Travel and COVID: Interview with Rianne Part III

For the last segment of my interview with Rianne, we discussed travel and COVID measures. It was interesting to hear about what initiatives are in place to support local business and what it's like to travel independently. It became more conversational towards the end when we contemplated the travel possibilities in a future where COVID-19 doesn't threaten us the way it does today.

Note: If you'd like to listen to/watch the entire interview, click here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZZ-iJpXWprg

Mariya: I remember you were travelling mostly on your own last summer. What was that like? Did you find it easier or more difficult to do certain things because of it?

Rianne: I mostly travel by myself anyway just because a lot of my friends have already settled down, married, had kids, all my closest friends anyway. So normally, when I'm travelling with someone, it's with my mom or sister; otherwise, I would go by myself. I kind of prefer it, I think, because you get to do exactly what you want; you don't have to compromise at all. You can be completely selfish. You can go and do and see everything you want. And if you want to, you can always meet people along the way, which is why I stay in hostels because I do want to meet people. So when you do want company, you can have company, and when you want your own space, you can just go and do your own thing.

M: You would probably recommend it to others?

R: Absolutely! I think it's empowering to do at least once in your life!

M: My only experience with that was when I did a program in Israel. It was a work-abroad program over the summer. I took the flight over there on my own pretty much, but I was with other people in the program when I was there, but there were opportunities for day trips and things like that. So I went to Jerusalem, to the Old City. I walked there on my own, and that was an experience unlike anything I've ever had. It does not compare to when I went there with a group of people and we were all crowding to take a picture, and we were kind of rushed like, "OK, great, you got to see it, let's go!" I got to really take it in and take my time with it. That is a nice thing about being on your own is you set your own schedule.

R: Definitely. And I think you learn more about yourself! You discover who you really are. The only downside for me is that sometimes you might go places and people that you're in a hostel with might not want to know you [laughs]. Then it can get lonely, but if you choose to make the effort, there's at least one person who will talk to you.

M: And I'm really glad you made the effort with me!

R: Yeah! I just wish we got to spend more time together. But we'll just have to travel and meet up somewhere again.

M: Exactly! It'll happen someday again. So speaking of travel, since COVID has happened, it’s obviously been much more difficult to do that. I am also someone who is very much full of “wanderlust.” How has England, and your hometown specifically, been affected?

R: I just think we're so in shock that we just don't know what to do. We don't know if we're coming or going. Our prime minister just chops and changes the rules so much that we're all so confused on what we're actually allowed to do on any given day. We just don't know what to do with ourselves. It's been crazy, as I'm sure it has been for everyone. I just think it could have all been so different if we had had a sensible prime minister. I am very outspoken when it comes to him. 

We are gradually opening. Shops have been open for a long time as long as we have masks. We can now eat inside, but the measures are obviously very different from how they normally would be. You can only sit with your household, you have to sit very far apart from people, but I think that's been good. People are keeping to the rules for things like that because otherwise they're not allowed in. They would just refuse your entry. 

We've got something like an initiative in the country. I think it's called Help Out to Eat Out. To help the businesses, we are being encouraged, if we can, since obviously a lot of people have lost their jobs, so they probably wouldn't be able to, every Monday to Wednesday throughout all of August. So many chains of restaurants and take out food, loads and loads have signed up for this initiative, and the prices are drastically cut so that more people are going, but you have to book ahead. I don't know how it works. The government must be subsidizing it somehow so that they're not losing money. Obviously, it's only the first week of August so we've had one Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, so I don't know how that's gone so far. I haven't done it yet, but I plan to. Those who aren't able to [space people out] are just staying closed, which is a shame, but some of them can't even have outside seating if they don't have [space] outside. Like if they're in the middle of a shopping center, they can't do that. 

M: That makes sense. What about for your job? How has that changed things at work? [Rianne works in a company that provides home equity loans to people.] 

R: It's totally fine for us all to work at home. It's been weird, it's been an adjustment. I don't like being away from the team because we're a close team. But we're getting bigger and bigger and bigger because the workload has been getting so crazy that we've needed 20 odd new people. But it's been fine other than the amount of work. It's been quite a smooth transition to working from home, so I think we won't be going back any time soon, not even January. We can work efficiently from home, so why not carry on until things are safer? 

M: What have you done (other than working) to keep busy, take care of yourself, and feel connected to people? 

R: For myself, I've been going on a lot of walks. I've noticed that I've been stress eating more than normal and baking, having lots of goodies. And I haven't really been working out like I normally would, so that's really kind of affected me. I didn't think it would, but I always feel better when I work out. So I'm like, "OK, now I need to not just walk, I do need to work out a bit more." So I've started doing that, but only recently. I just feel like I need to do that because I've gotten so lazy watching so much Disney+ [laughs]. I don't know if it's the same in America, but probably. I just heard on the news today that 12 million people, something like that, signed up to a streaming service they weren't signed up to before, which doesn't surprise me really because when we were completely locked down, there's only so much you can do at home.

M: Yeah, it really makes you value entertainment a lot more than you may have realized.

R: And to kind of keep sane before we were allowed to venture out and see people, I was having regular video calls with friends, even like groups of friends. So that we could have "girly nights" because me and my friends normally get together for a girls night, so we're just doing them virtually. It was nice because we kind of put in more effort because we needed each other. Everyone's going through the same thing, and we wanted to be there [for each other] as much as possible even if it's just over video. But now we are able to meet up with people again. We still have to be socially distant, but I think at the moment we only have to be 1 meter (3 feet) apart. So I have met up with a few groups of friends for picnics and walks and things like that.

M: Would you consider visiting the US again when it’s safe to do so? Where would you want to go and why?

R: I really want to go back to New York and Boston, so that I can meet up with you if that ever works out when you're around. There are so many places in America I haven't been. I feel like I've been on the West Coast, then New York, Boston, and Florida. That's probably the only other place I've been on the East Coast. I haven't done much of the middle or down South so much. I guess Florida is the South, but not really. I want to go to places like Alabama, Tennessee. Is Tennessee the South?

M: Yeah, it is.

R: Is it? Yeah, there are so many things I'd like to do in Tennessee.

M: Yeah, a lot of country stars come out of Tennessee.

R: Oh, yeah! And I love country music, but that's not popular here. My American friends got me into it. I have so many country songs on Spotify.

As soon as we can travel again, I don't think America will the the top of my list. Well, actually, the plan was to go to New York for my birthday in November, but that's probably out of the question. So then the next thing I wanted to do was a big three-month trip to Asia. And work said that I could maybe do a sabbatical for that, which is nice. But there are just too many places I want to go in the world! Like Antarctica I really want to go to, and Peru, the Caribbean. Where would you want to go?

M: That's so hard! I've never been to South America, so I'd want to go there. It would be cool to visit Argentina and Chile. Russia is also on my list only because that's where I was born, but it's kind of complicated with going back there right now, but maybe one day.

R: Have you never visited since you left?

M: No, my family left when I was nine months old.

R: Oh, so you really were a baby still!

M: Yeah, so most of what I know about it is through my parents and my family members who still live there. And I've gotten more in touch with some of my family members now than when I was younger. It's been nice to reconnect and feel like I have more of a connection to that place. But that challenge is that my parents have more of a nostalgic feel for it. They have things that the remember that they didn't like about it or liked about it. But it's changed so much since then. My grandfather always said, "I'm never going back. It's not the same Russia I left." And then for me it's just like, "I just want to be able to see something that resembles all of these memories!" One day, that would be nice. I also want to visit Ghana. I do have a couple of connections there with teachers I've collaborated with. So I feel like it would be cool to actually be there, and it's something so different from my experience here. South Africa would also be cool. And Asia too! I really want to go everywhere. It's hard to say what's at the top of my list because there are just so many cool places in the world.

R: And just not enough time or money, to me. If I could travel for a living, I sure would.

M: Yeah. Well, thank you so much for being so honest and researching your answers. I learned a lot just from hearing you talk about your country and things like that, so thank you.

R: No problem!

See previous posts for Parts I and II of this interview.