As Taiwan keeps adding coronavirus cases every day now at a higher rate than any time before, I'm sitting at home in my suburban Taipei apartment and just can't stop thinking about all this. I try to distract myself with blogging, photography, watching Youtube videos, checking Twitter and Facebook, but this thing is everywhere. You can't escape it. And we all know it will get much much worse before it gets better.
I have a feeling Taipei will be on lock-down very soon, perhaps next week. I'm already losing my mind now when the life is still relatively normal in Taiwan. I stocked up on food and other goods already in early February, I can survive 2 weeks without going out, but I think I may just lose my mind in the process. As much as I am worried about the virus itself, I'm also very worried about how the economy will look like in the aftermath. We're looking into months, perhaps up to 2 years of a life in fear, a life of social distance, a cratered economy and high anxiety. I'm already anxious right now, and my body is not feeling well. I can't sleep well, I can't think straight. I want normality back, but this is the new normal. It's just surreal. Somebody please wake me up, we live in unreal times. This can't be happening.
Stay where you are. Our spray-tanned, draft dodging leader is tweeting that he wants to lift restrictions on movement and infect us all so his rich friends can keep their inflated salaries. You're better off in Taiwan.
ReplyDeleteYeah, I read that, even though I try to avoid news from that guy. Taiwan is still safer than a lot of other places, but this daily situation is driving me nuts. I don't know how to distract myself. I mean, I can do it for a half a day, but days are so long when you're limited. How do you cope?
DeleteWell, by nature I'm pretty reclusive, so hanging out with my dogs and my wife is perfectly fine in my book. I've texted and called people I want to stay in touch with, read blogs like yours, and mostly hung with my wife. It would probably be harder if I was by myself. I've also done my best to get out outside to parks. I just stay away from people, or say hello from 6 feet away, but getting out to parks has helped a lot. I know that's harder to do in Taipei because public transportation is so important for movement, but there are a lot of places to walk (unless the government is discouraging people from being out at all). Not sure where you are in Taipei? Xindian or by the Zoo? Beitou? I lived out in Nangang for a while and it felt pretty remote, but at least it was easy to get outside and walk around. Photography has also helped a lot. I have a feeling the next few weeks will be occupied by figuring out how to do the rest of the semester online... Bleh.
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