I’m all over the place.
I can’t focus because too much is happening too fast—yet for millions of people around the world, life is on pause.
Being abroad and alone during a global crisis is a strange experience. It’s frustrating because like many immigrants, I’d like to be in different places at the same time—in Canada with Feng and Mark, in France with my family—yet I’m fully aware my mere presence wouldn’t change a thing. I mean, don’t count on me for a COVID-19 vaccine, I can’t even follow a box cake mix recipe.
This is the second time I’m in an unlikely place during a major world event, by the way—I was working in Hong Kong when, one night, my roommate barged into the apartment and announced a plane had crashed into the World Trade Centre.
“Huh… it’s still standing right here,” I remember saying, pointing to Kowloon’s World Trade Centre building in the distance.
Hey, don’t judge, I was 18.
Tomorrow is my last day in Santiago. I’m flying back to Canada on Thursday—not a last-minute decision, that’s the date I picked originally. I hope everything goes as planned because, well… you’ve been reading the news as well, right?
Everything was more or less under control under it spiralled out of control around the world a few days ago.
Suddenly, I felt the need to reach out to my loved ones and talk about what was going on even though I knew it would be an echo chamber because no one had any idea what was going on.
I tried to guess how bad it was based on Feng’s tone. He doesn’t have the Mediterranean or Latino “let’s freak out together” gene. He is rational with a scientific mind. He believes in numbers, data, and probabilities. He is that guy who doesn’t get ripped off when exchanging money at the border.
Feng sounded exhausted and stressed out, mostly because of lineups in supermarkets. “People are crazy,” he sighed.
Then I called my mom who admitted she was scared—not so much of the virus itself but of the measures and lack of measures taken. Like all French, she went to work as usual on Friday, she was asked to go vote on Sunday (… only in France!) and now, as of Tuesday, she must be carrying a paper stating why she is leaving her apartment.
I talked to a few friends, all of them fairly level-headed but also confused and kind of lost because so much had changed so fast. All of them are scrambling to find childcare options, groceries, info, work-from-home solutions, a routine… and for how long?
Canada told Canadians to go home. Just as well, I was going to and Chile has just closed its borders (leaving the country isn’t an issue as far as I understand).
The atmosphere is weird in Santiago. “El virus” seemed to be far, far away until yesterday, but the President closed the school and kind of scared everyone by moving to “phase 4.” It’s still mostly business as usual but it’s hard to tell what’s “business as usual” these days in Santiago because of the ongoing protests and the impact they had on the city.
Like all over the world, people bought pasta, toilet paper and cleaning products. No major shortage and craziness though, the shelves were mostly full again today and lineups are very reasonable.
I’m not scared, I’m anxious.
We’re all in limbo.
Yep things are crazy, but trying not to let anxiety take over too much.
Hope everything goes well and you have safe flight on Thursday.
Thank you 🙂
Hope you get home okay and that your travel is safe and easy. It’s such a weird time and no one knows what to do or how to act. I’ll feel better knowing you are back in Canada!
Aawww… thank you 🙂
Done, the terrestrial border between Canada and U.S. is closed for non essential travellers. But reports are lacking information, I can’t understand if all cargo are exempted or if only specific kind of cargo are allowed through the border.
We’ll see.
It’s about bloody time! I mean, I strongly believe in freedom of movement but it just didn’t make sense in this context. And I hate the narrative, “in friendship we decided to close the border…” For fuck’s sake, Trump is a moron, just close the damn border and don’t make a huge deal out of it!
Thing is, Legault seems to be more serious than Kenney, so closing the border with just the U.S is not enough. Canada should even restrict inter provincial travels.
I think it’s being considered. Non-essential travel is banned in the North… read that somewhere.
How about you, still working?
Yes, I delivered in Eau Claire, WI, reloaded the same day for Toronto, delivered Friday morning and reloaded again the same day near Toronto for Saskatoon. But I don’t know what’s coming.
Just look, in Alberta, due to almost 50 years of irresponsible management by the regressives, the local economy is tied to oil, and the Alberta oil barrel price is under $10, which means it costs more to extract a barrel than to sell it. So, obviously, all the industry is going to stop.
Moreover, the Canadian dollar has fallen very low, so I won’t buy the trailer I wanted. However, there is an auction next month, maybe I’ll buy a second hand B-train, if the price stays under $25000, to haul only in Canada, in case the border closes. I’ll have to check the situation with my dispatches.
Yeah, economy-wise, things don’t look good for Canada. But health-wise, things look worse for the US, so…
My Tax-Free Saving Account got killed too and I’m pretty much out of work. It sucks.
Travel safe!
Thank you! Made it, story of the trip to come 😉