The QuaranTEENS

I’ve become so used to confinement these past two months and now that the city has “reopened,” not much has changed for me. I didn’t rush out and see friends, I’m not eager to go shopping and I don’t miss the mall. I miss Five Guys and going out to eat and well, I guess I am finally sick of my own cooking.

I haven’t been posting a lot because honestly, after keeping after so many emails, I haven’t had the strength to write. This is also a student project but whatevs!

How did I spend my time in my “quar”?

I took out the sewing machine and made masks.

I lurked on my neighbor since that’s the only entertainment here. Why is she on the roof with a stranger during quarantine? We may never solve the mystery.

I camped out in my living room for a few days. I even put on “nature” sounds and put woodsy essential oils in my diffuser for the full sensory effect.

I cooked a lot of delicious food and FaceTimed my friends and family daily. Honestly, this doesn’t replace human contact but since I’ve been living abroad for over eight years, I’m used to seeing my family once a year.

Now that everything is open and Parisians are back to acting heedless or even reckless, I’m not changing my habits. I don’t go out very much and plan to keep it that way. To be honest, like many of you, I’m waiting for everything to get shut down once again since people are not following the rules and guidelines very strictly. How are you celebrating your “freedom”?

I’ve more or less adapted in two and half weeks of confinement.

Dresscode: Hoodies. But, get this: two groups, inside hoodies and outside hoodies. You must separate them by fit and filth. So, you’ve got your “classy” hoodie and then you’ve got the hoodie that can double as a napkin in an emergency. Wear the same jeans and hoodie all week, who cares! No one is going to see you!!

Schedule: none besides checking Pronote and email hourly. Turns out I’m not an extremely disciplined person. The only schedule I truly adhere to is three meals a day: breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

Meals: prepped and delicious. Eating well is all I’ve got!! The highlight of my week was the courier bringing us gourmet coffee beans and I’m not going to lie, I’m also excited for the box of vegetables direct from the farm we get to pick up tomorrow. Wow. This is my life now.

Listen, I don’t want to be the corny teacher who lives for their students but I have an affinity for my job. I’ve realized something: I miss those annoying kids! That, folks, is the hardest part about confinement. No contact with those sweet rascals. In other ways it’s neat, I get to experiment with new ways of teaching and interacting (this blog, ahem) as well as recording my own audiobook for my 7th grade classes. I’m reading Charlotte’s Web to them and they draw me comic strips of what they understood from the chapter. I assure you, the drawings are hilarious. My literature class is making propaganda posters for George Orwell’s Animal Farm. I sit back and watch my inbox fill up with artwork then I frantically respond to every parent confirming the reception of every attached drawing. It’s daunting for someone who once tweeted “I wish everyone would stop sending me emails!! I can’t take it anymore!!”

And what about y’all? What have you begun to enjoy? What have you rediscovered?

It’s nearly one week into the mandatory confinement in France. Schools have shut down, many people are working from home, we now have to have a legitimate excuse and permission slip to be outside. People who would usually shoulder check you on the sidewalk now give fellow pedestrians a wide berth. I discovered that the old woman who lives below me has Alzheimers and is fearfully shut into her apartment with her daughter. In a recent interaction with the friendly man who sweeps the street, I found out that the post office has closed and that he desperately needed a stamp to post a letter. I rushed home to give him my last stamp. Human interactions are earnest but transactional, masks and gloves aren’t the only barriers.

Here, with the help of my senior-year English students, I hope to collect and reflect on our human experiences as we navigate this peculiar time in our lives and recent history. This is my and their sincere attempt to cultivate our writing and reflection.