Running errands Today one of my cousins called in and asked if I would like to go in to town with her. Since I’d been staying home for the most part during quarantine and the sealing-down was now over, I thought it would be nice to get around in town and see what was going on there. We grabbed everything we needed: masks, hand sanitizer gel. We were all set, and we set off. One good thing about living in the countryside is that there isn’t much traffic and the roads are well-connected. You don’t have to do battles to go somewhere, because there is barely any congestion, even during rush hours in the early mornings or late afternoons. Normally we don’t take freeways, since the surface roads can contain the traffic. On surface roads, though not double-laned and unlike freeways where there are passing lanes, other drivers can easily gun their engine and cut you off to get ahead. Things go pretty well, in most cases. It’s quite rare to see a pile-up, but sometimes it happens, unfortunately. First we went to a pharmacy in town. My grandma was out of her anti-acids. She wanted me to stop by and get her refill. Since it was a refill and I had her doctor’s notes, she didn’t have to come in person and do a consultation with the pharmacist. By the time I got there, their were several people in line already. They were about 3 meters away from one another, just on the safe side, I guessed. I waited my turn in line and when I got to the head of the line, I realized I left her medical insurance card at home, so while the pharmacist was ringing up her sales, I called home for the insurance number. The insurance footed 35% of the bill. It wasn’t a lot of money, but having a little amount covered is preferable than none. After the pharmacy, we headed to the local post office. That was the major task of this ride. My cousin shopped online and her packages had arrived. When we got there, they were on a break. We had planned to grab the packages first and then eat at restaurant, but things changed. So we had to change our plans accordingly. What a day! At the end of the day, when I looked back, I knew that I did a lot of things but still felt like having done nothing at all. I want to know, if I am the only one who feels this way?

Me and my friend having a Chinese hotpot Yesterday, my friend dropped in on me unannounced. Actually I was glad she did so. Who doesn’t need a big surprise in this difficult time. Seeing an old friend is an absolute remedy for healing the scars of the quarantine where I live. Apart from a surprise, she also brought some updates on her life and work. It had been a while since we last gathered together. We always planned to meet up again, but what with this and that, it was hard to make it happen as we planned. It’s sad but we have moved onto different phases of our lives. I was happy to see her successful in her career and become a new mom, though. She didn’t bring her baby. In her words, she needed some time of not taking care of her baby to know that she thought of and loved the baby. I just burst into laughter the moment the words came out of her mouth. We had hotpot for lunch. Hotpot is best for winter time and having it in spring is a little bit inappropriate, but since we are big fans of this traditional food and having hotpot is a group thing, we had millions of reasons to have it. We could have take shortcuts to grab some hotpot base and dipping sauces at a grocery store, but making a hotpot from scratch was more fulfilling. It was also a great activity to kill the time. She didn’t like it hot, but I did. Since we didn’t have a pot with a divider in the middle, with which man can have 2 different hotpot base, one must compromise. I was glad I did. It’s important to make your guests feel at home in our culture. First, I filled about 2/3 of the pot with some chicken stock, turned it on, and added some dates, green onions, black peppercorns and fennel seeds. While the soup was boiling, we made our dips with some sesame butter mixed with salt. Personally I prefer to add one raw egg to my dips whenever I have my hotpot. I never regret it when the smoothy texture of the egg runs free on the tip of my tongue. It’s a Japanese thing but I quite like it. We had some vegetables like rape plants, lettuce leaves, mushrooms and enoki mushrooms. Normally I like to boil some seafood like crabmeat and shrimps and some bean curd sticks, but this time we were out of these ingredients, so we used some sliced pork. Preparation can be fun and necessary. Digging in is definitely the highlight. We were furiously happy to have a nice conversation over a traditional hotpot. Most of the time, I’m just a listener, and of course, a good one.

my teaching experience Right after graduating from college about two years ago, I started working as an online tutor in a big educational institution. Basically, I taught to a webcam, and kids at the other end of the internet could listen and learn. I was not sure they could learn a lot, because there were up to 300 hundred kids attending the class simultaneously, and there wasn’t much interaction between the students and the teacher. Efficiency cannot be guaranteed. This is one thing I hate about the job. And to top it off, I had to work extra hours quite a lot but got no pay. I felt under a lot of strain and being exploited. I started thinking about the fallout and worried about my health. So after a lot of soul searching, I resigned. But this job, my first formal job wasn’t all bad. You know, thanks to this job, I got to know a lot of new people. With some of them, I still keep in touch. A lot of good memories, too. Then one of my best friends referred me to the headmaster of the school that he worked for. They happened to have an opening in one teaching position. They didn’t bother to find a well-trained teacher, since the school started already. And it was not easy to find one at that point. I got no teaching qualification, but considering my teaching experience in my previous job, they accepted me. I could work there temporarily before I got my teaching qualification. It was in high school. My teaching tasks were quite heavy, at least two class a day. Teaching time plus the time dedicated to prep-work added up to 5 to 6 hours. A lot of tense, you know. After working there for like 6 months or so, I went job hunting online, sent emails with my CV attached to some of the positions that caught my eye and landed my current job. Blow is how it happened. Before the interview, Leo, my boss called in and said, they were looking for someone who got teaching experience and spoke good English. I thought I could give it a try. I wasn’t sure if I could nail it, but I wanted to keep my mind open. When that day arrived, I took a taxi and went to the school. It was a new school. And they were busy with painting and a lot of cleaning. Quite messy. Leo led me to a room and we had a nice conversation about me, my previous jobs and teaching experience, and my expectations of this job. It went smoothly and at the end of the conversation, Leo told me, you’re in! I was happy but not surprised at all. I’ve started working as a kindergarten teacher ever since.

Reading anecdotes Nothing beats lounging around, reading on a warm morning. The sun is shining, birds are singing and the wind is sending the sweet scent of a big blossom into the garden. Normally at this point, I would pick up one of my favorite magazines and start reading it. There are different sections in it. I always read the front page and the editorial page, which can give me an overview of the contents. I’m not a news junkie. There is fake news all over the the internet and reading it is an absolute waste of time and mental energy. So, I always skip the news section. Sometimes I skim the entertainment section for funnies, movie listings and reviews. I like to read and share good jokes now and then. They bring delight to my life. Some of the professional movie reviews are worth seeing, but sadly, some critics speak language that we normal people don’t understand. I like flipping through the food and health section as well. I can always get some inspiration from the recipes of the cooking experts that I admire. My favorite section is the anecdotes. Sometimes the stories make me happy, sometimes they make me feel blue. Last week, one author shared his story of how, during his teenage years, he let his parents know that he knew that they put a camera in his room. “Creepy parents” I thought to myself when the article caught my eye. The author put a white substance in a ziplock bag and hid it somewhere in his room. Every time he left for school in the morning and got back home in the afternoon, he found that bag, took it out and unsealed it. With a piece of paper, a dollar-like one that he had prepared, he rolled it up and pretended to snort the white substance on his hand. He didn’t actually snort it but used the side of his hand to push it off. After repeating this a few times, he was not surprised to find that the camera was gone. He let his parents falsely believe that he was snorting cocaine, which was just some sugar he had grabbed from kitchen. More interestingly, the paper his parents found said: “ I’m not doing drugs and I know that you are spying on me!” What a story.

Taking an annual physical Finally, it was time for my yearly checkup. I was supposed to take it in early January this year, but because of the outbreak of corona-virus, though there were no confirmed cases in my city, I decided to put it off, just to be on the safe side. I had called my doctor for an appointment last Saturday, hoping to get it done that day. Unfortunately, he was booked until this week. Being put on a waiting list is preferable to booking another appointment for another day. This morning his assistant called in and told me that he was ready to see me. I was half-thrilled and half-worried. On the one hand, I could know my health and thus take care of myself better; on the other hand, what if it ended up bad, what if I had some problems with my blood pressure or cholesterol level or something even worse? Considering my lack of exercise and unhealthy diet over the past two months whilst quarantined at home, I had a good reason to be worried. I couldn’t get around it, anyway. So, I just drove over to my doctor. There wasn’t much of a crowd in the hospital. For fear of getting infected, the hospital has become the last place that people would like to go to on Earth. I went to the reception desk and checked in. This time, they needed more information about me than they normally do and took my temperature. After confirming that I had no traveling history to outbreak zones and that my temperature was normal, one of the receptionists instructed me to the exam room, down the hallway on the second floor, last door on the left. The door was open. I walked in and the doctor waved at me to take a seat. He read my chart and we talked a little bit about the crisis. After checking and inputting my health information on his computer, he led me through a door on the right to another room where there were some instruments. He asked me to strip down to my underwear and had me lie down on the exam table. First he placed a stethoscope on my chest to listen to my heartbeat and breathing. Then he grabbed another instrument and smeared some kind of gel onto my belly before placing that instrument and moving it around my abdomen. After that, he ordered a blood test. This was the part that I feared most, not for the pain, but the blood itself. I might pass out over seeing blood. Taking the test was easy. It was only like a sting on the tip of my middle finger. Then, the doctor put a very thin straw-like stick ( the name of which I don’t know) on the tiny cut and it sucked..