3.2. Voyage: the joys of confinement

Updated: Oct 26, 2021

Feel free to skip this part if you want to get to the fun penguin catching parts. This is just the details of my stay in Tasmania because my mom is hell bent on knowing every small thing (I swear mom the hotel room is really not that interesting to look at) – well also because I am feeling quite chatty and the guards don’t have much conversation apart from “Go to your room” “Stay away from me heathen” and “Why are you still up at 4am?”.

Jokes aside, before I rag on too much on our quarantine, I have to admit that we had a very warm welcome and the authorities did all they could to make our stay as bearable as possible. We’re talking daily calls of hotel personnel and nurses inquiring about our mental health, gifts from the Tasmanian government and even cute letters from some kids of a nearby school! They included a blank card with some coloring pencils so that we could send them back a reply – needless to say I immediately got to the task of doing my absolute best at drawing a realistic emperor penguin (I’ll let you be the judge). After all my job reputation as the resident penguin expert was on the line.

This was also the very first time I could use my Antarctica stamp for an 'official' purpose. (Apparently stamping all your friends with a cute surfer penguin is not the main aim of our stamps but I digress)

The kid's letters (I mean how cute is that? - Bonjour to you too kiddo)

My answer

The staff was absolutely adorable, never failing to compliment me (with great surprise) for my impeccable English. Indeed, it is such a rare occurrence for a French person to master the language of Shakespeare so brilliantly!, sadly I broke the spell when I admitted to cheating with my double French-American nationality.

Speaking of linguistics... fun fact: apparently “confinement”, the French word for “quarantine” is a linguistic fake-friend. I learnt that when I was telling my old German roommate about my confinement, word that she promptly googled which directly translates to “Gefangenschaft” aka imprisonment. So no Anna, my cheekiness and rule bending charm has not landed me in prison (yet).

Now about our confinement.

First of to our great amusement we were all given a personal thermometer, an oximeter finger thingy, plus a phone, which connects by Bluetooth automatically to send the data to the nurses. Oh, and the phone rang everyday in the morning to remind you to take your measures. Often I found myself seriously considering chucking the phone through the window but I figured I'd get in trouble for incorrect disposal of biohazard material.

One thing they failed to mention was that we could receive calls from the nurses on the phone we received... video calls... that AUTOMATICALLY START THE VIDEO AND AUDIO when you answer it. Needless to say a lot of panic ensued first time I got a call. What a violation of my privacy: where is HIPAA when you need them? (just kidding)

Throughout the 15 days we had to take regular PCR tests (3 in total) which I did not mind, surprisingly enough - it's after all one of the rare in-person social interactions of the week and the personnel was very sweet.

Thankfully we were allowed to go out 30 minutes per day… outside on the parking lot… .in a 5m² space surrounded by fences... woop woop! No sarcasm here. But on the bright side it gave me a very valid excuse not to go jogging. And it was a great opportunity to complain with the other convicts - sorry, I meant Antarctic explorers - nothing better to build team spirit! Well objectively our golden cage wasn't half bad, I definitely tried to enjoy as much as possible my last days of privacy in a spacious room. And Wifi. I am pretty sure I read the entirety of what Reddit had to offer.

Unrelated , to my absolute enchantment, my penguin catching outfit arrived today – the bright orange jacket really completes the whole picture - Guantanamo prison here I come.

Orange is the New Black

Worst. Sports session. Ever.

All in all, the quarantine was not too bad. Between preparing the penguin protocols with my boss over zoom, catching up with friends and family, finishing a paper for the International Astronautical Congress (IAC) 2021 and watching Squid Game, I was quite busy. These two weeks were peppered by funny anecdotes such as that one person in our team that got a very official looking email scolding him for leaving his shoes on the balcony (how dare he?) or group video calls centered around sharing our collective disappointment for our dinner.