Quarantine

Kids

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Caring for your kid’s needs during the pandemic has been difficult for sure, and I don’t want to downplay that in any way. You suddenly have these little ones that are normally at school and get some personal space and now you don’t. You are more aware of what is happening in their lives and have to worry about their well-being more.

Despite all this, I don’t understand and am appalled to see all these memes and jokes about parents who hate their kids. The biggest influence on a child’s life is their parents. And it is never too late to start being a more positive role model for them. If you don’t like an aspect of the child first self analyze and decide if this is a trait that you model. If it is, start acting better. If it is not, discuss it with them . (Note discussion is two sided, if it is one sided it’s called lecture which gets ignored)

Now that I have that off my chest updates about our children. We have 3 kids: ages 2, 10 & 12. They don’t always get along. We try to let them have alone time if needed, even if it means taking turns in seclusion. (We are in a 2 bedroom apartment). The rest of us have to take care of the toddler.

I have become a lot more aware of how media presents women lately because I am always telling my daughter that she can be anything she wants. It’s amazing how your opinion of certain movies changes when you view it as “how will my girl see it”

Examples. We watched a few older movies over the last few months. We watched the Jurassic park-world series. What do you see right from the first movie? A lady doctor who examines dino poop. A war photographer that hunts for the perfect shot of a Dino. A mother willing to fight dinosaurs to find her kid, women who work hard and are smart.

My wife and I also chose “the mask”. I remember loving this movie when I was younger. But the ladies are all represented at eye candy for the men. Every single one of them. Except the landlady. I was ashamed of this. My daughter still laughed at the antics, but the whole movie left me with a sour taste.

I am trying to find better movies to watch with my family, but it isn’t always easy. And it’s not just the movies.

Over the course of my daughter’s education she has had a ton of local teachers that have been trying to push the idea that women are not equal to men and this has led to a few discussions.

Boys in my daughter’s class will do Soccer or track and field in Gym class. Girls can go watch or gossip.

A few years ago my friend had an English Soccer club run through the school. The school wouldn’t let girls join so my friend just let them play along for free. 2 years ago the club got cancelled because not enough paying members. He always had enough players, but they weren’t allowed to pay and so didn’t count. My daughter took his club with her brother.

I have been busy working and homeschooling my daughter. My son has been taking digital classes without problems. My daughter’s class chose to do class on an app that requires a Chinese name and Citizenship Number. So I have been helping her with everything.

Now school is returning on June 8 (for 1month) I informed her class that she will not be returning until September. She has missed every class for months so it makes no sense to send her in.

My son will be studying at home as well. The city may be opening up again, but I am not ready to risk my kids yet. I have to return, which means a lot of work for me to prepare lessons for the kids as I will not be home to explain things.

My family is the single most important thing to me. I wish I could do more for them. Keep safe everyone, and try to be the best version of yourself for your kid’s sake. They need you a lot more now.

Quarantined still?

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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…

Cold as Ice

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So the Vivid crisis is not over yet, however people are starting to emerge from their isolation. We are still scanned for fever at every super market, and restaurants are still closed to eat in customers. We still cannot enter any apartment compounds without a ticket from the compound management that proves we live there. And you definitely cannot invite outsiders into the compound.

And yet, the owner of our apartment has decided that when our contract expires in April he is selling, and we must move out.

We must move out.

The most common system in China for housing is for the owner of an apartment to rent it to a real estate agency. They then rent it out to people. The agency takes on all responsibility for the apartment like replacing air conditioners that don’t work. The owner sets the rent, and collects a persentage of it.

Our owner’s contract with the agency is up, and they have been trying to extend it at least until the Covid situation has changed so we wouldn’t have to be out looking for a place in a market that won’t let us see the apartments. Unfortunately the owner is adamant, they are selling and any tenant must move. He either has a heart as cold as ice, or is completely ignorant of the situation in China.

We found out on Wednesday.

Do not worry however. We lucked out. We have a co-worker and friend who got stuck in the Philippines during all this. They will not be able to renew their own housing contract next month, and so have decided to move in with their sister nearby. Their apartment becomes available at the same time we needed to move. The owner of that has agreed to rent to us sans agent.

Our friends things will be moved by their family that got stuck here, across the courtyard. We will take control of the apartment on the 5th of April and need to relinquish our place by the 23rd.

The new place is only half a block away, and so closer to the work I am locked out of. We have seen it several times during birthday parties and other trips to visit them. So we know the apartment even though we cannot go see it right now.

Even though it is not far, we are not sure how we will move. Next weekend we will be meeting with the owner to sign. At that time we will be given the compound cards to allow us entry. But our biggest concern is whether we will be able to use a moving van or car, as they might not be allowed into the compound.

Yes I could carry a lot of stuff down the street with my son. But things like the tv, the crib, our cabinets, I would rather just take by vehicle. We shall see what we can do. I will be asking my friend who lives downstairs to help me find out.