safe and sound

Heading home

I’m back! Much sooner than I ever anticipated, but I’m grateful to have a safe place to return to and quarantine. I think the total travel time was about 24 hours, and I somehow managed to stay awake for mostly all of it…which means I’m not having many issues with jet lag, so that’s a plus. Everything is pretty overwhelming, but it’ll be okay. Thank you to everyone who has reached out to my family and I. What a community!

the trip back:

4 of us were flying Vigo to Madrid, and then 2 more were to join us for Madrid – Chicago. Amanda, Caroline, and I planned to go from Pontevedra to the airport together, but we knew it’d be a little tricky to get there. Buses and trains were basically out of the question, and we wanted to get there early. Fortunately, our friend Alex looked into our options and organized a plan. Alex, his friend Andres, and my roommate all offered to drive us. Each car is only supposed to have its driver, and one passenger is allowed in special circumstances, WITH documentation. So, Arantxa drove me, and we met up with the others around 5:50am.

Driving out of Pontevedra was very sad, but it was so beautiful and peaceful. I’ve left a piece of my heart in that city and with its people who embraced me with such warmth and kindness.

Because there was a military checkpoint set up in front of the airport and we weren’t sure how documentation for passengers would work, our friends dropped us off at a bus station in central Vigo. The was an adjusted schedule for the airport bus that Alex had found, and it came more or less on time. It was a quick “hasta luego” – but that didn’t make it any easier – and then we hopped on the bus and headed to the airport. I can’t thank our drivers/friends enough for getting us there safely. We watched the sun rise on the way to the airport from the bus stop.

Checking my luggage went fairly smoothly, and it’s a small airport (also nobody is traveling right now) so we got through security and such pretty quickly. Then, it was only a matter of waiting. We knew we’d meet up with Gio, a Fulbrighter in Vigo, but some others that he knew were there as well; it was nice to have a little group of travel buddies. I was so sad at the idea of leaving my bathrobe, so I just ended up wearing it on the plane as a sign of the times we’re living in.

We arrived in Madrid and made our way to the international flight, in a separate terminal. Normally, we would have been a little stressed as we only had an hour between landing and takeoff, but the airport was eerily empty. It was very surreal and almost scary.

We lined up for the plane and made our way onboard. We ran into some Fulbrights from the Canaries who were also heading back, so there were some more familiar faces on the plane. The plane was NOT very empty, but it wasn’t packed. There aren’t many flights out, and I think we were probably part of the final wave back to the US. The flight was a little over 9 hours, and I watched movies the whole time (taking walking breaks in between!) to keep my mind off the turbulence and to try and stay awake to prevent terrible jet lag.

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Arriving in Chicago was really smooth, and getting through customs was pretty quick. Immediately after customs was the health check, and it was really, really well run. We’ve heard pretty not great reports about health checks at some of the other airports, but I really want to emphasize that it was comprehensive, efficient, and that the people were so kind and welcoming. It made us feel that maybe, finally, the US is taking this as seriously as we need to be.

Getting luggage and through the second health checkpoint was a little crazy, and I was really bummed to see that both my suitcases got damaged. Oh well, it happens – I had them tape the big suitcase and the recheck counter, and I dealt with the rest in KC. At this point, our little travel group was going our separate ways, so it was lots of little “get home safe, see you later” conversations.

Amanda, Caroline, and I all had our final flights out of the same terminal, and Caroline left first. Then, Amanda and I hunted for food and then went to her gate. When she left I realized that I was really on my own and I think it all really started to hit. Ew. I went and got some food and then entertained myself until my flight took off. There were maybe 15 people on my flight, so I was able to get a seat with lots of leg room. It’s a quick flight to KCI from Chicago, and seeing the city and the countryside as we got closer felt bizarre. I never thought I’d see it so soon.

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covid-19

Obviously, traveling right now has pretty high stakes, especially through certain airports. After I made my choice to come home, I started preparing for the trip from a safety standpoint. I had tons of gloves that I wore and gave to my friends (they were terrible quality, so I’m glad I had lots!) who wanted them. We all had a mask. I made disinfectant wipes out of paper towels and cleaning supplies; I disinfected every inch of airport seats and my plane area that I colude reach, as well as my bags when I could. Each time a new pair of gloves was needed, hands were washed and then germ gel was applied and then we put gloves on. Hopefully it was enough!

Most other travelers seemed to have similar precautions, and everyone just seemed tired but grateful.

home…almost!

Arrival:

When I got to KCI, Johnny was waiting outside the doors for me in my car. They had double sealed the back of the car off with plastic wrap, which was obviously sealed inside. It was so hot and it literally felt like a sauna, which I suppose was good because it meant the seal worked! He also had protective gear on, and obviously stayed in his side of the bubble.

We left my luggage in the car for any germs to die over the quarantine period, and I’ll disinfect the outsides and everything inside obviously once this is all over.

Mom and Dad said hi from the deck, and I went into the trailer while John changed clothes and such in the basement and immediately went to shower, per our our house’s covid-19 safety protocol. A big part of my stress of coming home has been finding a place to quarantine; I didn’t want to quarantine under the same roof as anyone, just in case. Fortunately, mom and dad were really excited to find a trailer, and we’ll surely step up our road trip game after all of this is over with this addition.

into quarantine:

They worked so hard to get this trailer ready in 72 hours, and they even decorated it! It is really cute and has some of my stuff from my room, so it weirdly feels like home…just outside of home. I’m so, so grateful to them. I was adamant that I wouldn’t quarantine in a structure where anyone else was living, as I simply cannot handle the idea of infecting anyone, if I were to have/be carrying it. This is the best possible scenario, and they made it possible/it was their idea, and it was a good one!

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Without a doubt, this is the strangest experience – to be living in my parents’ driveway and see / interact with them, but to be sealed off from them and existing very separately is wild. I just want to give them each a really big hug. It’s also difficult to Percy, our dog, because he knows I am home and is so excited…but I cannot touch him, as any risk of me touching him and then someone else getting any infection if they were to pet him after is a risk too great. So, he is playing a fun game where he waits outside my windows in an effort to tempt me to play with him! It’s really cute, but also quite sad. I’m dependent on my family for pretty much anything, which is an interesting change of pace.

One of my aunts who lives out of town had been visiting, and they stopped by on their last day to say bye – which meant I got to see them from the trailer window! It was really nice, and I really really hope some of my other relatives me cousins can stop by when they’re in town during the rest of this quarantine.

As I’m sure most of us are experiencing, the days can get a little long. I’ll probably type out some sort of record of them in another post. I’m trying to keep myself busy; fortunately, I was so tired from traveling and all the stress of the suddenness and enormity of this move that I’ve been resting a lot, which kills a lot of time. We’re so lucky to the the space that we do, so I have plenty of space to roam. If I am to be out, Percy must be in (obviously).

~some thoughts~

In a way, this pandemic is a situation for which my dad, brother, and I have been preparing for over 9 years now. After mom was diagnosed with lupus and started having really severe flares and complications, flu season was almost like a drill for the measures/realities we as a society are (finally) taking now.

• Minimizing contact / socially isolating from the house (ie fine for us, not for mom, to go out but really have to watch contact IN/entering the house) – ✅
• Constant and vigorous hand washing – ✅
• constant anxiety and fear about accidental transmission – ✅✅✅!!!

Obviously, this is on a much more massive scale, and they’ve adopted new habits to adjust (which I will adopt once I’m out of the trailer!). Everything we’re doing is to protect mom, which means that everyone and anyone else John or Dad might interact with should be super safe (as is possible obvi) from any potential transmission!

• sanitizing anything that goes into the house (groceries, package, etc.)
• if we’ve left our property, clothes are to be changed in the basement and shoes are to be disinfected and removed in the garage.
• If you’re been around people / ideally outside the house, shower immediately.
• unless it’s a really special circumstance, people who don’t live here don’t get to enter the house…the porch, driveway, yard, and deck are fine to maintain distances, but inside is generally a no-go.

As I mentioned above, my friends and I took every possible measure we could think of to keep ourselves safe during travel, and thus our home communities…we’re all hoping it was enough.

The good news, in a way, is that as long as my mom stays healthy, I don’t have to be panicked about infecting anyone else through John or Dad, if they were to somehow pick anything up that I might have despite all of our best efforts. Again, if mom is safe, everyone else down the line should be okay from any of my possible contagions, at least. Phew!

I hope that everyone is doing okay and allowing themselves the time and space that they need to process all of this, as well as finding a balance to keep healthily busy! It’s hard. I’ve been thinking a lot about how this is the daily reality and speed of life for many, many people with compromised immune systems, and I’m working on my patience – with myself and with the world.

If anyone has been in a hospital or a school or an airport (or really in a public place) in the last two weeks, I genuinely hope that they avoid contact with any immunocompromised individuals / the elderly. If you have a deck or porch or something that means you can interact out of their living space from 6 feet away, use it and not the house! Social distancing / isolation means stop interacting with people outside of your home, unless necessary / unavoidable!!! pls listen! things were getting pretty ugly in Spain, and we’ve leapt past that here in the week I’ve been home. It’s been difficult to watch.

One of the hardest things is not being able to see my grandpa, especially since grandma/his wife just died in February. Ugh. But! Hopefully everyone who interacts with him is being conscientious so that I’ll get to see him safe and healthy soon.

I’ve been trying to read more, now that I have literally 24 hours a day for 15 days to fill. There are tons of history of medicine articules and such, as well as just generally books I’ve always meant to read. Sadly, one of the hinges on my computer got broken during the trip home while in my backpack, so I can’t really work on my research project. I’m hoping it’s fixable and we’re waiting for it to be safe for dad to work with it and see what he can do to salvage it. Stay tuned!