In March 2020, the world started to be in a State of Emergency due to the pandemic problem, COVID-19, also known as “Coronavirus”. It’s a big rate of contagion and danger, putting almost all the world in quarantine, being at home, not going outside at all except for things like buying groceries and medicine.
It has never happened before, like…really never!
All our lives have changed: kids, youngsters, adults and elder generation..all generations have to adapt their normal lives into a new routine, basically into 4 walls. “What am I going to do that many hours at home?” “Will I get crazy?” Those are some of the questions that probably everybody asked themselves at least once during the lockdown.
To answer those, we have asked around our AEGEEan friends, how they are going to spend so many days “locked-in”. And actually, what we have seen so far, people are not changing their habits that much even though they have to stay at home. Most of them shifted to their jobs or studies to the home office and studies as well: they are still being engaged with online lessons, homework and course assignments, so at least part of the day is covered by those things.
Digital drinking is a new trend!
Thanks to the era of technology, we can have a lot of things closer than we think: starting with our friends, all the people we have interviewed are doing a video call with their friends or family almost every day. For example, Edoardo Giordano (AEGEE-Torino) meets with his friends to take some drinks as they used to do in person.
Work hard – play hard
Also, you can have an entire workout “in-house”: many people are keeping their fit lives, followed by online live tutorials and videos. For instance, Esther Rodríguez from AEGEE-León does a small workout every day to get out the stress of being at home and in front of a computer all day long. Or take an example of Edoardo Giordano (AEGEE-Torino), who started to follow an Instagram account where the person persistently displays cool full-body workouts and meditation practices.
Pick up some cool hobbies! Come on in!
This situation is also an opportunity for many people to start learning cooking, try out a variety of dishes and different diets from all over the globe. You should not restrict yourself only with more healthy ones, but also allow yourself to chillax and have some sweet teeth. As a matter of fact, after this quarantine, many people will have better cooking skills. For example, Francesca Albanese (AEGEE – Salerno) is cooking fresh pasta, pizza and all kinds of desserts with her parents. Buon appetito!
Head Held High!!!
So, as you can see, it is not an easy situation, and of course, there is no comparison with the life outside, people are keeping a routine and a quiet normal life. Many activities that we can not do, many places that we are eager to visit, many projects we are passionate to do, many people we craving to see, hug and kiss. Again, we have asked our fellow AEGEEans, which things they are dreaming to do after the quarantine.
In general, as young people, we all agree on the same thing: hanging out with friends, as for example Zeynep Ozan (AEGEE-Ankara), Maide Özcan (AEGEE-Isparta), Isabel Santos (AEGEE-Valladolid), Can Aydoğan (AEGEE-İzmir) answered. Julian Van Loo (AEGEE-Delft) promised to throw a big party and Laura García (AEGEE A-Coruña) who will definitely go to the restaurant and grab some the Spanish tapas.
We have many people who are missing nature, like Isabel (AEGEE-Valladolid) who wants to see a sunset in the wild and Dani Cervera (AEGEE-Las Palmas) who after lockdown will run his way down to the beach. Antonio Castiello (SUCT, AEGEE-Salerno) will be going also to the beach with his guitar and friends or Pablo Guitierrez (AEGEE-León) and Sara Bordonado (AEGEE-Valencia) would like to go to the mountains for hiking and spend some time up there. Zografia Lepoura (AEGEE-Athina) wants to go somewhere into the woods or to the beach alone and lie in the grass with the sun on her face.
Of course, we can not miss the thing we like to do the most in AEGEE: Travelling! We have the example of Federico Melella (AEGEE-Salerno) that will make a trip to Milano to visit some friends or Maide Özcan (AEGEE-Isparta) that is thinking about planning a trip to the UK. Kaan Sertok (AEGEE-İzmir) wants to go camping and is planning a trip around Turkey wherever his legs will lead him to! Jessica Kurzawa (AEGEE-Amsterdam) is hoping she could her flight to Indonesia and surprise her old friend.
All in all, we will go through this together!
We all agree on one fact, that is, during this quarantine, we realise the importance of the small things, the importance of the bonds we have with our friends and family. How much we actually miss them, and to appreciate the time we have them in our lives. For example, Vicente Rerades (AEGEE-Alicante) and Hannah Sonntag (AEGEE-Nijmegen) have said that they will hug more the people they care about. Most of us have come into the realization that with the smallest things of life, we also can survive and find some happiness even behind the curtain of isolation.