Erica Shi

“The most difficult moment of lockdown is not being able to meet with my friends. Under normal circumstances, this wouldn’t be bothering me too much, because I tend to be more introverted and enjoy time by myself. But this year, one of my friends is moving away in May. And with the quarantine and social distancing rules, I’m unable to host a good-bye party or even meet up with her to say good-bye. I wanted to try and make ramen with her. The idea came from an anime that we’ve both seen, called Dr. Stone, where there was a scene that showed the characters making ramen completely from scratch, using foxtails and hand-milled flour. We weren’t planning on making ramen exactly like the anime, because that would have been too time intensive. It would’ve been fun to just try and make some handmade ramen, using flour and an egg. We didn’t really decide on a date, but I was hoping to do it sometime after everything settled down a bit. We’ve already shared quite a few group meetings together [through zoom] that another friend organized, but it’s much more different than hanging out in person. I doubt zoom could replace physically meeting.”