- Countries Visited: 32
- Travel Wishlist: Jordan, Azores, Indonesia, South-Africa, Iceland, Slovenia
- Locked down in: The Netherlands
“Friday I discovered that I was part of the second wave. I was part of the number of infected people with Covid. The number was 7272 on Friday. I was one of them.“
Original post published November 8th
Friday November 6th. It’s around 8.30 AM and I’m constantly logging in on our governmental website to discover the outcome. Yesterday I went for my first Covid test. It was a bit uncomfortable, but nothing seriously harmful. There are worse things in the world.
Someone in my close circle was recently tested positive for Covid. Two days later I got some fever and a cough, so I decided to get tested. On Friday I opened the page for the fifth time. And there it was: you’ve been tested positive for Covid. Ten days in quarantine. My boyfriend was with me the past couple of days, so (luckily) he is joining me in this little lockdown.
I’m working as a school psychologist for an organization with 14 primary schools and 8 high schools. During the first lockdown in March I discovered that I can adjust most of my work activities from physical to online. Of course, it’s much harder to do the counselling and treatment online, but we have to adjust in these times. But for some students it’s sometimes easier to talk to a screen than to look a real person in the eyes. For me, one advantage was that I didn’t have to commute anymore. It saved me a lot of time!
Let’s go back to March in Holland. In January we heard about this virus. It wasn’t that serious yet, we weren’t worried. But then it went really fast. The first person with covid-19 was diagnosed in the end of February. March 11th it was recognized as a pandemic. On March 15th we heard that the schools were going to close the next Monday and a week later we were in an intelligent lockdown. It all went really fast. In retrospect, it appeared that the virus spread rapidly during carnival festivities in the south of our country.
Everything was closing down: the restaurants, cafés, shops, hairdressers, schools, gyms, museums, and so on. You could go outside for a small walk, doing groceries or walking your dog. We had to work from home, unless you couldn’t. You didn’t need to bring a note when you were going outside, like in other countries. We just had to follow the guidelines and be smart. To protect our citizens at risk, the elderly and to prevent that our health care would not be overburdened. We had and still have a few simple rules: wash your hands with soap often, keep 1.5-meter distance to other people and work from home as much as possible. If you get symptoms, get tested. Cough and sneeze in your elbow. Don’t visit busy places.
For me it was all pretty clear. I didn’t know what to think about this situation, but it sounded really serious. I decided to follow these guidelines as much as possible. In the Netherlands there are some people, like in every country, who didn’t support this approach. We had our fair share of demonstrations and discussions on television.
Me and my boyfriend were locked inside from March 16th till June 1st. We created new habits. We wanted to prevent those corona kilograms adding to our bodies, so we started to do some home workouts. The Sweat app from Kayla Itsinis and the workouts from ClassPass were our friends. We ate healthier and we played a lot of games. Disney+ and Netflix didn’t disappoint us either. We supported local businesses by buying gift cards and ordering food. I also had a corona birthday on May 23rd. My bf organized a schedule with visits to my parents, his parents and two close friends. When I came back home some of my other friends decorated my place and organized this mini-surprise party. During the past roughly 10 years I established a tradition of a birthday barbecue, but during this crisis it was impossible to organize this. But my friends brought me a little party during this time of challenge and change. I love my bf and friends for that (not the only reason).
We also took this time to start our search for a new home. And with success. We bought a house during this crisis and we are moving in July 2021. I’m so grateful for this purchase.
In June the schools and restaurants were opening again, but with restrictions. Everything got adjusted so we could maintain our 1.5-meter distance. Still no parties and festivals. Apart from that the summer turned kind of back to normal. It was so strange to see. The beaches were full, people were out and about again, like nothing ever happened. I kind of kept my guard up. People around me were flying to Greece and other countries, but we decided to rent a campervan and travel the Netherlands. This sounds really spoiled, but I think this was my biggest challenge. Accept the fact that travelling around the world is no option in 2020. We had a holiday in Nepal planned in May, plans for Indonesia during summer and somewhere in Europe in October. Now we were travelling our little country. But it surprised me and we had a wonderful time of travelling the north of Holland in our sweet little campervan.
Currently the second wave is happening. There is a lot of pressure on health care and some guidelines are added. We need to wear a mouth mask inside public areas now. It’s not regulated by law (yet), but most people follow this guideline. Unfortunately, the restaurants, cafes, museums, libraries and pools have closed again and it’s not allowed to exercise in groups.
Friday, I discovered that I was part of the second wave. I was part of the number of infected people with Covid. The number was 7272 on Friday. I was one of them. My boyfriend got tested to. He isn’t one of them. But we still have to survive this second mini lockdown. We already ordered our groceries at the supermarket and our veggies & fruit is already delivered by our local greengrocer. How are we going to manage the rest? Do we keep our distance in the house? Can we prevent that I infect my boyfriend? What do we want? I will let you know in two weeks.
Much love from my little quarantine home in Rotterdam,
Allyssia
UPDATE December 20th
My life in lockdown 2.0
Since Tuesday we are in a new lockdown. The number of people positively tested with covid-19 is rising. So the government decided to close the schools again, all the non-essential stores and limit the movements of people. So no movie theaters, no swimming pools, no working out in the gym, work as much at home as possible and so on. With Christmas you can have three people over and apart from Christmas they limit the visits to two people per day.
My own covid story ended up to be alright. I had a light fever for two days, I had a bad cold, I wasn’t able to smell or taste anything and I had a bad cough. With these symptoms I was able to do my work from home. We are now 5 weeks ahead in time from that point. I still don’t smell everything, mostly smelly things. So I’m ok with that, haha. My taste is back, but not every flavor is that intense as before. My biggest struggle is my fatigue. It is getting better, but on most days I still need an afternoon nap. At first that nap lasted 4 hours, now I can manage with a 1 or 2 hour nap. I still need my rest midday to finish al my work effectively.
It is a difficult time for all of us. I feel grateful that I’m feeling alright again, that I didn’t get really sick and that my recovery is going well. I started working out again (this will be from my living room again starting today) and I feel better already. I hope this lockdown will bring a lot of workouts, Netflix moments, good food with Christmas and happy (online) times with my boyfriend, friends and family. I wish everyone a lot of strength to try to make this time as wonderful as possible. Find your happiness in the small things and pay attention for the people around you who struggle. Spread a little love.
