Getting to the plane was an adventure, the flight was largely uneventful except that while everyone was wearing masks (and they really were) some people were wearing disposable hazmat suits. Like the kind CSI people wear at a crime scene. A lady sitting in front of us was wearing one, with the cutest cat ear headband to complete the look.
I’m an anxious flyer on a good day and this was not a good day. I had one full blown panic attack in the back of the plane, complete with Mark having to come check on me and a flight attendent asking what they can do to help. It was just so overwhelming to think that we were finally on our way back to China – and I was so afraid of our stop in South Korea that the flight would be turned back around and we still wouldn’t be able to go home.
The stop in Korea is necessary because some people got off there as their final destination, and also so they can do some more checks or disinfection of goods or honestly who knows what. When the flight took off from there heading to Shanghai, Mark and I both cried because that was the final step, they wouldn’t send us back from there. Meanwhile Alex played video games and watched movies and generally ignored that we existed.
We landed in Shanghai at roughly 12:30 am, and before we could deplane we had to show that code that we got when we boarded the flight in Dallas. It is important to note at this point that my Chinese phone number had been turned off, and Mark’s phone was mostly dead (as usual). After debarking the plane, you follow the crowd to a line, where you fill out some paperwork and answer some questions and they give you another paper to carry to the next line. There is another QR code with questions in Chinese that need to be answered, and we felt lucky to have Alex to help us, although there were translations of the questions on a form at the desk. Then we got our papers sorted and got test tube vials to take with our names on them into the next line where we would get our nasal swabs.
My anxiety was pretty high since I didn’t like the very minimal swab I got in Miami, but Mark and Alex kept saying it would be no big deal. The line moved so slowly, and part of the line was outside in the cold- we had come from Miami and Houston and hadn’t thought to bring something warm. As the line snaked around you could get a peak at the people in front of you being tested, they were swabbing kids as young as 2, imagine trying to hold a toddler still while jamming something up their nose. About 5 people in front of us was an older man, maybe 65-70 years old, in a really over the top hat. I noticed him because of the hat, which is known around here (at least with my family ) as the Boonie Brothers guy’s hat. Boonie Bears is a cartoon here where there are two bear brothers constantly fighting with a logger guy- the logger guy, when he’s not wearing a hard hat, is shown wearing a big fur hat.
So, older guy,in this ^^ fur hat, and as I round the corner to wait my turn he starts yelling and crying and making a scene. It scared the crap out of me and when he turned around he was holding a bloody tissue. He had jerked his head while the nurse was administering the test and basically shoved the swab too far up- it was his own fault though for not sitting still.
Mark and Alex volunteered to go first, and Alex got to be at the same window as me since he is still a kid. I’m not trying to be dramatic… ok, maybe a little, but that nasal swab was one of the most awful experiences I’ve ever had. 30 seconds each nostril, while the nurse holds the back of your head so you can’t escape. Not just in the tip of your nose, but like I-think-you’re-touching-my-brain deep. Alex handled it better than I did, but I still handled it better than the old Boonie Bears guy. With the swab done, we moved to the next stage of reentry, which was going through immigration and getting our luggage.
We had been in the very last or second to last row of the plane, so we were the end of the line for testing and immigration and everything else. The airport was the least busy I’ve ever seen it, it was really bizarre to see it so empty. At immigration, Alex has always been allowed to go right before me or with me up to the counter, this time they made him go at the same time as me, but to another agent. While my immigration officer is grilling me about being a student and where I’m going (this time the agent was pretty aggressive with me, I’ve never been asked 1/2 these questions before) they are asking Alex all kinds of questions he doesn’t know the answer to at the counter next to me. Everytime I would try to help him with the answer, I would get shushed and told not to help. At roughly 2 in the morning after countless hours on planes and airports I was not in the mood to be shushed.
Mark had had to buy some new equipment for teaching while we were in the US and was told not to leave the airport without the duties tax form or he wouldn’t be able to be reimbursed. Once we had our luggage we headed to the duty officer– who knew nothing. There was no one to call for help, and we waited behind another couple from our flight also trying to get forms. They eventually helped us talk to the duty guy to find out that he couldn’t help us and there was nothing that could be done. After an hour we gave up and decided to make our way to the next step.
The next step was to find our province on the signs and follow them to where the busses would pick people up and take them to the quarantine hotel. Another QR code and forms to fill out. By this time, Mark’s phone is dead and mine can’t recieve text messages because I have no cell service, we were swapping sim cards, and the guards at this checkpoint are using their phones to help us and it couldn’t be more frustrating if it tried. I was ready to lay down on the floor and sleep until tomorrow.
We made our way, with the help from our new guard friends, to thee last step of the airport, getting on the hotel bus. We had to turn in our passports and I had taken them out of the lovely passport wallet I have, and placed the wallet back on the top of our cart of luggage on top of a duffel bag. We load our stuff onto the bus to find out that everyone has been waiting for us- while we went through immigration, the tax wait, the qr snafu, all of it, they waited at least an hour and a half. I sat down on the bus and reached for my passport wallet to put our paperwork away… and it was gone. I told Mark, I think it’s missing, it’s got my phone, all my credit/debit cards, my student id – and I started to stand up on the bus so I could go abck and check where we just were. A lady, no not just a lady, the lady from our flight with the hazmat suit and cat ears, comes back to help because she speaks English. Not only that, but she knows us- she’s also from Haining and I met her at a Christmas party the last Christmas in China.
She explains to the other people on the bus, and instead of getting angry that they have to wait even longer for the dumb foreigners, everyone says they understand and hope I find it. She helps explain to the workers at the airport, and they send people all the way back upstairs to the QR code guards in case it fell along the way and Mark and I walk back to the last place I know I had it… no luck. Just as we’re about to give up, someone (I can’t remember if it was Vivian- our local friend- or Mark) suggests maybe it fell under the bus, and Mark starts looking under and we pull our luggage back off the bus, and there it is, tossed in the luggage hold of the bus with the duffel bag it was on. Mark hadn’t seen it on the duffel bag and in the hurry to keep us from holding up the show any longer, had thrown all the stuff under the bus. In Mark’s defense, the passport wallet and the duffel bag are the exact same pattern, from a set. So it blended in so well that Mark couldn’t see it on top of the bag. Crisis averted, all the other passengers were happy it was found and that we could be on our way… to the hotel, at probably 3am or 3:30 at this point, it’s a little fuzzy.
We get to the hotel and Vivian stays back with us to make sure we get checked in ok- we’re the last ones off the bus and the last ones to check in. I had a school deadline in a few days so Mark offered to take Alex so I could have the three days in quarantine in Shanghai to work and then we’d all be together in the second hotel closer to home. We had to sign more papers, get our temperatures checked again, pay for the hotel rooms, pick up our bag of quarantine goodies (note- these included chlorine tablets to put in the toilet after pooping, alcohol wipes, chopsticks and something else I’m forgetting), walk up five flights of stairs to our rooms, but at least our rooms were next to each other.
The rooms weren’t fancy, Mark’s and Alex’s room was clearner than mine, but totally doable for 3 days. If we had had to do the whole quarantine there I don’t know how happy I would be about it. The food was….dismal. I knew that I would eventually be writing these posts, so I took pictures of most of the food everyday to give you an idea.
I was able to finish my work and read an entire book that my friend had given me that was supposed to last all the way through quarantine.
We stayed in Shanghai for three days and then we were moved to our second long term hotel in Tongxiang. They told us to have our bags out in the hallway and then they would come get us in a bit.
45 minutes go by, and Vivian calls me, “where are you guys? We’re all on the bus” we tell her they told us to wait and never came back…. They had forgotten to come back and get us! So again we were holding up the show in getting to the next hotel. We got downstairs got on the bus, and even though it only been 3 days, it was really good to see my boys again. We talked about what we were going to do together over the next 11 days at the next hotel, what movies we were going to watch, how we would handle Mark’s teaching with me and Alex in the room.
Traveling Expat Family 