A Coronavirus Update

And now, in a break from our regularly scheduled programming, we thought we’d provide you an update on how things are going here in Spain, which currently has the 5^th highest number of coronavirus cases in the world after China, Italy, Iran and South Korea. The Basque Country, where we live, has the third most cases in Spain, after Madrid and Catalonia. But fortunately for us, most of the cases are in the other two Basque provinces and the number of cases here in Gipuzkoa is less than 50 as of now.

We saw people wearing masks for the first time in the airports in Portugal 2 weeks ago, where there were no known cases at the time. Since we returned from our trip on February 28, we have slowly been refilling our refrigerator and cupboard. As we restocked, we started buying a few extra things here and there, yes, including toilet paper. Keep in mind, we don’t have a local Costco, and even if we did, we don’t have the space for too many extra supplies, especially perishables. Our refrigerator is not even full size. As avid news readers we knew things were going to change quickly day by day. So, last weekend I made a pot of soup and put most of it in the freezer. We continued our daily routines, going to the gym and Spanish classes, and I went to yoga as well. The virus was a topic of conversation and worry with everyone, but overall things were calm.

Ultimately, things were not that much different here than what has been going on in the US. Although we realized that it would be highly unlikely we would be traveling to Germany as planned the first two weeks of April, or to Seattle at the beginning of May.

This week, the energy began to intensify a bit. There was an intangible feeling of impending change and some unease, especially after the Italian government extended its shutdown to the whole country. Closures of schools were announced in various areas and events started to be suspended. Everything essentially started to come to a halt Friday (13 March) when both the national government and the regional Basque governments declared a state of emergency. At that point, my yoga studio shut down and we knew the gym would be next.

Last night, Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, explained what the state of emergency will mean for us here. The good news is we have been able to understand the news broadcasts and newspaper articles. Our Spanish has come a long way! The bad news is we will be staying in our apartment for the next two weeks at least, except to leave to buy food, other essentials, or the newspaper. We are fortunate that we have a balcony and there is a lot of natural light in our apartment – we get the afternoon sun. So, as long as the Wi-Fi works, we’ll do our best not to go too stir-crazy.

And now back to our regularly scheduled programming – posts about our trip in Portugal. Sadly, we know now that there won’t be any future posts about our forthcoming trips because they won’t be happening.

Keep calm and carry on washing those hands,

Shana & Jeff