A Teenager’s Hotel Quarantine: Unexpected but not Uneventful

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When I traveled from Israel back to China, I flew from Tel Aviv to Frankfurt to Chengdu. Like everyone coming from abroad, I was sent to two weeks of quarantine at a local hotel. I had heard about the experience of teachers and students at my school but never really looked forward to it. As someone who struggled with lockdown in my own house, how would I manage in a hotel room?

After arriving at the hotel lobby, we were greeted by a medical team. They rushed over to spray disinfectant on our bags, filling the air with the smell of chemicals. We were handed room keys and to our surprise, my mom and I were separated. My mom went up to the nearest medical worker and asked them to reconsider. However, they stated that all children above 14 had to be quarantined alone. Even spouses weren’t allowed in one room. It sounded ridiculous at the moment, but over time we realized that it made sense, medically-speaking.

We were at least on the same floor. Whenever I needed something from her room, I contacted a medical worker on our Wechat group and they would bring it to me.

For the first three days or so, everything was a mess. Clothes lying on the floor, food wrappers scattered across the room, and curtains that remained drawn even with the sun shining outside. Maybe I was too overwhelmed by the freedom and independence. I completely lost track of time and followed no routine whatsoever. The closest thing I had to a schedule was daily temperature checks at 9:20am and 3:20pm. Takeout food was delivered via medical workers who left them on stools outside our doors. The world of Chengdu gourmet was my oyster, yet I had little appetite.

On top of all this chaos, I was also jet-lagged. I video-called friends in Israel well into 4am every night and had no intention of fixing my sleep schedule. It got to a point where my Instagram activity time was eight hours a day because I was constantly on calls.

The turning point for me was when school resumed on Monday the following week. I crawled out of bed every morning and turned on Zoom, half-awake. One day I was even 30 minutes late. This was when I decided to pull myself together and be at least somewhat responsible, even if nobody was there to tell me so.

I fixed my sleep schedule by sleeping an hour earlier every night. Starting at 2am, I eventually made it to 11pm. I ate every meal the moment they were delivered, instead of procrastinating until they grew cold. I followed exercise videos online and took out my guitar to pass time. One of the main ways I cope with things is by writing a song, so I challenged myself to put together a mini-album in the time being. Using my phone, I recorded bits and pieces in the echoey bathroom and on the windowsill bordering the noisy, restless street. Then I spent hours editing the tracks on my laptop. This managed to keep me busy right up to the end of quarantine.

Another highlight of quarantine was the beginning of October break. On the morning of October first, medical workers delivered mooncakes to every one of us. They even drew heartwarming “happy holidays” cards to accompany the mooncakes. It was around that time when my mom and I discovered we could hear each other if we both open our doors. Thus, every now and then, she would call my hotel telephone and we would go to our doors and have brief conversations without seeing each other.

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All this reminded me of a phrase I’d read months ago: 隔离不隔爱 (gé lì bù gé ài): “quarantined but not quarantined from love”. The medical workers catered to our every need, all while covered head to toe in stuffy, uncomfortable protective suits. Yet they still went above and beyond to bring us festivity from the outside world.

On October second at exactly 12:17pm, which was two weeks on the dot from when our plane landed, our doors opened and we were free to go. We were very fortunate that everyone tested negative in the two COVID-19 tests and one antibody blood test. As we headed out the hotel gate, a lingering sense of affection hung in the humid, gloomy atmosphere of Chengdu.

We carried this affection as we stepped onto a flight to Beijing merely three hours later. The woman sitting behind us was also from our quarantine hotel. We shared our experiences these past two weeks and laughed it off. Quarantine was nothing like my expectations, but I wouldn’t change a thing about it.

Feel free to check out the songs I wrote and recorded in quarantine! https://soundcloud.com/qinglanmusic/sets/something-new

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Photos: Qinglan Du 

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