It’s been 13 days since I first saw news of the Novel Corona Virus filtering into WeChat groups in Shanghai.
It seems like months ago I read the article by That’s Shanghai Magazine titled, ’17 New Corona Virus Cases reported in China’. It was Saturday, 19th January, 2020, 13 days ago.
In the days that followed I woke each morning to read updated numbers of confirmed cases of Corona Virus (2019nCoV), suspected cases and deaths. Each day saw a barrage of information, videos and photos coming through WeChat, Facebook, Instagram and news outlets from around the world.
By Tuesday, January 22nd lists of ‘Fever Hospitals’ were being posted in all the WeChat groups. We were advised these were the only hospitals you could go to if you have a fever, Corona Virus related or not. Then the unprecedented lockdown of the city of Wuhan was announced. An entire city of 11 million people was to be quarantined and the building of two dedicated Corona Virus hospitals was underway. It was on this day panicked chatter escalated across all of the WeChat groups.
The best thing about holidays is not having a schedule, sleeping in, doing what you want when you want, going out and catching up with friends, but news of the virus broke the first week of Chinese New Year school holidays for us. My daughter, Liv, was already sick with Influenza B so we stayed at home that week. Being stuck at home made it hard to do anything but sit around and watch, read and listen to all the news.
During that first week I consumed every last detail I could find about the virus. I didn’t want to miss any vital information. I read news articles, watched all the international TV News, scoured YouTube, Instagram and Facebook and read all the chatter and updates in the WeChat groups. I even began translating all the news and updates coming through in Mandarin.
Photos and video’s splashed across TV news and social media, endless chatter in WeChat groups and my desperate need for information also meant I was hearing and reading all the speculation and misinformation.
All the time worrying about Steve leaving the house each day to go to work at the hotel, wondering if he’ll be exposed to the virus, deciphering the mountains of information, learning how to best protect ourselves from a virus no one fully understands and deciding whether to stay in Shanghai or to leave. This combined with the advice that we should stay inside and limit our interaction with others, whilst trying to continue functioning day to day is mentally exhausting and finally took its toll.
Five days ago it all became too much and I broke down in a blubbering mess. I stayed in bed all morning, finally getting up at midday only to descend into tears whilst trying to do the most basic things like having a shower, getting dressed and washing the dishes. It was inevitable really. No one can sustain the level of mental stress and anxiety we have found ourselves in here.
I gave myself that day to wallow, it was only fair. When I finally pulled myself together I decided I needed to limit my TV and social media time each day for my own mental health. I am going to be no use to anyone if I am a wreck.
We have decided to stay in Shanghai as Steve has to work and I can’t bring myself to leave him behind.
We’ve left the apartment a few times in the last two weeks to buy groceries, to grab a quick coffee or just to go for a walk outside to stretch our legs and soak up some sun, each time ensuring we were protected with masks, wipes and hand sanitizers but I then spend the rest of the night worrying if we’ve contracted the virus somehow.
I’ve been keeping myself busy at home. Rearranging cupboards, making gluten free bread. My friend left Shanghai and gave me a whole lot of perishable items including a mountain of sweet potatoes. I researched how to store them and found they can be frozen, so spent the night prepping and bagging them for the freezer. I also made about two litres of apple sauce and froze it.
One day I itemized all the food in our fridge and cupboards and decided we didn’t have enough if there was a food shortage! I ate a block of dark chocolate and gave myself a pimple; made a mental note to buy a different brand of dark chocolate!
Liv’s been amazing – keeping herself occupied a lot of the time. We’ve watched movies, the entire season of Cheer on Netflix and the Great British Bake-off. She made crystals, artwork and played with barbie-dolls, play-doh and slime. We’ve played board games and read books.
It’s the last day of school holidays today. The kids are supposed to be going back to school tomorrow, but with the shutdown of schools and businesses across Shanghai and China, the school has sent us a home-learning schedule for Liv to follow for the next two weeks.
If the best thing about going on holidays is having no schedule, the best thing about starting back at work and school after a holiday is getting back into a routine.
Normalcy is what we crave right now. It’s what we need. So starting tomorrow we will get back to a routine. I don’t plan to get up at 5.30am on the weekdays like we usually do, but setting our alarm to get up, following a schedule of what needs to be done each day and getting through Liv’s schoolwork will help to create some normalcy.
Over the last few weeks I’ve been getting up each day (with the exception of that one bad day!), showering, getting dressed and putting my make-up on. Putting make-up on may seem a strange thing to do when you’re not planning to leave the house, but it’s what I would normally do on a usual day…..so I’ve kept doing it, and it makes me feel better.
Liv and I have started making fresh squeezed orange juice every day, it gives us something to do, a routine. And it can’t hurt to boost our Vitamin C levels.
I was supposed to start studying my next Uni subject tomorrow, rather ironically ‘The History of Healing’, but I’ve had to postpone study as I’m not sure how much time I’ll get to focus on it while all this is going on and Liv is home from school.
For a few days there I felt like we were some of the last expats left in Shanghai, but thanks to the wonderful world of WeChat I’ve connected with a couple of groups of ‘Stayers’ and discovered there are hundreds of us who have decided to stick it out and support each other through this.
I’ve been toying around with this blog for a year or so now. Every so often I’d get stuck into it then get too busy with other things and forget about it. Now that I have all this spare time on my hands it’s given me something to focus on. And to be honest writing has made me feel better. So expect to see more updates, whether it be about our day to day life here in Shanghai or me catching you up on everything we’ve seen and done while living here.
Until next time.
S xx
