Mea culpa (sorta)
by ewillND (2021-04-15 14:33:41)
Edited on 2021-04-15 14:53:23

Very long story very short, our school's recent classification as a "Gesamtschule," meaning that we have primary and secondary students sharing facilities, means that our secondary teachers were reclassified as "high priority" along with the primary teachers. It makes sense, as I have to walk through swarms of unmasked 5 year olds to get to the nearest restroom every day (they aren't required to wear masks at that age).

I got an email notification yesterday afternoon and my first dose of Pfizer this morning. I have never been so happy to have a sore arm.

We are lucky, though. Most of the high school teachers in Germany are in classrooms full of teenagers every day, with no vaccine in sight yet. We supervise the students taking off their masks to swab their noses twice a week, hoping that they all come out negative. Cases are climbing fast, and while the vaccines are rolling in, they can't keep up. Everything except our schools, grocery stores, and gas stations, has been closed since December 1. It's April 15th.

I won't be fully vaxxed for a while, though. We delay the second dose--we are at 42 days, rather than 21. So two weeks after May 27th, I will hug everyone I can find. And in July I will fly home to see my family for the first time in 2 years. I might find a beach to go sit on for a few days first, though, because this has been brutal in ways that I can't even describe.

It's almost like the light at the end of the tunnel is no longer a train. I just hope it allows us to get all of our students back in school soon. We have only been totally shut for three weeks (right after Christmas) since we reopened for 7 weeks at the beginning of May 2020, but our middle school kids have only been in for two weeks since mid-December, and they are really suffering.

All of that said...travel is going to be difficult here for a while. Even with the current escalation, we are still behind, and still conservative. We aren't even beginning to relax restrictions until May 9. Maybe. And whatever you think your current restrictions are...they aren't like ours. And ours aren't like parts of Spain and Italy.

Book your trips if you want. But book the cancellation insurance.

F**k this stupid virus.


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