Items

• 
  2020-03-16

  Love in The Time of Corona: Pobel

  Our headline comes from adapting the title of a novel by the Nobel prize-winning Colombian author Gabriel García Márquez, replacing the infectious Corona for the infectious Cholera. In his love-triangle story, he speaks of the lessons learned from a particular woman, but he may as well have been speaking about the now-global crisis we humans are facing: “(she) stood him on his head, tossed him up and threw him down, made him as good as new, shattered all his virtuous theories, and taught him the only thing he had to learn about love: that nobody teaches life anything.”
• 
  2021-03-21

  Fake at STRAAT

  This artwork is a reproduction of the famous work FAKE made on NDSM at the beginning of the Corona pandemic. Created using stencils, Super Nurse represents the many nurses who turn out to be true superheroes during the crisis. The work has gone viral worldwide, showing that street art is the perfect medium to address contemporary issues.
• 
  2021-02-24

  Pinch Me and Tell Me I’m Not Dreaming, Because Your Girl Got Shot #1!

  It is, pardon the inaccurate historical depiction, like the Wild West trying to get a vaccine in Southern CA. Los Angeles has been plagued by affluent insiders getting special access codes meant for marginalized populations, keeping vulnerable groups from vaccination. This week, Orange County opened up vaccines to educators, agricultural workers, and emergency services. Before our special educator link was even emailed out to us, it was compromised by an insider sharing it and spots were taken. I obsessively checked my Othena app (Orange County’s official app) but no luck. Yesterday, my husband, also in education so eligible, woke up to a text from his boss that said “Walgreens opened for educators.” I was already teaching over Zoom, so while I continued, my husband sat on the floor two feet away and logged into Walgreens. Thankfully, I had some video clips that I was about to show after our discussion. As soon as I put the video clips on for my students, I muted myself on Zoom and told my husband to log me in on the other computer. It was like getting concert tickets. Click - “this time is no longer available.” After clicking and clicking for a minute, an appointment confirmation came through... for the NEXT DAY. I was in shock and my husband said “don’t get your hopes up” because so many appointments have been cancelled or supplies have run out. And it seemed so unbelievable. I screenshot the confirmation and hoped for the best. In the words of the musical Hamilton, I was not throwing away my shot. I didn’t actually get a confirmation email until 10:45 pm - 13 hours later, but was still skeptical. In a bit of poetic irony, the Walgreens I selected (at random) is 45 minutes away in a city called Corona. So you could say I was headed to Corona to beat Corona. The whole way there, I braced for being turned away. When I checked in, I was shocked it was actually happening. Then they took my temperature. I get cold really easily, so the whole ride to Corona we left the air off (my husband drove me in case I had after effects... and because I haven’t driven since March 16, 2020) even though it was about 80. I also have bangs on my forehead and when I’m nervous my heart races like I’m running a marathon. Bad combo. My temperature was too high for a vaccine. My heart broke inside and the lady looked at me and said “just fill this out, relax, and I’ll take it again.” She did a few minutes later and I honestly don’t know if she flubbed it for me or not, but five minutes later, I had Pfizer shot dose one. And, finding out I was a teacher, the woman administering the shot told me to get my phone out to take a picture! She said “don’t you want a picture?” She was as happy as I was. No joke, as I started getting my vaccine, the very cheesy Natasha Bedingfield song “Unwritten” played on the Walgreens speaker, and after getting my post shot instructions, I walked out of the store (to wander around for the required 15 minutes outside) with Natasha singing “Today is where your book begins The rest is still unwritten.” It was so ridiculous that I really considered maybe I’m in a Truman Show situation. I also teared up because the eleven months of not driving my car, seeing my students, seeing my friends, seeing my family sort of hit me... it’s a lot of emotion to see the light at the end of the tunnel. I did also consider the sobering reality that you have to be tipped off to be able to snag a vaccine appointment. By the time I told people that Walgreens was legitimately open for us, the appointments were booked. While I am overjoyed for myself, I can’t help but be saddened at how this whole process has unfolded. I really hope they can fix the system so unrepresented populations who might not have a boss that can text them as soon as appointments open can equitably access protection. It’s only been four hours, so no side effects yet. I do feel like my entire body has been clenched for eleven months and it has finally relaxed... I may actually get a worry free night of sleep for the first time in a long time. In short, the gratitude I have is immeasurable.
• 0020-01-12T00:35:07

  The Cause of Covid

  When covid started, I wondered how this virus started. A lot of rumors went around and then I got my final answer. That a person ate a bat. There was many theories of other things but the more I asked people who knew a lot about the virus, the more I got the answer about the bat. It made me really think about how a lot of diseases come from animals. I was also wondering how the bat got the virus but I don't know for sure how it carried it. I also thought why would someone eat a bat. It just is super weird to me. Reflecting back on when I figured this out, it really hit me how crazy one bat, started this whole pandemic.
• 2020-01-12

  What is the cause of the corona virus?

  There are many possible things that could have triggered this virus, COVID-19. Some people believe that it came from a person that ate bat soup in China, made in a lab in china, came from a wet market in Wuhan, China, and more. But I believe that it either could have been made in a lab or could have come from the market in Wuhan. To me, these two reasons make the most sense to me because it seems kinda stupid that all of this could come from one person eating a bat. If it did come from a wet market in china, it could have possibly came from the animals that were there, they could have been carrying diseases, and sicknesses. Furthermore, it could be very possible it was made in a lab, they could have made this virus and set it out into the world. And you may ask yourself, why would they want to do that? I think China wanted to depopulate their country a bit, and "attack" the US. I am not sure if that is true but it could be a possibility. In conclusion, these both seem to be potential reasons as to why the corona outbreak began.
• 2020-09-29

  My Personal Covid Experience

  9/29: This journal entry was written as a part of the American Studies class at California High School in San Ramon, California. During the pandemic, many people have faced lots of different struggles. These struggles can range from very slight problems to large ones, and thankfully, for my family and I, we are doing pretty well. Personally, I had a few struggles when adapting to the new ways of learning and getting used to not seeing my friends as much. At first, it was fine because I thought of it as an extra-long spring break, but when I realized that we weren’t going back to school in Contra Costa County I was pretty sad. Throughout COVID, I definitely missed my friends and I felt pretty alone. Luckily, my dad was able to keep his job and work from home, so we did not have any financial problems. Covid definitely allowed me to grow closer to my dad and brother because I ended up spending a lot of time with them where I usually wouldn’t see them as much. Socially, I think our county has started to adjust to the new reality and lots of families are starting to get used to it. I think this whole situation has made people realize that they should be grateful for the valuables and people that are in their life. Lots of things (like social gatherings, school, and friends) can be taken away in a second, but family and other really important things will always stay.
• 2020-12-14

  My 2020 Thanksgiving

  This Thanksgiving of the year 2020, was different among all of my Thanksgivings in many ways. My family and I did not have our usually gathering this year. My grandparents were not able to due to COVID-19 the global pandemic, we did not want to put them at any risk. It also did not really feel like Thanksgiving at all, since we were not in school in person, I still cannot believe we have been doing school online since March! Wow how time has flied by. This year it was really hard for me to get into the fall spirit, yes I carved pumpkins, made pumpkin pie, and drank many iced pumpkin spiced lattes from Starbucks, nothing made it feel like Thanksgiving. Growing up I have always craved that feeling of leaving school, walking out those doors, knowing your not going to go back for a week. Oh how amazing that feels. But this year, that never happened. All I had to do to leave school was close my laptop, that's it. I was already at home, nothing had changed. Even though we did not to anything jurastically different it still did not feel like Thanksgiving, not even one bit. I never ever in a million years thought I would say this, but, I miss school, I want to go back so bad. I can not wait, I can not wait. To whoever is reading this probably years from now, please never take anything for granted, not even toilet paper. Yeah, toilet paper, it was impossible to find it anywhere, and even if you did, it was really bad, like worse than public restroom bad. Well, anyways Thanksgiving 2020 was a total bust and I can not wait for the day to come when everything goes back to normal, no more limits on how many people can enter a store at a time, no more temperature checks, getting to eat inside at restaurants! Never thought that would be something I would not be able to do, and the thing I know we all want most, is no more face masks. Yes, we have to wear face masks these little peices of paper that we wear on our face that cover our nose and mouth to help us maybe not get the virus. Half of my 8th grade year is gone already, and oh boy, I can't wait to go back to normal, I just really can't wait.
• 
  2020-11-02

  We the people of social distancing

  2 Ive heard people talk and stress the importance of social distancing, but when it comes down to it we tend to forget or disregard it. I know it is and still is important to go out and protest or get out of the house for our sanity but I feel like people continuing to disregard the “ 6 feet apart rule “ as we can clearly see in this photo. Social distancing no matter where , whether thats out there protesting, voting , shopping or getting dinner , you are should be followed to keep its effectiveness. I want the future to know that we didn’t do or try our best to help reduce or end corona whether it was because of our government not taking this seriously or because individuals continued to go out and further spread corona.
• 
  10/13/2020

  Patrick Murphy Oral History, 2020/10/13

  Patrick Murphy, a delivery driver for a large online retail company, provides his thoughts and opinions on the Covid 19 Pandemic. Being a deliver driver he gives insight into how his job and the world he moves through has changed. Being twenty one years old Patrick discusses how the internet and social media has shaped his experience during the pandemic.
• 2020-10-20

  Tales From TheVarus

  This video was made by a YouTuber known as Internet Historian. It is satirical/journalistic in nature, and seeks to document events and incidents that occurred during the pandemic.
• 2020-08-26

  My corona story

  When the corona virus first hit I am gonna be honest it was just a huge joke in my opinion but then people in my county started getting it and I realized this wasnt a joke anymore I got super sad when we started doing online school because it got cancelled and basically never did my school work so my mom got mad and said that I had to go stay with my friend who lived down the street for the rest of online school I got really mad at my mom and we didnt talk as much especially because I was gone 5 days of the week when i was stuck at my friends house her mother knew that I worked super fast so she would let me sleep all day when I was done with work and then I would stay up two days straight doing things like making them dinner and just chilling out watching netflix in my room up in my bed that i had in there house the only netflix show i really like is glee adn thats the only thing that i honestly like to watch but after a while my friend got really annoyed with her and I spent most of my time fighting with her cause after a while it took a lot not to be mad at everything all the time like every single tiny thing irritated me and then i started losing all of my friends and i cried a lot and got depressed and i never really ate any food because i was always really sad i never ever left bed unless it was to get food or go to the bathroom but then after the corona calmed down a bit me and my fmaily moved and we didnt move towns or antything but we moved from a townhome to an actual house that we owned and you could tell that my miserable sister wasnt as sad anymore and that made the rest of my family happy and my depression slowly went away and now i go to school wearing a mask and get masks break and am on a block scedule which im alright with it doesnt bother me i have fun at school with all my friends and im super happy here
• 
  2020-07-21T21

  Movie Night: Drive In Edition

  Going to the Drive In movies was some of the most fun that I had during the Pandemic. This was something that I had not done in a long time before 2020, but once Coronavirus happened going to a normal theater was not a possibility. It was really nice to be able to do something enjoyable, such as watching a movie in public, and not have Covid dominate the experience. While sitting outdoors, under the stars, it was almost as if things were not so unusual right now. When you go so long not doing the things that you like to do for fun, going to watch older movies out doors can become a highlight of the summer. Drive Ins have seen a resurgence in popularity during the Pandemic, the outdoor and spread out nature of cars and Drive Ins has led to many events being able to take place that might not have been able to otherwise. It would be cool to attend a Drive In concert with a band performing. I believe that I will be going to the Starlite Drive In more often than I had in the years before 2020. Also it was good to support a small business during the pandemic.
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  2020-03-17

  A French Pandemic Diary

  This is a diary of the COVID lockdown in France.