they respond with their questions and reactions to the foods I’m eating. It’s a silly little thing, but I think silly little things are going to be what get me through this – a way of feeling some sense of normalcy, a way of still feeling connected with my friends who are thousands of miles away, something to look forward to when these days alone in this room can feel endless. Sometimes silly little things can make all of the difference.

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