Items

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  2020-08

  Serving/Bartending in the Pandemic

  In the summer of 2020 I was able to go back to work. I have been a server and bartender for a few years now, and knew there were going to be some changes going back to work. For one, masks were required, and half or less capacity was the new normal. Every other booth or barstools were closed to promote social distancing. There would be many problems with customers not wanted to wear masks and social distance, making it difficult for the employees to deal with. Some restaurants only allowed take-out, due to not wanting customers to be hanging out in the restaurant too long. The restaurant scene in Feb 2022 so far has mostly gone back to normal besides mask wearing.
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  2021-07

  Traveling During Covid

  In July of 2021, travel was open in the UK. My family immigrated to the United States in 1998 from England. My grandparents, Aunts, Uncles and Cousins all still reside in the UK. Covid has been a very hard time as I could not visit my family and they could not travel to the US. When travel opened back up we were thrilled. My mom and I planned to travel to England in July 2021. The day before we were set to leave we noticed that my passport had expired the month prior. Since my passport had not been used in over a year, we were not aware that it had expired. We tried everything to get a new one as soon as possible, but there was a delay on getting passports out because many people had the same problems. Fortunately I was able to get an emergency passport appointment in Buffalo. I got my passport at the end of July and my mom and I were set to travel in August. Traveling to the UK required many covid tests, forms and mask wearing. I had not been in an airport in over a year, and this new way of travel was very strange to me, but I was still happy to be able to travel. Traveling back to the US also required many tests and forms, the National Guards were even placed in US airports making sure travelers were filling out locator forms. It was an insane experience, and hopefully travel goes back to normal in the coming years. Although it is a different way of traveling it is still amazing that we are able to leave the US and visit other countries after a long time of not being able to do so.