Adjusting to Expat life amidst Coronavirus Yash Satsangi

Recently, two months back, I joined Tilburg University as an Assistant Professor. Moving and adjusting to a new country is always comes with many challenges, however, in this case this adjustment was made easy by two special factors. It was not the first time I was moving to The Netherlands. In fact, I completed my PhD here at University of Amsterdam and went to Canada to do a post-doctoral fellowship. In between all the moving and VISA formalities I was all but excited to see old friends, meet new colleagues and start a new life. While I was in Canada waiting to get my VISA, thanks to the help from P&D Care, especially Inge, for helping me find a nice apartment to arrive too. 

I arrived in The Netherlands on the 9th of March. It was in The Netherlands that for the first time I realized not everything was normal. The main talking point at that point in the news was the spread of Covid-19 in Brabant especially in Tilburg, exactly where I was headed. By the time I entered my apartment paranoia regarding what and whom am I touching, has already set in. By the time I had `moved’ into my apartment, The Netherlands Covid-19 numbers has risen enough for the government to impose lockdown and for me. At that moment, I was in an empty house with no furniture/lights faced with multiple questions: Get furniture/bed? Call electrician? Get groceries? How is the situation everywhere else - India (family), Canada (friends), US (friends) ? Can/Should I fly out to my family? Are the flights still going? Or Register at municipality? Get a health insurance? Collect residence permit? Call work? 

Writing this on June 1st, more than two months after the lockdown started and after I arrived, and having answered most of the above questions with invaluable help from P&D care and the Tilburg University, I can look back and write about the adjusting to this `new life’. I was able to get furniture delivered to me online albeit only after sleeping on make-shift stuff for a few days. Thanks to the people at IND and GGD Tilburg (and P&D care for arranging this), after some efforts and a couple of special appointments, I was able to collect my residence permit and register myself at the Municipality which finally helped me get a health insurance. 

The last two months did not go by as I had expected them to, However, I am getting used to the new normal. Currently, I am involved in teaching a course at the Tilburg University. Although I have not got a chance to meet my colleagues or even visit the campus yet, we are working together to create weakly online content for students to access. Of course this is entirely different from an interactive classroom where feedback from the students is unclouded. While creating online content is time-consuming, however, not having to travel to work also add flexibility to my daily schedule, if I am able to maintain one. 

As of now, I think I have adjusted to the `new normal’ and it is encouraging to see the world slowly resuming business as usual. The question of international travel still looms large. The flexibility and option of flying back to home is an essential luxury for expat life, so I guess I am waiting for this luxury to resume. 

Yash Satsangi - Assistant Professor Tilburg University 

Tilburg School of Humanities and Digital Sciences, department Cognitive Science and Artificial Intelligence