Our Mobilities Lab Associate Director, Doyeon Shin, is sharing her experiences and observations as she travels home to South Korea over the next weeks. Doyeon, a cultural anthropologist at the University of Illinois at Chicago, will be providing a unique insight into what it is like to travel abroad, experience quarantine on arrival, and then return here to the US as we face the new academic semester. Doyeon is a graduate student in Anthropology at the University of Illinois at Chicago.

(im)mobility in the era of (im)mobility
Masks, gloves, hand-sanitizer and disinfectant wipes/sprays have become our utmost important essential utensils of our everyday lives. These were my travel-buddies for my trip from Chicago to Korea, and were only protections I could use to protect myself during the trip. It seems like domestic trips are starting to be activated, but international trips remain as an area of uncertainty for the spread (a form of mobility) of the virus. I decided to have a short trip to Korea for family event, and I would like to share my experience of (im)mobility in the era of (im)mobility. During this trip, masks, gloves, hand-sanitizer and disinfectant wipes functioned as informal passports that enabled movements I made which ensured the least (im)mobility of virus which has been actively traveling. In this sense, these allowed me to be mobile in the era of (im)mobility.

Ride-Sharing Economy?
I got on Uber, which has lost the “sharing” component recently, around 3am to get to ORD. Driver was wearing a high-tech (or at least it looked like high-tech). The driver asked me if I want to use hand sanitizer and phone charger. We did not talk much during the trip, but I remember talking about why I am heading to an airport and how short the security line would be.

O’Hare International Airport
I first took a domestic flight from ORD, departing for LAX. Ticketing area was populated than I expected. As we have expected, the security-check line was very short, so it did not take much time to pass the security check and head to the designated gate. Most of the stores were closed, except for big-brand stores like Starbucks and McDonalds. With breakfast in my hand, I headed to the gate. Around 10 people were waiting near the gate. Most of them were wearing masks, and looked tired. I was also exhausted, because I got off at a wrong terminal, so I had to carry two 40-pound(ish) baggages and move to the right terminal by bus. Wearing a mask and carrying heavy baggages drained most of the energy out of me. I put my gloves on.