- Bethany George traveled to Vietnam with her fiance, Casey, for two weeks.
- On their way home to their apartment in New York City, they had a one-hour layover in South Korea, a country that became a level three travel advisory zone the day before they returned to the US.
- Both Casey and Bethany's jobs advised them to self-quarantine for 14 days.
- They ordered groceries online, did regular stretches, and tried to not only binge watch TV during the two weeks.
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Casey and I collectively breathed a sigh of relief when we walked into our one-bedroom apartment after our 13-hour connecting flight from Seoul, South Korea. We had the most amazing vacation in Vietnam for the past two weeks - but there's nothing like the feeling of returning home.
Little did we know that feeling of euphoria would soon turn into exasperation.
The day before we returned, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention raised its travel advisory for South Korea to level three. Level three is the highest level, and warns people to avoid nonessential travel to the country, or to self-quarantine for 14 days if they have been there in the recent days. We were only in a South Korean airport for one hour during a layover between Ho Chi Minh City and New York City, so we didn't think we were a risk to others.
When we were back at work, New York City offices started to mandate CDC recommendations. I told human resources I had only been in South Korea for an hour, but they didn't want to take any chances. Better safe than sorry!
I immediately felt scared and guilt-ridden that I had already gone into my office and risked exposing my coworkers. Even though I thought our chances of actually having the virus were low, we knew we had to take the quarantine seriously. But we also had to keep our sanity.
So the quarantine began!