issue 14// vol 47 life & style // no. 13 My first days of pandemic living » A personal perspective on the beginning of COVID-19 Craig Allan Staff Writer Mz: feels like so long ago. I had just gotten back from a newspaper conference with the Other Press in San Francisco on the first of March and was getting ready to buckle down, as I was in four classes that winter semester and I needed to focus. There was still a lot of outside schoolwork I needed to do, including a job interview at a Vancouver touring company, and working my job at a 2020 CBC open house movie theatre. Most of these occurrences would come to an end or face drastic change, and for me, that change started to rear its head on March un. March u was the first time the pandemic really came onto my radar. It stemmed from the diagnosis that National Basketball Association (NBA) Utah Jazz player Rudy Gobert had gotten the disease, leading to the suspension of the game between the Jazz and the Oklahoma City Thunder and the NBA season that night. That is when I knew this disease—which | » Same open house, more conversations Jerrison Oracion Senior Columnist uring the past 33 years, CBC Vancouver has opened their doors to the public to show tours of the studio, film live programming, and collect donations for food banks around British Columbia. Every year, I go to the open house to donate to the food bank and talk to many CBC personalities that I am good friends with— including former Editor-in-Chief of the Other Press, Liam Britten. Because of the coronavirus pandemic, CBC was not able to offer tours and accept food donations in person this year. But the CBC was still able to do live programming and engage with everyone virtually at the 34th edition of CBC open house (which happened on December 4). For most of the day, I was listening to CBC Radio One and conducting Zoom calls with a lot of famous CBC personalities, some of which already know me because | have gone to the open house over the past couple of years. Throughout the day, they played performances from earlier editions of the open house; at times, it was like watching web TV and at other times it was highly serious. After The Early Edition’s Stephen Quinn interviewed Provincial Health Officer Dr. Bonnie Henry and other guests, he hosted a conversation about wake-up songs for the morning and listening to Irish radio during dinnertime. We talked about Talking Heads and Quinn doing the show from home during the first wave (which he documented on Twitter). Two hours later, CBC News Vancouver's Mike Killeen and the weekend host in The National, Ian Hanomansing, had a conversation about the news this year, covering the coronavirus pandemic and major stories during their long careers. | asked both of them how this year impacted them, and Killeen was passionate when answering the question. He described the year with positive words and talked about how we have still gotten through the pandemic. On the Coast’s Gloria Macarenko made a food platter with cheese and olives and was watching The Shopping Channel in the Zoom call. When I asked her how she was, she gave me a longer response and told me that she is making sure that she is safe and keeps herself entertained while the second wave is happening. Then, indigenous reporter Angela Sterritt had a conversation about how the food banks are important; she also talked about how the food bank had personally helped her in her early years. When I asked Sterritt about 2020, she responded that she worked more at home and spent more time with her son. That Zoom call was like a nine-way- conversation, and at that point, the open Photo by Billy Bui had heard about but never really paid too much attention to—really became serious. But there was no time to dwell on it, as I had a presentation the next day in my marketing class. It was a presentation about selling a product—mine was candy (I got full marks for it). I decided to wear a suit for the assignment, so I decided—since I had the rest of the day free and was looking so fancy—to maximize the moment and go for an interview at a touring company who was doing on-the-spot interviews at their Vancouver office. The interview was the best I ever had; I was on the ball, answered my questions well, and had good questions to ask them. I could tell that the interviewer was impressed. Afterwards, I went to Patrons Tacos and Cantina, my favourite Mexican restaurant in Vancouver. As | ate my flauta, I watched the sports news coverage and found out that the National Hockey League and Major League Baseball had also suspended their play. On Friday, March 13, many post- secondary institutions announced that they would be suspending in-person classes immediately; Douglas was not one of them. They were going to wind down their classes the next week. I woke up on Monday not wanting to get on the SkyTrain for my sociology class in New West. Luckily, my teacher announced on Blackboard that he was suspending the class for that day. It was good he made that decision early, because by 11:58 that day, the school had officially announced that all house had raised $1 million. It got more cheerful when Hot Air’s Margaret Gallagher did a sing-along and invited her brother, Glee star and Douglas College alumni, Patrick Gallagher as a surprise guest while filming her show. Margaret and I talked about the possibility of concerts and festivals coming back next year and how online concerts can still benefit the arts community. The day ended with Dan Burritt having another conversation on this year— but from a BC perspective. I asked him in-person classes were suspended. Since I lived close to the David Lam Campus, | decided to go down to the campus to get some answers from the students about how the pandemic was affecting them to use in an article. I came across a lot of very upset students, of which many had already left their houses before the in-person campus closures were announced and now were just working at school to make their journey to the campus worthwhile. The whole day was so surreal. Everyone gave off an aura of shock at how fast our individual worlds had changed and shut down. That night, which I spent at home since the paper’s usual Monday pitch meeting was cancelled, I heard the announcement that the movie theatre | worked at was shutting down, and I had been laid off. All of a sudden, 95 percent of my interactions had disappeared over just 27 hours. Telling this story now is a little ironic to me because in this past week, the experiences I had back in March have kind of come full circle. Last week I was laid off from my movie theatre job again due to the closures, I had another job interview that I thought went well, and things are starting to shut down again as the coronavirus cases begin to surge. I don’t know what is going to happen in the future, but I do know that the shock of this time does not hit as hard as it did back in March. I guess that comes with the territory of existing in the new normal of 2020. and the new host of the weekend edition of CBC News Vancouver at u, Isabelle, how it feels covering happier stories during the pandemic. Both said that it is fun covering them and that they allow viewers to get through the pandemic with a laugh. CBC Open House this year was heartwarming, and while many parts were a departure from the norm, having pleasant and meaningful conversations— and celebrating the holiday season—stayed the same.