March 2020
Lots of family and friends back in the US are asking how we are doing under quarantine. Not a day goes by that I don’t get asked about life locked-up. And because I just can’t choose a social media platform to consistently report on, I have decided to create this free-form blog post.
Here’s a look at our lives under lock down.
There’s no great plan for this. I’ll include what we are up to, interesting finds, things I’ve read, local news sources … simply some things to know how we are passing the time.
#coronavirus #madrid #spain
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March 11
First day of self-quarantine
School closed. But no activity. Day for teachers to organize virtual learning. We decide to just hole-up and start self-quarantine.
Business meetings and travel continue. Bars offering drink discounts to get the now unchained students to the clubs. People start talking about heading to the mountains to ski (me included) to hide out somewhere other than home. #coronacation is a real thing.
Americans on sabbatical start talking about getting out of Spain.
I think this no-school is going to go at least until Easter/spring break. We should prep for the long run.
Our housekeeper shows up to work. We tell her it’s her last day to come in and we’ll just pay her for the month. No sense having her ride public transport and take the risk, just for us.
Business meetings still being requested face to face though most attendees opting for conf calls. Many calls getting scheduled. The startup world very concerned, especially in healthcare due to reduced access to hospitals and focus on critical care services vs. any other healthcare needs. The ability to rise money in the crisis driving fear of closure of some companies who are now raising money.
Veronica and I organize the planning board and discuss as a family needing to all pitch in. Chore sharing, schedules posted for the week. Set some goals. And plan for family time.
March 12
First day of virtual school
Overall quite successful. The American School of Madrid well prepared for delivering school online. Boys have to check-in on time for each class, class work assigned, many a video chat with classmates and teachers. Boys enjoying going to school in pajamas.
Busy days at home with a full house.
For local news and updates, I’ve been following this guy, Matthew Bennett, that reports in both English and Spanish. He’s worth checking out.
March 13
Official quarantine to begin
Now it’s official – government quarantine, and there’s more to come.
One family making a getaway tomorrow so we go to collect their leave-behinds. Classic — toilet paper and paper towels, tubs of peanut butter and a bike. They are going to Mexico via Canada because they don’t want to get quarantined in the US. Good luck with that!
Family Time was watching Parasite movie. After all the moaning beforehand, consensus is positive on the film.
March 14
A “regular Saturday”
well, except that we don’t have any soccer games.
Trying to battle the draw of electronics but it’s going to be a losing battle. We are, in fact, locked up at home. And all the kids are online. And vero and I are on phones reading news and keeping up with friends.
Family Time was a #cornhole tournament during which I rained 3’s from the sky and finished in first place.
Made the boys stay outside longer and get some exercise.
Oh, and we bought the complete series of Friday Night Lights that should keep us busy for a couple of nights.
More US families going to try and airlift out of here. Reminds me of Japan after the Fukushima tsunami. Get out anyway you can! We just stay put.
Streets in town pretty dead, though good execution on “social distancing”.
I got started on my to-do list: Toilet and broken chair to start off. One busted knuckle, but just the price to pay.
Ordered some things from Amazon, more as an experiment than anything, and they say they’ll deliver on Monday.
Wrap-up the day with some relax.
March 15
Lock-down
We knew it was coming. Major restrictions on free movement so we’ll def be in lock down for at least 15 days. Can still walk to town for groceries and to take dog out, but only one of us at a time. Chata girl is going to get a lot of time outside.
I need to make a plan for exercise since not supposed to go out running.
Luca’s soccer coach sent his team workout routine for Monday since they don’t have practice. Impressive. He wants to make sure kids aren’t getting lazy. Even the PE teachers have assigned exercise class work to the kids.
Sun is out.
March 16
Conveniently, no school today
That means projects for the boys and more laying around in the sun for Chata. There was baking of the cookies and sewing of the Boy Scout patches onto uniforms for today’s projects. Again, Chata doing lots of sunning.
March 17
Back at school and work
Amazon still delivering. Chata is getting bored. Boys are choosing between pajamas and business attire for school.
Lost the daily reporting rhythm…
We were interviewed by CNN over the weekend. “Americans under quarantine in Spain.” Looks like the segment ran in the US on Sunday evening, March 22nd.
If you haven’t seen it, here’s the non-branded version of the final interview on YouTube. Click on the image to see the video. Yes, I look angry in the beginning – obvious to all. But I’m just thoughtful, that’s all.
If you want to know what the boys are thinking about all of this, here’s their interview (which didn’t make the final edit)… Click on photo to view on YouTube.
Veronica hosting cocktail parties with her friends
March 22
Well, we are in it for a least a couple more weeks. Government has extended the lock-down through Easter. This will be a tough extension, since there will be no school during holy week. Will have to make some serious plans to avoid a video game-a-thon.
Reading a bit
First books finished. Note: I did not START both during the quarantine, but finished them both. Highly recommended reads, especially if you are interested in the history of central Asia and a modern look at China and the Middle East. Here’s your Amazon link if you want it.
Week of March 23
This was a busy week. Time just flies, and I didn’t expect that. We are as busy as ever, just mixing work, Scouts, home projects, Middle School learning support, shopping, cooking, cleaning, and eating.
Work?
Haven’t talked much about work this past week. Unfortunately, Our Madrid Tours is on hiatus for the remainder of the lock-down. Veronica is doing some planning for when we are all released, but in a bit of a down time, which is really unfortunate because this is normally her really busy time of the year.
Strangely enough, I’m winding up a major project here at the end of March so this last month has been pretty slow. I’ve been focused on transitioning my projects over to the US team and helping close down the direct European presence of the company. That’s made the “work” pressure a lot less for me these past few, strange weeks.
What I have had time to do is re-engage in projects I had put on hold the past 18 months. I’ve found new energy in going back to some of my original ideas from when I jumped ship from the big corp world. More on this to come…
Recommended watch
If you haven’t seen this speech from Dr. Dr. Emily Landon, chief infectious disease epidemiologist at the University of Chicago Medicine, it’s worth a watch. This is why we are “doing nothing” to help.
Exercise?
Those that know us will know that, yes, we continue to do our regular exercise. Everyone at their own pace though Vero and I try to keep our two-a-week shared workout. We are lucky to have some equipment at home to use, though the 7 minute work-out and many a YouTube workout can be done without any equipment. It’s keeping us sane and not as focused on how much we are eating or drinking. Though, to be brutally honest, I miss taking the dog for runs in the park. I can only jump rope so long…
Veronica and I completed the 10 Push-up challenge and we had a few rounds of Family Fitness.
“Fancy Dinner”
To change things up, we had a “fancy dinner”. We felt we needed to get out of pajamas and jeans mode of the past few weeks so we put out the good china, lit a few candles, got dressed up and had a nice meal.
Lots of cooking
Veronica started recording as she cooked and launched a WhatsApp family channel for friends and family looking for new ideas.
