April

Well, as crazy as everything has been, as Shanghai opens up again, we've enjoyed getting to wait in lines using social distancing and get tickets into places like the Shanghai Wild Animal Park and our neighboring park's fully disinfected amusement park.  We wear masks everywhere we go (even if we take them off for pictures), often have to use hand sanitizer before entering places, have our temperature taken entering public spaces, and sometimes need to show our digital code saying that we have been in Shanghai long enough not be a threat of carrying Covid-19.  

While Lent was more real than ever as far as a connection to 40 days in the wilderness, Easter has been a bit of a rising here in Shanghai.  The girls enjoyed their egg and candy hunt and we're still finding the random egg.  The girls continue to enjoy watching the tadpoles grow in the complex's tiny pond.  Cards, iPads, our kite, and even helping water the complex flowers have been activities of late. Week 12 of e-learning starts this week and the girls don't have much of an end in sight.  Ben is rumored to be going back in early May, but we shall see.

 

Our friends have all tested negative for Covid-19 upon re-entry to the country and then sat their 14-day quarantines and are now allowed outside their apartments again.  We are happy to see them, go for walks together, get dinner, yoga, and just hang out.  The girls are happy to see people who aren't their parents again and even welcomed a babysitter for the change of pace.