Let's Talk About Quarantine: Part 2

For lots of people all over the world, quarantine is nothing new. In fact, quarantine is essentially an outdated concept now. With vaccines increasingly available, and public sentiment in the US increasingly in support of a return to pre-pandemic times, writing about my time in quarantine seems like a desperate ploy to stay relevant.

But, I can assure you, quite the opposite is true. I have never, in my life, been accused of trying to stay relevant, and I can't imagine why that should change now. I believe it would be quite a terrible thing to be accused of something so ordinary as "being relevant."

That being said, let's talk about quarantine!

I can almost guarantee at least one thing in this post will make you smile. And, in the end, that's what it's all about anyway.

As I mentioned before, I am staying on the 4th floor of the school building where I will end up teaching once my quarantine is lifted. In a little under one week I will be moving into a more permanent apartment for the duration of my stay in Korea. As far as I understand it, the room I'm staying in now used to be an old classroom that was converted into a small living space. I don't know if any of the other foreign teachers before me used this space, but I do know they had a similar quarantine experience, regardless.

I'm terrible with eyeballing spatial measurements, but I would estimate the room is roughly 8x15ft, with a small entryway, bathroom space, and laundry room that all attach to it.

Oh, you noticed the showerhead, did you? Well, don't worry, we will definitely be circling back around to the showerhead.

But, before we get there, let me finish explaining the setup.

Along with some simple bedding, I was provided with basic kitchen and bathroom supplies, access to a washer and drying rack (clothes are almost always line dried in Korea), a few food items, and two cases of water. Definitely enough to get me through the first 48 hours, no problem. Definitely worth mentioning is the GIANT bag of Frosted Flakes that was waiting for me. I have never seen a bag of cereal this big. Look at it! It's bigger than the microwave! It took me over a week, literally, to finish it.

The day before I left for Korea, I made a somewhat last minute decision to pack some Cliff protein bars and fruit bars in my suitcase. Originally, I had thought they would mostly be used as reserve food items on the off chance it took me a day or two to figure out the food situation in quarantine. Instead, they turned into actual lifesaving items. For the first 48 hours, they were the only food I had besides cereal (turns out Frosted Flakes DOES get old), bread, and strawberry jam (the jam is straight up FIRE by the way).

On the third day after I arrived, I had a box dropped off at my door. It turns out that either the city of Daegu, or some other regulating agency, provides a box of food to people who are prohibited from getting their own food due to quarantine. I had been in contact with some of the other foreign teachers at this point, and so, while the box was expected, I had no idea what to expect from the box itself.

So, shall we have a little show and tell, then?

Quarantine priorities in order, on top of all the food was a digital thermometer ( I am now an expert on my body temperature in Celsius), two packs of disposable surgical masks, and two small garbage bags. There was also a medium sized bottle of hand sanitizer buried in there too.

After that we get to the fun stuff.

The photo to the far right is a pack of ramen - pretty similar to the ramen from back home, but the flavor is (unsurprisingly) better. I am not ashamed to admit I haven't been adventurous enough yet to try the other two. In fact, I'm not sure if I actually have enough courage to try the beef and seaweed soup at all...something about seaweed, man...

Other items were a little more recognizable.

There was enough food in the box to get me through at least a full week. I was very grateful to have all that food provided, but it was a little difficult having to make the switch to foreign food all at once. And thank goodness for Google Translate! Without that handy app, it would have been close to impossible to figure out how I was supposed to eat some of the items in the box. It was also very useful in figuring out how to use some of the appliances as well, since everything was in Korean.

The microwave still remains a bit of a mystery. Basically I just spin the second knob the number of minutes I think my food needs. I don't have the slightest clue what the rest of it does. And I haven't made anything explode...yet. So the odds are in my favor thus far.

The control panel on the left is an even bigger mystery. I was told by my director that it controlled the hot water in the bathroom, and I figured out through trial and error that it also controls floor heat to portions of the room. I managed to turn off the floor heat successfully on the first try and haven't touched it since.

So that is the setup I have been living in during my quarantine. It's honestly a pretty decent system. If it wasn't for the abject boredom that I am struck by occasionally, I wouldn't mind all the extra time to read and write.

Now.

Remember the showerhead?

Yeah. That's legitimately the shower setup. The showerhead is attached to the sink faucet and with a a few twists of a special knob, the water switches from running through the sink to running through the showerhead. The entire bathroom, from floor to ceiling, is tiled. The bathroom door has extra sealant around it, and even the toilet paper holder has a special cover on it. There is a central drain in the floor as well.

It is an odd sensation to stand directly in front of your bathroom mirror, right next to the toilet, with no curtain or tub around you, and turn on your shower. It definitely took me a few tries to figure out where I was supposed to put the shampoo. However, this is a pretty common place bathroom arrangement throughout South Korea, so I have no doubt that my new apartment will have a similar design. I can only imagine how much water this saves the average consumer. It's astonishing how much less water I use to shower here than in the US.

Only a few more days till my quarantine is done! I can't believe it's been almost two weeks already!