How will YOU celebrate the 2020 Winter Holidays? Do you have travel plans or will you Shelter in place? Hands down, the most sensible, and possibly least appealing choice is to just stay put and maybe even self-quarantine.
Consider the following: Flying home to the United States and parts of Europe for the holiday, where the virus continues to rage, may be like jumping out of the frying pan and into the fire. Traversing crowded airports in these countries could later prove fatal not only to the traveler, but also family and friends and later to colleagues and students upon a return to the host country.
As International Educators and emissaries from our home countries, we have the responsibility to not only teach responsible behaviors, but to embody what we teach. Still, there are educators among us with the… “It won’t happen here attitude,” who will ignore the warnings and put themselves and others in harm’s way. Our guess is they are few and far between.
What’s YOUR plan for the Winter Holiday?
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Don’t see any feasible travel until Summer 2022 at this point. So will be in country until then.
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Currently living in Eastern Europe but have a home in a Western European country. Due to the lockdown /airport closures that happened in our host country this summer we haven’t been able to go to our home base since March.
We haven’t been able to have anyone check on our home all year, so a trip is necessary.
Fortunately it’s only a 2.5 hour flight.
Once there we will quarantine and also get tested since COVID testing is still wholly inaccessible in our host country.
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My school’s winter break does not allow enough time to travel and quarantine on either end; however, with an elderly parent I do not feel that I have a choice but to travel – despite the risks and expense.
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I am in China so I am very fortunate to be able to travel as a tourist. It wasn’t an option on the questionnaire, but I clicked the tourist choice as it most reflected my intentions
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After getting stuck in the States for 8 months and finally getting back to China, I’ll be traveling in China but not out. Hopefully will be safe in China (certainly much safer than the States) but we’ve been told to take what we need for online teaching just in case. I will go home for summer.
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There should be an option ‘travel within the country you are currently at’ or something similar. I am in Vietnam and we can travel freely here (hopefully nothing happens). This is also an option in Thailand and a few other countries in Asia.
I feel very fortunate to be able to do so, and I am looking forward to next week
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Agree! I plan on traveling in Vietnam as well over the break.
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We are moving to our new home in Rio de Janeiro in January. Unfortunately that means flying for about 12 hours in a very non-ideal period. I will join my new school for the start of the new academic year there. We are a bit scared but also very excited and can’t wait to get there. Other than that, we will avoid crowded places and stay put this Christmas and New Year’s Eve.
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I have returned home for four weeks after living and working in online isolation for 9 months in Asia. Had to get out of the place. The penalty is 2 weeks quarantine in the home location and waking up at 2.00 a.m. each day to take online classes but for four weeks, 2 weeks of which will be vacation time and seeing family is worth my sanity.
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I’ve gone home! It was a lot of consideration and am now facing lockdowns at home as well as in my hose country, but for me it’s worth it. We’re teaching online, so I was able to leave earlier. And my home country requires a 2 week quarantine. My host country doesn’t have any restrictions going back in, but I’ll be back early enough to quarantine as well. I’ll only see my immediate family here, and we all feel safe with having had a quarantine. It’s a shame this article doesn’t mention that following the quarantine rules is also being responsible.
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Travelling back to one’s home country doesn’t necessarily mean seeing friends, this being at risk. Yes I am flying home to see immediate family, after quarantining for two weeks first. My circle will include very few and it’s a much needed change of scenery. Too bad that differentiation was not in the survey.
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I’m impressed you have time to do 2 weeks quarantine and still have time to visit. And I’m impressed with your dedication. As much as I miss my family, not having seen them in over a year, I don’t think I could handle 2 weeks of quarantine in this short holiday. Maybe if we can travel this summer I’ll be up for 2 weeks quarantine at one end of travel, but I’m afraid it would be necessary/required at both ends and that would be 2/3rds of what I expect will be a MUCH needed break spent in quarantine at my expense. Yikes!
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Cost of flights and quarantine plus food, etc to go home and quarantine for two weeks? Over 8K. Would I spend Christmas with my family? No – would be out of quarantine AFTER Christmas. Then would have 5 days before having to fly back to my work country. Then would have to quarantine for two weeks. It just doesn’t make sense. So staying put.
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We are in China. If I want to keep my job and return to work after the holidays, I don’t have the choice of traveling abroad.
We’ve been staying put since the start of the year. As chances would have it, we stayed put for Spring Festival last year and that was that.
Summer consisted of staycations around town. I was too busy during Golden Week to think of travel, so I had hoped to travel within China this break. However, with the various outbreaks around the country, I don’t want to risk my health app going yellow or red, so we’ll just stay put and avoid any hot spots in the city if any occur.
Anyway, it has been an exhausting year, so I’m actually looking forward to chillaxing.
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Likewise in China- staycation- we are not allowed to leave the city….except for the first weekend- the 18th-20th, but that is all. It is truly a different year this year, that, I am sure, is an understatement. Peace.
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I’m in China as well, feeling similarly. I have been in the same city since I returned from a holiday in Thailand last February. We were permitted to travel domestically in the summer, but not October break. We can apply for permission to travel domestically during the one-week Christmas break. I haven’t travelled and don’t plan to. I’ve never enjoyed domestic travel in China and I don’t want to risk losing my green QR code. The school has made it clear that any domestic travel is at our own risk, and leaving China would mean loss of employment.
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I think it all depends on what age group you and the people you are going to visit are in and how they feel about it. The virus has an extremely low kill rate. In my case, I am staying home and electing to self quarantine because many family members are in their 80’s and I am high risk due to obesity and asthma.
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Be aware of the issues around long covid which is currently being studied in the UK. The issues that people are continuing to encounter after their ‘recovery’ from the initial infection is astounding!
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Stay put unless absolutely necessary
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