The QuaranTEENS

This week was full of stress, with the last homework before the last class council, the results of the courseup that will decide our future and other personal stresses. For several days, all my wishes were on the waiting list, but I was not so badly ranked with the number of people who had applied for the same studies. I’m writing this post a little ahead of time, so I don’t know when I’ll have applications.

During the week the weather was great, I took the opportunity to sunbathe, I could already see myself in summer on the beach, only it’s not the case, I still have to wait more than a month. #Sad

To get some fresh air, with my parents we went to my aunt’s house who lives outside the city, she has a big garden, a swimming pool and paths not far away to go for a walk. It’s a change from my building in Paris, even though I’m very attached to it.

After several weeks without a long walk, I had to stimulate my legs. That’s why my father and I decided to go for a walk on the banks of the Seine not far from my house. We didn’t meet many people except people fishing or small groups of children playing with each other. At the beginning, after walking for 30 minutes, I had small pains in my joints, but they quickly went away. This walk did me a lot of good, both physically and morally, by clearing my mind. In the end, we walked for more than 3 hours.

Then, in the days that followed I accompanied my mother by walking 1 hour for the outward journey and 1 hour for the return journey to be able to go to the station because my mother had to get these tickets refunded. In the end, they told her to do a walk on the Internet, a walk that wasn’t much used for the main purpose, but it wasn’t a refusal to go out for a bit. However, I noticed the difference in the abundance of people, there was a lot more in places that are already busy bases, but I was not shocked, I expected it, it’s normal it’s necessary to resume little by little the “normal” life. The only thing that surprised me was the people who do not respect the fact that some parks are closed, they have appropriated lawns that are intended as a base for works of art in memory of dead people.

This week, for our history class we had to read a book in Spanish called “Si me permiten hablar…” by Domitila Chúngara and then work on it. The reason I am talking about it here is that the book has a lot more to me, for the morality of the book that tells how the Bolivian people (miners, farmers, etc) during the years 50 to 80, managed to unite and fight against the big injustices, the governments that were not at all in their favor or capitalism.

The story is told through the testimony of Domitila who lived through this period, she tells the story of the people in general but also of her personal history because she is one of the most influential women during this period.

This story touched me enormously because during the testimony we learn terrible facts like the fact that she lost several of her children but also one of her sisters but also that she was incarcerated and beaten several times for her ideas or to be able to defend her people.

In any case I recommend the book even though it is in Spanish and I don’t know if it has been translated into other languages.

Today my mother received a package, I didn’t know what she had ordered. I was surprised when she opened the package, indeed there were washable recycled cloth masks in it. She bought them for the whole family, from my brothers to my grandparents. I was able to choose between the different patterns and colors of the different fabrics I chose 2 of them:

I find this initiative very interesting for the ecological coast because I’ve always been interested in it even if I’ve never really made huge ecological movements. Moreover during a few months the masks will become a daily accessory so we might as well have washable masks for individuals and make them a “fashion accessory” to get used to this habit that we will have to take.

As promised in the previous post, here are some of my pictures:

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So here are a few examples to prove that I did take pictures 🙂

As I said in a previous post, I found a camera, as we have time with containment I decided to take some pictures.

To do this I had to first get to grips with the features of the camera and then research some photography tips. I looked at several articles on different styles of photography but the one that attracted me the most was on portrait photos of people. Since I can’t go out of my house or take pictures of my friends, I decided to take pictures of myself with the means I had.

I am proud of the result and I think I have found a new passion to do in my life during confinement and after confinement, that confinement can bring beautiful things.

This week, I found a camera, which has lived quite a while with my family, so I found some old family pictures with my brothers and my parents, which made me nostalgic because it’s been 4 years that I’ve been living alone with my parents, because my brothers are studying in another city and so we don’t see each other very often.

This discovery made us want to watch videos from the past for the Easter period with the egg hunt, there was a lot of laughter, a wave of nostalgia made me think about this period of confinement.

It’s true that we are often nostalgic, the proof during the confinement, we want to see our friends again, to go to a specific place, to find our daily life which allows us not to feel disoriented. That’s why I became even more aware of enjoying the present moment, because nostalgia is a very good feeling for me, but when will it be if I enjoy the present moment even more? Well the present is much better, so the past has been even better and so the future can only be even better.

1- Know how to get information on official websites to learn more about the virus or containment for the good of all. (https://www.gouvernement.fr/info-coronavirus)

2- Keep in touch with your family and friends (by internet of course), and respect the limit of the number of people for the sake of your mental health.

3- Go shopping by buying the essentials and have the certificate for the good of your bank account.

4-Put a padlock on your cupboard so that you don’t eat every 5 minutes for the sake of your physical health and try to do sports (yes, sports, you read that right).

5- Try to respect the usual working hours for the sake of your intelligence.

If you respect all these instructions you will be able to live quietly your confinement. Good confinement to all!

Since the coronavirus caused containment measures in some countries, people have become a little more hygienic.
However, what makes me laugh is that normally it is reflexes that we should have all the time and not necessarily in times of “war against the invisible” as our President Emmanuelle Macron would say.

This is how I wanted to say that washing our hands is not just in the event of a pandemic, but it must be in our daily lives and these reflexes must be passed on from generation to generation.

I say this because we touch a lot of objects that have a lot of microbes, see also excrement particles (and yes!), for example on our mobile phones ( https://www.ouest-france.fr/leditiondusoir/data/82922/reader/reader.html#!preferred/1/package/82922/pub/117240/page/15 ), a gadget that is super present in the life of a lot of people, in short it’s the same principle as with the virus, it’s to avoid transmitting them, it’s like when you shake hands with someone after going to the (toilet), it’s better to wash your hands before ;).

So if you want to know a little more about how to wash your hands I put several videos so that you can progress.

by Lucas.