Did you miss any of the earlier posts in this series? Find them here:
My fun activity for the day was decorating my eggs. Yep, with hard-boiled eggs showing up in almost every breakfast, I haven't always been able to bring myself to eat them. These two had been living in the fridge for a while and needed a new purpose in life. I don't claim to be particularly artistic, but I enjoyed turning them into art. Now if only I had somewhere to display them!
The next big event that happened today was the field trip! We'd been told the taxi would arrive at 10:00 this morning to take Floyd and me to get our PCR tests. At 11:30, right after lunch was delivered, someone from the front desk finally called my room to say the taxi was there. I stuck my uneaten lunch in the fridge, put on my shoes, picked up my purse, put on my mask and face shield, remembered at the last minute to grab the key card to my room, and stepped out into the hallway. Wow, what a weird feeling. I found my way down the hall to the elevator and made it down to the lobby after just one mixup where I temporarily got out on the wrong floor when someone else got in (you forget how these transportation devices work when your only transportation device for twelve days has been your feet in a pretty small area). There were about four people manning the front desk, which seemed weird in a hotel where no one goes in or out except after twelve days, and then again after fourteen days. They had me leave my key card with them and pointed me to the taxi waiting just outside. And there was Floyd! I can't tell you how wonderful it was to see him in person again!
The taxi took us to a little hospital about 5 minutes' drive away, where we had to wait outside the front door. Then a pink-clad nurse came out and filled out paperwork, asked us medical questions, took our blood pressure, and checked the oxygen levels in our blood (all outside the hospital door). She took our passports and health insurance cards inside, along with our payment (150 NT each; about 5 U.S. dollars). I got a kick out of the fact that she sprayed our money, passports, and cards down with disinfectant before she took them.Then we got directed to a tent set up in the parking lot where the scary man you see below was waiting to do scary things to us from the other side of a window. I will spare you the details except to say that it was more painful and lasted longer than the PCR test we had to take before we could fly to California at the beginning of the summer, and this time they stabbed us in BOTH nostrils.
Then we stepped back into the waiting taxi, which brought us back to the hotel. I wished he would drive more slowly or take a detour. We would gladly have paid for a VERY LONG detour, if the driver been willing to spend the afternoon driving around the city! Alas, no, he was under strict orders to bring us right back to our hotel. It was really hard to say goodbye to Floyd as we trudged back to our separate rooms. Harder than when we parted ways at the beginning of quarantine. Stepping back into my empty room alone was more difficult than I had expected, too. My quarantine experience really hasn't been all that bad, especially compared to some people's. But leaving Floyd behind and shutting the door behind myself hurt. At least I only have two and a half days to go!
Here are today's meals:
See later posts in the series here (once they're live):
2 Replies to “Taiwan Quarantine, Day 12”
What other quarantine experiences have you heard from other people that are interesting or traumatic or dramatic?
Just that some people’s rooms haven’t been nearly as nice as mine (tiny, dirty, no view, mold, smells, hard bed, etc.), and/or the food at their hotels has been really bad.