Chinese Version
07-20-2020，Monday
One afternoon in July 2020 during the empty-nest period, I drove to the Charles River Esplanade in Boston to watch the sunset, as the Internet said it was a good place to watch the sunset in Boston.
Today was Monday, a working day, there were many people in the Esplanade in the city. Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, most people had stayed at home for the enitire year in 2020, I guessed that most of the people in the park were Bostonians: walking dogs, walking children, doing yoga, cycling, running, skateboarding, walking, and sitting on the ground. Watching the quiet, peaceful and full of life park from a distance, I felt no trace of the COVID-19 blues. By seeing mask-wearing people everywhere however, I thought this was a place full of good citizens who obeyed the COVID-19 guidances of the CDC.
This interesting landscape reminded me of a friend’s recent comment: “The food I stored at the beginning of the ‘stay-at-home order’ in March this year was never used. I guess most of them will be scrapped.” The same was true for the food I hoarded in March 2020 which I basically had not touched yet. The unused food made me feel that the overall situation of the COVID-19 pandemic was much better than we had expected.
While passing Boston to the Charles River Esplanade, I saw that most of the hurrying people on the streets were wearing hospital uniforms of various colors. I sincerely thanked the medical personnel for stabilizing the pandemic situation and enabling ordinary people to enjoy orinary life to some extent.
Today, when I was playing Pokemon GO in the riverside park, I took over a Pokemon gym, called the Esplanade Playspace. After I put my Pikachu in the gym, I took a screenshot as a souvenir and once again enjoyed the new form of “I have been here” in the mobile era.
At dusk, drving on the smooth highway road back home, I felt that the summer night wind on the highway in Boston did not have the same temperature fluctuations as in California because the summer night wind here is softer. Maybe the summer wind on the East Coast is wetter than on the West Coast.
Little Episodes
1. On July 20, 2020, overlooking the Charles River Esplanade:
2. Pokemon Go palyer’s new style of “I have been here”：
