Month: April 2020

Let’s all do the Holiday Shuffle!

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May-day, or Labor Day in Asia here, is coming up and it’s time to do the shuffle again. The holiday shuffle.

What is the Holiday Shuffle you ask?

The holiday shuffle is something that I have only ever seen in China. What it is, is a reshuffling of regular work day to compensate for a holiday.

Let’s take May-day as our example because it is next week. May-day falls on Friday, and the government has graciously given us from May 1st to May 5th off in case you want to travel. (I know we’re in a semi-lockdown, but still.)

The shuffle happens where the Monday work we will miss is moved to this Sunday. The Tuesday work we will miss will be moved to the Saturday after the holiday.

So now my next two weeks schedule looks like this (starting tomorrow, Saturday.)

  • Saturday April 25th off.
  • Sunday April 26th – Thursday April 30th has class.
  • May1-5th is off.
  • Wednesday May 6- Sunday May 9th has class.
  • Sunday May 10 the off.
  • Then back to normal from Monday the 11th.

The overlying thought is. ONLY the holiday is off. (May day). Any days that you get extra must be paid back. And the government will give you a schedule of what days are to be replaced when.

My first experience with this was when we first arrived in China. I had a week of almost no work followed by a week of double shifts ( worked twice my classes) just before New Year’s, and I was expecting a lot of overtime because nobody bothers to explain what is happening to foreigners. They just expect you to know.

Needless to say there was a lot of arguments between the newly arrived workers and our boss. Only 1 of us got overtime. Because his first day was the first day of double shifts.

Every Holiday we do the Holiday Shuffle. Frustrating as it is, it’s part of life here.

Quarantined still?

Daily Life, Quarantine Leave a comment

Since today would be day 84 since the quarantine began, my wife and I discussed, are we still in quarantine?

I’m honestly not sure if we are or if we are living in a quasi-quarantine scenario. So I will let you know what I Do know and can see. Maybe after reviewing it all I can figure out if this is the new normal or still quarantine.

Masks

Before Covid 19, about 60-75% of Beijing’s population wore masks due to smog. Daily it was common to see medical masks, or pm 6.5 filter masks. 2 months ago the number was 100%. Now the number of people wearing masks in Beijing is about 95%.

Restaurants

Almost all restaurants are still delivery only service. Now in Beijing all restaurants had delivery through various phone apps before hand. These apps have, I’m sure been the saviour of many small locally run restaurants. For 2 months it was illegal for them to have on site customers. However today I saw the local MacDonald had 5 seats open for inside eating.

Schools

Schools are closed. Have been since the beginning of the semester and will not open this semester at all. The first 8 weeks of the term we were told as teachers to give review. Some of us began to record video lessons for kids to watch at home during their free time. Now we have zoom lessons until July 10th.

Parks and Public Spaces

At the beginning of the whole panic, all parks and public spaces pretty much closed. A small amount of people would still go but for the most part, everyone stayed home. Now, while still not recommended, I see families outside playing in the apartment gardens. Some have masks, some do not.

Malls remain vacant, and to enter supermarkets, malls, stores, even the wet market, you have to be hearded through a line with a thermal camera. Some places require you to sign in or register with your WeChat.

In February, when you went outside to get groceries, the city was practically a ghost town. Now the streets are back to almost regular capacity. Every one being told to stay 1 meter away from anyone else.

Some stores still won’t let people in. You just stand at the desk blocking the entrance. Employees will get things for you and bring it to you to pay for. Most pharmacies and printing services are this way.

Apartments

At the beginning of February, all apartment compounds in Beijing began enforcement of an entry pass. You could only come in to the compound if you had a pass, and needed one for each person in your family that would enter. This has now been upgraded. I received word that next month we would have to trade our laminated pieces of paper for picture ID needed to enter the compound.

Also new: I needed police permission to move into our new apartment, and I have a feeling that if we had gone on vacation and returned to the city in February or March we would not have been granted permission. We still need to go register at the closest branch of the police. (Moving permission came from the apartment community police box)

So as I mentioned before, we are still quarantined in we can’t go DO anything, but yet there are people in the streets. I will count this as quarantined until the kids can go play in a playground…

Of doors and drills.

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So our current apartment, you know the on where the air conditioner fell off the wall, has a metal front door. For 4 years it had been hard to open. Our agent knows about this and we have asked about getting this fixed repeatedly. The usual response was that nothing could be done because metal doors expand and contract with the temperature.

Last night we ordered food, and as normal quarentine rules, this meant I would have to go to the parking lot outside the gate to get it. The delivery guy called to let is know he had arrived, so I got ready to go, and the handle of our big metal door snapped off.

Now luckily I was raised by 2 amazing Handymen. So it took me less than a minute to dismantle the door lock, and open the door with a pair of plyers.

When I returned, my wife and I had to mickey rig the outside panel to stay on, by drilling screw holes in 4 layers of hard cardboard. This stuff is practically particle board. On the plus side the door is much easier to unlock and open.

I have sent a message to our agent, so he knows and can inform the owner. Also I don’t want him to be surprised when he comes over in 2 weeks to inspect and give us our deposit back.