Quarantine so far--Laura's post

Dramatic, no?  It was a tough trip in, especially that last bit, and it really threw me for a loop.  Ultimately, the Ramada is fine.  All the hotels have small rooms, with very limited amenities.  The view is interesting, the room has good climate control, the bed is comfortable enough, and I got normal towels.  My bag was delivered the next day, and I have all my stuff.  Ian got his negative COVID test, and he ended up at one of the nicer hotels, Marina Bay.  Other than a more picturesque view and some actual art on the walls, our rooms are substantially similar. 

Services are a bit different.  At the Marina Bay, guests are temperature-checked once a day by the staff.  At the Ramada, they make a loudspeaker announcement at 9:45 am every day telling us to log our temperatures and symptoms in the app.  At the Marina Bay, Ian can’t get anyone at the desk to pick up the phone when he calls.  At the Ramada, I’ve had pleasant well-spoken attendants happy to talk with me about whatever I needed.  One time I didn’t get an answer and they immediately called the room back to see what they could do for me.   

Food is definitely different.  The Marina Bay serves what appears to be a very Korean-style menu, with a lot of variety.  At the Ramada, I get a much more stable menu, heavy on salad, pickles, and a few pieces of fruit with each meal.  It’s very predictable.  Unfortunately, the proteins haven’t worked out well for me.  They’ve had too much fat and gristle, and when you stack that with delivery at just about room temperature (or as I’ve come to know it, congealing temperature), it’s very unappealing.  I’ve just switched to my other option, the vegetarian meals, and we’ll see if that works out better for me. 

The internet in the hotel is pretty great, and I’ve been able to do lots of video chats, and even play my D&D game with my friends who gamely moved the whole thing to a time I could attend.  I’ve read two books so far, though most of my days fill up pretty quickly with work, as we prepare for when I get on site in a few weeks.  It sounds like the hotel plans to book taxis for us at the end of our stay, so Ian and I probably don’t need to worry about how we’re getting to Cheonan, we can just take our hotel taxis and meet there. 

I’ve got another week left here, and I think by then I may have just finished shaking off my jet lag!