Life in Quarantine: Week 19

Welcome to Astronomer in Shanghai! Thank you for following my blog and for your interest in my adventures in Shanghai! As covid-19 keeps many of you sheltered in place or working at home, I hope this blog highlights that once the world recovers from this outbreak, things will improve. You should all treasure the small daily interactions. In Shanghai, life has returned to a new normal. I emphasize that the recovery timeline for Shanghai is not applicable everywhere. However, we are all in this together and if we cooperate with social distancing guidelines things will improve.

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Life in Shanghai

I hope that this latest entry continues to find all of you safe and healthy. While I usually begin each post talking about the covid-19 situation, the current unrest in the US, sparked by the senseless murder of George Floyd, has made me change this. I’m sure many of you are similarly troubled by what is the latest in a series of events highlighting the racial inequalities that exist in the US. Living in Shanghai, I feel very much like a spectator being so far from home. When I gathered with many of my ex-pat and European friends over the past week, we’ve found ourselves troubled and disturbed by these recent events. While I know that there is not a lot I can do to help, I do want to use this platform to share my beliefs. It is unconscionable that in 2020 we still live in a world where black and brown people are not treated equally by both laws and law enforcement officers. It’s not too much to ask for fair and equal treatment by police officers. It’s not fair that I as a white runner don’t have to worry about my safety and whether it’s not clear that I’m a good person as I run in my tights/shorts and sleeveless t-shirts even in Shanghai, while Ahmaud Arbery, and other black men are unable to run or walk around neighborhoods without fear that they will be viewed as a threat, attacked, arrested, or murdered. While some of you may say that there are good cops in your home town, I was particularly struck by the incident in Buffalo, NY, the city where my Mother grew up, where I still have family, and where I would visit with my family to see my grandparents twice a year. While I don’t have answers for what would improve the situation. All I can emphasize is that it’s important that we listen and it’s important that we acknowledge that Black Lives Matter.

If you’re still reading this, then I thank you for listening to my voice. I know I’m going to have to take time to reflect on these issues and also begin to learn how race permeates aspects of my life here in Shanghai. Please take the time to think about what you can do to improve the racial inequities that exist in the US and elsewhere. To transition, I do want to say that despite the protests dominating the news, I still remain incredible concerned about the situation in the US. Particularly, given the proliferation of public protests, which appear to be nesting grounds for spreading of covid-19. So, I implore all of you to continue to be vigilant. If you go to protests, wear masks (and gloves). When you go outside, wear masks. Remember to wash your hands. If you’re able, continue to work from home. Despite how the US is trying to pre-maturely reopen, the virus is still devastating the country and I believe it’s paramount to continue to take precautions.

As I’ve noted before, Shanghai has returned to a new normal. There are still temperature checks and masks worn. However, as the days go by, there are now fewer restrictions on the number of people in public spaces and the number of people wearing masks is decreasing (though the majority still do). I’ve been told that even the youngest children have now been sent back to school (which ends in July). SJTU, where I work, like many national Universities is still closed. While some of you may be wondering why, I believe that this is due to the number of students who would be coming from outside of Shanghai. Despite there being few cases in China, this kind of travel could help spread the virus.

Overall, the statistics in China have continued to improve. All of the new cases this week were imported cases of people returning to China (mostly students returning from abroad). There are just 6 remaining cases in Shanghai and 2 in Beijing. The recovery rate in Shanghai sits at 98.1% and for China as a whole, that number is 94.4%. Both numbers highlight that the restrictive actions taken by the Chinese government were successful in limiting the spread of the virus. Hopefully, recovery rates will continue to rise around the world.

This was another fairly productive research week. I spent most of my research time working on my Luminosity Function project. I’ve been able to actually measure the luminosity function for the first time! Although, I’m still not getting my values to match the previously published results, so I’ll be spending time this week investigating that. Additionally, I got to present my research on the spectroscopic completeness of cluster members for DESI, the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument, for the first time, which was cool! In addition, we’ve continued to do AstroCoffee via Zoom, which has been a great way to connect the students and postdocs (and a few faculty) since a lot of us are spread out. In terms of working in the office. The current plan is that once the semester ends (end of June), and Prof. Ying Zu, my research supervisor, is able to better plan his schedule, I’ll start coming to the office a few times per week.

Based on the photos I’ve shared, I think we all agree that the city is beautiful and its beauty is only enhanced by all the flowers. Despite the heat and humidity, I remain impressed by all the amazing flowers. Many are in little gardens on the corners of streets. So, it’s not as though Shanghai is full of parks, but I love that little pockets of green space exist.

Despite the heat, humidity, and increasingly more common thunderstorms, I still went for three runs this week. While I’m not sure if I still need to wear a mask when I run, I still do, mostly to take precautions and also because I still do when I go for walks.

I also visited Fuxing Park, the park near my apartment, for the first time since January. While the park has been opened, it has had restrictive hours. However, on Saturday, I was able to go! As you can see, there are tons of beautiful flowers and natural scenery just minutes from where I live! For comparison, for those of you in Saratoga Springs, Fuxing park is probably a similar size to Congress Park.

In addition to the natural beauty, there were also a few other man-made highlights!

I also saw the cat that lives in the women’s clothing store in Xintiandi again. 🙂 I think it’s pretty clear that this cat lives in the store and isn’t just sneaking inside.

In addition to my work and all the walking/running that I did this week, I still made some time for a fun activity. On Tuesday, Kehilat Shanghai and Moishe House joined forces to host a Jewish trivia night! As some of you know I really enjoy Trivia. Unfortunately, my team didn’t win (I think that we could have benefited from some questions covering the topics I’m best at: Astronomy, Physics, Sports, Comic Books, …), but it was still a lot of fun. Hopefully we’ll do it again sometime!

Afterwards, I biked back to Xintiandi with Heather, Shimi, and one of the other Kehilat Shanghai members. While I generally don’t bike, (I don’t like biking without a helmet and I don’t always know where I’m going), I’ll occasionally do it with groups of people, since they can help with directions. Although, the lack of bikes for tall people means I do a lot of pumping.

Food in Shanghai

Most of my meals this week were eaten at home, so I did lots of cooking. Since it’s been so hot, I made some more frozen deserts. I made watermelon popsicles and a very green honeydew sorbet! Additionally, I did a lot of other cooking this week. I made black bean burgers, roasted cauliflower, vegan mozzerella cheese, chickpea tahini salad, and tahini oatmeal cookies. So, like usual this will be another week of great eating.

I did have one meal out this week. Tuesday’s Trivia night was hosted at Tacolicious, which does somewhat of a Chinese-Mexican fusion for their tacos. I got the Buddhist delight taco, which was roasted vegetables and seitan in a taco. While I’ve never seen Chinese-Mexican fusion before, overall, I really enjoyed it.

This was another enjoyable week. Although I chose to have a quieter week, I still took advantage of a few opportunities to see friends and to explore the beautiful city that I now call home.

I hope that this update about my life and the covid-19 situation in Shanghai gives you optimism that things will improve wherever you are! This upcoming week should be another normal week. If you have any questions, comments, or concerns about the current covid-19 situation, please let me know. If you need someone to talk to about how to stay positive and productive while you shelter in place, please reach out. I want to help support you and assure all of you in any way that I can.

In peace,
Jesse