The Red Envelope: Realization & Gratitude • 紅包故事（中文）

Hello, my name is Halden Levin, and you are listening to Little Dragon’s Journey. 你好！我叫李靜辰，你正在聽小龍的旅程。

Transition Music（音樂）

Before I get into the red envelope story, I’d like to share a quick update. Saturday, February 20, was our official last day of quarantine. Yesterday, we traveled to Kaohsiung Veterans General Hospital to take a COVID test. Around 1:20 pm, I stepped foot out of my room masked and with a few other essentials in hand. The feeling of leaving the room I’ve lived in for two weeks was so weird. Technically, I could’ve left my room at any point during quarantine; of course, since I didn’t want to be fined thousands of dollars or bring harm to anyone around me, I stayed put.

I took the elevator downstairs, emerged into the lobby, and was greeted by Spring, as well as a few others who had already made their way downstairs. Spring had arranged for five taxis to drive us over. Since there are nine of us and were only five taxis, one of us was going to be alone, and that lonely soul was me.

On the way to the hospital, I decided just to soak in everything. I watched mopeds wiz on by, read restaurant signs and road signs, and even encountered a furniture exhibition. At one point, I saw buildings that appeared to be part of a school, and to my surprise, the campus I was gazing at was Wenzao’s. The sign I had seen many times on the Internet quickly came into view and disappeared. That 15 to 20 minute drive to the hospital was so satisfying.

Upon arrival, I met up with Harold, Eric, and Andy, and we waited for the rest outside in an area set aside for people emerging from quarantine. Slowly but surely, all nine of us, plus Andy, were back together. Although our test was scheduled for 2:00 pm, we didn’t actually get tested until 3:00 pm. We were all quite happy to wait and just be together and talk, since that was something we hadn’t been able to do for two weeks.

Just because it feels important, let me describe how we all looked in that moment. Kira was wearing a shirt with different types of sushi on it, which was quite the conversation piece. Eric and MJ looked like twins with their black shirts, blue jeans, silver rings, and fanny pack. Augusta was wearing a fancy-looking black shirt with tulle pleats and slightly poufy sleeves. Fiona was sporting a classic jean jacket, as well as her real camera (by real camera, I mean one of those cameras with a scoping lenses and heightened capabilities beyond that of a phone camera). I feel like there was less commentary on Pierce’s, Jason’s, and Harold’s attire, but all three looked good and well.

When the time came to test, a small nurse began calling out our names; since she had some difficulty reading our names, our English names that is, we helped her out. In learning Chinese, I realized that reading Chinese names is pretty hard, especially with limited exposure to a variety of Chinese names; I guess it may be the same for English language learners. Anyway, all nine of us, plus Andy, lined up to be tested. I was number three, and honestly, I was happy to get it over with.

The COVID test we took was a nasal swab test. When we took the test, we entered this small shack and sat on a folding chair in front of a kind of rusty metal desk. A male nurse swabbed one nostril lightly and the other with vigor. It didn’t hurt that much, but my eyes started watering excessively upon the conclusion of the test. Pretty soon after, I hopped back in the taxi and headed back to the hotel to stay for one more night. Since I was the first person back, I just headed back upstairs to my room.

If we received our results on the same day we took our COVID test, we would have been able to leave the hotel that day (if our results were negative of course). However, since we took our test too late in the afternoon, our tests weren’t processed yesterday; our tests were processed today, and our results were available at 7:00 pm. ---

If you’re curious about the whole quarantine process in Taiwan, I’ll take a moment to explain. When arriving in Taiwan, after quarantining for two weeks, you are required to take a COVID test and complete a week of self-health management, which pretty much means, although you are not required to close yourself off in a room for another week, you must continue to monitor your body temperature and overall condition, as well as wear a mask and avoid public places. Freedom with some limitations. During your quarantine, you are required to report your body temperature every morning to the CDC, as well as respond to a call or text from the CDC to indicate that you are feeling well. After quarantine, you are still required to monitor yourself for symptoms, as well as tell take your temperature every morning and evening.

After that a-bit-longer-than-quick update, now for the red envelope story.

During quarantine, Andy, our residential director who helps us in so many ways, gave us an assignment: create a video and share said video with him, our NSLI-Y cohort, and potentially the wider host community. We could choose to make our video alone or with a group, and we also were free to choose the topic for our video. In total, five videos were produced and shared: Jason sang and played his guitar; Kira produced a how-to video on water coloring a beautiful array of flowers; Harold, MJ, and Fiona shared a video comparing Taiwanese culture with their cultures; Pierce, Eric, and Augusta created a three part exercise routine; and I compared a Lunar New Year’s tradition with one of my family’s own.

Here’s the story I shared:

On most of the big holidays in the United States, Grandma M gives every grandchild a card with a sweet message, a few fun stickers, and a little bit of money inside. To top it off, each card is carefully placed in a colorful envelope with our name on it and sometimes her characteristic smiley face.

Since I was leaving America before Valentine’s Day, Grandma M dropped off my card, and the moment I received it, since my card was in a bright red envelope, I immediately thought of red envelopes, but not just any form of red envelopes, those that are gifted around the Lunar New Year in China and Taiwan and other Asian countries. During the Lunar New Year, friends, family members, and colleagues will gift each other red envelopes with money inside. Red envelopes may also be gifted during other special occasions as a generous gesture, for good luck, and maybe even to ward off evil spirts.

Grandma M’s tradition isn’t shared by all or most other grandmas in the United States, so I guess you could say that this is just one of my family’s unique traditions. Although we may speak different languages, have different lifestyles, and come from different cultures, we are all human beings who need love and support, and sometimes we have similar ways of expressing that love and support for others.

If you are interested in listening to the original video I made, please see the video embedded below. The video is completely in Chinese without subtitles, since it was a quick, little project I created. The story I share in Chinese is about the same to the one I just shared above.

Transition Music（音樂）

Please visit haldenlevin.wixsite.com/littledragonjourney to access the transcript of this episode, and know you are always welcome to contact me through my website, email, or social media. Thank you for joining Little Dragon’s Journey. 謝謝你們參加小龍的旅程。拜拜！