Lockdown in Belgium

Move to Europe, they said…. So many opportunities to travel, they said….

One of the best things about Belgium—that it’s close to everything—is now one of the worst. My sister and I had plans to meet in Paris for her kids’ spring break Tuesday—the day France went into lockdown, one day before Belgium also closed all nonessential businesses and shops, and asked people to please stay home.

By Tuesday morning, we knew we were about to go into lockdown. Schools were already cancelled and restaurants, bars, and shops were ordered to adjust their hours. We did a substantial stock up a few weeks ago preparing for my parents’ and sister’s visits, so we made the most of the rare nice weather and wandered down to Stockel Market. If I’m not in Paris, at least I can go to the market I guess. It was tense. Sometimes, as a foreigner, it’s hard to pick up on the nuances of nonverbal cues. Not in this case. The shopkeepers were noticeably tense. The flower guy added more flowers to our selection for free. “It’s better, because if we can’t open, I have to throw them away. We don’t know what will happen tomorrow!” he said.

“We’re all out,” the very friendly waffle lady waved us off, her usually cheerful face taut with worry, her jaw tense. The vegetable stand was well-staffed and efficient, asking customers to wait with plenty of space between them, but handing over produce and change without the usual pleasantries and quickly moving to the next person. It was all unusually quiet.

The kids asked for chocolate Easter bunnies at our favorite chocolate shop and I said no bunnies until Easter. The shopkeeper grimaced and said, “Anything you want for Easter, get it now. We close after today and who knows when we will reopen.” This particular lady is someone we see regularly and she is never particularly warm, so this was the most friendly conversation we’ve ever had. I bought a lot of chocolate.

Then we went home to await The Lockdown.

This is not actually our first time being quarantined or sheltering-in-place. I sheltered-in-place in Japan in 2011 after the earthquake and tsunami prompted the nuclear reactor to meltdown, watching the explosions on tv, waiting as the situation unfolded for whatever definitive information would tip the scales toward evacuating to Texas. Being pregnant with Isaac and having Chris emergency deploy to the disaster area is what did it in that case.

Then after Isaac’s heart surgery in 2013 he was unable to be around any kids or anyone with any kind of sickness. At that time we were alone and quarantined in our house for months and months.

So now, here’s what I’m happy about with the coronavirus lockdown:

1. We’re not in a hotel! I feel like we live in hotels half the time. Well, right now we AREN’T! We even have our own stuff in the house! It might be a mess, but it’s MY mess.
2. I don’t have to make Important Decisions—-Go? Stay? Radiation? Risk? T’inquiete pas! No worries—we can’t go anywhere anyway!
3. No one in our house is currently immunocompromised and in imminent danger of having to be rushed to the hospital if their temperature rises over 100 degrees (that was our situation in 2013)! No one is recovering from major surgery! We’re just…normal! At normal risk!
4. If we have to be stuck here, at least no one is stuck against their will away from home! Until five days ago, my totally fun parents were making life here a party, in advance of my dad’s work trip to London, which got corona-cancelled. They switched their plans around and ended up leaving the last day before the travel ban. Similarly, my sister and her party of six were initially not wanting to cancel their trip, but also did not want to get stuck in Belgium indefinitely. They cancelled when that became the obvious right decision.
5. While we are supposed to stay home as much as possible, people are encouraged to go outside to exercise! Today, after the official start of the lockdown, we followed recommendations—the kids rode bikes and we jogged down an old train track that’s been converted to a promenade. It was quite the place to be. Everyone tried to do the 1.5 meters of social distance, but it was not possible.
6. I am so thankful that kids aren’t the high risk group at this time. So very thankful.

Here’s what I’m not happy about with the corona virus lockdown:

1. I feel like Steven Colbert said it best: “It’s only March,” he said. “2020 has done the impossible: made me nostalgic for 2019.”
2. If we’re going to be on lockdown, I wish I were in my house in Hawaii. I can’t elaborate on that without feeling homesick.
3. Social distance is pretty much the LAST thing I would prefer right now! We just moved in three months ago. The kids were only just getting adjusted to their daily routines. Then went to Germany. Then Elo had a week off for Carnival. Then we had guests. The kids were already out of school from Halloween until the New Year. I really need more schedule and…you know…FRIENDS for personal sanity—more things on my plate, not less. And this could go on HOW LONG? Excuse me while I pull a Kermit the Frog and run around in a panic.
4. The Obvious: I don’t like anything about coronavirus. I hate for nursing homes to have to curb visits to protect people. That’s just terrible. All of it—I hate that people are worried, that people are dying, that people are sick, that everything is shut down, that the stock market is tanking. All the weird unknowns.
5. The whole reason we didn’t get another cat was to simplify travel. If we’re stuck home indefinitely, I want a dang cat. (Pounce died almost a year ago. I can’t talk about that yet either).

That’s the news from the Lockdown in Belgium. Here we are. Here we shall stay. Le sigh.