Welcome back to village-life. The sun is shining, it’s quite warm outside, so why not use this occasion to work on my long-lost fitness. It’s about time. I put on my leggings and started running, trying to breathe in a calming rhythm like my dad once taught me to avoid having a stitch.
It went quite fine actually. I did some intervals, working out within a scale of walking quite slowly to running like a crazy shot deer. My tactics when jogging are the following: I try to imagine being on the beach, wearing a long yellow light dress, a slight breeze is cooling down my overheated body and I’m sipping on a cocktail. It becomes so real, I forget that I am running and the jogging becomes a side issue, since I am actually starring in my very own imaginary Blockbuster.
There is this really narrow pathway surrounded by an uncountable amount of pine and oak trees where my inner movie somehow shifted to a Twilight-scenario but other than that I got back home to my self-quarantine safely, not seeing a single soul outside.
12:00 am time for breakfast. I had some vitamin C, talking to people on the phone, reading some messages on WhatsApp. The Internet is still not infected, although it may be since looking at the poor quality of connection in this village, I had seriously considered buying letter pigeons. Maybe they’d deliver my messages faster than any social media was currently doing. Detox. That’s fine.
The messages received included some news from our neighbor France, my friend stated they now needed documents in order to justify the reasons why they would want to leave their houses. She sent me the document. It states: “Attestation de déplacement dérogatoire” and then 5 check boxes, from which you may choose the reason for your need to leave your house.
Other than that, my home university “Humboldt University Berlin”, is now officially trying to make people completing their semesters abroad come back. Although a fair number of us has already decided to come back, some stayed.
Popping up on my phone: Sputniknews : “Alman saglik uzmani: Koronavirus pandemisi 2 yil sürebilir” – News line stating that scientists from the German Robert Koch Institute declared that this damn coronavirus may last up to 2 years.
What a life.
Time to get off this phone and breathe in some fresh air. I decided to go for another walk in our forest. Have I ever actually noticed how peaceful this place is? Ever since I was an adolescent facing puberty, all I recall is trying to get out of this village as soon as possible and as fast as possible. As they say, you may only appreciate thing when you have not had them around for some time or completely lost them. Fortunately, I can call this tiny pleasant oasis home.
Upon my arrival back at the house, my dad was still in the garden trying to get rid of all the weed growing in between our beautifully accurate lawn. He waved at me saying “Hallo mein Schatz, schön dass du da bist.” (Hello Darling, it’s nice you’re home). My heart warms up upon the sight of this extremely cute human being expressing even cuter phrases like this one. I do want to hug him sooooo badly, but I won’t. I put on my mask and gloves and asked him if he wanted to play some badminton. There would be enough distance between us but we would still be able to play something together. We used to play badminton in the summer. I loved it. It seems to be a peaceful physical activity but not with my dad and I. We converted the game into a game we refer to as “Schiffe-Versenken” (should be “playing battleship” in English). We’d play peacefully and at some point would start aiming for each other’s body-parts.
Playing with him this time was just like always, I felt like time had stood still and I was 14 years old again playing badminton in the garden with my dad. No worries, whatsoever. Pure happiness.
Having him throw the bat at me after our play-session brought me back to our new reality. Safety distance. No touching.
18:45 Uhr RTL News: I have to admit that I avoid watching the news in general because of all the bad vibes and fake news but today I decided to listen. Our chancellor Anglea Merkel gave a very moving speech. I know that ever since the refugee crisis even more people started disliking her profoundly. I do not. I like the woman. I do.
Her speech was moving, rational and personal at the same time, so everybody even the most ignorant should have been capable of grasping the very essence of her words. She said that now more than ever it was crucial for our country to stay together, cooperate, behave thoughtfully, stay home for our sake and other people’s safety and health, especially in order to avoid putting risk vulnerable groups such as elderly people or people already struggling with a weak immune system at risk.
Quote: „Es ist ernst. Seit der Deutschen Einheit, nein, seit dem Zweiten Weltkrieg gab es keine Herausforderung an unser Land mehr, bei der es so sehr auf unser gemeinsames solidarisches Handeln ankommt."
("It's serious. Our country has not been exposed to a major challenge like this one since German unification, no, since the Second World War even. Solidarity now is more important than ever.”)
Furthermore she said that for a person like herself it was more than understandable that a restriction of one’s personal freedom is hard to cope with, since she, herself had fought to obtain such a free life for such a long time. Nevertheless, one ought to stay reasonable and follow the newly imposed rules in order for our country to be able to tackle this tremendous new challenge.
I agree that having the Internet around, there are so many ways of socializing differently. Certainly you do not need to meet up in person. Refrain from visiting your grandparents, since they are a risk group. Recording podcasts, sending videos or calling them may be a way of not having them feel lonely during this time.
Checking my phone shortly after this speech, more people started leaving Istanbul.
Had I asked if we were at war before? Well, I guess we are, and our enemy is unknown, invisible. We don’t know how to find this shit and our defense tactics are anything but well right now. All we can do is try to slow down the numbers of infection, as for our health care system not to collapse at once.