Well, where to start.. “La cuarentena” in Spain, Madrid. As being a born and raised Dutch girl I think of myself a very down to earth kind of girl. Since almost one year I have been living in Madrid and absolutely loving it. In the beginning of March I booked two flights to Amsterdam. One for the beginning of April to spend Easter weekend + another week with my family and one for mid May together with one of my roommates who became one on my favorite people in my life. I am living with two Spanish brothers. I remember hitting the gym with one of them, and telling them with a somewhat smile on my face that university is closed for 2 weeks ( on which I thought I could hang out with them more than normal). I remember meeting with one of the brothers on March 13 ( a friday) to go to the Decathlon to buy some resistance bands… as lockdown was officially announced. I remember not being bothered by it so much, it felt like we would go on an “in house camping trip for 2 weeks”. At first it sounded not that bad, hanging out with my roommates, finding fun stuff to do. Yeah, ” we got this”. As the situation became more critical both their partners stayed at our place. So, we were with 5. As the situation got worse every day, it sounded like less fun, every day. Madrid as being one of the worst city’s hit, the numbers were increasing rapidly and extremely. I remember calling my mom saying… not sure whether I can make it for Easter weekend. Time passed and unfortunately my flight was cancelled. My roommate said.. well.. im not sure about the one in May either. I told him.. Dude.. for sure we are gonna make it in May.

Currently writing this today Monday 11th we were supposed to fly to Amsterdam this Friday to visit my family in the Hague and of course to spend some nice time in the Netherlands, but no.. this flight was cancelled as well and I’ve been in quarantine in Madrid for about 2 months now. How am I feeling about this? Yes I miss my family a lot, yes I would like to go out have dinner, meet my friends, however I am truly grateful I’m together with 4 people that I only met little then 1 year ago. We truly make the most of it, our bond became extremely close, we cheer each other up when feeling down, we are having lunch together everyday at 15:00 sharp. As being Dutch I was able to book a 1 way ticket home, however I decided to stay in Madrid where I would like to build my life. I don’t regret it even though Madrid has been in one of the strongest lockdowns and we still are. Only one person per household was allowed to do groceries preferably once per week of per two weeks. Imagine having a small fridge with 5 people’s groceries for 2 weeks. As a daughter of an Indonesian mom, doing groceries can be fun. You get to try new products, try new recipes etc. However going for that 1 walk per week or two weeks to do groceries wasn’t fun at all. It is mandatory to wear gloves, everybody is scared and looking at you with skeptic eyes whether you might have “it” ( the virus) or not, every 4 meters there was an employee checking everybody whether they were still wearing the mandatory gloves. It was not fun at all. However the entire situation taught me many positive things. It taught me to be super creative (during birthday celebrations, during moment of complete boredom and on deciding what to eat). I am way more grateful for when we are able to do groceries whenever we want to again, to go out whenever we want to, to travel whenever we want to.. and.. I will forever be grateful for whenever I am back to having a stable WiFI connection!;) 24/7 being stuck in the house with 4 others who take a fair share in Netflix, Instagram and having Zoom meetings, WiFi is currently no joke!

[submitted on 5/11/2020]