Spare, love, smile

I was obviously affected by all that quarantine hype if I started writing this story. Lots of us are talking about this virus these days. Of course, there is plenty pf speculative posts, unthoughtful remarks and useless fear.

I should confess that I might feel like I’m loosing the ground under my feet even when something happens that I could damage my work and life plans. Because I like some order, predictability, sense of being on the same page. Most of the time, I feel fine living on my own, talking to people the things that I feel being right since…I hate bla-bla-bla staff, insincerity, pretending to be somebody…and I have a very few real friends who love me the way I am.

My sister canceled her trip to Ukraine since right on the last day before her flight from Germany the quarantine was announced, and it could be risky for her to go and stay working in a quarantine regime with obscure chances to go back to Germany on schedule. My sister is my closest defender, supporter, friend, soulmate.

My closest friend, the American citizen who has been living and teaching English in Ukraine for almost 12 years, has been bearing in mind thoughts about the final goodbye with our country and heading back to Europe and then the U.S as all good things (and his stay in Ukraine, too) come to an end. Lastly, when all his tickets were booked, travel plans arranged, a full-time job quit and the last monthly rent paid — it was announced that Ukraine closed all air traffic. My friend was supposed to leave just a few days later after the announcement came into force.

Time for changes, re-evaluating your lifestyle, your likes, tolerance and discipline, came softly, just within a couple of March days. Understanding of the fact that the crisis is global, but not a local disorder, still penetrates our minds, though we accept it in different ways. Anxiety or indifference, common sense or reckless hype — vectors of the whole world are changing.

Now it’s week three of quarantine here in Ukraine. Remote work is not that unusual anymore, and I even like that we make calls with my colleagues and cheering up each other every day. I’m doing fine: cooking meals, working, watching movies, attending online webinars, listening to podcasts. A walk out to the store is like a luxury, though. I never envied people with dogs but now they obviously are in a privileged category. I would love to go somewhere out of town but lack of my own car certainly constrains me.

Last week I went to see my hairdresser — kind of illegally. Sorry guys, my hair desperately needed a cut! The city center was almost empty — just a few people were walking oddly on the main street that always used to be so crowded on weekends! Policemen were leisurely patrolling sidewalks.

Staying at home — all on my own — could make my introvert nature celebrate. But that’s too much of it. A month (just a month?) of lockdown is still ahead.

It’s May 11, and tomorrow the quarantine conditions here in Kharkov will be weakened. I got used to working from home, staying mostly on my own, watching lots of webinars and online lectures. On the weekends I normally visited my parents where I had a break from my encapsulated flat life. Sometimes I did jogging. And of course I did food shopping and even started cooking, which I did really rarely before.

Some people make posts on how this quarantine holiday allowed them to do things that they couldn’t find time for before the quarantine. I read their inspiring conclusions and made parallels with what I’ve done these lockdown days.

Well, I was not bad: completed three online courses, read more, watched some useful lectures, cooked a couple of dishes that I wanted to cook for the last couple of years, continued with my Chinese classes online…and most of people I know also used that lockdown time for good. Could it be the same if we hadn’t been in a lockdown state? No, it would certainly be different. And the thing is not about a number of courses or workshops done online. It’s about our lives, about our health, and about our jobs, well-being, funds to live.

And the last months were about not taking everything for granted.

It’s the last day of June, I still lack the right picture for this morality tale, but I still have some king-size cherry in the fridge which I bought this morning in the store with my favorite coffee spot. So I let myself go and find inspiration for a better story.

And here’s the picture.