51: DAY 2 CHINA QUARANTINE - Answers to Your Questions

It's time. One day down, we start number two. And gentlemen, it's day two of quarantine. Yay! Says Flat Stanley. That's a whole nother story unto itself and let's go ask some opinions of other people. Mr. Camel, how are you doing here on the second day of quarantine? Another question. Too controversial. So after two days of quarantine, yes. Two days down. That means we are one seventh of the way through. Yes. Is that right? It is. We have 12 more days to go. You all have been amazing asking great questions. Yes, we wanted to take the time to answer your questions and we have eight of them that we will answer, well, or we might break it up. So we have eight total questions so far. And we love your questions because these are oftentimes things that we've thought up ourselves and some things we haven't thought up ourselves, which is very intriguing. You all being a bunch of smart people out there and we are in some instances digging for answers to questions, great questions that you have that we don't even know and we're faking like we know the answers. Okay, moving on. So first question a lot of you have asked is why are we in quarantine and are we sick? So we are not sick and we have not had any temperature. It depends on what your definition of sick is, right? Correct. Some of us are sick all the time. That's just a perpetual state, but we are not sick. We are in quarantine because unfortunately before we returned to China, there was a massive outbreak or massive outbreak in Japan and in South Korea. And we have a large population of South Koreans that live in Qingdao. And what happened was when the outbreak occurred in Seoul and in the south of Korea, there was a large influx of South Koreans who returned to Qingdao. It created panic because in Qingdao there was control over or they had maintained control over the virus spread here. It was very minimal. So when the South Koreans returned to Qingdao, they were afraid that there would be a re-emergence of the virus. Yeah and let's don't forget that cruise ship in Japan too. That was pretty messy. And Japan's worried because they have the Olympics there this summer. So they're taking pretty extreme measures to try and minimize the impact of the virus there. Closing their schools immediately was one of the things that they did to minimize the virus. So in Qingdao they implemented a couple of weeks ago that anyone returning from outside the country or outside the province would have to undergo a two-week quarantine. And that quarantine would take place under normal circumstances in your apartment. But under unusual circumstances like returning from Seoul or coming from Japan, you could be placed in a Chinese facility to serve your time in quarantine. Yeah there's probably a high likelihood that you may have it. Therefore they have to make sure that you don't just like sneak out. They want to have more controls. Exactly because the risk is a lot higher. So what we were told was if they found someone on the airplane that had a temperature, the three rows in front of that person and the three rows behind that person were all quarantined in a special location. The rest of the plane was allowed to go home. Yeah so the thing to learn from this is if you're in an airplane and somebody sneezing like a storm or looks bad, you need to ask the stewardess if you can sit somewhere else. Well it might be too late at that point. We had to document in our medical form when we got off the when we left the plane where we were sitting on the aircraft. So the seat number and the the seat letters. Proximity is important. Yeah so that is why we're in quarantine but we are healthy and fine. So what are the rules of quarantine was another question everyone asked and there are a few and they're very simple. The first one is that we are not allowed to leave our apartment for 14 days. And may I add you can leave but nobody can see you leave. Okay like I said we are not allowed to leave the apartment for 14 days and we have not left the apartment for two days. Just want to make sure that's on film. You keep telling them that sweetie. The other thing that we have to do is twice a day at 8 39 o'clock in the morning and at four or five in the afternoon we have to take our temperature and we have to report that temperature to three groups. We have to report it to our school. Our school has a WeChat group which is a messaging group that's a Chinese app and that group is all of the teachers that are currently in quarantine and our HR representatives that are looking over us. The second group is our community needs to know what our temperatures are and then the third group is because my lovely husband's temperature was raised because of wearing plastic bags for an hour. Hopefully you saw the episode before this one how to build your own hazmat suit and very good skill to have. Raise your temperature when they're coming to take your temperature. Whoops. So because Brown tested above 37 for degrees Celsius for two of his tests we now have an assigned civil servant from our little area called Laoshan. A little special. We didn't even have to pay extra for them did we? No but she calls me every day not you and I have a conversation with her. It's a lonely one. It makes sense. Yes so she called us the first day after Brown had the two high temperature tests and she wanted to move Brown to a hospital and so we said no. We declined that offer. We weren't sure if it was an offer or not but we took it as an offer and we said no we will stay here. Thank you. Thank you so much for your free medical care offer but we're gonna pass. But if Brown continues to be a pain in the neck so if if my husband misbehaves over the next two weeks. You're gonna turn me in? I will start to present temperatures that are a lot higher. The first day we had to take a photo of the thermometer to show evidence. Now we don't have to take a photo so the question people are asking is can't you lie? Yes of course you can lie. Yes you can mislead but to what end? If we're sick we're going to tell them and get the help that we need. If we're not sick then it doesn't really matter what our temperature is. So oh do you want to just to interrupt a little bit do you want to tell them what your good idea was to avoid quarantine in your apartment? So you may think I'm the sick one. We were brainstorming ways to get out of quarantine and get a little fresh air and so one of the ideas I had was to light a fire or create your apartment on fire. Well something on fire and create a lot of smoke so that we were evacuated. That would get us fresh air. Just so you'll all know what you're dealing with now. The arsonist. Some of you already know but some of you don't know. I'm sure it's a crime in China. And we're just kidding. But so is sneaking out. Yeah. Okay so the third part the third thing that we have to do is we have to leave our trash outside the apartment every day at 10 a.m and at 3 p.m. Although we haven't had trash to leave out there yet um so but if we want them to take our trash they will come and pick it up at 10 a.m or 3 p.m. So those are the rules. Does that apply to trash talking? Can I stick my head out and give them some trash every day? I might have to just put my husband in a plastic bag again and put him outside the door. And tell me to go run a mile and then get my temperature checked? Yes. So one nice thing about this during the winter time is you don't have to go out in the cold weather to take out the trash. So quarantine is good right? Yeah. Feeling very lazy. Feeling very lazy. Okay so show us your technique. Oh this is kind of exercise also isn't it? Are you preparing for the upcoming China Olympics? Yes. Is this gymnastics or the weightlifting? Both actually. I can tell that they're preparing to come and pick up our trash because the overwhelming wafting smell of bleach is coming seeping through the door. I think they have washed our entire door. Let's see it. Let's check it out. Let's see. Man it smells so strong of bleach. It's crazy. Oh yeah look at that. The floor is completely soaking wet. Man it's clean. It's the back side. Oh wow look at how wet the floor is. They sprayed our entire door. Oh my gosh. Another great thing about quarantine is China's never been cleaner. And never smelled better. Never smelled better. Uh by the way this is unexpected. Quarantine you just kind of let everything go. I haven't had a haircut in I don't know three months. And so check out the bed head. The question is why did a hazmat person come? Why did hazmat yeti come to our door to take our temperature on the first day? And that is just standard protocol. The first day everyone gets visited in the morning to get their temperature taken. As long as your temperature is acceptable then they allow you to continue the self-checks throughout the rest of your quarantine. And we know that we need to be really respectful and nice to these people because you may not realize this but they put these things on for a 10-hour shift at the beginning of the day and do not take them off the entire day to go to the bathroom or anything until they're done. Because doing that would risk possibly contamination. So they get our utmost respect. Yeah and many of you mentioned and thank you for mentioning it how upbeat and kind and respectful we were of the people that work with us. We were so amazed at the kindness and compassion of the Chinese that were assigned in many cases to work with us. The the interpreter that we had at the airport actually is a professional interpreter for the area government for high officials that come and visit our neighboring city. And he was repositioned to translate at an airport for incoming passengers who speak English. And he was so incredibly kind and so friendly and warm. Everyone has been. Even though they've been repurposed they just are they've accepted it and they and they work with joy. So that's one of the greatest things about the Chinese people. Yeah in these videos when you see them all dressed up and they're working there's a there's a layer of seriousness there because there has to be. It's a serious subject. Things they have to be detailed. They have to be thorough. But the people that are doing this are great. We love the Chinese people. Yeah. Yeah. Another question that you all had was how do we know if we've left our apartment? Well first of all we are the only Westerners that live in this complex. Yes. So and we're the only ones that are over over six feet tall. Yes. So it's not as if we could disguise ourselves and sneak out as much as we would like to. And I think they probably have a way of communicating with everybody in the group. In the community. In the community. And they may even have our pictures. We don't know because here in China there are lots of there's a opacity to things if you're not Chinese. Wow. Opacity. Oh you like that? Man I think so. Right? You're impressed aren't you? Opacity? Yeah. I need to look it up. Are you making fun of me? Okay put down in the comments how Eileen should be punished for making fun of me. Okay so what were you saying? So they do I'm sure in the community they have a WeChat group where they can communicate that we are here and that we are quarantined. And I'm sure that that everyone has been told to take additional precautions until we are out of the two-week quarantine period. And they take it really serious not just because it's us and we're coming from out of the country but look at it this way. They've all had to do it. Okay so this is something that's your duty if you're living here. No one is there's no exceptions. So they're not going to let anybody off the hook because they actually had to do it themselves. Additionally there are cameras everywhere. Facial recognition is alive and well and we get videotaped every single time at every step of coming back to the house. Even in our temperature testing they were videotaping it and taking photographs. So our face has been documented over and over again at two airports and at our apartment building. So we just wouldn't take the chance of leaving the apartment. Well no because it and it's for the repercussions of us of our misbehavior per se would be them canceling our work visa, us losing their job. Yeah or worse if we get the if we have the virus and it's dormant we could really hurt some other people and we don't want to do that. So that's the biggest reason you know there are repercussions to us personally. Yeah but really we just don't mess around. No and for the betterment of all people we want to cooperate so that the virus is extinct and doesn't continue to spread. Wow the betterment of all people. Are you running for politics? Yeah me so much tech. Wow. Another question that you have which is a great question is how do we get groceries and we also get water delivery too. So we don't drink the water here in China. So everything is that we drink is out of a bottle. We get the big massive jugs delivered to us. So how does that happen during quarantine? Well the process is actually quite simple. Yeah. First of all we have two stores that we work with that the owners are able to communicate in English and they're fantastic. One is called one is the woman is called Lotus the other one is called Sunny and Lotus and Sunny have really high quality products which is wonderful and we can get anything from them that we need. The process is basically we get on WeChat which is this app this communication app and we send a message and I'll say Lotus do you have strawberries or what fruit do you have what greens do you have or this is what I would like. I'd like onions red bell peppers etc. I put a list together and I'll send it to her then she'll respond and say I have this I don't have this. After we decide on how much the bill is then what we do is in WeChat there's a function a transfer funds function and we can send the money directly to them and immediately they accept it and at that point then the delivery occurs. With Lotus we get deliveries from her in the evening at five o'clock at night usually around that time. From Sunny we can get deliveries any time of day which is fantastic if we want something. At this point because we're on in quarantine and cannot leave the house the deliveries normally are dropped off at our front door but because of the special situation deliveries now are sent to the front guard and the guard gate and the guard or someone at the guard house will carry up the groceries or bottle of water to our front which is really nice of them and above and beyond from their normal. Don't they spray them with bleach or disinfect it or not? Yes when I pick up all the groceries that come in outside they're soaking wet and the floor is soaking wet I think the person who delivers them because he knocks and then runs the person delivers who delivers them carries a spray bottle and sprays them down with bleach before they hand them to us so or hand them put them outside the door and then they run so it's a little bit like bring and run but at least they leave the product there. Ding dong dash. Ding dong dash but it's a good ding dong dash. Another question that you have for us is do we know anyone with the virus? No we don't know anyone not in our community and not even the extensive friendships that we've made across China we don't know anyone who has the virus or has had the virus and another question you have is when is it projected that the virus will be under control? From what we're hearing what we heard at the airport from what we are hearing from the civil servant from Laoshan district we're going by the estimate that has been made by a famous virologist called Dr. Zhang and he has estimated that the current restrictions that are in place the quarantines the careful the social the carefulness about what you do the social separation. This information is going viral hasn't it? The social separation all of that will have to continue until the end of April that's their best projection whether that's the case and that happens we don't know but it seems legitimate because schools can't really start if anyone coming into the district has to be quarantined. Our school started today with the admin staff returning and that's going to happen now until the teachers are called back but we can't we don't anticipate students returning for a long time most of our students many of our students live outside of our province and and outside of our city and if they now have this massive influx of students into the province I think there would be huge concerns especially with quarantine and living in dormitories and things like that so we don't anticipate this ending anytime soon although we're really pleased that in this district it seems like the virus that we have not had new cases of the virus they've said in two weeks so that's good news for us. Those are all the questions you've asked so far maybe some of the things we've talked about now have created new questions that you have for us we would be happy to answer anything for you and welcome any questions or ideas you might have for us and in addition thank you sweetie in addition we are going to be doing a short video for each day in quarantine so of course we have a few of them planned out but we need your help if you could please give us some comments as the things that you would like to see us do we can roll around do funny tricks we can also any theme for the day that you would like to see we're all ears let's have some fun with this we are working monday to friday normal hours so it has to be outside of the work hours but we're happy to comply if we can and the weekends are free game which makes me say we've never been busier have we been in quarantine it's been a really busy quarantine we've had so much stuff to do we're thankful that we're quarantined oh i'm supposed to say that no maybe they give us another week i'm not you know my friend meddy shout out to meddy she did say it would be a dream to be quarantined with my husband for two weeks and that is very true and it's very sweet and she's right to have the time together being in the same place for two weeks is a gift especially um in cases where you don't work with your spouse and you don't get to see them very often and or they travel uh having the time for for us to be together is is a real gift so um thanks to meddy for giving us new perspective yeah so for our friends many of our friends are going through quarantine alone either their spouse is not with them or they're single and i couldn't imagine uh how difficult it would be to go through quarantine by myself although some some some moments i'm i wish i was by myself just kidding uh as you know uh life with brown is a lot of fun so it would not be any fun if he was not here good answer anything else uh that's it y'all we really appreciate you thank you for helping us for our subscriptions we're at 290 which is wonderful right at the moment we were trying to get above 500 yes so please help us pass our videos around yes please do make sure you subscribe and also hit the like button and ring the bell because if you ring the bell and then you get notifications when our new videos come out you don't have to depend upon social media to see that a video has posted so ring that bell don't sing the song that's all folks that's it and that wraps up day number two in quarantine a perfect way to end our day is with you yeah so we will see you tomorrow we appreciate you guys and trust me we're not going anywhere