the vaccine: arriving in new york

dear friends,

the day I got the first dose of the vaccine, I danced tango for the first time in over a year at a private house milonga — with a bandaid on my increasingly-sore arm - which felt like a one day tattoo to mark an entire era, a singular moment in history.

the next morning, I woke up with full body aches and a total fatigue. I thought it was from dancing. but by noon, I was horizontal — feverish and nauseous, with a splitting headache in the shape of a reverse flower crown. I drifted through the days in a deep head fog, uncertain if it was caused by the tension of new york city air, reverse culture shock after being abroad for over a year, the aggressive way in which I left berlin, too much sudden socialization in proper english, or having just been injected with the fastest developed vaccine in history for a mysterious and unknowable disease.

continue reading