That's Snot So Sanitary, Is It?

So it was time to hike up the hill to the university, where the COVID testing spot for Basel was in a big tent in a university courtyard.  Greeted by a woman who said, "your flight is tomorrow at 11:45?  Well, you might not get the results in time, but you probably will."  

Those kind of remarks aren't exactly confidence boosters.  

The set-up for the administrative work of signing in was pretty good, at least until we had to pay 163 Swiss francs ($193.11 in USD, not that it is burned into my mind).  A nice nearly $600 tax for the three of us to get back into the country.  Would have been nice if Brandon had waited another week to put the policy into effect.

After the paperwork, we didn't have to wait long at all to be summoned into the testing area.  All three of us were surprised, separately, when we were told the swab would not just go up our noses, but also into our throat.

Oh well, I reasoned, two swabs can't be that bad.  Except it was one swab.  First far up the nose, and then, with the SAME SIDE of the swab, stuck it down my throat.  I almost gagged, disgusted by the unsanitary nature of it. 

The Swiss medical people doing the tests didn't same to care.  In fact, I would say they were neutral on the whole thing.

(Writer: Get it?  The Swiss ARE neutral.  Editor's Note: Whatever, you are the one had your own nose gunk shoved down your throat.  Writer: Well, when you put it that way, I feel even worse!)

Afterwards, we had to synch the app with our own account, or something like that.  Thank goodness Julia, our tech support person in life and for the trip, was eventually able to figure it out.  She then did it for Carol and I.

So, because of the uncertainty of when we would receive the results, I set the alarm for 4:30 am so we could drive like a bat out of hell to Zurich and pay 299 Swiss Francs per person for a rapid PCR test.

At 12:30 am, Julia burst into our room to tell us she got the email and was negative.  Carol checked hers -- she was negative.  I was too tired to figure my app out, so Carol did it for me.  I tested negative.

I reset the alarm for 5:30 am and enjoyed an extra 45 minutes of sleep (I ended up waking up at 5:15).