Yesterday I started writing a blog post titled “Social distancing? Don’t know her.” Today I deleted everything I had written because, as happens during a pandemic, things have changed in the last 24 hours.
I should start by saying that yes, I am still in Russia and yes, I’m hoping to stick around for as long as I can. That being said, we Fulbrighters received an email on Friday from the Bureau of Education and Cultural Affairs that authorized us to leave our host countries at our own discretion. As of today, several of my fellow scholars have purchased their tickets home and are leaving this week. Up until I opened that email, I had been virtually (and blessedly) untouched by the far reaches of the coronavirus. And honestly, in the three days that have passed since, things have been pretty normal. I sit in coffee shops and pretend to do work while I’m really just planning what I’ll have for dinner. The rock climbing gym is still open and I am continuing to be shamed by the eight-year-olds who climb longer/faster/harder than me. The snow is melting and the sky’s still blue and life goes on as ever.
But then today Olesya called me (as I was wrapping up several hours of lesson planning) to tell me the university is moving to distance learning. I don’t have any lessons for the next two weeks.
So while there aren’t any official reports of the novel coronavirus in Novosibirsk, the ragged edges of the pandemic are folding in on us. Today, universities closed. Yesterday, a woman sitting near me in the coffee shop was wearing disposable gloves. More people wearing masks, talk of elementary schools and gyms closing, flights getting canceled, so on and so forth until it all adds up to something.
If I’m here long enough to see what that something is, I feel reassured in knowing that I have so many people here and across Russia who are looking out for me. And if it happens that in a month, or a week, or tomorrow I find myself on a flight back to the goat rodeo you’ve all got going on the U.S., then I’ve got lots of quality quarantine time to look forward to with Betsy and Meg.
So in short, I’m grateful for my own health and the privileges that allow me to social distance. I’m grateful for the precautions people are taking in Novosibirsk before it’s too late. I’m grateful for some unexpected free time and I’m grateful to have such wonderful students to miss during that free time. And I’m grateful for that overused-but-helpful Harry Potter quote -- “What’s coming will come, and we’ll meet it when it does.”