Category Archives: North America

The year the music paused

Nashville, USA When I first penned this piece I titled it – The Year the Music Paused, as a play on the Don McLean song –The Day the Music Died. In it, I wrote about the impact of COVID-19 on Nashville and my life here with my husband as a musician.  I wrote about how I’veContinue reading “The year the music paused”

Lockdown: A journey in emotions

Ottawa, Canada OptimismWhen my partner and I went on lockdown on March 13, I had just come back from a work trip to Toronto one week earlier. I was attending a large conference hosted by the Canadian food service industry. Thousands of participants were in attendance, including large numbers of food producers, restaurants, and bars.Continue reading “Lockdown: A journey in emotions”

See-sawing between gratitude and hopelessness

Philadelphia – Boston – Dubai – Islamabad  I was in tears while on hold with Emirates. During a span of 48 hours, I had gone from reassuring fellow international students at UPenn and saying we should stay put in Philadelphia to changing my flight ticket twice. First, I bought a ticket home for the endContinue reading “See-sawing between gratitude and hopelessness”

Houston, we have a problem

Houston, United States By Ansam Sinjab Entering week six of work-from-home, week 10-ish of social distancing (depends when you started to take things seriously in this country), week four of my Nike Training Club fitness program, day six of my guided mediation program (last one was two weeks ago), day 20 of not watching Trump’sContinue reading “Houston, we have a problem”

Go Home, Stay Home

From Maine to London Days before the quarantine became mandatory, Nils, my British fiancé, spotted the homemade sign taped to a second floor window in the block of brick flats across the lane. “Go Home, Stay Home” it read, in colored pencil. We could see it from our kitchen. I’d caught glimpses of a womanContinue reading “Go Home, Stay Home”

Them changes in Minneapolis

Minneapolis, United States In the brief moment that Thanos snapped his fingers to bring the demise of the Avengers in Endgame, is how quickly the social activities dissolved.  Many of us hoped this year would be the year; a year for expansion of travelling and seeing different sights. A year which might have seen usContinue reading “Them changes in Minneapolis”

Confinamiento

Mexico City, Mexico Here we are in May 2020, in Mexico City, living the same confinement as everyone else. It has been six weeks already and I anticipate another eight weeks to start resuming activities. I am experiencing this pandemic with my family – my husband and three children – Luisa, 5 years old, Simone,Continue reading “Confinamiento”

Every cloud has a silver lining

Toronto, Canada Go Train schedules, traffic jams, changing seasons, pressing deadlines, and take-out dinners. This is the day to day life in Toronto and much of the Greater Toronto Area (the suburbs outside the city). The COVID-19 pandemic caught us off guard. Usually when world-wide events happen, in this part of the world we tendContinue reading “Every cloud has a silver lining”

Colorado to California

California, United States This ‘break’ was never expected nor called for. I was busy with my schoolwork – graduate school has been nothing but all work – when we got an email that there was a suspected case on campus and students would be taking their classes online until further notice. Until then I hadContinue reading “Colorado to California”

Fables

Toronto, Canada  There was this village, a farming village. It was not so big, not too small. Farmers there grew all sorts of crops: rice, wheat, maize, eggplant, lentils. And there was always plenty of food to go around. One day the rains did not come. Then another day, then a week. The farmers beganContinue reading “Fables”

Self-discipline in quarantine

Pennsylvania, United States It was the first week of March when I watched a documentary about life under lockdown in the Wuhan province of China. I empathized with the people living under the constant threat of Covid-19 but not even for a second did I think of being in the same situation sometime in theContinue reading “Self-discipline in quarantine”