“I got the shock of my life when I found out that the senior pastor got infected with the coronavirus. Before I knew it, our church had become the largest cluster in the whole of Singapore. Having visited the church twice that week, I myself was worried that I could have been infected by the novel coronavirus.”
“There were no particular difficulties, but my institute, like many others, was not ready for distance learning, and some difficulties arose: for example, problems with the Internet, a poor-quality platform for conducting seminars and lectures. The hardest thing in my situation is the MacBook.”
“My mother works in the hospital and my father worked within the grocery store so we were always cautious about the way we did things. We talked at dinner about covid and all the crazy things it had people doing. We laughed about people wearing plastic bags or Stormtrooper masks (Starwars) when they went grocery shopping…The thought of covid was constantly on my mind, a stressor that was inescapable.”
“At home I feel best at the moment. I would not like to be stuck in another country and not see my family. I pass my time on the computer or I help my father in his garage. We can only go shopping with a mask and the shops are very full.”
“In March and April, during the lockdown, I virtually did not leave my house at all, maybe with an exception for a short bike ride every two days, but since May, as the restrictions are being eased (May 18 – reopening of restaurants), I am going out more often (though always wearing a mask).”
“Quarantine is not anymore an entertaining new activity, but a lifestyle. As for me, I can’t complain, I’ve been coping with it pretty well. Reading adventure books has helped me as a way of evading reality and feeling as if I had gone for a walk at least, and having the school routine as usual tricks my mind into thinking I actually went outside of my home.”
“Only a month ago, you were longing for peace and quiet and a peaceful interruption in the exhausting daily routine, now you only wish for some kind of occupation, even a distraction from all the idleness and the abysmal emptiness of boredom. These spiritual paradoxes, which were formed within a month, prove the basic imperfection of man and our ever-changing desires and desires.”
“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!!”
“Maybe the virus wants to bring us back to reality, to the real meaning of things and wants to teach us all the values that we have gradually obscured, the relationships that we have reset in favour of digital distance. Every day I ask myself: “How good was everything before?!”. Let’s hope everything goes smoothly and gets back to the way it was before!”
“I think, if everyone goes through this time with a positive mindset, it will be easier and you can look forward to enjoy the beautiful weather with your friends in future. I believe that we could master the situation well together.”
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.
Center for Spatial and Textual Analysis (CESTA),
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