Quarantini, Rocks on the Side...Or Out the Window

Back by popular (Nana’s) demand! The series of entries I feel inclined to write only when I am not touching United States soil. Thank you to everyone who followed my adventures, escapades, and any other label that you see fit, in and around New Zealand. Well, actually, you didn’t get to read about the “around” when friends and I visited Tasmania. That unfortunately came after I abruptly stopped writing and got caught in the staggered “goodbyes” as everyone began to leave the country after final exams. That, of course, was just over three years ago (time flies!?), so my apologies for only addressing my blog abandonment now. I have been continuously reliving and taking myself on mental vacations to NZ by reading and rereading my blogs over the past few years, so thank you to all who encouraged and demanded (again, usually Nana) those writings. Anyway, if you would also like to relive my time in Aotearoa, here’s some light reading for ya. Print it out; put it next to the toilet. I might. 

We get it! You went abroad!

**Before I get too carried away, everyone should be warned. This is going to be long… definitely the longest I will ever post here. This should probably be broken up into multiple posts, but eh. Just accept my apology and hang in there.**  

Here comes the structured part of the first blog post where I would normally say “for those of you that don’t know, I am… et cetera, et cetera, et cetera.” If all things go as planned, I’ll also end this upcoming paragraph with a long-winded request that you bear with me, understand this as a “blog” whenever mentioned in conversation even though I’m not sure it qualifies as a conventional blog, and excuse my barrelling stream of consciousness that is seemingly unavoidable. We all know what to expect when reading anything I put out into the world–actually, we all know not to set expectations when reading anything I put into the world. I digress (as usual). 

And away we go: For those of you that don’t know, I have recently made the move from Vermont to Hong Kong where I will be working as a Junior Fellow at Morningside College in Shatin. Morningside is a small college within the Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK). I am thankful that my friend Juliet (who was frequently featured throughout my NZ blog) put me in contact with the College and encouraged me to apply for what is now her former position. I have quite literally taken over her space and will soon be moved into her old flat. Lucky for me she did not completely vacate HK, and will be a sweet little train ride away. I know. We can’t believe there is a sequel to our antics either. We even worked together for a week! Who let that happen??! 

As incredibly excited as I am to be starting this new chapter, it was tough, as expected, to leave Aggie, my best friends and family, Aggie, teaching middle school in VT, and Aggie. I cannot thank my support system enough for the unwavering encouragement, enthusiasm, and necessary push to get me to follow my dreams. (Ew. How corny? “Dreams.” Who do we have to blame for ruining that word and making it all gushy and weird? Walt Disney?) How fortunate am I to have so many people willing to run me out of the country at a moment’s notice? Even though the leaving was hard, I consider myself very lucky. Very lucky to have amazing people in my life–yes, but mostly lucky to have technology that allows me to call them (Amie) and bug them at most any hour for most any reason (midnight gecko sightings in my bedroom). Thank you to all of my people for filling my last few moments in New England with too many laughs to count. Although, I’ve never tried to count laughs; what a silly and hyperbolic thing to say.  

    

The Last 36 

Hours, that is. The absolutely chaotic final hours spent in VT, NH, and MA were all kickstarted by my impressive procrastination skills. For context, my first flight from Boston to LA was supposed to leave at 7:30pm on June 30. That would then put me in a comfortable place to depart LAX at 1:15am on the morning of July 1. Knowledge of this itinerary will become increasingly important. 

Cass and I woke up a little extra early on Wednesday the 29th to squeeze in one last novice longboard ride before she headed to work. Tiring, yes. Worth it? Always. Next, after an unfortunate series of canceled COVID test appointments later that morning, I was still scrambling to move out of my Burlington apartment (sad) while also saying goodbyes to some of my most beloved Vermonters (did I mention, sad?). For the most part, this looked a lot like me running around packing and yelling throughout the house while Sydney and I told each other stories. This later transformed into me and Amie throwing things into bags, boxes, anything, and somehow fitting it all in my truck, kayak included. I wish I took a photo of everything packed in because it looked like the world’s greatest game of Tetris. All credit to Amie there. As with most things, I couldn’t have done it without her.

Unsurprisingly, I left VT later than expected that afternoon which also made me late for a final Ichiban dinner with Molly and my fam. This meant that we got home late, and my final round of packing and errand running was pushed to Thursday morning. Not to mention it started raining when we got to dinner, so Kyle ran all the way home to take luggage, etc out of the bed of my truck (a modern hero) and threw it inside in a nice pile for me. A domino effect, kids. All good, though! I work well under pressure! Well, turns out things were not all good particularly with American Airlines. At 11:00am on Thursday… the 30th… the morning of my first flight, I received a notification stating that my flight from BOS to LAX had been canceled, and another that said my travel was unable to be rebooked and my entire trip was canceled. Sick. Juliet received a text play by play of my freak out taking place at 11:00pm Hong Kong time: But seriously, how do you just CANCEL an entire TRIP to HONG KONG 8 hours before departure time?! Knowing how challenging it would be to rebook my arrival Quarantine Hotel, there was literally no time for hesitation. Luckily, it truly was only my BOS-LAX flight that decided not to leave the runway, and I was able to rebook that leg with another airline. I called United and they got me the LAST SEAT on their 6:00pm flight to LA. Did the idea of picking up my (very) heavy suitcases and walking them a mile from one terminal to the next at LAX sound absolutely dreadful? Yes. Did I do it anyway? Yes. Receipts and clocked distance (including the confused circles I walked in while looking for a map) shown below:

                               

A Week in Purgatory

I mean quarantine. Hong Kong’s COVID regulations still require seven days of quarantine in one of their designated hotels. So, after what seemed like miles worth of walking through mazes of mandatory COVID testing sites and check ins at the airport, I hopped on my designated shuttle bus and made my way to the Nina Hotel. Thankfully, I had met up with one of my new colleagues in the airport so we were able to navigate this together. 

There was very little tolerance for error during my week at the hotel; I was required to rapid test once every morning, take and record my temperature twice a day, and open my room door to only discard trash and pick up each of the meals left on the chair outside. As you can imagine, there was an incredible amount of time for me to spend with my own thoughts. This brain, and only this brain, in one room for a week. Oof.

The view from my room was gorgeous, so I really can’t complain under the circumstances. I had a perfect view of the pool I could only dream of swimming in everyday.  

It goes without saying that there wasn’t really much for me to do in quarantine. Here is a mock schedule of how a typical day in the life went: 

3:00am: Wake up. Battling jet lag when you have nothing to keep you awake is really hard, and sleeping more than 6 hours just wasn’t happening for me. 

3:00am-4:00am: Yoga. I made it a point to pack my yoga mat for my big Q-week. Don’t regret it.

   

4:00am - 12:00pm: Eat breakfast and Facetime anyone and everyone from back home, and constantly be unable to answer the question of “omg, how is it??!” because even though I was physically in HK, I wasn’t really… at all. 

12:00pm- 12:30pm: Eat lunch and listen to a podcast. The food was actually quite good, and I was never disappointed with the menu. I am a human garbage disposal and will eat anything, but still. Quality meals. Some pictured below for your virtual enjoyment. 

12:30pm-1:30pm: Finish podcast episode while digesting. 

1:30pm-3:00pm: Do a workout (or three). 

3:00pm-3:30: Shower and make coffee to help me stay awake. I typically got tired around 3:00pm and had to try very hard not to nap. I did let this happen a couple of times and would snooze my alarm until waking up in a disappointed panic at 9:00pm. NOT good. Actually irritated me to no end. 

3:30-the end of time: Scroll for hours (no exaggeration), read, watch Ted Lasso (yes, for the first time. This is a conversation for another day, but I’m not totally understanding the hype.)  

The end of time-3:00am: Sleep. 

Rinse and repeat. 

Oooh all of a sudden the blog took a dull turn. Consider this a lesson in empathy. It was a dull week. 

Fisher Family Chopstick Bootcamp™️   

I did learn something in quarantine. Midway through the week, I realized that my procrastination of learning the art of chopsticks had to come to an end. These physically demanding, yet internationally used culinary tools just about broke me. I’ll say it probably wasn’t wise of me to binge practice for two hours straight, but there was no stopping until mastery (or until someone woke up to teach me how). I looked up videos, I read Wikihow articles, and found solace in Reddit articles that shared my frustration. Why are there so many ways to hold chopsticks? Why didn’t I learn earlier in a lower stakes environment where chopsticks were not the only means of transporting food to mouth? I’m exaggerating. Kind of. Needless to say, my finger cramped before mastery and that was the end of that for the day.

Until, what I like to call, Fisher Family Chopstick Bootcamp. Not a real business, but a realer than real service. After complaining about my infamous finger cramp to Amie, we spent a couple of hours on the phone teaching (her and Eric) and learning (me, kind of) how to use chopsticks. Between my two chopstick mentors, I had a choice of two ways to hold, pinch, and grab things. I was provided step by step tutorials, different camera angles to show just exactly how the chopsticks were sitting in their hands, and overwhelming encouragement. I, on the other hand, dumped individual candies, packets of instant coffee, and tea bags onto the counter to properly practice each exercise my drill sergeants put me through: photo below because it looked like I had been robbed when I woke up the next morning.Even after all of this work in our late night session, I still didn’t really get the hang of any method, but had to turn in for bed eventually.

  

After the small heist and a good night’s rest, I woke up with the skills necessary to survive. Eric’s method (previously more challenging) had stuck, and I was relieved by the thought of not starving in my new home. Vermont educators, I tell ya! Sorcery! Please relish in the following photos of my success story accompanied by my pretty consistent quarantine hairdo:

The End. For Now. 

Well, team, I have since moved out of my sweet quarantine hotel room, and am now living at CUHK. I’m going to leave you all with a TBC because reliving quarantine has exhausted me, and I’m sure you too are sick of reading. If I had to live out a week of quarantine, unfortunately it has to go down in this collection of written history too. All about setting the scene, people! I promise there are many more exciting pictures and adventures just waiting to be shared! Next time! Hopefully being shared by a better version of myself as a writer. What an awful mess this post is! A little rusty over here. 

If you’ve held on this long, you have proven incredible worthiness and can be rewarded with my new digits: +852 6573 2805. That’s really all I have to offer. Please iMessage, Whatsapp, and Facetime me using that number! Always love to hear from you sweet, sweet people. Love you all; chat soon.