Sometimes I have to take a step back and digest what is going on before I can write or talk about it. This is one of those times. There is so much to share with all of you and yet it all seems so insignificant with all that is going on in the world right now. Please know that I am not an expert on ANYTHING….what I am sharing are our current plans, my thoughts and feelings.
First thing I had to process prior to sharing was that we are not coming home to the USA on April 8th. This decision was not one that we made lightly. Believe it or not our flight on the 8th wasn’t actually canceled until around March 25th. Prior to the official flight cancellation and as shit started to get real world wide we had made up our minds that we were going to stay here and shelter in place. Instead of putting ourselves on mass transit to the airport, in the middle of the masses at the airport here and then the long customs lines back in the states we felt that our safest and healthiest option was to stay here for now. To be honest, as I type, we don’t have a return plane ticket to the states. One day at a time is our motto at the moment.
Housing: We were able to extend our stay at the same apartment we had already been in for 5 weeks, so that was amazing. We have the place rented until June 1st.
Visas: They are valid until the beginning of June. There is a process that we have investigated to get them extended if need be.
Another things that took a while to process what the loss of adventures and trips. I know we are not the only ones that have dealt with this and I recognize that people have lost way more during this pandemic than I have….the reality is that we all will continue to loose things the longer this goes on but I digress. When we got the call about FRC (FIRST Robotics Competition) being cancelled in Taiwan after we had been in country for 5 days it was a loss yet a relief. Something in me knew we had traveled there on borrowed time and if things were going to deteriorate I wanted to go home. At that point when I thought home the first place that came to my mind was Sydney. That is where we headed. Then it seemed like we had a couple week period when the cancellations kept coming. No FRC in Sydney,two competitions, gone. Then came the cancellation of our trip to Romania for a FTC (FIRST Tech Challenge) event. Not many people even knew about that trip. It was a typical Jerry Budd trip…..”so, what do you think about going to Romania?” type of thing once we were already in Australia. We were going to Transylvania for goodness sake!!!!! Then came the cancellation of FRC Championships in both Houston and Detroit. At that point we threw up our hands and went….do we go home or do we stay?
Notice I said home….interesting choice of words right? When you own one, you go back to it. When you don’t own one, where do you go? Did we fly back to Dallas and quarantine in an Airbnb for 2 weeks there? But then what? Where then? Will we be able to cross state boarders? All of this was unknown at that time. Do we fly to Dallas, clear customs and fly on to Missouri, Indiana, Michigan, Georgia or a number of other states where we have family and friends? Although we were adamant we were not going to stay with anyone just in case, but would it help to be in a state we were familiar with? It might be the only time during this journey that I missed having a “home” and it was really because it would have given us an anchor point.
The other thing that it has taken me time to process is the guilt I feel. I am not being flippant, but this remote lifestyle is our normal. We work 5 days a week doing a morning shift and an afternoon shift. We have lost the afternoon adventures out and about in the city, but we have miles of trails where we are, the river/harbor is 2 blocks away and there is a pool on the 27th floor of the building (which is now closed). The weather here is still in the upper 60s, 70s and sometimes 80s. We really aren’t suffering. I have no kids to get through eLearning, we are pretty self sufficient and we are used to remote communication with family and friends. Social distancing is our normal and we have continued to embrace it.
The other part of the guilt comes in when I look at the news. Yes, Australia has cases and yes they have had deaths, but the numbers are much less than they are in the US. I realize there are less people here and that some of the concerns here do not necessarily exist in the US, but to be honest the US numbers terrify me. If I am being honest I do have guilt that we are here and not there. We would be doing the right thing no matter where we were, but it just feels safer here and that is something that is really hard for me to say.
Current state of Australia:
- Today marks a week since I have left the apartment building (I am built for social distancing!)
- Grocery stores are still limiting the amount of certain things people can purchase, but things are pretty well restocked at this point (from what Jerry tells me)
- We are on a Level 3 quarantine/lock down I believe. Essentially we can leave our homes to go to the grocery store, chemist, medical treatment, walk/exercise. If you are stopped by a police officer and aren’t doing one of those things they can write you a ticket immediately for over $1,000.
- Some territories have closed their borders so you can’t cross from one to the other. This would be comparable to states closing their borders in the US.
- In one territory, where citizens are returning to Australia, the citizens are met at the airport, put on a bus, taken to a hotel and put in mandatory quarantine for 14 days. Like police office there, no going anywhere type quarantine.
- There is not a lot of community transmission of Covid-19 here. Most of the cases are from people who have traveled back to Australia from other countries or those they have come in immediate contact with. I believe I read a statistic the other day that half the cases in NSW (territory where we are) are related to cruise ships.
- Current total cases in Australia: 5,529
- Current death total in Australia: 30
- Current number of cases that have recovered: 636
In closing, be kind to one another.
Check in with people, even the strong ones. They probably aren’t okay right now.
The reality is by the time the worst of this passes we will have all lost something. The goal is for it to be as few human lives as possible.
We will never go back to “normal.” We are currently living through one of those history making events that we never thought we would see. What normal will look like is unknown and unknown is okay.
While these days may be lonely and they may be hard, don’t wish them away. Embrace them. We are still the lucky ones.
To those essential people making things somewhat normal for all of us…you are the real heroes and we see you and thank you will never be enough to show our appreciation!
Be Well! NB
