A hotel room. 7 days. Not allowed to leave. Meals delivered by knocks at the door. Covid tests administered at the beginning and end of the week. These are the basic ideas behind hotel quarantine.
I arrived at my hotel at 11:30pm on the 20th of August. Thankfully it was before midnight so that my first official day of quarantine would be the 21st. I was given a piece of paper with my room number on it and told to go to the room and have a good night. The room was your basic hotel room, with a queen size bed and a small desk by the window. I quickly surveyed the room and checked the contents of my carry-on to find toiletries and clothes so that I could take shower before going to sleep. The best thing about flying to Asia, arriving at night (helps with the jet lag).
Dressed in the PPE suit to go to the hotel. I broke the zipper on the suit… whoops.
Everyday is the same.
Breakfast is delivered at 7am on the small coffee table outside of my door. The first breakfast was fried rice, which I asked for something else because it contained carrots. So from then on, my breakfast was two fried eggs and two pieces of Texas toast. They also brought coffee and juice to go with it, but I preferred to drink water.
My daily eggs and toast. Some days (two out of the eight) I was lucky enough to get bacon!
After breakfast, I read my Bible and worshipped. It was such sweet time to talk with Jesus about quarantine and the plans He has for this school year. I held onto the promises He had told me before I left. There were moments that I worried, but I was always lead back to His promises. There was some time that I didn’t know if I would be released after 7 days, I struggled because I felt like God had said 7 days, but everything around me was saying it would be longer. I held tight to God, praying for 7 days, but also praying for my heart to handle whatever happened. I knew God was (and still is) in control! His timing is what got me here and His timing was going to get me out of quarantine. Praise the Lord, I learned on 27th that I would be released from quarantine on the 28th! God is faithful!
Daily set up for Bible reading and journaling!
The rest of the morning I would talk to family and friends in America. My morning was the easiest to talk to people because it is the evening in America. Also, I wasn’t sleeping through the night (thanks to jet lag) so I would talk to people early in the morning too. I am so thankful for technology to talk to people. I couldn’t imagine being stuck in a room for 7 days (or 14) without having a way to communicate with the outside world!
Lunch would be delivered at 11:30am. I never really knew what to expect for lunch. There usually was some type of meat and a vegetable. I could also count on there being two pieces of Texas toast. Usually, I ate the vegetables and the toast. Sometimes the meat was a little sketchy or it was fish. There was also a salad on the tray, but I tend to stay away from salad for fear of carrot contamination. I didn’t want to risk it. So I ate the things that I could easily see didn’t contain carrots. I had packed peanut butter and tortillas in my checked bag for the days that I didn’t eat the meal they provided. My bags didn’t show up until the 25th, but you can bet I had peanut butter as soon as I found it!
After lunch, I would work on things for school. We had our parent orientation on the 23rd, so I attended that to meet the parents and share a little bit about myself. The rest of the week I would check in on teachers to see how the first week of school was going. I also answered emails about the online schedule for the following week and did some curriculum mapping for math and science. It was also around this time that I would get sleepy (thanks jet lag), so I would take a nap. The goal was to take a 1-2 hour nap, but the first couple of days the nap was 3-4 hours, which definitely messed up my sleep schedule.
Dinner was delivered between 5pm and 5:30pm. Dinner was similar to lunch, never really knowing what to expect. My favorite meal was beef with onions and bell peppers! That was delivered twice. The rest of the meals I kind of picked at, usually eating all the vegetables and the Texas toast. I ate a lot of Texas toast. I knew I liked bread, but that was a lot of bread for one day and then eating it for 7 days. Let’s just say my body is not very happy with me right now. So I am detoxing from gluten for the rest of home quarantine).
After dinner, I would usually watch a movie or show until I fell asleep. Sometimes, sleep wouldn’t come or I would get bored of watching movies/TV, so I would turn on worship music and just pray for the city, pray for my friends in lockdown, pray for the school, pray over my transition. I am super excited about what God in store for this next year.
All in all, hotel quarantine wasn’t too bad. I feel like I made the best out of the situation. It definitely has been hard not seeing people and not hugging people (I’m not a huge physical touch person, but I do love hugs). Being alone with your own thoughts for seven days (plus 14 days at home) can be overwhelming. There was a couple of days that were harder than others, but I am comforted by the fact that I was never truly alone! God was (and is) with me.
After my 7 days, I was released on the 8th day. And by released I mean I was told 10am, then 1:30pm, then 2pm, then 3pm that I could leave my room. They were waiting on paperwork from the government that confirmed my release. At 3pm I was allowed to check out of my hotel room, pay the $30 for 19L jug of water that I ordered, and head to my hotel. I had to don the blue PPE suit (smurf suit as it is called here by expats) and make my way the 12km to my new apartment. My new apartment didn’t know I was coming, but after some google translate support, we finally convinced them that I was allowed to move in!
