Pandemic story
3/29/22 I had a much stronger title about this story, but maybe the story is strong enough and don’t need a stronger title.
Nowadays, talking about pandemic seems to be out of fashion in NYC. People mostly live a happy and normal life. Then this story happened.
The story began in January. Since I left Ames, my parents had pinged me many times and desperately wanted to go back to China. Many China-US airlines have been canceled since pandemic. Only a few major airplanes run twice a week between US and China, and often they are canceled too. The policy is something like 5 positive cases arriving in China in a plane, the next flight of the same airline will be canceled, and for 10 positive cases, the next 2 weeks of flights will be canceled. Finally, I got two tickets for them, $3500 per person, from Detroit to Shanghai. The policy is that every passenger has to arrive in Detroit (site of the direct flight) 7 days before the departure, and do a PCR test at the designated lab, and then at the 2 days before the flight, the passengers have to go to two different designated labs to do another two PCR tests (total $463 + 7 days of hotel and food + taxi to the labs). If you test negative, then you need to download and fill a complicated app to apply the “health code” that allows you to enter China. Many parents do not speak English so their sons or daughters had to take a leave from work, go to Detroit and help arrange things for a week. In my case, I had a friend who took her mom and she helped to take my parents to the labs for test so I can arrive in Detroit a bit later. Flying from NYC to Detroit is like taking an elevator from a rooftop to the basement. I felt very uncomfortable to interact with the weird and greedy persons I had met on the bus and hotels.
The drama is that at the first test, my dad detected covid positive (I did not hear that he has some strong symptoms or anything) and my mom is good. The poor old couple did not sleep that night and my mom decided to book a separate hotel room ($400+ for 6 days) so she can test negative in the 7th day’s test. She wants to continue trying her luck to go back to China. According to policy, my dad need to wait and go through a “recovery” process before he can go back to China. So I helped my mom with her application of “health code” for going back to China (super complicated and heart attack for the old people) and then pick up my depressed Dad to NYC.
What is the recovery process? You need to stay at the direct flight city, wait until you recovered from covid, do a PCR ($175) test at a designated lab, then you do a chest X ray ($225) after 24 hours of the first PCR, and you do another PCR ($175) test after X ray. All the results need to be submitted to the general consulate of China X location within 3 days since the first test. If they approved, you then wait for another 14 days’ (my dad is 18 days assigned by the consulate) quarantine. Then you go through the 7 day process of 3 PCR tests at labs again. My dad thinks he cannot survival in Detroit alone that way (who can?), so he abandoned his Detroit ticket ($3500) and came to NYC. Now he is staying in my apartment for his “recovery” process. I am taking him out every day to do PCR tests or X rays. The labs are in flushing one hour one way. Currently, the tickets fly from anywhere in US to China is close to $10k. From NYC to PVG, it is China eastern airline, and you need to “apply” for it. I have paid $5000 so that I can apply for it and wait for its approval. The tickets are very limited.
What about my mom? She said when she arrived in PVG, the airport is empty, and all the staff wears biological hazards suites. Currently every passenger is quarantined at hotel in Shanghai for 14 days and has to pay 260 RMB a night hotel fee + 100 RMB food + 40 RMB covid test fee per day (why do they need to do covid test everyday when they are all locked down in hotel?). Then after they return to their local city, they need to stay another 7 days of hotels.
My parents worked very hard to earn their retirement money. Now it is like a tap water opening to pay what?! The most difficult things for me is to cheer up my dad who are very afraid and depressed, and hopefully make a good decision for him.
The stupidity, the fear and the evilness apparently are a part of human being nature. I have been always wanting to escape from them but it is hard.
(BTW, I can be stupid too. In the following video, I was skating at the Rockefeller rink, and decided to film the audience above (with an evil smile), and then I fell hard (see the end of the video). They must be laughing hard 😀 https://drive.google.com/file/d/1GrxVm-arFJ66A7LX97mAd9CZt-BYu9_b/view?usp=sharing)
29. March 2022 by admin
Categories: hilarious & cozy stories | Leave a comment