I moved from the Bay Area to Boston just three weeks ago. I was originally supposed to move in a week before school started, but because of COVID-19, my parents did not want me to go. Eventually, we negotiated and they agreed to allow me to move in in the middle of October. As October approached, California still had almost 5,000 cases a day, while Massachusetts only had around 1,000 cases a day.
This was my first time in Boston as I’m a transfer student, so experiencing what it was like to actually go to school and live in the city life was new to me. I thought that the virus situation would be the same—or even more strict—in Boston because the city was handling it way better than my city at home. However, I was surprised when I saw how many restaurants, shops, and general places were open. Back home, all the restrictions and unsaid “rules” that I followed seemed like the new normal until I got to Boston and realized that a lot of the things I did were not “normal” here. For example, on my daily walks back home, if there was someone on the sidewalk, one of us would usually step onto the street to avoid passing each other side by side. If we did not, we would probably get that dirty look from the other person. However, in Boston, I soon noticed that people did not do that here as there were crowds of people on the streets at one time. When I moved onto the streets if there was someone on the sidewalk, I felt like I got a weird look and that I was giving them the impression that I hated them or I was overly cautious.
Moving to the east coast for the first time, I also did not have all the necessary clothes for the already very cold weather. I had planned to do most of my shopping online, but my roommate insisted on bringing me shopping. Some of the shops we visited did not even have a limit on how many people were allowed in, and people walked around like before the COVID times. However, back home, the shopping malls were usually empty, and if there were some shoppers, there would be a limit to how many people were allowed in and sanitizing stations almost at every corner. There were so many people in every restaurant we passed, dining like how we did just a few months ago. At home, on the other hand, there were only a few restaurants open, and even so, dining would only be outside and barely anybody went.
Finally, the last one that really stood out to me was the use of public transportation. Within my community at home, almost nobody used Ubers or the public transportations provided, such as Bart or the buses. However, I noticed here that there were so many people coming in and out of the platform stairs from the station. I wanted to go down once to check it out. However, as I was going down the stairs, I noticed how many people were waiting for their transportation and immediately felt a little unsafe.
The transition from the Bay Area to Boston was very different, but thinking about it now, it makes sense because of the difference in cases daily. It was surprising and weird to adjust to this new “normal” specific to Boston. Right now, it is hard to imagine everything going back to normal (the way everything was before) or how long that would even take.