QINGDAO, China —Emily Tanner is an American-born English teacher currently living in Qingdao, a city about 11 hours from the epicenter of the coronavirus outbreak in Wuhan China.
- While Americans are getting accustomed to a quarantined world, people in China have lived it for months
- A Florida native and teacher is living there and making the best of her situation
- She had been in isolation for six weeks and finally sees a light at the end of the tunnel
The city of 9 million first experienced a lockdown at the end of January, just as Tanner was returning from a trip home to Florida during the Chinese New Year.
“When I was traveling was probably the worst time for the Coronavirus in general. I actually flew from Tampa to Texas to Seoul, when Seoul just started seeing all their cases,” said Tanner.
Then came the lockdown —the new normal for so many of us across the globe.
Tanner shared various images, each painting a picture of her experience in isolation.
Her 1st grade English class at an international school was shifted to video lessons on group chat.
At its worst, people could go to the mall only to get groceries, wearing a mask to cover their faces.
Most restaurants closed, and she and her boyfriend improvised when it came to preparing meals.
And in that rare occasion they ordered takeout, the food delivered included workers' names and temperatures written on the bag.
Tanner says the isolation experience was surreal.
“We spent the first two weeks just like catching up and like cooking a lot and watching movies and like, it was really interesting, it was really exciting, and then it like plateaued a bit, and it was like the same thing every day,” said Tanner.
And during that time, her thoughts were also with family back in Florida as the cases of coronavirus continue to mount.
“A lot of people had a lot of strong feelings about me returning back in China. And now, people in America are like, wow, I'm so glad that you went back. Because the U.S., some people would argue, is a little bit more dangerous now. My mother and father are both over the age of 65 and they take care of my 89-year-old grandparents, from home. So it hits very close to home for me,” said Tanner.
While cases of coronavirus keep rising in Florida and across the U.S., Qingdao has reached a turning point, and the number of confirmed cases in China has dropped dramatically. And Tanner feels a return to normalcy is finally within sight.
“People are really confident in the way the government has been handling things. Um, people feel safe. And I think if other countries can do it, why not the U.S.,” Tanner said.
Tanner says the experience has taught her to be grateful.
“When things are not going as expected, we can only try our best, and be grateful for everything that we have, all the opportunities we have. I know I've had a very good experience, but I know that there's a lot of people that have not,” said Tanner.