Items

• 20201-01-06

  A 2020 Christmas

  My winter break in the year 2020 was drastically different compared to the other years. I usually take a 15-hour flight from Los Angeles to Shenzhen, China, sleep and watch at least 2 movies on the plane, and arrive at the destination all tired and jet-lagged. My dad would welcome my family and me and promise to have a good dinner tonight when we got home. I would see all the skyscrapers in the city on the way, sometimes being too tall to see the top just from the car window. I would admire all the lush green hills, for LA, had brown hills with dried out bushes and dead trees. When we arrived and rang the doorbell, my grandparents would open the door and say how much they missed us. This year was different though. Instead of packing clothes and gifts for my relatives overseas, I stayed at home, playing card games with my family. Instead of getting together with grandparents, uncles and aunts, and cousins and having a big Christmas dinner, we made steak, mashed potatoes, and a pie while listening to Christmas music. Instead of playing my first round of golf for a new year at Mission Hills in Shenzhen with my dad and mom, I played with my mom, getting ready for a golf tournament I had in two days. I missed my overseas family and was able to see them over facetime and in photos. But this Christmas was not as bad as I thought it was going to be. My family got playing cards and different board games to play. We would laugh at each other when they had bad cards, or argue at each other when they wanted to trade property with each other in Monopoly. This Christmas was different, but I enjoyed it like always.
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  2020-03-18T03:37

  Medical Personnel Taking a Nap

  It was March 18. All my finals were either canceled or optional. Although there were about only a thousand confirmed cases in the United States, after studying the patterns of confirmed cases in China and European countries like Italy, I decided to return to China, where the virus was under control in many aspects, especially compared to the United States at that time. I booked a ticket in the afternoon and flew at midnight that day -- this was how urgent it was for me, but most people did not realize the United States was actually at a high risk. All people arriving in China from abroad were required to be quarantined for 14 days. People were distributed based on their destinations. Every destination has an assigned shuttle to pick people up and transport them to a designated quarantine hotel. It was very late and I was waiting for the shuttle. I walked around, looking for a restroom and when I walked close to a medical personnel, he immediately woke up. It was very hot but he had no choice but to wear the protective suit. I couldn't believe he needed to wear it all day long. Every time thinking of this, respect comes out of my heart for the great efforts of Chinese people to control the virus.