O’Hareeeee no

Spain 2020 1 Minute

March 14, 2020

If you saw the news this weekend you may have seen a story or two about the long lines in major US airport as people were getting screened for the virus. WELP. That was me. After a redeye from Bilbao to Munich and then 10 hours from Munich to O’Hare I found myself in the inexcusable mess that was the customs and health screening process. All in all it took 6 HOURS between getting off the plane and exiting to the baggage claim. I can rant on and on about how awful this was and how paranoid I was the whole time (everyone around me were coming from Germany or the UK or France, not a hotspot like Northern Spain, I was constantly worrying if I was asymptomatic) but now I am just happy to be safely home and through that whole ordeal. I am so incredibly grateful for my dad who was waiting for 7 hours to drive me home to Madison.

First views of the US of A
One cool thing was that my tweet of the crowd did make a dent in the Twittersphere and a BBC reporter actually contacted me for my statement, still waiting to see if my bland, un-dramatized version of the story is posted anywhere.
Emerging from luggage claim

I avoided human contact as much as I could throughout the night and am now in 14 days of self-isolation/quarantine in my house. I am allowed in my bedroom, the upstairs bathroom, and the front living room. Right now both my parents are working from home as an extra precaution.

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Published by Katherine

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