Chuncheon 2021 | Quarantine
It’s been awhile since I traveled. Ever since Covid-19 hit, the end of 2019 and all of 2020 passed by in the blink of an eye.
Nic and I got married July 2020 and since, we’ve been practically staying at home due to the pandemic. We were not able to go on our honeymoon or even travel anywhere since we got married. Because we got married in the midst of Covid, my family was not able to make it out to our wedding. Instead, we had them tune in into Zoom to our private wedding. Isn’t it crazy how Nic has never met my older brother yet?
As the pandemic became more controlled and as we received our vaccine, we thought that it was finally a good time to go to Korea to visit my family.
The first 2 weeks consisted of a mandatory quarantine. If you are not a resident or didn’t have family in Korea, you were mandated to spend 2 weeks at a government funded hotel. Due note, that this is also about $2,000 USD per person. The hotel provides food and daily necessities and you have to stay in your unit for 2 full weeks. Luckily, my family lives in Korea so we were able to quarantine at my mom’s house. The only thing we needed to have was documentation that I was related to my mom and that Nicole was my wife (also a PCR test result taken 72 hours prior to flight). Immigration was pretty complicated when we landed and it took about 3 hours to get through but once we were through, we were greeted by my mom’s big smile.
My mom had already prepared her home for Nic and me. She wanted to make sure our quarantine stay was as comfortable as possible. She had prepared a bunch of food, snacks and drinks and made sure that we had everything we needed to survive for 2 whole weeks. She even had containers filled with freshly cut fruits because I had told her before that Nic loved fruits. To also make sure that we were comfortable, she had booked an airbnb nearby to give Nic and me all the space we needed. She really did prepare so much for us and we were so grateful. My cousins had also prepared a “welcome” cake for us when we arrived at my mom’s house. Another thing to note was that when I was cooking and opened one of the kitchen cabinets, I found a bunch of sticky notes my mom had used to write down prayer requests for us in regards to our jobs.
One of the things we had to do was also download an app when we landed in Korea. With this app, we had to track our temperature twice a day. It also tracked our geo-location to make sure we were staying indoors. We also had to take PCR tests the day after we landed and also the last day of our quarantine. Nic and I both agree that we absolutely hate these tests. Especially when you have old Korean grandmas shoving up the swab up your nose in a very obnoxious manner.
The government also sent us two huge boxes of food. It’s pretty insane how organized and structured Korea is as a whole. No wonder they have been doing well with their Covid cases. My brother also ordered us food via delivery apps so that we never got tired of the food provided to us from the government. My mom also stopped by every other day to take out the trash for us and bring us extra food as well. The love we experienced from my family was indescribable.
Mother’s Day happened to also land in the middle of our quarantine. My brother and his family decided to come by for dinner (secretly because no visitors are allowed during quarantine) and Nic was finally able to meet them for the first time.
Honestly, quarantine was really chill. Nic and I were still working remotely because we had nothing else to do. Because we worked, quarantine actually went by fast. Other than working, I spent quarantine doing core workouts and catching up on Attack on Titan. And for Nic, she also spent her time becoming more and more obsessed with BTS and Park Seo Jun.
On the last day of quarantine, we were able to finally step out and eat what Chuncheon is known for - makgooksoo and dakgalbi. I’m so glad Nic was able to experience Chuncheon’s cuisine at actual restaurants rather than home-delivered. More than anything, I’m super proud of Nic for getting through quarantine because I honestly thought she was going to go crazy due to her semi-A.D.D….. but she went through it and came out like a champ.
