quarantinediaries-crwr213

[quarantinediaries-crwr213]

Context

This project is a series of short snippets from three fictional characters' (Bella, Dale, and Somchai) blog posts about dealing with the changes brought upon their daily lives by the Coronavirus in three different countries (Italy, Canada, and Thailand). Asides from writing from different countries, each character also talks about the different things they last saw before quarantine such as someone (Bella), something (Dale), or somewhere (Somchai). Each character varies in terms of age with Bella being the youngest and Somchai being the oldest. The accompanying images have also been selected and/or created to fit the age and personality of each fictional character and their stories.

Enjoy!

[quarantinediaries-crwr213]

Thailand (1 April 2020)

As a street photographer, there hasn’t been a better time to take photos until now. Shots of empty streets used to be a street photographer’s dream that could only be achieved with a touch of Photoshop. But thanks to the whole pandemic, I can just uninstall Photoshop (except I can’t because I still need it for everything else…).

The streets downtown has never been quieter than today. I don’t remember the last time that a crowded city like Bangkok has ever been so… still. Bangkok has always been a vibrant city that never rests. No matter what time you visit the malls, markets, and streets, there are always filled to the brim with lights and people. I don’t remember a single time that I wasn’t surrounded by a crowd of people in Bangkok. If I got on the BTS (metro), I would always be touching someone’s shoulder from the moment I’m waiting at the station, getting on the BTS, and exiting the station. If you walked down this crowded street every day, there would always be something new to find. Whether that would be a new food stand, a beautiful location for a photo, or fascinating pop-up events taking place. The smell of markets in Thailand is simply unique. I don’t think I’ve ever smelled anything like it in my entire life. It’s strange how the smell of Thai curries and various foods from different stands and shops blend together so well in smell. It honestly makes my mouth water so much, sometimes I forget that I come out here to do street photography.

Pictures that I have been taking for the past month feel like they have been taken from an entirely different planet. Sometimes I have to remind myself that the photos I’ve taken were of the same places. I’ve been going around and taking pictures of places I went to in February to get a sense of how different the city has been after the pandemic. Places that I remembered to be flooding with people where every step you were going to take was a competition between you and the people next to you of who goes first were no longer like that. People weren’t calculating when the person next to you was going to walk so you wouldn’t step over them but instead calculating how far they were from the person next to them and when to steer away from them. The can of sardines that the BTS once was has become a vast ocean with a couple of boats daring to navigate the rough seas.

As much as I do enjoy these empty streets and locations for photos, it’s hit me how much I have taken it all for granted. It was when I wrote out this entry that I realized how badly I missed and craved the liveliness of Bangkok. It has been nice to have this calm moment in the city, but I really hope it doesn’t stay for too long.

I miss the adventures I had exploring the city and where it would take me at the end of the day. I miss all the crazy and kind people I meet along the way when I do my street photography. I miss Bangkok.

- Somchai

[quarantinediaries-crwr213]

Canada (20 March 2020)

There are just empty aisles everywhere I’m going today, and I hate it. Especially in the toilet paper aisle. Honestly, I just don’t get it what’s the deal with people trying to score all the toilet paper? The last time I saw a normal-looking aisle of the toilet paper section feels like it was decades ago since it’s empty almost every day now. I’ve been going to every store to find toilet paper, not because I needed to hoard it but because I literally have nothing to wipe with anymore. I’ve tried everywhere, from big supermarkets to small supermarkets and I come back with nothing. It feels like I’m playing an unbeatable game of chess with a bunch of hackers on the other end trying to win the game of “getting all the toilet paper as quickly as possible.” Can we turn down the difficulty for Toilet Paper Hunt?

Every time I see someone carrying 3 packs of toilet paper and heading to their car, I wonder why they would need that much. Why do they feel like it’s their duty to clean up the aisle for everyone else? You’re making it painful for everyone else who is just looking to keep themselves stock for another week. Well, I guess the answer is obvious: profit. A lot of these guys are buying toilet paper to resell them at a higher price, “Price gouging,” they call it. I don’t think we have ever seen people trying to price gouge each other since that time I got scammed on Craigslist in college for a couch set without the cushioning. Just the wooden frame with paper-mache made to look like a couch under the tarp (yeah, that’s a whole other story for another time). But I guess you can’t really call that price gouging, more of me being stupid (which is what a lot of people are right now by hoarding toilet paper they can’t keep).

But my hunt came to an end today when I decided to go shop at my local Home Depot for one of those DIY bidets. I did some research on it and it seems that I might have been missing out and I didn’t even know it. If I get this bidet, I wouldn’t need to get any toilet paper for the rest of my life! (okay, maybe that was a bit too dramatic). But when I got to Home Depot, my heart came to a sudden stop when I saw the aisle was almost equally empty of DIY bidets. But luckily, they hid in storage because they haven’t restocked the aisle since “The Great Shortage of Toilet Paper of 2020” began, which is fair. But what isn’t fair is how long it took for me to INSTALL the damn bidet!!!

So, apparently, my toilet isn’t made to be easily modifiable so installing the bidet nothing short of torture. For some reason, they thought it would have been a good idea to place the toilet seat so close to the wall that you couldn’t fit your head to see what you were doing with the valve behind the toilet. As you might be able to imagine, lots of tears were shed and lots of toilet seat water was spilled. After THREE whole days, I managed to fit the damn thing BLIND into the seat. Only using my hands to feel around for where I had to install my bidet.

Would I do that again if you paid me? Absolutely not. Would I do it again if it means I don’t have to compete for toilet paper ever again? Well, I think we both know the answer to that one.

- Dale

Three long days of hard work for that bidet...

[quarantinediaries-crwr213]

Italy (12 March 2020)

It’s been a week since the quarantine put us all on lock down. I was with my family on a quick trip to visit my grandma before things quickly turned south for us. We knew coming over to Italy about how bad the Coronavirus has gotten but Dad kept telling us how important it was for us to visit grandma. Grandma had been living alone after grandpa passed away a couple of months ago and with Dad being their only child, I get it because so am I. I would come and see her, especially if the last time we saw Grandma was before Grandpa passed away. Dad couldn’t go back to see Grandma because he was working as a consultant on an offshore oil rig or something and they couldn’t arrange a replacement if he was to leave. Ugh, only if we knew how bad that would have meant for us.

The trip to Grandma’s was meant to be a quick one. After all, Dad was using all his work holidays to visit her. He told me it was the least he could do since he wasn’t able to be there for Grandma during that time. We also planned for it to be quick because of the Coronavirus pandemic that was spreading in China at the time. Dad tries his best to visit Grandma and sometimes brings me along as well since he got a job in the US after college and met my mom, he hasn’t been back to Italy often.

Speaking of the US, I really miss my friends in Dallas. I was meant to graduate high school this year, class of 2020! Amanda and I were meant to go shopping for a prom dress together once I got back from Italy. We even facetimed and picked a dress together (pics below 😉), hoping we would be able to try them out for real. We were going to have a blast at that prom and tell our high school to kiss our asses goodbye. But I guess none of that is really happening anymore not just because I won’t be at the graduation but because there’s no graduation in the first place. It didn’t even cross my mind at the time when we left to see Grandma that it would have been the last time that I’d ever see my friends. Would have thought that something that everyone was laughing off as “a cold” had the power to destroy my entire graduation?

Instead, I’m sitting here at my Grandma’s and look out the window to count the birds flying by to keep myself sane before I can facetime Amanda (because of time zones). Grandma’s house was also in the countryside, so there wasn’t anyone I could spy through our windows except the birds that fly past our house. I don’t know how long this will last, especially with the travel bans and flight cancellations and I really don’t know how long I can last either. 

 - Bella