Hello! Currently on my 11th day of quarantine in South Korea. For those of you who don’t know, South Korea currently requires a 14 day quarantine for all individuals on incoming flights in order to combat Covid-19.
So let me break it down for you and share my personal experience!
As an incoming teacher in Korea my company actually set up an Airbnb for my 2-week quarantine. Depending on your situation you could stay at your home or may be required to stay in a government facility. For instance, one of my co-workers is from South Africa and is set up in a Government facility, aka a hotel, at no extra cost to him since those arriving from South Africa are required to.
So what does my Airbnb look like you might ask? It is around 9 x 9, fairly small, and somewhat lacking in interior design. Pros? It is clean, well equipped for cooking, and has a big window.
Thankfully, I was given a box of food from my company as well as from the Ministry of Health. Not so thankfully these boxes have mainly consisted of rice, ramen, pasta, and more ramen. For these reasons I have become quite *creative* with the few ingredients I have. Spam? That can go in my pasta. And canned tuna? Wow a true side dish.
Now if you like to subsist on more than just ramen I would recommend arranging food delivery. For groceries, I have been able to successfully use 11th Street,a site that is not only in English but also has lots of shopping options ranging from groceries to clothing. I have also heard of sites such as Gmart and SSG that will deliver directly to you. Do keep in mind that you would need a Korean phone number which I will expand on later as well as know your full address. Of course, if you speak Korean there are a plethora of other sites that may be useful, these are just the ones I found with English options.
You can also directly order food online using simple apps such as Shuttle. Shuttle is my preferred option since it is in English and allows you to pay with a foreign credit card. The downside? It has limited options depending on the area and delivery is often contingent on the weather. CopangEats is another option that can be easily downloaded as an app. Copang has more options with better prices in my opinion. The catch? You need to have a Korean bank account set up in order to make payments. On the upside, both of these sites have discounts for first-time users!
“Wow, what does she do for 14 days alone?” Sometimes I stick my head outside my window, I sing loudly, I lay on my floor, and stare at the disappointing contents of my fridge. Other times I watch youtube videos, work on a web development course, and plan for the days when I will taste freedom. I also maximize the amount of time it takes for me to make food. Cooking a bell pepper? It needs 10 minutes! Frying 1 egg? I can drag it out for 15.