A Lot Can Change in a Week

March 22, 2020

A Lot Can Change in a Week

When I wrote last week's post I was very aware of how quickly things were changing with respect to this pandemic. That being said, I expected that I would still be writing this week's post from my dorm room. This post, however, is being written from my couch back in Portsmouth, as I returned to the States on a redeye Wednesday night. The plan changed from me staying in Vancouver to coming back on Saturday not long after last week's post went out. We arranged new plane tickets, and I began to pack up things that would be staying in Vancouver in storage for the summer. Amy's mom had come up from California to drive Amy back, and as she packed up I began my first week of online classes, thinking I would have plenty of time to pack after she left on Wednesday. When I woke up on Wednesday, though, the first notification on my phone was a news report that the US-Canada border was closing. Shortly after waking up I was getting frantic texts from a lot of people, including my parents who were trying to get me on a flight as soon as possible so I would be back in the US while that was still an option. By midmorning I had a flight booked for that night, and my day that should have been full with classes was suddenly a hectic day of packing, cleaning, figuring out storage, trying to see everyone I needed to before leaving, and trying to hear my lectures over the sound of me vacuuming and moving furniture.

I was able to get all my things stored away with Amy's for the summer before they left late that afternoon, and then took my last few hours on campus to say bye to friends, have one last dinner in Open Kitchen, and watch one last Wreck Beach sunset for this school year. Later that evening I was off to the airport and on a plane to Toronto with my backpack, my guitar, and several suitcases.

I landed in Toronto early Thursday morning to see that I had been moved from my original flight at 8 am to a different flight at 3 pm. Not thrilled to be spending more hours traveling during the current situation, I made my way through the airport to US Customs and security to figure out what had happened. Thankfully, an Air Canada agent took a look at my tickets and was able to get me back on the early morning flight, although I soon realized why it had been changed in the first place. As it was already boarding time when I got through customs, I rushed to my gate, a little nervous when I didn't see anybody boarding. Convinced I had missed the boarding window, I went up to the desk, but the agent there just took my boarding pass, scanned it, and told me to have a nice flight. Confused, I walked to the plane and noticed that I was the only person on it. A flight attendant personally walked me to my seat and got it set for me, and I got my suitcase stowed and sat down. A few minutes later, a few other people got on the plane for a total of five passengers. It seems people have mostly been cooperating with the "no non-essential travel" rule, because the five of us were not joined by any other people. We made it to Boston a little while after, and while I'm grateful to have been able to get on the earlier flight, I'm sure it was quite the waste of fuel. Unfortunately, my bags had already been on their way to the later flight when I got put back on the earlier one, so I didn't have some of my luggage until it was delivered Friday morning. Thankfully I'm used to having my luggage lost at this point, and tend to plan ahead and pack the essentials in my carry-on.

Since returning to Portsmouth on Thursday I have been trying to do schoolwork (somewhat of a failure as I have no motivation and am constantly distracted), spending time with my brother and parents, and social distancing, as I suppose (and hope) we all are. It hasn't been particularly fun, but this is not fun for anyone, and I hope that our collective efforts make this period of no fun as short as possible. I was crushed to have to leave school early and on such short notice, but I'm incredibly grateful for my first year at UBC and all the wonderful people and memories it brought into my life.