M., a teen in Milan, Italy

This post is in collaboration with covid9teen

Coronavirus in Milan

Milan, Italy:

Saturday, February 22nd was my last day at school. I knew that the number of infections in my region was increasing, but I had no idea it was so bad that schools would have been closed starting the following Monday.

The first week was not very different from a normal break, except for the fact that we didn’t know when we would have to go back to school. A lot of people were actually happy about it. After the second week some started practicing social distancing, but most people kept ignoring the problem. I think the whole situation only started being taken seriously after the government imposed quarantine on March 8th.

Since then, my life has changed quite a bit. I can only leave my apartment to go food shopping, and I really miss going out and doing outdoor sports. In the morning, I attend classes over Zoom, which is ok, but I honestly can’t wait to go back to school and see my friends. On the other hand, if there is a good thing about quarantine, it is that I get to spend more time with my family.

The streets of my neighborhood are completely deserted, but every evening someone plays music from their balcony and everybody sings to it! I love how we Italians always manage to be loud!!

Still, the situation is very frightening and the number of cases and deaths has only been slowly decreasing lately, after 4 weeks of total lockdown.

[submitted on 4/5/2020]

Learn more about the LiQ and the covid9teen collaboration here

Life in Quarantine: Witnessing Global Pandemic is an initiative sponsored by the Poetic Media Lab and the Center for Spatial and Textual Analysis at Stanford University.

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