I’m almost surprised I’m still in France four weeks after Air France kindly let me board AF457 in São Paulo and dropped me off Paris, the only option left after Air Canada cancelled my return ticket from Brazil and most routes all over the world.
I’ve been living out of my backpack for four months now. What should have been a three-month trip to Brazil turned into a one-way trip to Brazil—I swear I tested negative when I left!—then into an unplanned one-way trip to France.
Mark and Feng are stuck on one side of the Atlantic Ocean and I’m stuck on the other side—I’m using the word “stuck” for lack of a better term because while technically I may be able to find a flight to Canada and I’m legally allowed to enter the country, travel restrictions in both countries make the trip pretty tricky.
It’s been a while since I’ve been able to predict anything accurately so I stopped making plans. “One day at a time” is the motto for the three of us. When I arrived in France, we were feeling cautiously optimistic. Surely, things would get better in Canada by spring.
We were wrong.
Apparently, things can still get worst.
Ontario entered a new lockdown on April 3 at the same time as France, basically shutting down non-essential businesses once again. After that came a stay-at-home order. Then, six days ago, Ontario closed schools across the province and moved to online learning “indefinitely.”
“What does ‘indefinitely’ means, mom?”
“It means that we don’t know when schools will open again.”
“But what I am going to do? I’m so bored! Every day is the same, I don’t have anything to do!”
Feng looked completely stunned when he called me on Friday night. New restrictions had just been added amid dire COVID-19 projections—currently, the province is recording an unprecedented high of 4,500 new cases daily, but modelling warns it could see over 18,000 new COVID-19 cases per day by the end of May.
“Okay, so where do I start… New restrictions were tightened. New policing powers, checkpoints between Ontario and Manitoba/Quebec, toughest stay-at-home order ever, I can’t buy Mark fucking rain boots and all aisles except food and personal care products—and shelves are empty—are blocked off. No playing outside, no driving around, no curbside pickup, just fucking stay home. For six weeks. At least.”
Comparatively, I have it easy. Lockdown v.3.0 isn’t the strict national lockdown of a year ago that kept most French indoors. Streets are lively, I can go out freely and I don’t feel too lonely even though I miss Feng and Mark. The 7 p.m. curfew is ridiculous, but I break it every night, so whatever. French definition of what’s considered “essential” now includes bookstores, chocolate and flower shops, hair salons and any business selling food—I wish I could buy clothes because I actually need a couple of t-shirts (remember that I packed for tropical Brazil, not France…) but it’s a minor inconvenience.
Feng went from concerned, patient and pragmatic in 2020 to exasperated in 2021. “I can’t work and I can travel. I’m wasting my life here and Mark is wasting his childhood.”
“I just… I’m sorry, I don’t even know what to say anymore,” I sighed. “I don’t even understand how Ontario can get that many cases considering there’s almost no international travel and vaccination efforts are underway. Yeah, variants, whatever. At this stage I’m almost willing to believe in conspiracy theories—basically pandemic will end when government says so. I just find it hard to believe Canadians are just going to shut up and stay home with nothing to do for yet another six weeks after a long, boring winter.”
I’m worried. I’m worried about Mark because it’s not healthy for an eight-year-old kid to grow up in isolation and by the way, online learning is bullshit. I’m worried about Feng because staying home got old a long, long time ago. As for me, I’d like to go home at one point and I’m tired of having to choose where I’m being locked up.
Many COVID restrictions and rules feel completely useless now. At least, last year we were “flattening the curse for a few weeks” and hoping for a vaccine. Now we have several options but I’m willing to bet that getting the population vaccinated still won’t be enough because officials will claim it’s not efficient enough or that “transmission still occurs” or whatever—but hey, it’s perfectly fine, just stay home, order online, study online, meet people online, what are you complaining about?
Where is the fucking light at the end of the tunnel?
So, I guess I’m not flying back to Canada this April, eh.
> Where is the fucking light at the end of the tunnel?
Remember in january when they were telling us there WAS a light at the end of the tunnel ?
Turns out it was a runaway train at full speed.
Merci, j’ai explosé de rire dans le tram en lisant ça 😆
This truly sucks, I know. I just returned to Portugal after nearly 4 months in Canada. But apparently I picked the best 4 months because I just had “regular” quarantine and not expensive hotel quarantine, and was there with relative freedoms (restaurants and shops were open) while Portugal was in lockdown. Canada was doing pretty well at the time. I managed to leave once Canada’s cases went up and Portugal’s cases went down. It’s reopening now and I have more freedoms in Portugal, the pendulum swung the other way.
I kept moving my KLM flight because I was trying to get my dad vaccinated. That didn’t happen until March 16, and then I rebooked my flight for the 4th time to get home after what was supposed to be a one-month trip. I left in December with a cabin bag, about 5 changes of clothing, and ended up staying and staying.
I feel badly for you, having had the opposite situation and the restrictions not in your favour. There’s no way anyone could’ve predicted which way it would go.
My husband was working at home this whole time and also frustrated and supremely bored. He’s now interested in joining me in a new office I’m setting up downtown for me and the other freelancers I work with, just for a change of scenery. We’re even bringing the dog, who was also bored!
I read your post when you left to Canada and I read the return one just a few days ago, with neighbours greeting you with “merry Christmas, happy New Year, happy Easter” and so on. Somehow, I also ended up following what was going on in Portugal because when the country entered lockdown, flights with Brazil were suspended and I met quite a few people stranded like me in Brazil while newspapers in Brazil were reporting about stranded Brazilians in Portugal.
I still feel lucky, I managed to be in Brazil when things were okay-ish and this lockdown in France isn’t too bad. I had no idea things were going to get worse in Ontario, though, I really thought I’d be able to travel back more easily in the spring.
I feel like I’m in a giant escape game…
According to this article you can fly to Buffalo, or another close to the border city, and take a cab across the border, after taking a covid test, and then you can quarantine at home. This method avoids the expensive and unpleasant hotel quarantine that you would get if you fly directly to Canada.
https://www.fr24news.com/a/2021/04/u-s-taxi-services-see-business-grow-to-help-canadians-avoid-hotel-quarantine.html
“Buffalo Limousine charges around US $ 120 to drive a couple from the Buffalo Airport across the border to Fort Erie, Ont., Or Niagara Falls, Boccio said. A trip to downtown Toronto costs around US $ 300.”
Although it seems like forever, things should be nearly normal by summer. I have had my Pfizer shot and nearly 30 % of Saskatchewan people have been vaccinated. All of the provinces and the Feds are sending help to Ontario so I hope that the situation gets better there soon.
Wishing you luck!
Thank you Alan! I’m glad you got your shot, stay healthy 😉
I had considered going through the US when I was stuck in Brazil but there’s a travel ban for any non-American flying from Brazil or the European Union, so right now I can fly to the US from France. I was hoping restrictions may be lifted… we’ll see how it goes.
Hello Juliette
Concrètement tu n’as pas le droit de rentrer au Canada ou bien tu as le droit mais via une quarantaine ?
Bonjour Cécile,
J’ai le droit de rentrer en tant que citoyenne canadienne, c’est la logistique et les mesures qui rendent ça difficile :
– La quarantaine-hôtel chère (et peu sûre pour moi, on y chope… la COVID))
– Le risque que je sois envoyée en centre de quarantaine fermé pour 14-24 jours (parce que j’habite avec Feng et Mark)
– Les vols annulés à répétition (peu de gens voyagent au Canada vu les conditions d’entrée)
– Les dernières mesures très restrictives avec interdiction de se déplacer et de sortir de chez soi (j’arriverai à Montréal ou Toronto, il n’y a plus de bus Greyhound, Feng peut difficilement faire la route)
Ah oui effectivement c’est vraiment mal barré… et question bête mais tu as songé à faire venir tes 2 hommes en France ? Au moins vous seriez ensemble …
Oui, mais :
1) Les frontières de la France sont fermées, donc pas sûr que Feng puisse rentrer sans moi (il n’a pas la nationalité canadienne)
2) Mark reste scolarisé au Canada (même si en ligne actuellement)
3) La peur d’être coincés en France à trois, aucune garantie que même avec les semaines on puisse rentrer au Canada sans trop de problèmes (la quarantaine-hôtel à trois, budget de 3,000 $ ou plus…)
Online learning is fucking crazy. We are all tired. All doing the best we can. I am trying to be an optimist that hoping by August, kids will go back to school but nothing will be normal like before.
I actually hesitated to bitch about online learning because I thought about your family who just didn’t have a choice considering the situation. I’m not implying that kids aren’t learning anything, just that this format is hard for both parents and kids (and you gotta hope teachers are comfortable with online tools and resources… which isn’t always the case and it’s not their fault because they don’t get any support!)
You can bitch about online learning. We bitch about it LMAO! Yes even in our situation, it still sucks. I am not sure about other schools, but in my son’s school, it has been a battle because teachers were clearly treating online learning kids differently than in person (even now that all kids are online, the assignments show differently….it is a whole drama on it) I know teachers are doing their best, but it is tough. I hope my kid goes back to school in August. We all need it.
It’s probably better when you opted for online learning, as far as I understand you have teachers dedicated to it. It’s even more of a mess when teachers have to switch from in-person to online!
Actually no, we don’t have teachers assigned only to remote learning. My son school is public, so the board made the in class teachers do both, online and in person, and it has been a fucking mess. The board lied and said they would find teachers only for online, and then they said oh well we could not find any so teachers are resourceful and in class teachers can do both with only a few fucking days notice !!! My hair started to go gray because of those fuckers. The Catholic school in our town has teachers assigned to online learning. Those kids were lucky. That’s why we decided to move to Catholic school. I’m sure they have their own issues too.
Oh no! I did believe what the board said, I thought there were teachers dedicated to online learning as promised. Shit. Yeah, that can’t possible work smoothly… it’s a mess for kids, parents and teachers who definitely aren’t trained and supported for online learning.
Even my sons who are clearly NEVER alone tell me that they miss their friends… I can’t imagine how hard it must be for an only child. (They have started meeting their friends online for games after the school day. It’s not great for their screen time moderation, but hey, that’s not a battle I’m willing to fight anymore!)
Mark plays online with friends as well (Minecraft and Roblox). A few months ago, the fact we let him do it was a novelty and he loved the “perks” of school closures. But it got old a long time ago, I think at one point he even said he was sick of the tablet (!).