Quarantined in Spain – What a difference a week makes!

We will take a break from our regularly scheduled programming (in our blog world, we are still enjoying a week in the snow in Finland), to share a bit about life here in Spain in the midst of the COVID-19 coronavirus outbreak.

Spain has suddenly emerged as the 2nd worst hit country in Europe behind Italy. As of today, March 15, Spain had about 7,700 known cases and almost 300 deaths. A week ago, life was pretty normal (toilet paper and meat in full supply at the grocery store, only thing hard to come by was hand sanitizer). However, just one week later, we are sitting in our apartment in southern Spain in lockdown. School is closed, all the bars, restaurants, stores, municipal buildings, playgrounds and beaches are also closed. We can’t go outside to take a walk or ride our bikes. We are unable to leave for anything other than to go to the pharmacy or grocery store.

So without further ado, here is the timeline of our descent into quarantine…(our next blog post will most likely document our descent into madness)…

Monday

The arrival (of family, not the virus)

The week started with my parents flying over for their annual trip to visit us. This time, they brought along my aunt and uncle, in one of their first trips outside of the US (needless to say, it is a trip they won’t forget!). Life was pretty normal when they landed in Madrid on Monday, and they spent the day touring around and visiting Madrid’s famous sites (no worry at that point, despite Madrid being the hardest hit city for the coronavirus in Spain).

Tuesday – Wednesday

Playing the tourist

My parents and aunt and uncle took a bus down from Madrid to us on Tuesday morning, and we enjoyed a few fairly relaxed days showing them around our town, with the coronavirus news just in the background of everyday life.

Thursday

BOOM! The poop hits the cooling device!

As C was dropping the kids off at school, news broke that they found 5 cases of coronavirus in our small town – the first in all of the Granada province. The cases in our town were all healthcare workers – hinting at the fact that there were obviously some sick people walking around town with the virus. As news spread, some arriving parents literally did a 180 and took their kids straight home.

Undeterred, C went to the local gym. After 15 minutes he was kicked out as the town issued a decree closing all public facilities immediately. They don’t have authority over the schools, however, so the kids stayed in school.

From the gym, C went to the local supermarket and witnessed chaos! Long lines, tons of people and empty shelves. Okay, now this was starting to get serious.

Meanwhile, messages were flooding in from all of the class and activity WhatsApp group chats. Swimming cancelled. Tennis cancelled. Track cancelled. Robotics cancelled. Then, the hammer blow – all soccer cancelled! Spain without soccer!? Now, we were beyond serious! This was real. Having been skeptical, we now realized an Italy-style quarantine was coming. Small apartment? Three young boys? Two weeks of quarantine? What’s the answer? We ran out and bought a PlayStation!

Meanwhile, in a town where tourism reigns supreme, the town (minus municipal buildings) still largely went about its business…for now! We kept the kids in school all day (we figured they had already caught any germs that were to be caught in school by then!). We took my aunt to a nice local restaurant for lunch to celebrate her birthday.

We headed to the roof bar of a local hotel to watch the sunset. We strolled around town (keeping a social distance from strangers).

Our phones continued to blow up as news came in. After hundreds of messages of misinformation – bad advice (hold your breath to test if you have the virus), fake rumors (a Chinese woman in town commit suicide because of the virus) and false alarms (we got more than one “fake” note about the school shutdown), the official notice of school closing finally came in very late on Thursday night. In fact, the final verdict was that school for all Andalucia would be cancelled starting the next Monday. School was in session for Friday. However, on top of that news immediately came some correspondence directly from the school, basically saying that though school was on, in light of the fact that there was a confirmed case in town, think carefully before sending your kids. So basically – don’t send your kids!

Friday Morning

The calm after the storm, but also before the real storm.

We woke up Friday morning with no new news so C went to a workout at his gym (a private one, so still open – though he was one of only two people who showed up), and then C and I took a nice bike ride (good social distancing activity!).

Then, we headed to a local bar for some tapas. We sat outside, fairly clear from others, and felt like everything was going to be okay. My parents and aunt and uncle had plans to visit a scenic neighboring town the next day, then do an olive oil tour on Monday. We moved on to another restaurant for lunch in the town center, once again opting to sit outside far from other diners. After lunch, my parents and aunt and uncle headed home for a siesta, with plans to meet up at our place later.

Friday Afternoon

The plans change

While my parents and aunt and uncle were at their place taking a siesta, I caught up on the news, and at that point, the Spanish president had declared a “State of Alarm” (no that isn’t a mis-translation of a “State of Emergency” it is actually a different term, and a declared “State of Emergency” is a different thing).

There were no definitive actions associated with the State of Alarm on Friday, the details would be confirmed on Saturday, and likely would include a restriction of movement for at least 15 days. Since my aunt and uncle were supposed to leave the following Tuesday from Madrid (my parents were scheduled to stay until the end of March), I was beginning to get a little concerned.

Knowing it would be difficult to get my aunt and uncle to Madrid after the restriction of movement began, I called my parents just before 6pm to suggest my aunt and uncle try to leave right away. I immediately began trying to figure out if we could get them to Madrid (and on a plane out of the country) before the restrictions started. I went into panicked planning mode and managed to book them new flights to leave the next morning (because Delta’s “fare difference” was a joke – it was cheaper to buy them new flights and cancel their old ones than it would have been to rebook paying “only the fare difference”!!), got them tickets on the last train from Malaga to Madrid that evening, and researched alternatives on getting them from the Madrid train station to the airport, in case taxis weren’t available. By 7:30pm, they were driving the hour from our house to the Malaga train station.

Saturday

The partial lockdown

My aunt and uncle made it on a plane in Madrid on Saturday, had a quick layover in Amsterdam, and arrived late Saturday night in Atlanta. Saturday, was the first day of the ban of passengers from Europe (US citizens were allowed but subject to (alleged) mandatory screening and self-quarantine). However, when they actually arrived in Atlanta, they were only given a little form to fill out (then not actually collected), asked a few questions (like had they been to China – hello, since they are pretty much over the virus there, that is probably the safest place to be right now! I think they need to update their questions!), then sent on their way, free to pass along any germs they may have picked up in the 2nd worst hit country in Europe. (I know they are careful, but just to point out the complete lack of checks…)

Meanwhile, back here in Spain – on Saturday morning, I decided it would be a good idea to head to the grocery store around 9:15, just after its 9am opening time. When I arrived, the grocery store was fully stocked but already jam packed with people. I was able to get everything I needed, even things that had been sold out when I went the afternoon before (which is why I went back again). The milk was already pretty picked over and they were out of whole wheat flour, but there was plenty of meat and fresh fruit and vegetables. I messaged my parents advising them to head to the store right away as well. They actually had all of the checkout lanes open (if that isn’t the sign of the apocalypse in Spain, I don’t know what is!), so I was out pretty quickly, but by the time I left, there was a security guard at the door, telling the people they couldn’t go in until someone came out.

We stuck around home for the rest of the day, seeing friends for a little while (okay, while that wasn’t illegal, it was certainly frowned upon – don’t tell the local facebook group on us please!), then hanging out with my parents as we waited to get the final decree on the State of Alarm.

Through it all, our little touristy town was still buzzing with people walking around. However, there was a notable greying of the people on the street. We quickly realized why, as all the locals were in their houses and it was only the tourists walking around (who are typically retired northern-Europeans) and might not know what’s going on.

Sunday

Day One – Total Lockdown.

This morning we woke up to a quiet street. C had planned a bike ride in the morning before the quarantine took effect on Monday. However, it seemed the quarantine was moved forward to today, and they were quickly stopped by the Civil Guard, who told them bike riding wasn’t permitted, and told to return home.

So, here we sit today. As we sit on our balcony, there is a little bit of activity in the streets, a few cars and a few people walking around (though the Civil Guard was parked down the street from us, and we have seen them stop quite a few of the people (though cryptically, not all of them)). We watched as a couple walked by a man who started coughing, and they quickly moved away.

So, that is where we are today in Spain. We are sad to not have a yard for the boys to play in, but we will try to make full use of the rooftop and garage to move around. The boys are playing on the new PlayStation 4, and all is calm for now. But, check in on us in another week, and we will see.

Finally, here are some general observations about the quarantine for us in Spain…

• I’m getting lots of chances to improve my Spanish by reading our local facebook groups, where residents, following the guidelines by staying in their house, are complaining ferociously about 1) the Madrid citizens who took advantage of their quarantine to come to the beach and infect the rest of us and 2) the clueless foreigners who continue to walk around and enjoy their holiday

• The boys are supposed to get assignments from their teachers every day while they are home. Let’s see how that works!

• C is complaining that everyone talks too loud, and is definitely going to lose his marbles being cooped up in a small apartment with all of us
• Our balcony, overlooking the sea and also the main paseo – the walkway along the beach through town, will keep us sane. The sea is always calming, and we can watch the Civil Guard stop people who are walking by.
• My parents were scheduled to leave on March 30, but it is anyone’s guess how long they will have to stay. The flight they planned ot take has already been cancelled.
• I’ve been working remotely for a US company while here in Spain, and for the last week or so, all of their employees have also begun working from home. Though I know it is inconvenient for them, it works well for me. No one ever forgets to set up a call-in for meetings these days!
• We have been watching the news on the lack of testing in the US. I think it is clear that the virus is spreading like crazy there, and a week from now, it may be the same in the US as it is here, so get ready and enjoy your freedom while it lasts (in non-crowded places and maintaining a social distance). If you are traveling, get home now, or go to wherever you want to be for the next few months!
• The Spanish people are already doing what they do best, which is staying positive and continuing the fiestas! In this day and age, it means they all go out on their balconies at a designated hour in the evening to listen to music played by the local symphony, or to clap for all of the workers who continue to work through this crisis.

That is all for us from ground zero (or are we like ground 4 or 5 by now?). We will write again later, if we can figure out enough exciting things to write about within the confines of these walls!