At the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, many Taiwanese Americans were flocking to Taiwan from the United States. Taiwan seemed to be in a COVID-free bubble — Instagram photos of unmasked diners, mass gatherings for the Taiwan Pride parade and domestic holiday jaunts were enticing to say the least. We wanted Jules to have a relatively normal summer, full of camp, sleepovers with friends, visits with family and trips to our favorite restaurants and night markets. Due to Philip’s work schedule and a mandatory 15 day quarantine in Taiwan, we knew that Philip wouldn’t be able to join us this time. Jules and I took the plunge and booked our first international trip in over a year and a half.
What we couldn’t have predicted was the precipitous drop of COVID cases in the U.S. due to mass vaccination rollouts and to the sudden surge of COVID cases in Taiwan due to philandering pilots. We decided to forge ahead, despite the Level 3 soft lockdown in Taiwan and hoped that restrictions would be lifted by the time we completed our quarantine.
I had taken a flight from NY to Ireland shortly after 9/11, so I was no stranger to a near empty JFK airport. But, that experience didn’t even come close to the eerie ghost town feel of the airport this time around. Jules and I were the only two people tended to at security by the twenty or so TSA staff milling around. Due to the closure of the EVA Air VIP lounge, Jules and I weren’t able to take advantage of his Silver Star Alliance status (that’s right, he has the status, not me…long story), so as a consolation prize he received a $25 food voucher to use at the one kiosk open at midnight.
Jules went on a junk food frenzy, filling his arms with bags of sugar, salt and trans fats, dreaming of how to spend his 25 big ones. That is, until we saw the airport price for a bag of chips. We carefully restocked the kiosk and after handing over an additional $3 and our hopes, we left with four items.
We boarded our flight with around 40 other passengers and prepared for the unknown.