[Hi everyone. I’m sorry because I’m trying SO hard to just bust through all the Wheel of Fortune posts, so at least that’s all done and over with, but I am Wheel-of-Fortuned out in this moment. So, I just need to talk about something else for like a hot second, if you don’t mind haha. I still have SO MANY THINGS to catch up on, so I’m just moving on to one of the trips I’ve been meaning to write about! This says “taking a trip” because I’m back-dating it, but I already took it haha]
The mask mandates on American planes dropped!!!
As I’m sure you’ve probably heard, the mask mandate dropped – WHILE PEOPLE WERE IN THE AIR – which just sounds like a horror movie to me.
I am in Los Angeles, chilling out.
As I’m sure you’re probably aware of, living in the world the past couple of years, the pandemic has gotten safer and less safe over and over and over again. It’s hard to really know where you stand/what’s going on.
Much of school was in-person in the fall. Then, when Omicron hit, I’ve been doing a lot of it remotely, because my cardiologist recommended I take a step back during the surge(s), to doing as much remotely [in life in general, not just school] as possible.
(And yes, I went to Barbados haha, but I had JUST gotten the booster. And rates were low. And there were tons of precautions in place. So, why not, right?)
Anyway, I landed back in New York for a few weeks, and for various reasons, I came home to Los Angeles.
But now I do have to go back to the east coast, because there are some things for finals week (in early May) that I have to do in person, and I’m going to undergrad graduation after all this time.
So, I was just going to take a flight like normal BUT I’m so worried about masks no longer being mandated on airplanes that I started thinking about other options.
I could drive… But that has various issues of its own.
I could take a train, but it’s SO expensive if you want to have a sleeper car – which basically you need if the whole point is to stay safe. It’s more expensive than what I landed on doing, which is…
I could take an international flight(!) with a “forced layover.” I can fly myself to some international destination that seems reasonably safe, and then fly out of there.
So, what’s the point of doing that? Like, how is it markedly different from just flying LA > NYC?
Well, *international* flights still require negative tests, proof of vaccinations, AND masks.
So, yes, even though there will be MORE people on board, and even though people will take masks off to eat, it’s a safer group of people who will be wearing masks the majority of the time (including take-off and landing when CO2 levels are at their worst on flights).
So, it feels safer to me.
First, I looked into going to Canada (on Air Canada)…. good airline. Our neighbor. Right next door. And Canada seems like a safe country. The flights were kind of expensive, so for funsies, I went to see on Air France’s website what the cheapest destinations were.
It was cheaper to fly LA to Cairo to New York than LA, [a number of Canadian cities I tried] to New York!
Then I wondered if I should really do this, as it seemed a little wild.
And I muttered to myself “don’t threaten me with a good time” to the internet, as I spun my credit card around in my hands…
And then I did it!
So, there you have it! Egypt it is. Off we go!