Virtual Learning

We made it. Friday. Nine weeks of this mess. Currently, there is no end in sight. They haven’t made the official announcement for our school or company yet, but the general consensus is that this will be going until school ends.

After today, we will be going into the Easter holiday. A teacher in my department sent us an email a parent had written to my company.

I get it. These last nine weeks have not been fun. I. GET. IT. But seriously? Teachers should work over the holiday? Maybe people will get salty because teachers have vacations and all that jazz.

Probably.

I heard it constantly in the US. What I don’t think these parents understand is with the current situation, we are in a similar situation to them except not only are we teaching their children, but we have to teach our own children as well. We have been working (in most cases) much more than would normally occur if we were in school from 8am to 4PM each day. I have been working on answering questions, contacting students and parents, and working with kids who are overseas outside what is considered normal school hours. That is not counting planning, marking, creating lessons, and all of the other stuff that needs to happen to be prepared to teach each day.

I love my job. I truly do. I love my students. I love being in class with them each and every day. When I was going through everything last year with B, my work kept me sane(ish). It gave me purpose. I love what I do.

I miss it so terribly. I miss walking to school in the morning, listening to my music. I miss seeing my fellow teachers. I miss my office I share with my department. I miss seeing and joking with my students. I miss sitting with them to work on something or just talking to them.

The Coronavirus/Corvid-19

Last week, at the beginning of the week, we were at about 356 cases. We have been importing cases like crazy from people returning to Hong Kong from all of the places they ran to when it all started.

At the beginning of this week, we were at 641 cases in Hong Kong. Our daily increases were between 30 and 60 confirmed cases a day. It all depended.

We’re up to 802 cases as for this morning. I started writing this post around 10AM, and since then, we have gained 43 more confirmed cases.

For the last week, we’ve only had 5 critical cases. I think it was yesterday it went up to 8 critical cases. So far, we are still at 4 deaths (knock on wood).

This is all insanity. Last week, the government banned gatherings of 4 or more people (except certain situations. I assume like the bus and the train). Kind of interesting when there are 4 of us in the family. 5 if B is with us.

They have also imposed a mandatory 14 day quarantine for people returning to Hong Kong. They are given tracking bracelets. They face a huge fine and jail time if they breech the quarantine.

It’s terrifying to watch this all play out in other parts of the world. It’s especially scary to watch it happening at home. I hate that this has reached where my family lives. My brother is immunocompromised. My father has underlying health conditions. My youngest sister is pregnant. My sister in law is also pregnant. I was less concerned when it was just here. I felt confident that we were handling things pretty well with the social distancing.

The other thing I think Hong Kong and Asia in general has done right has been wearing masks. The US government has actively discouraged it. It makes no sense. And what the hell is going on with the medical professionals not having the appropriate gear? It boggles my mind that they didn’t see what was happening and think that maybe they would need to prepare for the possibility that it would happen there. I can’t believe they are asking nurses and doctors to work with these patients without the proper protection.

The US has surpassed China’s numbers (well, reported numbers). It’s insanity. It’s scary. I spend so much time telling my mother not to stress. Stressing will bring down her immune system, but I’m probably not doing myself any favors.

There is so much worry to go around. Really, I feel okay here. I wish we would have flown my brother here when we had the chance. I feel like he would have been so much safer here.

I know I say this just about every time, but I know we will get a year down the line, and this will just be that weird time we all look back on and think, WTH. At least that’s what I hope anyway.

I hope all of you who read this are safe, healthy, and finding ways to keep yourself busy through this time. I know I have been doing a lot more baking. Positive and healthy thoughts to you all.