Covid Journal: Israel
Basil Najjar
March 29, 2020
10:30 PM
Dear Diary,
After 14 days of mandatory quarantine, I can finally leave my room and wander around the house and the neighborhood. The last two weeks felt so lonely and boring.
March 30, 2020
11:00 PM
Dear Diary,
I am sorry to disappoint you today as I did nothing much today. I woke up at 2:00 PM and watched two movies before the start of my computer science class at 7:00 PM.
April 4, 2020
11:45 PM
Dear Diary,
I got a call today from the company that I was supposed to intern at this summer in Frankfurt, Germany. They told me that it is very unlikely that I will be able to start the job in June; therefore, they might cancel it or postpone the start date until the COVID-19 situation in Germany gets better. I’m so mad. I was really excited to spend this summer in Europe and improve my coding skills.
April 8, 2020
11:45 PM
Dear Diary,
The country is under lockdown after the government of Israel announced yesterday stringent restrictions to stop the spread of COVID-19. Today also marks the first day of Passover which is celebrated by 80% of the Israeli population each year.
April 12, 2020
11:05 PM
Dear Diary,
The prime minister ordered halt to all flights to Israel until all arriving passengers can be quarantined and wearing masks in public is now mandatory. I feel like the situation is just getting worse and there are no signs of getting back to normal life in the near future.
April 16, 2020
10:10 PM
Dear Diary,
I woke up today at 3:00 PM! The 7-hour time zone between Israel and Boston means that all of my online classes start in the evening. I wake up every day without a plan and since all of my classes switched to Pass/Fail format, I don’t have the motivation to do work anymore. I can’t wait for this semester to end.
April 21, 2020
11:20 PM
Dear Diary,
Israel has reversed the trend! For the first time since the crisis began, the number of people recovering from COVID-19 has exceeded the number of new patients.
April 25, 2020
10:35 PM
Dear Diary,
Today was a very exciting day. I met my friends for the first time since I moved to the U.S in mid-January. We shared our perspectives about this unfolding global crisis. But too bad we couldn’t play soccer.
April 29, 2020
11:45 PM
Dear Diary,
Today marks the last day of the spring semester. I’m happy that I will be finally done with my virtual classes and dealing with the annoying time zone difference. I really hope the fall semester won’t be online. I miss human interaction and the Harvard campus.
May 2, 2020
11:20 PM
Dear Diary,
There are positive signs on the horizon. The government has started easing restrictions and opening up the economy after the steady decrease in new COVID-19 cases across the country. Hopefully, we can return to a semi-normal life soon.
Reflection
Three days after an email notified us to leave campus, I packed all of my belongings in two suitcases and prepared for my 11-hour flight to Israel. The government of Israel has announced that anyone returning from abroad must remain isolated for a period of 14 days the week before. So, I also prepared myself mentally for a lonely two weeks with no human interaction. I consider myself a very sedentary person, so I didn’t worry much about quarantine in the beginning. However, after one week of being locked up in my bedroom, I had a hard time combatting loneliness. This taught me how crucial are social interactions to humans’ wellbeing, and it goes to show how much we take for granted and how often we forget to be grateful for the very things with which we fill our days.
Getting back to Israel also meant that there will be a 7-hour difference in the time zone. My earliest class this semester started at 7:00 PM. Therefore, my daily schedule has completely shifted. I used to wake up around 11:00 AM before leaving Harvard but I started to wake up later and later every day, and as a result, I ended up having lunch, dinner, and going to bed at least three hours after my usual time. I was used to a world that's fast-moving in which my days are scheduled by the hour. Now, I wake up every day with no plans or motivation to do anything. I even found myself losing track of which day it is.
When all this is over and dusted and we get back into a COVID-19 vaccinated world, I’m going to enjoy the little things. The little things I took so for granted barely a year ago, that I didn’t even think them important, things that I avoided because I thought that there would be another day.