My aspirationally weekly, realistically more like monthly email of books and enthusiasms will keep your #tbr full and make sure you know what's next.
We did, indeed, get out of quarantine today. Fancy certificates, flowers and everything. TIme has nearly healed the wounds already (that and a couple of really, really good meals). Looking these over, it’s clear that once we were out of the hospital and that first awful couple of rooms, China did well by us. Considering. And the people we talked to in Q seemed to feel that the government was “doing the responsible thing” and that cooperating was a civic […]
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I’m not entirely sure, but I can get us as far as Rory. We leave. We eat breakfast. We swim, we shower, we try to be a little mellow. At 2 there will be a cake for Sam’s birthday (Monday, really) and at 3 there will be kite-flying at the Temple of Heaven Park for same. I think there will be acrobats that night–we’re making up for lost time. Sunday: Great Wall. Airplane. Monday: Rory. There remains plenty that could […]
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If asked, I can state with confidence that the maximum number of days one family should spend pretty much cooped up a room together is…6. Not seven. Seven seems to be just that much too much. But we are getting there. They just took our temperature for the last time. We just had our temperatures taken for the last time. We ate our last lunch. We filled out a form that even had a box for “comments about our stay”. […]
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Fwd: beijing ditan hospital.jpg Originally uploaded by kjda Pic of the quarantine hospital. (Beijing Di Tan) On the way out I noticed that they had 2 people in some of the little 8×10 cells.
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Fwd: Nurse in hazmat suit Originally uploaded by kjda All staff on the ward are dressed this way. (at the hospital)
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Fwd: padlocked door.jpg Originally uploaded by kjda If you can zoom in on this picture, you can see that they have the door of the hospital chained and padlocked.
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Wyatt finally gets a hot dog Originally uploaded by kjda For breakfast, of course. He ate 4. We think this is our last breakfast here… We are taking lots of pictures. We will put them up tomorrow, I hope. Rob has the camera charger. KJ Dell’Antonia sent from my iPhone
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Finally, way later than we expected this afternoon, Rob got his results back from yesterday. H1n1 no longer courses weakly through his veins. One more negative–as in, the results from today’s test–and he can, as he so elegantly put it (with all due respect, I’m sure) “blow this kung pao stand.”
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We woke up frustrated today. as a group. Last night was hot, hot, hot–it’s cooled off every other night, but not last night. There was tossing, there was turning, and two of the three of us in my room fell out of bed at least once. We woke up itchy and ready to crawl out of our skins, and with no appetite for another huge Guo-men breakfast. The troops were rebelling. And, of course, there was nothing my mom and […]
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Just fyi, Google’s off completely here tonight. So no gmail. I don’t know why. Dad, in particular, I was about to email you…if it’s still a problem tomorrow I’ll find a way around it. Yahoo’s fine.
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I was hoping we might all learn a little gratitude for much we have and a little understanding of how little we need from this, but my five-year-old is having a tantrum because there is no ice for her coffee.
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I’ve realized that it’s not really all that clear to everyone exactly how we got here, so I’ll try to explain. The people seated behind Rob and the boys on the plane did NOT have a fever when we got off the flight. But once they felt sick, they called the authorities (and we don’t know how sick they are, so we will forgive them for that), and two of them tested positive for H1n1. So they came for us, […]
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Our Breakfast Looks Better than Rob’s Originally uploaded by kjda This morning features a group of about 10 people exercising together. E, R, San, Se they count. I don’t think they would like it if we joined them. One Chinese American joined in, but briefly. These are the famed morning exercises, done at schools, factories, businesses, and they all know the routine, but they applaud their leader anyway. It’s hot today, hot hot hot. When one of the kids runs […]
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Fwd: GuoMen Quarantine Hotel as seen from Beijing DiTan Quarantine Hospital Originally uploaded by kjda
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Fwd: My cell Originally uploaded by kjda
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Fwd: Lunch at hospital Originally uploaded by kjda
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Today, we got an upgrade. No more tiny room. No more holey sheets. No more stained wallpaper. I could go on, but I won’t. We’re movin’ on up, and now we have a sitting room, a fridge, a balcony and all the amenities. We also have a date of release: Saturday, at 5:30 am. Why 5:30? Not gonna ask. Just gonna be there. So we’re bouncing along. At dinner, they had eggplant with pork–my favorite Chinese dish. And as we […]
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Good Morning Snaily Originally uploaded by kjda It is very cool here in the morning. The fountain isn’t on, which the fish seem to prefer. They are swimming around. You can see the dead ones floating around in the water clearly. There are two. There is a couple playing badmitten. They seem to be having fun. I like to imagine them reconnecting, now that they have to spend a week together in quarantine. Maybe the last time they played badmitten […]
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It’s a very scenic hotel Originally uploaded by kjda If you like signs in Chinese, and dejected looking people in masks. I asked my friend Julia to put up an update, but I can’t see the site now–I should have a connector cord later today. I just belatedly realized I could blog this way. As I said, we are all fine. Feeling a little too lively. Fortunately, the hotel has all the amenities…ping pong, badmitten, holes in the walls, 3 […]
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Where are we now? Originally uploaded by kjda The guo men hotel. If we walk to the end of the fence and stand by the guard shack, we can see Rob’s hospital, where he is in a 10×10 pen with a metal cot and a specific daily water allotment (for showering, not drinking, it isn’t that bad). It’s a dump. More later. KJ Dell’Antonia sent from my iPhone
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The Chinese Hospital Diet Plan Originally uploaded by kjda I have a feeling it’s going to be very effective. We are all here and, except for Rob, still together. Until someone else gets sick. At this point nothing would surprise me. I have the feeling that anything could happen. And I can’t even guess what will. KJ Dell’Antonia sent from my iPhone
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It’s 6:00 on what’s the Chinese friday–they don’t take Saturday off. They do have Sunday off. There’s been no word on our swabs. We hope they’ve decided not to tell us they were negative, because they think we’re going to start fussing about leaving, and we were very difficult about the hotel thing. They don’t, we suspect, want to come to back to us–although I’ve no doubt that if one of us is positive, we’re going down. But I think […]
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Duplicates, I know–I had some trouble uploading. Ok, if all those swabs come back negative, I’ll be the best quarantine mother ever. I will make paper dolls, I will build card houses, I will teach sam to play chess. I will be 100% present, I swear. We will know in an hour. If anyone is positive, it’s more quarantine for everyone, and the hospital for the positive person. The embassy has said they will intervene to make sure an adult […]
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It’s a lovely day here for staying in and not going to the Great Wall. Really, we’re all feeling quite festive about it. After that first phone call yesterday, we were quietly encouraged to get the kids down to the pool while Rob met with officials. When they called us back up, they swabbed our throats (just about the only thing that could have made Wyatt less thrilled in general about the Chinese people as a whole was one of […]
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It all started with a phone call. Just a little phone call. A situation had arisen that the authorities needed to discuss with us. It ends with us as the Hyatt’s most loyal customers ever. To make a long story short, mostly because tomorrow I’ll have acres of time to tell you more than you want to know about it, we’re quarantined in China. The people seated behind us on the plane have the flu. As in, really have it, […]
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Here’s a phrase you may want to learn if you’re going to bring a lot of small, blonde children to China: Ta-men pu yao. That’s “They don’t want it.” Ta pu yao is “He doesn’t want it.” The smog today was palpable, settling down in the Forbidden City to the point where you felt like you needed to clean your glasses, even though you weren’t wearing any. It was muggy, cloudy and oppressive. While we walked to the Forbidden City […]
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We’re here, at the Grand Hyatt in Beijing. The pool, I’m told, looks “just like Ariel’s castle” and was a huge hit. We only managed a few hours of sleep on the plane, and tried to do a little too much when we got here (even though it wasn’t much at all). We thought a swim would tire them out, and it did–so much so that they all fell asleep at dinner, which we tried to do right around the […]
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9 hours into the flight, and Wyatt has slept a little. We tried out the CARES/Kids Fly Safe seat belts. They are vastly easier to transport than a carseat but somewhat less comfy. Bug successes while the kids were awake, but when it came time to curl up in the seat and sleep, the chest strap gets in the way—being little, they don’t really have to stay upright. Overall, I’d call it a good purchase, though. Good for turbulance (we […]
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Fun times online Originally uploaded by kjda We are trying to guess whose luggage will be so overweight that they will have to repack. One set of girls just had to go buy a new bag. KJ Dell’Antonia sent from my iPhone
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We are ready. Ready, as in, weighed suitcases sitting in the hallway. My mom asleep already. Me, popping one last movie onto my iPhone and gathering a few last cords and ends. Three excited kids asleep in their room (miraculously, no reappearances!) knowing that the next time they sleep in there, there will be four. (Gulp.) I do plan to blog while we travel–there should be plenty of pictures and lots to tell. We’ll be in Beijing until Sunday 6/21. […]
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RIght now Rory, Lily, Wyatt and Sam are jumping off the Great Wall on their way to tennis lessons. Or something. It’s a little unclear… No, Rory didn’t make a surprise appearance. She’s represented by a cardboard paper doll wearing magnetic clothing and played by Lily’s friend Kate. We’ve gone through a lot of ramifications with China travel lately. Wyatt took a bad fall off a swing and came up sobbing “I don’t want to go to China, I want […]
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Post coming Originally uploaded by kjda KJ Dell’Antonia I am mourning spring today. It’s June 5, so technically, I’m a little early, but this is the last Friday of the regular school year and after today, in effect, everything changes. Little changes, building up to the big one. Last week, when we were in Seattle, I acquired a reuseable Starbuck’s iced coffee cup. I’ve been looking for one. I’m an iced addict—coffee, latte, mocha—and obviously there are lots of cups […]
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First Farmer’s Market on the Green Originally uploaded by kjda KJ Dell’Antonia sent from my iPhone
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We leave 6/16. We come back a family of 6 7/2. I’m not panicking. Really.
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I’m up early and emailing, and a BIG black bear just loped by our dining room window. He was about 20 feet from the house. The dogs went nuts (good dogs!) and he headed for the woods. Guess it’s time for the annual bear safety lecture!
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This afternoon and evening I: Cleaned, badly and frantically, 49 drops plus one pile of dog poop in the ten minute interval between when I discovered the poop, and when I had to leave the house with the kids in order to deliver Sam and Lily to their ballet recital rehearsal. (Expect pics tomorrow!) Just fyi, in case you were thinking of getting a dog (and ours are house trained, this is unusual, but still) each and every drop had […]
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This time you really can comment! (I think…)
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We just got our travel approval from China–and I just became the kids’ media reviewer for Double X (part of Slate). A double good news whammy. FAQS: When do you travel? We won’t know until Monday, because of the Dragon Boat festival. I would be more resentful, but I happen to love dragon boats! I’d guess we’ll be gone the second half of June. What’s this job thing? I’ll be doing all the kids’ media reviews for doubleX. It’s a […]
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Misty’s Big Idea Originally uploaded by kjda Crappola of a day here in pretty much every way. Misty actually suggested Chardonnay, but that would have involved a trip to the fridge in the basement, and I barely had enough energy to crack this puppy open. KJ Dell’Antonia sent from my iPhone
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My Bag of Rocks Originally uploaded by kjda I was going to post this a while ago–it’s the physical representation of my personal frustrations. As in, geez, this bag is heavy, what have you got in there, rocks? Why, yes.
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Things I saw poop today Originally uploaded by kjda This is a greater yellowlegs, and is actually the least interesting of the things I saw poop today, which also included a sea anemone and a giant octopus. Jealous, aren’t you?
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Best. Shoes. Ever. Originally uploaded by kjda Dear Donald Pliner Thank you so much for the lovely comfy shoes. I walked. I danced. I did the horah carrying Wyatt. I picked up Lily and danced some more. And not one time all evening did my feet hurt at all. You rock, Donald Pliner. KJ Dell’Antonia sent from my iPhone
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Pre ring bearing Originally uploaded by kjda KJ Dell’Antonia sent from my iPhone
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Bride, Groom and Wee attendants Originally uploaded by kjda Lily is sick and one not top happy flower girl. Sam at least is enjoying himself! KJ Dell’Antonia sent from my iPhone
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How to keep flower girls and ring bears happy Originally uploaded by kjda Last wedding, we were not prepared. In the interval between photos and the ceremony, we dismantled an entire room in a synagogue. After the ceremony and before the food was served, we ate the centerpieces, and the whole thing nearly turned into the Donner Party. This time we were prepared! KJ Dell’Antonia sent from my iPhone
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Here is a list of the things I CAN do today: Keep drafting my next freelance pitch. Pack the kids’ carry-on bags for our flight to Seattle (6 hours!) Pack clothes for the Seattle trip. Buy suitcases for ditto, plus China trip. (We have three suitcases, two of the small black rolly kind (one with a hole in it) and one of the giant purple nearly impossible to keep under weight kind. I plan to acquire a pair of medium […]
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Actually, I’ve got two. And yes, I find it hard to use the word “hoe” with a straight face…. Today at the garden store, purchasing what I think has turned out to be far too much compost, I also invested in a pair of hoes–a little one, for any of my small garden assistants, and one for me. We have three biggish beds that are pretty solid weeds at the moment, and are destined for pumpkins, squash and corn, and […]
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Wyatt’s Big Day Originally uploaded by kjda I had a fabulous day with Wy. There was some suggestion, yesterday, that perhaps China hasn’t had a blanket flu-freakout, and that travel dates, for everyone who’s waiting on them, may come soon–and although I’m still hoping we’ll be heading out in June, I can be ok with SOME delay–just not infinite, or even indefinite, delay. It turns out that the combination of a little positive news and a beautiful day returned me […]
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