Interesting Times

With all this shelter-in-place I had thought that I would have way more time to blog. I certainly have lots of photos that can make it in this space, and stories to tell. I saw myself typing along happily, cranking out one blogpost after another. The reality, however, looks different. This is my third attempt to write - it's not that I don't have time - I do. I'm not going anywhere either - who is these days? Still, I didn't get comfortable in front of my computer (I never get comfortable here anyway), at least not to compose enticing blogposts that my readers would breathlessly read, hungry for more.

Instead, I'm trying to make the best of a dire situation, finding my own routine to make my days meaningful. Some days this works better than others. None of these days found me writing those blogposts though...

When I venture outside for walks in the neighborhood I carry my phone with me, listening to audiobooks (currently "My Antonia" by Willa Cather) and keeping my distance from other people. Sometimes it's quite the dance happening on the sidewalks and the streets when we try to give each other a wide space. You probably all experience the same. We are reduced to the neighborhoods for walking now since all the parks, open spaces and beaches have been closed. At the first weekend of our "house arrest" thousands of people were crowding those places, not keeping a safe distance - the county didn't have a choice but to shut it all down. I miss my walks around the lake with my friend, hiking up the mountains or just driving out to the coast to spend a few hours at the ocean.

The flowers in my neighborhood like the California poppies in the photo above or the pink Arctotis below make bright and colorful spots.

Grocery shopping has become a time consuming chore. Yesterday I stood in line for 50 minutes - knowing that this might happen I had brought my Kindle and could at least spend the time with a good book (I'm reading "Broken for You" by Stephanie Kallos at the moment). At least the store - I shop at Trader Joe's - is always well stocked. I also shop for my elderly neighbors which gives me the feeling that I am at least a little bit helpful. I guess we all have similar stories to tell about shopping, standing in line, avoiding being exposed.

Thankfully the farmers market is still open. It has moved to a different location and has less booths than usual, but this is a great way to support our local farmers and get fresh produce. It's not too crowded and market management does a good job in avoiding crowds or telling groups that stand together chatting to leave the aisles. Every booth is taped off and usually there is one person who handles the produce and another who deals with the money. By now most people are wearing masks - many of us still have one or two N95 masks left over from the fires - and are careful in keeping a safe distance. However, I do miss the friendly conversations that are so typical for shopping at the farmers market. The only person I talked with for more than the usual "how are you" and "stay healthy" was the mushroom guy.

Kaefer came home for a few days during her spring break. All classes in her next - and last - quarter will be taught online, and we think there will be no commencement for the class of 2020. It's a little bit sad for all those graduates, but the important thing is THAT she graduates and everybody stays healthy. After four days she had to go back since her job with Student Services defines her as an essential employee and therefore she has to go to work. This is the only time when she actually sees her friends - again observing a safe distance - and I do believe that this is better for her than staying with her boring parents. While she was here, we were binge watching "Silent Witness" and playing Rummikub.

Fortunately there is always something to knit. Another birds hat was finished and sold two days after I had listed it in my Etsy shop. A box with lots of yarn goodness arrived that I will turn into more hats and socks. Leftover yarn is used to knit up cute little cats that can be used as ornaments, bookmarks, gift tags - whatever you can think of.

I'm also still making my own paper. I had ordered a few stencils and I'm quite excited to use them. This whole paper making can get pretty addictive and I'm still not sure what I will make out of it. The idea in the class was to make small journals and I'm still considering this. But I also think that they would make cool backgrounds for a photo or could be turned into cards. I guess I will just let them sit for a while and something will come up. It usually does.

The majority of my time, however, is being spent preparing my online German class and work for the German School. Using the educator platform of Zoom we are now able to offer our students online classes. Since I'm the head teacher of the local campus I'm also a board member, which means that I attend the board meetings and am involved in the decision making. Our last in-person meeting was when we decided to close the school because of the coronavirus. Since then we have met online to figure out how to go on and offer our students a continuous opportunity of learning German. It meant a lot of extra work for us teachers since teaching online requires way more preparation than in-class teaching. We also had to learn Zoom's education platform which thankfully is easy to navigate - even our least "techie" people learned it and know how to use it at least at a very basic level. I love the ability to screen-share, break up smaller groups in "breakout rooms" and just how easy it is. My high school is doing their distance learning via Zoom as well - I guess the company is doing really well right now.

It was lovely to see my students again, at least on the screen. While I think this is not the best way to learn a foreign language, it is the best we can do of the situation and we have a bit of our wonderful school community back. Our students are grateful and turn up at every lesson, eager to learn. Below you can see what online teaching with my class looks like - I have blurred out the faces of my students, though.

My heart is full with gratitude that I still have both my jobs, that I can teach from home, that my husband can work from home and that we're doing well. I feel for all the people who have lost their jobs during this crisis or who have to stay home without any pay, who have fallen ill or have lost a loved one to the disease. Unfortunately, I don't think that this will be over any time soon. We're in this for a longer run I'm afraid.

When my mood is sinking a bit - thankfully it doesn't happen too often - I snuggle up with the neighbors' cats who come by daily and spend a good amount of time in my garden.

How are you doing in these interesting times? What do you do to spend your time at home in a meaningful way? Please let us know in the comments.

Please stay healthy everyone.