Summer 2021

Daejeong, le 24 mars 2021

I have just ended a video call with our good friends Chantal and Mario. They’re in Montréal discussing their summer plans. Normally, while on vacation, we would be spending some time together. We would be traveling to Québec and to Saskatchewan to see our people;

Normally…

This virus thing is lasting too long. Last summer, even though we had to quarantine two weeks arriving in Canada AND two weeks when coming back to Korea, we still went. While respecting the social distancing, we did see our daughters, our grand-children, Stephanie’s mother, brother and sisters, nieces and some of our friends. After deciding to sell our house, we also decided to go back to Montréal during the Christmas holidays to start the process.

Being there last summer, we reserved a chalet for the summer of 2021 for almost four weeks. This place is in the country facing a narrow river where we may play in the water and hop in the kayaks. The surrounding land is large enough for our family to visit. The house is large enough to receive our friends for meals and laughter.

Normally…

Of course, we never imagined that, in the summer of 2021, we would still be under COVID-19 restrictions. Most probably, we will not have the vaccine in time. It seems more than probable that quarantine will still be mandatory there and here. Limitations will still be in effect to the number of people able to meet.

Chantal and Mario need to schedule their vacation weeks. They would also like to rent a chalet but because travel is still off, availability is scarce and prices have rocketed. They would also like to come visit us here in Korea.

Normally…

We still don’t know what we will do during the summer of 2021. Will we go or will we stay? Four more weeks of quarantine? Is it possible to bring some of our people here for part of the summer? Conditions are very strict, time is lost in quarantine. What to do?

What is the “normal” now?