So I packed up the last 10 years of my life in Beijing into about 20 moving boxes, shipped them to Kaifeng in Henan Province, a place I had never even visited before, and got my toddler ready for the big move.
When we first arrived, it didn’t seem so bad. People were friendly, the local food scene was epic, and the hotel was every bit as luxurious as I had imagined it to be. “Not too shabby” I thought to myself.
But this was the latter half of 2022 and Covid had other plans. It was not unlike the feeling of walking through Costco and trying a really tasty sample only to find out that it’s out of stock.
Just weeks after moving here, when I felt like I had a grasp on things and a taste of how fun like in a different city could be, the whole place went under lockdown.
For about two weeks we were not allowed to leave our hotel room. Our daily activities turned into waking up late, eating, moving to the couch area, eating, moving back to the couch area, eating, back to the couch area, and going to sleep. It was during those two weeks that I discovered that my ideal lifestyle is what people call “quarantine.” There’s no denying it now, I’m a couch potato.
I know everyone living in China during the end of 2022 has their own Covid horror stories to share, but I’m unabashed to say that I sort of enjoyed having a very valid reason to be lazy. It was great having a reason to stay home and catch up on Netflix and do arts & crafts with my kid.
After two weeks we were told that we could finally leave our room and go outside as long as we stayed on the hotel property. Was it better or worse? All the facilities were closed and the once bustling hotel that was filled with guests from all over the country was now down to the skeleton crew (just enough people working to keep the place running) and two other guests who were stranded in the hotel.
Hmm, being stuck in an essentially empty hotel with your family for whoknows-how-long. That sounds vaguely familiar… Oh that’s right, The Shining! What could possibly go wrong.
Since you could literally count the number of guests on one hand, we were all housed in the same wing and the rest of the hotel was pitch black. No heating, no lights, not a peep… It felt utterly eerie to say the least. Excellent! I’m an eternal optimist with a dark, twisted sense of humor. Time to make creepy home videos and lurk around corners scaring the very few staff still working and hope that they find it funny too.
And just like that my lazy couch potato days were over.
Then came the final weeks of 2022 and as we rolled into 2023, it feels like everyone we knew has had finally caught Covid and we’ve finally entered the postCovid era where life returns to normal. And if there’s one thing I’ve learned from living in utter uncertainty for the past three years is to live in the moment. If you get a chance to visit a new place, go! If you ever find yourself wondering whether you should pull out your camera to take picture, do it! Because you never know whether your life will be turned upside down overnight.
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