What we’ve learned during 2 weeks in quarantine
The view from our front yard.
Tomorrow is the day. We arrived in Honolulu on Thursday, October 8th, and as of tomorrow, Friday, October 23rd, we will be free to (safely) move about the island. Chris took the day off work and our plan is to get up early and go to the beach to watch the sunrise, then drive around Oahu to start exploring our new home.
Yes, it’s all one room, but we like to refer to them as separate rooms. So this is looking through the bedroom into the dining room and then into the kitchen.
So for today, I thought I would share some of the things we’ve learned in quarantine. We have spent the past 2 weeks confined to a roughly 400 square foot studio apartment with the 2 of us and our 2 dogs. You may have heard that as of October 15th, Hawaii opened back up and, as long as you have a negative Covid test within 72 hours of your arrival in Honolulu, you don’t have to quarantine. Unfortunately that didn’t apply to us so we still had to complete the full 2 weeks. But I digress. Here are the lessons we’ve learned.
This is how I’ve been waking up the past few days.
Lots of people were concerned that we might have trouble going from a 2700 sq ft house with a large backyard to a 400 sq ft studio, but we have loved it. We arrived in Hawaii with 4 suitcases and we haven’t missed anything. We’ve ordered a few kitchen items since we’ve been eating every meal at home, but overall, we’ve been very happy with less, just like we thought we would.
You can get alcohol delivered. In Hawaii, they sell liquor at Target and they’ll deliver through a company called Shipt. We figured this out on Day 1.
Being 3 houses from the beach is both awesome and terrible when you’re stuck in the house. It’s great to stare at, but it’s also just there, taunting us.
It’s wayyyyyy easier to clean 400 sq ft. I’ve even mopped, and I hadn’t mopped our house in Durham in years. Literally. Years.
I really enjoy working out when I can do it outside on the patio and I don’t have to go to work before or after.
The weather here is amazing. Like, really really amazing. It’s been around 85 degrees every single day and the only thing that varies is the humidity.
When it rains, the birds start singing, loudly. They’re everywhere and it’s magical. We’ve seen zebra-striped doves, myna birds, and so many others. The doves particularly like to walk around on the fence outside our window.
The battle against “stuff” never ends. I’m constantly walking around our studio putting things away and they seem to be multiplying. I don’t know how or where it comes from. But it is constant.
You must wash the dishes throughout the day as they get dirty. This is also due to not having a dishwasher, but if you leave them until the end of the day, it takes forever and is a huge deal.
Spending time outside is absolutely vital. When one of us starts to get really squirrelly, we go outside to the backyard. Just spending that time in the sun makes a huge difference. For us and the dogs.
One of the things we have wanted to change is how much time we spent watching TV. We don’t plan on buying a TV when we get somewhere permanent. But thank goodness there is a TV in our studio, because it’s an amazing time killer. Watching reruns of NCIS will make the hours fly by.
It’s possible for 2 people to live in 1 room and still not really talk. We’ve instituted a happy hour where we make a cocktail, go sit out on the patio, and talk. Like, really talk. It’s made a huge difference for us.
Looking back through the bedroom to the living room.
We can’t wait for this to be over and to really begin the next part of our journey. If you’re looking for us, we’ll be on the beach.