Hi Everyone. Welcome to Astronomer in Shanghai! I hope that all of you are safe, happy, and healthy. For those of you who are celebrating Passover, I hope that you have been able to enjoy one or two nights of Seders, done either virtually or if you’re lucky enough, in person! For any of you celebrating Easter this weekend or zobserving Ramadan, I hope that you also are having enjoyable holidays.

The Covid-19 Lockdown

I know many of you are concerned about the current covid-19 situation in Shanghai. First, I want to thank all of you who have e-mailed me, commented on my last post, or reached out to my parents. It’s very comforting to know that so many of you are thinking about me. I’ve read a lot of the articles that the New York Times has published and many of them are very reminiscent of my experiences. Additionally, I found that Jennifer Pak’s (American Public Media’s (APM) correspondent in Shanghai) piece on Tuesday’s episode of the APM podcast Marketplace was the best description that I’ve listened to so far. Here, I’ll try to explain my experiences with all of you.

Before I begin, I want to emphasize that I am doing okay. I currently have enough food and am healthy. From talking to friends, I’ve been fortunate and my experience has not been nearly as bad or difficult as others.

As I mentioned in my previous brief update, Shanghai is currently locked down as a result of a spread of the Omicron variant of Covid-19. Unsurprisingly, the situation has not changed much in the last few days. There are currently ~ 20-25,000 new cases reported each day (~80-90% asymptomatic). Shanghai has ~ 26-27 million residents, so those numbers are still low, but for a country that follows a Dynamic Zero Covid policy, those numbers are quite high. Every day, the numbers are published by the Chinese CDC and reported in Mandarin and English, so I am confident in the numbers being reported. Since my last long update was in the middle of March, I’m going to walk you through a chronology of what happened and what everything means.

As I noted in my previous entry, the concept of cases in Shanghai became real for me on March 9th, when cases were detected on SJTU’s campus. Since then everyone who was currently on campus has been stuck there, including my research supervisor, Ying. As I previously said, I’m incredibly grateful that I hadn’t arrived on campus on March 9th, when they sent the message urging everyone not to come in. I’ve been fortunate to instead spend time at home with my cats, Scottie and Charlie.

In the week following, I was asked, by SJTU, to stay at home, and not leave, except to get grocery deliveries and take PCR tests at the nearby hospital. However, things started to get worse for Shanghai during that time. On the 16th, my neighborhood (the little lane of apartment buildings that share an entrance) as well as the rest of the neighborhoods in Xuhui, the district that I live in, required everyone to take 2 PCR tests. This process continued multiple times throughout the next week. Sometimes the tests were at a local middle school around the block from my apartment, other times (as shown on the right) the tests were in our compound. Each time, we would be tested two days in a row. Thankfully every time during this period, I tested negative. We were also given the first of many at home covid-19 tests. My main frustration at this point was getting information. The neighborhood committee was informing us of testing times by shouting out instructions with a megaphone, which given my low level of comprehension in Chinese was difficult.

Because of a case in a neighboring building, my compound went into a period of community health monitoring from the 21st through the 28th. During this time, I had to go get 2 more covid-19 tests (this time back at local hospitals). Again, my results were negative. On March 26th, Shanghai announced a phased lockdown for the two halves of the city (Pudong and Puxi). Pudong, the opposite side of the river to where I live, would go into lockdown from March 27th until April 1st, followed by Puxi, the side of the river I live on, which would be locked down from April 1st to the 5th. It was at this time that people started to panic about having enough food, myself included. Many of the import stores (small grocery stores that carry many imported non-perishable foods) were starting to sell out of food or have long delivery times. Grocery stores were running our of vegetables and meat (not that this matters for me, but it did for my neighbors). Thankfully, as you can see, I was able to get a lot of food ahead of time. I stocked up on canned beans (a lot of chickpeas), pasta, and tempeh, dried fruit, cereal, oats and more. I bought fruit and vegetables to last me through the week, assuming that this would end close to April 5th.

While stocking up on food or shopping for a week is a common practice in the US, the same is not true for Chinese locals. Many homes have much smaller refrigerators because people, especially the elderly, have things like eggs and milk periodically delivered and go out to buy fruits and vegetables at wet markets every day. So, while this kind of purchasing has worked for me, it’s been harder on many locals.

On April 1st, Puxi went into lockdown. Unfortunately, as a sign of things to come, Pudong stayed in lockdown. I had my first of this round of covid testing done on April 1st, followed by another on the 3rd. I was also given more at home tests, though with little instructions for when to take them. Thankfully, all my test results continued to stay negative. The tests on the first day were a little hectic, though. People weren’t spaced properly.

However, by the time the tests rolled around on the 3rd day, the spacing was much better.

Now, you’re probably wondering, with all these tests, how I was finding out my results. Shanghai (and China) have set up an online health cloud portal. Each person registers in advance and has their own personal QR code. When it’s your turn to get the PCR test (the mouth test), they scan your code. You can then check the app on WeChat or Alipay (the all in one payment platform run by Alibaba) to see your test result. Results usually show up anywhere between 6 and 24 hours afterwards.

I will note that even at this point, the process of finding out when we would be tested was hectic. I was still notified by someone from the neighborhood committee shouting in a megaphone (in Chinese) that it was time to get tested. Thankfully with some help from my friends and neighbors, I was able to go and get tested each time.

The primary difference between this lockdown and the soft lockdowns before is that deliveries were not allowed. During this time, I got my first box of food from the Xuhui District Government (see below). Each district gave out food, but they differed depending on your neighborhood. There was a box of meat that I gave to my neighbors as well. Inside I got potatoes, onions, daikon radish, cabbage, and carrots. I also got celtuce, the large vegetable I’m holding. I discovered that I could stir fry it or also turn it into pickles!

By the time the 5th rolled around, the situation in Shanghai had not noticeably changed. Cases were still rising, so it was unsurprising that the lockdown was continued indefinitely.

For those of you who are unaware, when you test positive in Shanghai, you don’t get to stay at home and wait to get better, even if you’re asymptomatic. You are instead taken to a central quarantine facility or a hospital (if symptomatic). This also includes your close contacts (so family members, roommates, neighbors you came into contact with without a mask). These close contacts are worth noting because the majority of cases (like 90%) appear to be former close contacts taken to these facilities. These central quarantine facilities are large expo centers or sports stadiums that have been converted into “dormatories.” At best, they are cubicles with cots and shared bathrooms. The closest approximation I can think of is the New Orleans Super Dome following Hurricane Katrina. Essentially, these people (largely asymptomatic people and close contacts) are placed in a crowded and generally unsanitary environment. For foreigners, the situation is somewhat unclear (if asymptomatic). some have been allowed to stay home, while others have been taken to the quarantine centers. I don’t know much more about these facilities, but it makes the prospect of getting sick quite worrisome. Additionally, the whole situation surrounding pets if you get sick is worrisome. There was a video of a corgi who was killed when the dog tried to chase after its owner when the owner was taken into quarantine. Additionally, there are other rumors of pets being killed if their owner tests positive, which is a terrifying prospect. Additionally, there are many reports of animals needing food because their owners were taken into quarantine. Thankfully, my neighborhood and local area has multiple pet groups, so I have connections to get help for Charlie and Scottie if needed.

By the end of the 5th, people, myself included, were also beginning to panic because they were running out of food. While I still had plenty I was concerned that I was running out of fresh food and protein. I even made a google doc listing all the food in my apartment. It was and remains exceedingly difficult to do individual grocery orders. Platforms such as DingDong and Meituan were only taking orders at 6am with a first come first serve policy. I tried to do this, but by the time I got to checkout, there were no delivery slots left (and my list of 30 items was down to 6). Other platforms like Hema and Elema were shutdown or not operating in my area. The most successful way to get food was through group deliveries. Thankfully before lockdown, I had connected with my friend Anna, who also lives in my compound (a few buildings over). She added me to a group of expats (there are a lot more of us than I realized) in our compound. So, we started providing information about getting food orders, doing deliveries together, and any information about when the covid tests would be. However, it took a few days for these deliveries to be processed and for food to arrive.

During this time, I began to panic that I didn’t have enough food for Scottie and Charlie. While I knew that I’d be fine, I knew I couldn’t explain to them that I was out of food. While I had over 3kg of food, I was nervous. Plus, since I don’t eat meat, I didn’t have anything I could cook for them. Thanks to connections within a Xuhui pets WeChat group, I was connected to a store that was still taking orders and arranging for deliveries. It was a bit stressful since first, the store took orders in an attempt to stock their inventory, then based on what they got, allowed us to actually order. Thankfully, I was able to buy a 5.6 kg bag of catfood and an extra 6L bag of litter. The food and litter were delivered by a courier (who had special permission to leave and had tested negative). While it was expensive, I was more than happy to pay extra so Scottie and Charlie would have more than enough food!

By the time any of the food deliveries began to arrive, it was already the 9th of April. In the interim, I had a late night covid test (at 10pm, after waiting in line for over 90 minutes). This test also came back negative and as of today is the last covid-19 test that I’ve had to take. Though I’ve taken multiple at home antigen tests. Additionally, at this time, to support the massive amount of testing, Shanghai had moved from the health cloud and instead integrated directly into the Alipay health code. So, now everyone has an all in one health code and code that they can scan when they get their PCR test. Unfortunately this process was confusing for many on the first day, particularly the elderly, which kept the lines long that night.

With the help of my neighbors we ordered more vegetables (I got chinese chives, cucmbers, bok choy, chinese spinach, and lettuce) as well as vegan meat balls! One of the vegan restaurants, Carrot and Cleaver, that I’ve been meaning to try was selling frozen vegan meatballs, so I jumped on the order. I definitely ordered too many, but now my freezer is full of them. We even did a group order of oatly. So, after Passover, I can have cereal again!

Additionally, my neighborhood also started doing group purchases. We set up so many WeChat groups. One for my building, one for each type of food we ordered, one for pet owners, one for the neighborhood. Though not all the purchases were successful, we were able to start ordering food. It’s been interesting to see what was deemed essential. Some things like rice, meats, and vegetables were quite obvious. However, many of the expats complained that bread wasn’t deemed essential until much later and much to my dismay it took over a week to finally do a group order for fruit. However, I could see that things were starting to get out of hand when group orders for cigarettes, cakes, soda, KFC, and alcohol began popping up. Even though this is the primary way to get food, it’s clear that everyone still wants and is trying to get their personal favorites.

The first group order that was successful was vegetables! I got daikon raddish, more celtuse, mushrooms, pea tendrils, cabbage, tomatoes, onion, and honeydew! So, my fridge started to fill up with fresh food again.

Throughout this period of time, I also got two more packages from the government.

I got oranges (yay fruit!), dried mushrooms, cabbage, broccoli, zucchini, cucumbers, onions, and carrots as well as noodles and a 5kg bag of white rice! Even though it was difficult to get food, the government was certainly making sure we had enough. However, I want to note that each household gets the same amount of food, so while I had more than enough food, families were in a much trickier situation, since they were given the same amount as me.

On April 11th, Shanghai announced a three phase system of lockdown. If there were recent cases in your compound, within a week, then you were locked down. If there were no cases within the week, then you had to do 1 week of health monitoring. If there were no cases within 2 weeks, then you were free to move around, but strongly encouraged not to leave. For a few days, my compound was in limbo. Our latest case was on April 1st (it’s unclear if this was an abnormal result or a positive case). The Xuhui government had not announced what the status of the 77 Yueyang neighborhood was. Finally on Friday, April 15th, we were told by the neighborhood commitee that we were in the third group and had the ability to walk around. However, because many of the neighboring compounds had more recent cases, we are still strongly encouraged not to leave. While I will leave my apartment to take out trash a bit more frequently now, I’m still staying at home. Moreover, the Xuhui government still doesn’t have my neighborhood listed as being open, so it’s unclear exactly where we stand.

Following the announcement of the 11th, some of the import stores and other shops started to reopen and deliver goods. Some of my neighbors and I pooled together to buy some luxury items, like cereal, oats, chocolate, and dried fruit! While not necessities, it was nice to get some of the foods I’ve been missing.

On the 15th, we got our latest, and most generous box of goods from the government! I got fresh noodles, red bean boazi, carrots, cucumbers, potatoes, garlic, ginger, peppers, mushrooms, silken tofu, and baked firm tofu! I was so excited for tofu!

We also got meat and milk, but I donated those to the neighborhood give away pile. One of the nice things that has emerged is that everyone in the neighborhood is helping people out. People are trading foods they don’t want or can’t eat or donating it to others. We setup a table where people can leave food they don’t want to share with others in the middle of our compound.

Additionally, at long last, the fruit order that my neighbors put together arrived! After hoarding fruit for the better part of two weeks, I’m excited to have more citrus to enjoy!

That gets you all up to speed. As of now, as you can all see, I have plenty of food for me to eat (and plenty for Scottie and Charlie as well). In total, I’ve gotten somewhere around 15-20 PCR tests. If I include the antigen tests, it’s probably between 25-30 tests in total. Thankfully every test has come back negative. However, the neighborhood committee keeps giving me more at home tests. I currently have > 15 at home antigen tests in my apartment. So, I’m taking one every few days.

Now that you understand the situation from my perspective, I want to reiterate that I’ve been incredibly fortunate. My compound has had almost no cases, so we are still allowed the personal freedom of being allowed to walk around, though they do not want us to gather. Moreover, the testing is done in batches of 10, so I’ve had a few friends describe how they received a call from the Chinese CDC telling them that their test was in a positive batch so they would have to be retested (thankfully my friends were still negative). I know this would have totally freaked me out, so I’m glad that it didn’t happen. Additionally, many of my friends are still getting PCR tests daily. So, I’m again lucky that there have been no new cases in my neighborhood.

While this whole process has been incredibly stressful, there have been some positive and lighter moments that I wanted to share. First, I’ve gotten to know more of my neighbors. I also now know my two immediate next door neighbors! I had only really ever met 2 other people who live in my compound, now I know a lot more! Moreover, it’s heartwarming to see people help each other. I’ve done my part as well. When we got our first government box, after explaining that I don’t eat meat, I donated the meat to one of my neighbors and his family. Moreover, they’ve reciprocated by giving me vegetables and peanuts! Additionally, those neighbors have made sure that I’ve gotten the government boxes as well as making sure that I know it’s time to test and I’ve carried up their orders of fruit and other heavy items.

When we got the second government box with meat, I was able to trade my meat for extra oranges! Doing so, I met a new neighbor . When we were chatting, she noticed my Jewish star necklace and asked if I was Jewish or Israeli. A few days later, she messaged me to wish me a Happy Passover, which was really nice!

My favorite, and perhaps humorous, experience was with the volunteers who are doing all the PCR tests, the unsung heroes of this situation. Prior to the lockdown, one of the volunteers was struck by the fact that my beard and hair were different colors. A few weeks later, while I was waiting in line to be tested (during the lockdown). The volunteer said “I know you, your beard and hair are different colors!” 🙂 It was the same woman, who was taking my PCR test. While I obviously stand out in Shanghai, it was fun to be remembered. Maybe when the situation improves, I’ll run into the same woman again,

Overall, I know that this situation is frustrating and generally somewhat miserable. That said, I’m trying to take as positive an attitude as I can. I know that many others are suffering far more than I am, either due to more difficulties getting food, being separated from their families, or getting sick, so I want to again reiterate how fortunate I’ve been.

Astronomy in Shanghai

Now that I’ve explained the current situation in Shanghai, you may be wondering, what have I been doing to keep busy. Obviously, I’m still doing work. I’m lucky that my research is all done on the computer, so I’m able to still be productive. At long last, my Dark Energy Survey Paper on the Stellar Mass – Halo Mass relation was published by the Astrophysical Journal. It’s available online here! If you’re interested and unable to download it, let me know and I’ll e-mail you the PDF. 🙂

The other main Astronomy highlight this month was that during the initial lockdown, I was doing remote observing for DESI, the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument. For those of you unfamiliar, DESI is a new spectroscopic survey that will use the spectroscopic information to map the 3D positions of galaxies in the nearby Universe. From April 3rd – 6th, I was the support observer recording information about each observation. This was a great distraction from all my stress surrounding the covid-19 lockdown and frequent testing. Thankfully Charlie and Scottie were well behaved and made it easy to observe each day from ~ 10am – 3pm. Below you can see two different views of the All Sky Camera from when I was observing.

Most of my remaining work time was spent on my luminosity function analysis, Project Population. I’ve been working with multiple observational data sets (both the low-redshift Yang Catalog and higher redshift SDSS-redMaPPer catalogs) to measure the luminosity function. I’ve also been using the mock that I spent months perfecting as a great resource in my analysis. Right now, we’re investigating whether splitting the data by magnitude gap, a tracer of central galaxy growth that my dissertation was built around, impacts the different satellite population. So far, we are only detecting differences on the bright end, which would suggest that most of the galaxy’s involved in merging to form the central galaxy are bright galaxies and that the magnitude gap tells us more about the central galaxy than the population in general.

I’ve also continued to work on Project Outskirts, my project on the Intra-Cluster Light. The latest draft of this analysis is almost complete, so we plan to start the DES collaboration wide review process in the coming weeks! Additionally, I’ve spent a fair amount of work on Project Proxy, my weak lensing halo mass proxy project. I’ve spent a lot of time investigating how to construct a Bayesian statistical pipeline to measure the parameters associated with the lensing model (the concentration and halo mass). Unfortunately at the moment, I’m running into some issues with degeneracies between the parameters. However, I should also be able to start writing this project up soon, as well.

Life in Shanghai

Since I haven’t really left my apartment (other than to get food or covid tests) in the last month, you’re probably wondering what else I’ve been up to. Though I’ve done a lot of work, I’m not working all the time. Thankfully since the covid-19 outbreak started a few weeks ago, the gym I go to, F45, has been doing Zoom classes! I’m super grateful and appreciative to all the trainers who have been running them! While they aren’t as fun as being in the actual gym, since I can’t leave my apartment to go running, I’m really fortunate that I’ve been able to exercise almost every day.

Since I’ve been home, the other thing that takes up a lot of my time is playing with Charlie and Scottie! Charlie is the smaller brown and white cat and Scottie is the larger black and white cat. I’m so lucky to have them! They love sitting on my lap (almost all the time, even when my laptop is there), snuggling on the couch or on my bed, chasing each other around, playing with crinkle balls (Charlie especially), and cuddling with each other! As you can see they are absolutely adorable and have brought me so much joy this past month!

Although it terrifies me, one of their favorite things to do is to climb up the screen in front of my closed window! They’re both excellent climbers (even after I trim their nails) and can get both up and down!

I also wanted to share some fun videos I took of Charlie playing fetch and Charlie and Scottie playing with the ball toy that my Mom got for them!

Even though I hardly left my apartment, I still saw a few things in Shanghai I wanted to share with you all. 🙂 You can see Eileen Gu (Gu Ailing), the Chinese free-skier who won three medals in the Olympics and a cute cat in one of the stores on Fuxing Rd.

Jewish Life in Shanghai

Unsurprisingly all of Kehilat Shanghai’s in person events have been cancelled or postponed. However, that didn’t stop us from gathering as a community. I personally find Shabbat services very calming and centering and with all the chaos around us in Shanghai, I decided that when Shanghai went into lockdown we would start doing weekly Zoom Kabbalat Shabbat services, which I have lead each week. Each week we’ve gotten ~15 attendees, which was great! Since I live alone, it has been really nice to catch up and see some of my friends within the community!

Additionally, we had a fascinating talk that my friends Hannah Maia and Rebecca Kanthor organized with Jerry Linderstraus, a former Shanghai resident, who had fled the Holocaust in Germany and moved to Shanghai when he was 11. Though I’ve heard many second hand accounts of what it was like to be in Shanghai during WWII, hearing Jerry’s account was very powerful! Shanghai was an almost unrecognizable city then, compared to what it is now. Even though fleeing to Shanghai led to safety, it didn’t lead to an easy or comfortable life in China. Moreover, it was clear that unlike today, the language barrier that existed between the Jewish refugees and the Chinese locals was nearly impossible to overcome. While I’ve gone to the Shanghai Jewish Refugee Museum many times, I hope to spend more time reading about the different experiences of the earlier waves of Jews in Shanghai (The Last Kings of Shanghai is high on my reading list).

This Passover was certainly far different from the past two years. Unlike the last two years, this year, was the first year that I had to celebrate Passover entirely on Zoom. While I had attended Zoom Seders with my parents back in the US the past few years, this year, all three of the Seders I attended were on Zoom.

However, you’re probably wondering, with all the food shortages and difficulty getting food, was I able to get matzo? I was! Thanks to Chabad and the hard work of the Israeli Consulate in Shanghai, everyone who wanted matzo was able to have matzo delivered to them! Though it was much more expensive than previous years, I was so grateful to receive all of my matzo! As you can see I got 1.5 kg of regular Yehuda Matzo, a kg of Shmurah matzo, and a box of Matzo meal! I have so much that I’ll probably snack on it as a cracker after Passover! Though I don’t always enjoy or attend the events that Chabad hosts, I’m so grateful that they, with the assistance of the Israeli consulate (who arranged the delivery logistics), took the effort to get me and other community members matzo so we could celebrate Passover!

Using the matzo meal and all of my government veggies, I even was able to make vegan Matzo Ball soup and my Dad’s recipe for charoset (minus grape juice, which I was unable to get)! Even though it didn’t quite feel like Passover without the ability to gather, it certainly smelled like Passover in my kitchen!

In total, I had three fun and enjoyable Seders. On the first night of Passover, I joined with Hannah Maia, and a few other of our friends for a fun and quick Passover Seder and gathering! Even though it wasn’t the same as being gathered around the table together, it was really nice to spend the evening going through the ritual items on the Seder plate and then catching up!

On the second night, I had the Kehilat Shanghai Community Seder. Kehilat Shanghai has been so fortunate that even in 2020, the covid-19 situation in Shanghai was under control or non-existent enough that we could safely gather. I had the pleasure of leading the community Seder each of the past two years. This year, I was planning to co-lead the Seder with my friend Alex (we led the high holidays together). However, by the latter half of March, we realized that we would have to pivot to Zoom. While disappointing, Alex and I decided to make the most of it. We didn’t want to just flip through the pages of a Haggadah, we instead wanted to create a fun and immersive experience. So, Alex and I got to work assembling a power point haggadah, we put in fun Passover ensembles, including Six13’s fantastic Billy Joel Passover parody, we incorporated the Dayenu video from the Maccabeats, and a fantastic and adorable video of the children of the Kehilat community doing the Four Questions! So, on the Second Night, Alex and I led what turned out to be a wonderful, meaningful, and fun zoom Seder! We had over 50 logins on Zoom and probably close to 100 people join us, including many of my friends within the community! Since Emmet didn’t have plans for the 2nd night, he even joined us from Beijing, which was really special! Everyone who attended seemed to love the videos and appreciate the readings and associated images. While it was a lot of work together, Alex was a fantastic partner on the project, and it was so heartwarming to hear how much it meant to everyone to be able to celebrate together at such a difficult time!

My final Seder was with my parents on their 2nd night! We were joined by my Aunt Pam, cousin Robbie, and his partner, Stefanie! Since I’ve been unable to celebrate with my family in person each of the last three years, I’m so grateful that my parents have done Zoom Seders each year! It’s so wonderful to go through my childhood Haggadah and be reminded of all my favorite readings and moments throughout the Passover Seder! Though it’s weird to be attending a Seder at breakfast time, It was so great to celebrate with my family and get to experience my Dad leading the Seder again! I look forward to when I’ll be able to attend in person!

In total, this was a very different and unique Passover, likely one I’ll never forget. While I hope that next year, my Passover celebrations are in person, I’m so thankful for all the family, friends, and community members that I was able to celebrate with!

In addition, in this year’s community Seder, we included prayers for the people of Ukraine during the Yachatz section and the 10 plagues. Given that we have Ukrainian community members, including my friend Kate, it was important that our community help in any way that we could. Even with all the chaos surrounding us, Kehilat Shanghai, did a fundraiser through the JDC to support the Jews of Ukraine. In total, we raised around RMB 43,000, which was then generously matched by Kehillat Beijing founder, Roberta Lipson, to raise RMB 86,000 ~ $13,500. If you are able, I hope that you can also donate to support the humanitarian crisis that this senseless invasion has caused. As I discussed in my last post, I’m horrified by all the reports of genocide and war crimes that are being committed by Russian soldiers in Ukraine. I pray that Putin backs down and that the situation comes to a resolution that allows the citizen of Ukraine to be safe and return to their homes.

What I’m Reading and Watching

Unsurprisingly, since I’ve been locked down, I’ve been doing a lot of reading, both books and a ton of comics! I find that these really help to take my mind off the stress of the covid-19 situation. I’m currently two-thirds through Neil Gaiman’s Norse Mythology, which is fantastic! Prior to reading, I was only loosely familiar with the characters in Norse myths, but not the actual stories. The book is a collection of different myths and it’s really fun to read a new one every few nights. I also finished the 1st book in The Witcher series, The Last Wish, and will start the 2nd book after I finish Norse Mythology.

I haven’t watched a ton of great TV this month. I did finish the last season of Killing Eve, which was overall somewhat disappointing. While I find the Villanelle character quite interesting, the story throughout the entire season was hard to follow. I also have been periodically watching movies. I watched Don’t Look Up, which many of my friends had recommended that I see. Unfortunately, I can’t say I really enjoyed that movie. There were some obvious Astronomy problems, including lights on inside the telescope (generally when observing you use red lights, not white light) as well as the fact that these Astronomers never contacted an actual expert in orbital mechanics (like my friend Juliette!) to confirm their results before contacting NASA. On top of that, I felt like everything was just way too over the top and on the nose, making it somewhat of an uncomfortable and unenjoyable experience. The movie that I really enjoyed this month was Sing, an animated movie about talking animals entering a singing competition. Maybe it was because of all the stress in Shanghai, but it was so much fun to escape to a totally made up world and disappear in fun music for a while! I’m looking forward to watching the sequel!

If you’ve gotten this far, thank you so much for your interest in how I’m doing and for reading. I hope that you found the first half of this post informative about my experiences in Shanghai. If any of you have questions or concerns, don’t hesitate to reply or e-mail me. I’m happy to answer any questions. I also hope that you enjoyed seeing more of Scottie and Charlie! Lastly, I hope that you enjoyed hearing about my Passover Seders! If you celebrated, I hope that you to were able to have a meaningful and enjoyable Passover celebration. I hope that by the next time I write, the situation in Shanghai is improved and beginning to open up. Keep your eyes out for a few more microposts if the situation changes. In the meantime, I hope that all of you have a safe, happy, healthy, and productive month. Thank you again for reading and for thinking of me.

In peace,

Jesse