With everything going on today in the US, writing my little travel blog seems so unimportant and irrelevant. It is, however, my stress release, my procrastination from school work, my small happiness in a sad and confusing time. I’m not going to make this a political blog, but I feel that I would be doing a disservice to myself and my country to not at least talk about the realities here.
Our traveling family has been back in the US since the beginning of February due to the Corona virus, and like every family around the world, we’ve struggled with boredom, stress, anxiety, but also had some fun times inside and enjoying each others company. We’ve all missed events we were looking forward to, as well as being displaced from our home in China for 5 months so far. But we’re still lucky.
I am happy to stay at home to try to protect my family from getting sick, to try to keep the community around me from getting sick. I’ve been extremely lucky in so far as no one I know personally has been sick or died from CoVid, in China, in the UK or in the US. But that doesn’t mean that I don’t realize the potential that it could happen to anyone at anytime.
This week, in addition to Corona virus, there is another crisis happening in the US, the killing of George Floyd by some Minneapolis Police officers. Many of you know that Minneapolis is where Mark’s family lives and we visit there often, it is a home away from home for us. If George Floyd were an isolated incident, his death would still be tragic, but it is one of many by Minneapolis police over the course of the last 5 years and one of many more by police in general.
Police brutality and killing of Black men and women needs to stop.
Militarization of police needs to stop.
Hypocrisy of celebrating Hong Kong protesters but not the protesters marching in the cities of the US needs to stop.
We need to look out for our neighbors, of every color, this is a time to ask ourselves how we can help, what we can do to make a difference. That’s going to look different for each of us- but we can all do something.
My friends from outside the US have seen things on the news and are sending messages daily to check in on us. We are ok, we have a roof over our heads, food to eat, and safe surroundings.
Traveling Expat Family 