February was a blur.
William started work, and is loving his job. The whole month was the exam period for me. Because I mostly just had papers due at the end of the month, it was really hard for me to get motivation to work. The first week in my planner was totally blank. Then I went into panic mode and scheduled out everything and brain dumped all over the place. Two weeks of that and I managed to get all my papers done in time!
The week after exams ended, I had great plans of getting lots of personal stuff done. But Herbert got sick again and had to stay home for 3 days. Thankfully William and I managed to avoid getting it too bad.
It was right around here that corona virus was starting to really become a thing. We spent the weekend talking about what we should do. When the first case was reported in Berlin on Monday, we made a quick decision to finally get internet installed in our apartment (whooo!). William had just gotten his first paycheck, so we celebrated that by restocking our pantry. There was about a two day period that first week of March when there was no pasta, canned vegetables, or disinfectant. We haven’t had anywhere near the issues that the US is having. I never saw a store out of toilet paper!
Meanwhile I was doing some work for the university, just a week long project, that kept me busy when I was not running errands.
Herbert’s been going through some kind of developmental growth spurt. He has learned how to play Crazy Eights, has started memorizing songs and passages from books, and has started doing make believe play, which is super fun to watch. Currently he runs an ice cream stand out of one of our pillows. And he is constantly asking when he gets to eat Easter eggs and when he gets to have a birthday party, which is leading to him slowly (so slowly) learning about calendars and the months.
Despite over 3,000 infections (but only 6 deaths), overall, Germany has been super chill about corona virus. As of March 13 (today), Berlin has 174 cases and Brandenburg has 44 cases. It was decided today that my university would be closed until after Easter, and from Wednesday schools and kitas would be closed. Besides those couple of days at the store last week, today was the first day that I really felt like Germans were changing their habits.
There was also panic borrowing at the library. With hours notice that the library would be closed until after Easter, it was packed with people filling baskets with books! A beautiful sight, if slightly terrifying to the mom who was trying to do the same thing! (Although I was mostly looking for games that had good manipulatives for activities)
I spent this week preparing for what Herbert and I would do if our schools were closed. A little bit more this weekend and I should be able to keep us busy and not insane most of the time. I’m kinda looking forward to the time.
And remember, wash your hands.
