Switzerland, everyday, neighborhood

The coronavirus epidemic, which began in late January, has changed the daily lives of our couple.

My couple, who loves to travel, planned to travel many places in this country and return to Europe before leaving Japan. However, aside from travel, it reduced walking around the neighborhood and shopping in the city. At that time, the big reason was to avoid the annoyance of going to a Japanese hospital where you couldn’t speak well rather than the danger of the virus. I think I would have read a lot of English applications to get a job as a doctor, but the average Japanese doctors we met really hated communicating in English. For this reason, when we went to a hospital tolerable, our couple had trouble communicating, so they always sweat. The landscape of the neighborhood has also changed a lot. On the weekends, Kitano Ijinkan, which was crowded with tourists from China and Korea, was filled with some Japanese tourists and even felt lonely. At times when tourists were crowded, flies flew even to Starbucks, where it was necessary to wait in line.

However, the big change was my husband’s transfer to Switzerland. The plan to move to Switzerland, planned for the end of February, was postponed until mid-March, which was delayed by two weeks. At that time, the virus transmission in Korea and Japan was news, so the head office made an in-house policy that banned all business trips for about two weeks. And watching the news from Italy spreading in the meantime, our couple was relieved to see if the transfer was canceled, and shared the situation with the head office from moment to moment. It was nice that I could eat my favorite Japanese pork cutlet and udon for two weeks, but my husband worked from home and had to change all administrative schedules to fit the changed schedule, so I had a bleak day.

Schiphol Airport, where I transited on the day of entry, and Geneva Airport, which was my final destination, were not the bustling airports I remember. Empty immigration desks and closed restaurants and cafes greeted us. Unlike Japan, where wearing masks became commonplace, and Korea, which was experiencing a mask uprising, there were no people wearing masks here. Thermometers installed at immigration desks at airports in Korea and Japan cannot be found here.

Switzerland wanted to come back so much. Following the company’s policy of self-quarantine for two weeks after entering the country, a walk by the lake became a’rice cake’ for my husband. I feel like a chimney to meet my coworkers and schoolmates I’ve met after a long time, but I’m careful to contact them first. The common hoarding scene in Europe that we saw on the news was, fortunately, not found in our local supermarket. Since I’m at home all day, time goes slowly like a slug.

The view of Switzerland outside the window beyond the window is nothing different than five years ago when I left this place. Spring day in March. Clear skies, blue mountains, and lake gulls flying in the sky. But I’m not good at cutting because it’s been a long time since I’ve been working from home with my husband. On my first weekend in Switzerland, where I spend my daily life changed from the coronavirus, everything here is quite unfamiliar.

Thank you to the readers who have visited my brunch, which has been poorly written. Since then, I spent three busy months organizing my luggage, organizing work, and organizing my mind. I’m trying to write hard about the story of a neighborhood under the alpine sky.