On an overcast morning we arrived into Korea. Our flight was pretty uneventful, and the arrival and process through immigration was also pretty uneventful. This was great, because the proceeding few days had not been.
We had been thinking that on arrival in Korea we would be sent to a government quarantine for 14 days. It's not the same sort of quarantine we had in Adelaide. In Korea they use some hotels, but they also use police barracks and other government facilities. Likely not super comfortable, but fine for it's purpose. Two days before we were due to fly out the Korean immigration agents notified us that they had had a client rejected and deported back to their home country. The rules had changed overnight and this visa type wasn't going to the government quarantine anymore, but had to have their own quarantine arrangements. This happened to be our visa type!
So everybody scrambled and a serviced apartment was found where we were able to sign a lease for a one month rental. They put us in a two bedroom apartment that was being used for quarantining foreigners for the first two weeks. After that we moved to a larger apartment in the same building to see out the remainder of our one month lease. This all worked out ok, but created a bit of a stressful situation having found out about the need to switch plans so soon before we had to fly.
We had to quickly figure out how to order food and groceries for ourselves. Obviously we couldn't go out to buy things. With some help from David's PA we were able to get it sorted. In the government quarantine all of the food is provided. In this quarantine we had a bottle of orange juice and a few small items. The rest we had to figure out ourself. We did actually have a couple of suitcases full of snacks from Australia so that we would be ok if we really had trouble sourcing food. We even bought another suitcase and more groceries to go in it right before we left.
Part way into our quarantine we were required to go to a local health centre to receive Covid tests. During this period you are allowed to walk to and from the testing centre! However, our tests got pushed back because Clara started vomiting shortly after we arrived. We notified the health authorities. They didn't seem too worried about the vomiting. I guess it's not a symptom of covid.
While we were in quarantine David was still working and the kids were still doing school online. Ethan was sitting exams remotely. As well as navigating online grocery shopping in Korean, I was also co-ordinating the packing and shipment of all of our belongings back in India.
Our driver in India was picking up items out of our home (such as the books above) and delivering them to where they needed to go. We had a friend helping us get other items to people who had bought them, or we were giving them away.
This is what I put on my instagram about that moving experience:
"We left India earlier this year with only two days notice and a suitcase each. The door to our apartment was locked behind us and we weren’t sure how or when our belongings would be packed-up and shipped. I’m thankful for David who decided to leave a key with one of his colleagues just in case we couldn’t return. I’m thankful for that colleague who willingly agreed to help. Unfortunately her home ended up being placed inside a containment zone, right when restrictions had eased enough for the packing to begin. I’m thankful for our driver who figured out how to liberate our house key from the containment zone. I’m thankful for a friend from our church congregation who stepped in and oversaw the packing of our belongings despite this taking multiple attempts separated by lockdowns. And who was very patient throughout the process, as I tried to keep tabs on the packing online from Korea. He spent a lot of time passing on questions and helping to resolve problems. And finally I’m thankful for a good shipping company who was able to get our shipment out of India efficiently, while many other expats have seen their shipments delayed by long periods. I’m thankful for all of our boxes making it to Korea!"
On top of that we were also co-ordinating cleaning of the apartment, re-cleaning when it wasn't up to scratch, disconnection of services and utilities etc etc. All of the normal things you do when you move, but it's in India and you're not there and it's the middle of a pandemic.
One of the pictures sent back to me by our driver confirming something had been delivered. This was library books belonging to the school, gym equipment and some other supplies I wanted to pass on to the next Australia group co-ordinator.
Meanwhile, while we were stuck inside our quarantine, and working through this strange and often frustrating remote packing process, Facebook kept gifting me pictures like the above in my feed. Beautiful aerial shots of India. The first one is the Matrimandir in Auroville. The second one is the Lotus Temple in Delhi.
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