Throw off the bowlines, sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. -Mark Twain
At low tide, the North Sea coast is a sea of mud. From the Netherlands to Denmark, the slope of the sea floor is shallow, resulting in huge differences in the water level between the tides. At low tide, the water peels back, sometimes as much as 15 kilometers, revealing acres and acres of intertidal mud flats. This is known as the Wadden Sea, or Wattenmeer in German, and it’s a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
There’s a war waging worldwide, and it’s between those people who want to re-open society and those who advocate for more caution to prevent a second wave of the virus. States such as Washington, California and New York as well as German chancellor Angela Merkel are on one side. Most of the Deep South, the Midwest, the individual German states, and US President Donald Trump are on the other.
Continue reading “The Quarantine Diaries, Day 50: Loosening up”
On April 20, Germany relaxed some of its quarantine measures. Small stores, under 800 m² (8,600 ft²) were allowed to re-open, on the condition that customers kept at least 1.5 meters (5 ft) apart.
The same day, Angela Merkel strongly recommended people start wearing masks in public, though she left it up to the individual German states to decided if and how to implement this measure. In Hamburg, they announced a new Maskenpflicht (mask-wearing requirement) on April 20, which goes into effect April 27, giving people a week to purchase a mask and get used to these measures.
I had to check the calendar to see how many days it’s been. Working from home, staying in, and seeing nobody but my boyfriend has become the new normal. Streets are quiet, shops are closed, and going to the supermarket is a rare and dangerous undertaking. Despite the dark circumstances for human society, spring is relentless. The days grow absurdly longer, birds and plants and flowers are out in full force, and the ridiculously sunny weather belies the darkness of the situation. It is hard to feel too sad, or take the situation too gravely, when the sun is shining. Continue reading “The Quarantine Diaries, Day 29: The New Normal”
Day 10. Two whole work weeks behind me. This whole working-from-home thing is starting to feel like the new normal.
This week, I had a few very bad days. Continue reading “The Quarantine Diaries, Day 10: If I am not my productivity, what am I?”
Following the Wanderlust 