Hello from Quarantine Day 7
It only took a mandatory week of rest for me to finally get my blog together.
好久不見!After several identity crises, 嘉儀,加油 is officially on Substack. Well, I haven't been very consistent with this whole blogging thing, have I? I wish I could say I've just been too busy... which would have been very true the first few weeks of July. But to be honest, lately I haven't been doing much. Since last week, I've been quarantining from my apartment in Taipei since testing positive for Covid.
Getting Covid in Taiwan
This is the first time I've had Covid, and I think I had it easy. My symptoms started off with a sore throat, which I attributed to a weekend of revelry and not a lot of rest. I went to a Chinese medicine doctor for the first time, and told him in choppy Chinese that I had a sore throat, general fatigue, and a slight headache. The whole time, I had been testing negative on rapid tests, so I figured some herbal medicine would heal me up quickly.
It did, and herbal medicine really tastes as bad as people say it does. But just as my sore throat went away, it was replaced by a runny nose. By this time it had been a week, and I was really fed up with whatever summer cold I was having. I wanted to talk with my newfound voice, but that pesky runny nose was making me sound all gross and stuffy. Frustrated, I went to a regular hospital for a check up and Western medicine. The doctor offered me a free PCR (in most cases, getting a PCR in Taiwan costs about NT$3500), so I took it. To my surprise, it was positive. Thus began my week in quarantine.
What happens when you test positive?
If you test positive on a PCR in Taiwan, the doctor is legally required to report your positive result to the government. Thus begins a barrage of unknown phone calls from the doctor, the district health center and a telehealth provider. They need to make sure they know where you're quarantining so they can monitor your location via phone signal. Depending on your living situation, you can request to be transferred to a government quarantine facility. Luckily for me, I was able to quarantine in the comfort of my own apartment.
Quarantine began the day after my positive test result (AKA the day I took the test was day 0). The doctor tried to contact me that night, but I must have missed the call. Luckily, I saw the result on the hospital app and started notifying my close contacts. I also called 1922 for more information (they have an English-language service), and used the anonymous contact tracing app to report my positive result.
In the morning, I woke to a text from the government with a link to report my close contacts (currently, the government only counts housemates as close contacts). Those who are double-vaxxed and boosted only have to do a week of self-health management, and can generally go about their life as usually (while avoiding crowds, monitoring their health condition, etc).
Then I received a call from the doctor again, then a call from a telehealth service that I added through Line, and then from the district health center of the hospital I had tested positive at (which I then had to be redirected to the health center for the district I live in). I missed a ton of calls the first time around because I was mostly napping that day... but luckily I got everything sorted. I received and signed the official notice acknowledging that I was to quarantine for a week, and then enter self-health management for the week after.
Some tips for quarantining in Taiwan:
- Record your temperature twice a day. Record symptoms daily, too.
- Rice keeps better in the fridge than noodles, if you're ordering delivery every day.
- Drink tons of water! Naps are important too.
Seven days is a good amount of time to recover and rest after having Covid. For me, because I had been sick for almost a week before testing positive, I was almost symptom-free by day 4 of my official quarantine, and tested negative by then. That meant the last few days of quarantine kind of felt pointless, but were honestly a rest period I probably needed.
My quarantine routine
8 am: It's too hot. Wake up to turn on the A/C.
10 am: Actually wake up, call my boyfriend, make some instant oatmeal in the microwave, top with brown sugar and blueberries.
Noon: Attend my Chinese class remotely. Writing characters using Zoom annotation is hard, especially with only my little Macbook touchpad.
2 pm: Eat lunch, whatever I ordered the day before.
Afternoon: Nap, do homework, scroll through socials.
6 pm: Scroll FoodPanda and UberEats for tonight's dinner and tomorrow's lunch. I tried to order two meals at a time to avoid paying so many delivery fees.
7 pm: The delivery comes straight to my door! Time to eat, while watching an episode of my recent addiction, Spy X Family.
Evening: Wash dishes, take a shower, study some more (aka scroll endlessly through Instagram. My screentime was way up this week.)
1-2 am: Sleep!
What I’ve been eating:
Since I’ve been quarantining, FoodPanda and UberEats have been my best friends. I especially enjoyed some healing meals from:
茗香園冰室 Cantonese-style restaurant (FoodPanda)
- Char siu+beef egg rice自選雙拼滑蛋飯 (叉燒+牛肉) (NT$180) and chicken congee 滑雞粥 (NT$150)
四鄉五島馬祖麵店 Taiwanese noodle restaurant (UberEats)
- Sacha noodles 沙茶麵 (NT$65), cucumbers 小黃瓜 (NT$55), hot and sour soup 酸辣湯 (NT$55)
曼谷燒 Thai restaurant (FoodPanda)
- Hot and spicy chicken with rice 椒麻雞 + thai milk tea (NT$189), chicken rice with coconut juice (NT$149)
What I’ve been listening to:
- “Hold No Grudge” by Lorde
No, I don't keep a list, can't hold a grudge
Don't you think that we both might've done some growing up?
Well, I know that some shit was said and done
But it's such a different world now, I can't hate anyone
With all the time I had to think this week, I went down memory lane and finally got around to listening to the bonus tracks off of “Solar Power,” this one makes me feel about as wise as a 22-year old can be. Also, what was Lorde thinking keeping the best tracks off of Spotify for so long?!
- “OH HEY” by Lücy and hitsujibungaku
I found this one off of Taiwan Beats, and Lücy really captures that nostalgic, bedroom pop feel I lived for in high school, which is perfect for endless quarantine days. Just listen for yourself.
- “August” by Taylor Swift
Yeah this one is just to remind you that IT IS AUGUST! The year is over...
Anyway, thanks for reading my first post! I didn’t mean for it to be about Covid, but that’s just how life goes. Keep an eye out for more adventures in Taipei, life as a grad student and more detailed food reviews.
Your food looks delicious!! Glad you're recovering well =)