How are you passing the time during this pandemic?

Oof, things are going crazy here! I had to quit my job at the post office 'cause I just couldn't stand this place, and it was just in time. Ever since, I've been trying to find an online job, in translating or transcribing, but it's not so easy. Mostly because I'm afraid to do it professionally...

I mostly spend my time being useless, translating, watching movies or TV series on my laptop, reading, sleeping. I barely leave my room or talk to anyone, which is getting kind of sad. I'm just like... existing.

The government keeps giving us more and more limitations; keep a 2-meter distance from each other, never leave your house without a mask, must stay within a 100-meter radius from your home and for short periods of time only, when you go grocery shopping - do it fast, may celebrate Passover only with your nuclear family, no more than 2 people in the same vehicle, no public transportation - be it trains or buses, no gyms / restaurants / beaches / parks / cinemas / playgrounds, and so on.

About the groceries stores, luckily I believe we are... okay for now. There's one right by my house, and it was freaking terrifying to go there. They checked my temperature at the entrance, and all the cashiers wore crazy masks and gloves. But I do not recall seeing any shortages.

Also, every 3 weeks I have to take a shot at the infirmary, which means I HAVE TO LEAVE MY HOUSE AND GO TO A PLACE WHERE INFECTED PEOPLE HAVE PREVIOUSLY BEEN. At first, I felt ridiculous leaving my house with a mask on, but when I got there everyone else had one too. And I was just terrified to touch anything and I couldn't breathe in that mask. And of course, there was this lady sitting there at the entrance, asking me, "Have you been abroad recently? Have you came in contact with a confirmed carrier? Are you in quarantine?" and I just said, "I haven't left my house until now..." and she let me go. Enter extreme anxiety.

But I spoke with my sister on the phone today for like 3 hours which was nice :)

I’m isolated in a foreign country. My is located in 3 different countries actually, we can talk by phone but I’m totally divided and my worries every day increase. I don’t know which place, which country has the worst situation, really.
Sometimes I feel like living in a very strange situation and it seems that this don’t belong to me, yet some things I can’t to believe them. It seems that I’m living in one of those movies of wars where the persons don’t know if they could see again....I just want to return to my country.....

I read sometimes, try to make some translation, sometimes I prefer to sleep, sometimes I try to “explore” this country but...it is better not to walk outside....also I see TV series and listen music, I like the guitar...

The situation here with the groceries stores is very controlled, and it is fine....

I wish the best for everyone
To finish as soon as possible this situation. At least to control it. To start to control it..

Thank you so much! And you too!

It’s good that you are able to be in touch with your family. Try, I know it’s tough, to worry less. It’s just that being anxious is bad for you and brings you down because you neither can control nor help the situation. I found that funny skits improve my mood - find funny YouTube videos and watch them. I find that hours of following the news are horrible and one has to ensure the source of news is credible. Music always helps, doesn’t it? I’m falling in love with the old cartoons - the sillier the better.
Best wishes.

Tbh, not much has changed for me and some things might have even improved a little. Our hotel has shut on the 21 March, but a handful of us are still working (me included) to keep an eye on it. I mean, leaving a several million pound hotel unattended is quite irresponsible... Anyway, even though I'm still working, the amount of work is obviously less, so I don't get as tired as I used to and I can find more free time to do things I usually leave on a side for lack of time or energy. In these days I found more time to translate, practice some languages, write and even watch films, which is something I rarely do. I've also finished reading some comics, so I'm planning to shift my attention to some books that were waiting for someone to dust them off (whoops). I also found an excuse to move to the hotel, so my boss has allowed me to stay in one of the rooms. Can't complain about that.
Being in a rural area, the number of infections is not that high, plus there's nature all around. Weather permitting, I usually take a stroll around the lake or in the fields behind the hotel. The government still allows people to have an hour in the open air, but because there's no one but sheep here, it's way easier to stay outside without meeting a single soul. I don't even have to worry about going to the supermarket, because the hotel is taking care of the live-in staff... but even if I had to, it wouldn't be a big deal. The closest village is a 15-minute walk away and there's not a lot of people, so the measures implemented to limit the risk of infection are quite bland and keeping an eye on people is very easy for the supermarket staff. For instance, you're allowed to buy a single pack of toilet paper per person, you're supposed to keep yourself 6 feet away from other people and recently security has been allowing only a certain amount of people to get in. In both pharmacies and supermarkets, there's a line at the check-out and the cashier would ask you to stay behind that line. I haven't even seen a single person with a mask on so far (except for some cashiers, but not everywhere... I usually use the self check-out service anyway).
In general I feel extremely safe and I'm perfectly aware how lucky I am that I can still work and don't have to pay any rent (heard some people have been evicted, either because they couldn't pay rent or because they worked in hospitals and the landlord was afraid they could carry the disease... crazy times). Because of the lockdown, everything is closed, but nothing has really stopped: trains and buses still run, even if less often, and delivery companies are active more than ever. Basically everyone is still able to get what they need even without going out too much.
The only things that left me with a bitter aftertaste is the fact I lost £132 on a trip to the isle of Man (on the other hand, it could have been worse), that my very important plans for this year will be affected (I'm working on limiting the damages) and that panic is spreading way faster than the infection. It's scary how people are overreacting and, even if I acknowledge the situation is serious, such a behaviour is really counterproductive. People spreading fake news and ignoring the government's advice are doing way more damage than the virus itself. I guess common sense has become a rare virtue these days.

My family back in Italy is also doing ok for the most part. My parents and siblings live in a rural area as well, so there's no much going on, even if there you can't really go out. The police would ask you for a self-certification stating why you're going out and they're required to verify it (for instance if you state you're going to work, they'll phone your boss and ask if you're telling the truth). The fact they live in one of the least affected places helps, but my sister who lives in the city is going through worse times. The quarantine is really hard to bear for her. She doesn't go out at all and gets everything she needs delivered to her, so she's easily getting bored and craving for a normal social life. Luckily I don't have that problem...

Hello!
I would like to write you, I want.
I understand you totally.

Sorry, I wrote to everybody.
Hello, I understood you, I think. I would like to write you some comments, a little later.

Tough to keep politics out of this discussion... I think we feel out of place in every country because we are powerless to correct the obvious wrongs.

Stress always has negative affect on personal relationships. I’ll give advice from a wise collègue given to me last week: don’t forget to discount harsh words, wounded feelings, raised voices, nonsense told, unfortunate actions - everyone is under a lot of stress and will later regret these.

Grad schools here all went online. Perhaps, yours will also.
Best,
Deanna

Same here

thank you for sharing this advice!

best regards

In here, we're under lock down for the 3rd week -today is our 4th. France declared quarantine, so you can't go out if it's not to make essential groceries (Eating, drinking, some police officers even checked some bags at the exit of stores… Which is not allowed), to work if working from home isn't possible or to walk your dog. 80% of our economy and businesses are shut down. Classes are cancelled, and final exam (Baccalauréat, BTS, CAP, BPE…) are cancelled, pupils will be assessed on their work during the previous year. I work for our Administration in the "creative field" (I'm a graphist/printer, I oversee designs and their print/making) so I can work from home, but we don't have any work since administration like city halls etc are "working" with the vital people.

The hardest part is not being able to go out see my horse. I'm an equestrian, and we can't go out to provide for its vital needs. He's in a private stable, so the owner is obliged to take care of him, so he decided to let all the horses in the lands for the day and to get them go in at night. I guess all my efforts to improve its breath, cardio and health are more or less wasted. I know he's happy in the field, but hey, I'm at the barn everyday so it's a bit hard.

I guess the happiest one in here is my cat. He's sitting on my laps, on my keyboard, ... I'm not completely alone :)
Oh and tomorrow is the launch of Disney+ in France, so I'm a bit excited as -if no one noticed yet, I'm a bit of a fan.

As a "at risk person" (Several bad health issues in the past), my nice neighbors helped me shopping so I don't have to go out. I'm grateful for this, but I'm also a bit bored in my little flat. I can't compare with medical people and people taking risks, and can't complain though. I'm trying to read books I've let down, or to get new skills like cooking recipes I never tried. I'm looking at planes on FlightRadar, it's my second hobby. Oh, and improve languages, of course :p

Hope everyone's fine and safe. Wish you the best.

in Spain the lock down started on March 13
the day before I sent my son to buy something to snack on
 while i was continung the renovation of my house..currently making tadelack..that I can't finish ...
He came back empty-handed because it was total madness in the supermarket.
We laughed at the situation mimicking zombies..
Everything then went down hill very quickly
March 16 closing of borders and prohibition of going out except for buying products of first necessity.
At first the super markets were robbed, and no more toilet paper and I have read that beer consumption has increased by 80%.
Theres a beer brand with the name of corona, I don't know if it is the most consumed?
 now it's quieter but dumbfounding when you see the cashiers with masks, security guards, and lines indicating the distances to be respected, I admit that this sight annoys me every time. Now we are being advised to put on masks, so I'm going to sew some.
I started by doing a big cleaning in the house where we live, disinfecting everything.
Then I invaded the kitchen to make pastries and bread, I prefer what is salty but right now i'am eating more sweets.
I eat the news around the world, and watch the documentaries about the history of epidemics.
(by the way that movie is incredibly similar https://youtu.be/PqWj3uKLeCo), reading, planting ...

I have the impression of having an overcoat which is pressing on me but that does not prevent me from sleeping.
My childrens have always followed their studies at home..so it does not change them too much.
my son play guitar, paint..

Here we would have started the Holy Week, they can't make prossesssions but they are still playing Saetas, at 8pm we applaud the healthcare staff.

Spain has reached the peak and the number of daily cases has been downtrending, but the return to normal will come slowly .

I'm not sure this got publicized elsewhere, but one of the President's sons used Twitter to accuse China of deliberately creating and releasing COVID in the world, to reach global domination. It was so chaotic that even an ambassador demanded an apology, as China is our greatest commercial ally. Their family is not known for thinking straight, they certainly think coronavirus is a communist creation. I have people in my family who publicly posted on Facebook that China and Russia were allies and that the pandemic was just an act of their partnership. It amazes me how people can be dumb enough.

Here in Brazil, state schools of Rio are using online education, but the problem is that there are hundreds of thousands of students with a poor income, so they wouldn't have access to it. I think they should extend the 2020 school year up to March 2021 and start another one from there. Keeping online classes now wouldn't be fine for the reasons I mentioned. I live in a big city and close to Downtown, however, up my street we have a favela, so you can clearly see the abysmal social difference. One of my professors will start using videoconferences as classes, but the others haven't said a word about that.

A good thing happening is that people are showing friendly faces. There is a couple in my apartment building that left their cellphone numbers in the elevator so people in need (the elderly or those in the risk group) can ask them to go out and but whatever, from groceries to medicines.

To keep my mental health stable, my friends and I usually either have video-conferences on Google Hangouts or have Gartic matches with our boyfriends/girlfriends joining us. It helps us forget the sad situation we're living.

The one thing keeping me sane through all this craziness is knowing that I live in a country that has universal healthcare, and that I don't have to worry about going bankrupt if (god forbid) I were to ever get sick and catch this disease.

Some undergraduate schools here already went online1, but post-graduate ones haven't yet. They, it seems, have not been authorized yet to start classes online - I just received a WhatsApp audio from a professor saying that although we will start have weekly online meetings, it doesn't mean our classes will start.

Here in Brazil we have a pretty decent public health system (though I agree it has its problems - but it's more administrative), but do you want to know something? Ours is a huge country of continental dimensions. Sometime ago we got Cuban doctors to practice in remote areas of the country. Know what happened? Some people (the President) started spreading panic saying they were actually guerrilla fighters paid by the communist Cuban regime with another political party of Brazil, and people started thinking that they were actually stealing our jobs (xenophobia at its finest). After some politics were changed, they all went back to Cuba and our President said he would promote public calls to get Brazilians into those places. The result: very few natives did that and some areas still have no doctors.

I have a severe case of allergy and am required to take shots, thankfully my father does that for me as I don't know how to.

For some weird reason same thing happened here. I don't know why people are hoarding toilet paper. Markets are even limiting the amount of alcohol2 you can buy to 2 bottles of 500mL or 1 bottle of 1L. Problem? Prices are skyrocketing and some are selling those bottles at a very high price (20 bucks if you're lucky enough). Capitalism at its finest. In my home, though we can afford it, we're not throwing money out of the window yet, so we're cleaning up with a mix of bleach, water and Lysoform which we spray all around - we only use alcohol to clean our hands after we come from the street. And no, you're not being racist - same here. You know that Karen meme? This is actually what you see (it was even broadcasted in the news): a middle-aged white woman hoarded a shopping cart with alcohol, people started arguing with her. Stupid.

• 1. Side note: our Ministry of Education already allows face to face courses to have at least 40% of their classes online. Back where I worked, they kind of 'virtualized' all courses and classes are had in kinds of videoconferences
• 2. I know this actually refers to alcoholic beverages, but I don't know the word used to refer to something like this - a bottle of clear alcohol

UPDATE: Apparently, we're having a shortage in eggs, toilet paper, and... jigsaw puzzles.

Oh, and we're under curfew now.

Or Bolsonaro and his idiot son 🤣

You know how we work remotely, study remotely, meetings are on skype, zoom, etc...
https://www.facebook.com/1725586060/posts/10207115024070400/?sfnsn=mo

Note to everyone: Please do not take his family as a representation of Brazil. He does not represent most people.

We can’t get peroxide...
About vodka...
Коронавируса боимся мы всерьёз
Дезинфицируем всё, что не придёт
Вместо молока нам водка подойдёт
На удивление нас не страшит цирроз

Was doing a big spring cleaning this morning! I should say, afterwards it felt really great! Some physical activity and tidying up does wonders! And even earlier in the morning took our dogs for a long walk around the neighborhood. The weather was perfect! Lots of hyacinths and daffodils blooming right now. Pretty soon we’ll see some tulips. All in all, it helps you forget the scary stuff for a while. Will be baking tonight. Maybe, will open a bottle of red wine :-)

Oh, wonderful!, I can imagine maybe,
what nice the flowers and the weather. All these things can help so much, I believe.
Have a nice day.