Young Anishinaabe woman quarantined in Amsterdam during COVID-19 pandemic — and enjoying it

For Courtney Recollet, 2020 was a year full of promise, after moving to Amsterdam in mid-February to work for a year. 

Then the global pandemic hit and, as tourists left the city, she ended up quarantined thousands of kilometres away from her family.

"I definitely did not see this coming," said Recollet, 26. "I don't think anyone did."

Recollet is Anishinaabe from Wiikwemkoong Unceded Territory, which is located on Manitoulin Island in Ontario. 

For the last five years, she's been working in event operational planning for major international sporting events. This year the Netherlands was supposed to host a number of events, and Recollet was hoping to land some work with the European Football Championship, the Dutch Grand Prix, the Invictus Games or the Eurovision Song Contest. 

That all came to a halt, and all events were cancelled for the year, when Prime Minister Mark Rutte announced March 16 the country was going to be shut down because of the threat from COVID-19. 

"One morning, everything was normal, everything was fine. Then midday, people were watching the news on their phones, on their tablets, on computers. Everyone stopped for like an hour or so watching the prime minister," she said.

"Then all of a sudden everything shut."

Chaos and confusion

At the beginning of the shutdown, she said, there was a lot of chaos and confusion because no one knew what was going on. 

She had been working at a large hostel with a number of other international individuals, and it wasn't until the last of the tourists left that the weight of the situation really set in. 

There were nine staff members left at the hostel, and they were all given their own private rooms to live in and weren't allowed to leave the building unless it was for groceries or trips to the pharmacy. 

"The world became very quiet here, and it was interesting to see because probably about three weeks after that, no one would be on the streets. Amsterdam was completely empty," she said. 

Recollet says she didn't have plans to come back to Canada and, because she had planned on being in the Netherlands for at least a year, the virus didn't make her panic-buy a ticket home. 

She's stayed in touch with her family through everything and they have been offering her support in her decisions.

"My parents reassured me that it's going to be the same situation in Canada, so it doesn't matter where I am in the world. It's going to be the exact same thing," said Recollet. 

Homesickness comes and goes, she says, but having support from other people in the hostel has been key, and her family is only a call away. 

Uncertain future 

Things began easing up in the Netherlands starting on May 11. Restaurants and shops are open again, but there are still no tourists coming into the country.

Recollet can freely roam the city.

"It's a blessing in disguise because we get to see Amsterdam in a way that no one ever gets to see it," she said. 

Recollet doesn't know if she'll be able to stay in Amsterdam for the full year without a job secured. 

In the meantime, she has been spending time learning some Dutch and dropping into her uncle's online Anishinaabemowin classes. 

"If there's any time to learn a new language, I feel like this is it," she said.