I Got A New Roommate 2 Days Before Coronavirus Lockdown. Here's How We're Coping.
When I first met Mark in my living room on March 10, the world looked much different.
I was looking forward to seeing “Hamilton” for the first time on Broadway in late March. I was planning which outfits I’d wear at the Cannes Film Festival while covering it for a French publication in May. I was still going into work every morning and dancing in ballet classes and riding the New York City subway with cavalier abandon.
The only thing to fear back then was, well, fear itself, but any fear felt on March 10 was manageable in a way that seems luxurious now.
As an Airbnb host at my apartment in West Harlem, I primarily host guests from other countries. No shade to Americans, it’s just kind of how things played out. As a French speaker, I’ve hosted guests from France, Belgium, Switzerland, and also a fair share from Italy, Spain, Japan, Germany, Australia and Ghana.
In early March, I received my first cancellation. Rika from Chuo City, Japan, sent me a message saying she needed to cancel because of potential 14-day quarantines of international travelers. More cancellations quickly followed: Stéphane from Paris, Alexandre from Puimisson and Hélène from Lyon, France. Like many others, my income was taking a fast and heavy hit as a result of the growing COVID-19 outbreaks. Having my finger on the pandemic pulse via Airbnb reservations, I saw how things were escalating, and I knew I needed to take action.
I posted an ad on Craigslist advertising the spare room that usually holds interesting guests with lovely accents and sought someone equally interesting but much closer who could move in, well, as soon as humanly possible. Within 48 hours, I found Mark and arranged his move-in date.
Mark told me he was from Oklahoma and worked at a nonprofit. I told him I was laid-back, clean and “pretty on-the-go, so I’m not home a lot.”
(“Anne, you like to think you’re laid-back, but you are not laid-back,” my friend Dale once said as we...
