6TH YEAR ECO - JOURNALS

Martina Alvez 6to Eco

journal THURSDAY 26 As we are in quarantine, I am going to let you know that my routine is almost the same every day but first of all let us put ourselves in context.

One week ago, some cases of coronavirus were found in Argentina, so we were put under quarantine and school sent us homework daily. Yesterday I asked my mother if she could help me with something that I could not understand, and she told me yes with the condition that I must wake up at 11:00 (I used to wake up at 3 pm) 11:30 My mom woke me up and told me that she let me sleep more because she also overslept 14: 30 We are still doing homework, but we will stop for lunch 18:00 We went to the swimming pool. It is the first beautiful and sunny day in a while and I have been doing this homework that is really hard to me for a long time, so I deserve this break.

FRIDAY 27 1:30 We have been eating and watching films since 11:30 4:30 I have been talking by phone with my friends and now I am going to sleep 15:00 I woke up and started with the homework 22:30 We are going to eat and have a movie family night SATURDAY 28 3:00 I ended the call with my friends and went to sleep. While we were in the call, we played games such as truco, and stop.

1

Martina Alvez 6to Eco 15:00 I woke up, ate something and started watching a Netflix series 22:30 We had another family movie night at dinner time SUNDAY 29 6:30 I fell asleep while I was in a call. I really don’t like to stay awake until too late because the next day I will wake up late and waste a lot of time, but I really miss my friends and I spent a really nice time while talking with them.

15:00 I woke up 18:30 My family and I sat on the sofa to eat popcorn, sunflower seeds and watch movies.

MONDAY 28 1:00 As soon as I touched the bed, I fell asleep 13:00 I started to listen to the audio and read Small Island 15:00 I had lunch and continued reading 19:00 My family and I started to do a gym routine. We have been eating for two weeks and taking the quarantine as vacations, and now we have decided to start to do some activities to be in a good physical condition.

21:00 After finishing the routine, I had a shower and continued reading the book.

22:30 We watched a movie (we have spent two weeks watching all the movies of the Avengers, marvel and this is the last one) 23:40 I sat on the bed to continue with the book.

2

Martina Alvez 6to Eco TUESDAY 31 As it is the 17th birthday of one of my best friends, I called her at night, and we stayed talking for a while.

3:00 I went to bed 10:00 I started my first virtual class of art by zoom and an hour later I continued reading the book While reading I fell asleep near the pool and I woke up at 3:00 pm with my dog next to me.

18:00 I played card Games with my family.

20:00 We did gymnastics.

22.00 We had lunch and then ate some cakes.

This was the day in which the quarantine was supposed to end and knowing that it would be extended has made me feel really disappointed.

WEDNESDAY 1 9:00 I had a virtual class of language and after that I started doing homework 17:00 I have my English class (As I go to private English classes, during quarantine I have the classes by video call) 3

Martina Alvez 6to Eco 8:00 My family and I are going to start the workout routine that my handball coach gave us to train.

THURSDAY 2 4:00 I was in a call and then I fell asleep.

10:30 I had to wake up to a math class and it has never been that hard for me.

11:30 I had an economics class

12:30 After lunch I read Small Island.

3:00 I had a Nap 8:00 We did gym.

9:00 I took a shower 10:30 We called for a food delivery and when it came, we ate 11:00 After eating we played card games

4

Martina Alvez 6to Eco FRIDAY 3 6:00 I went to bed and went to sleep 14:00 I got up and had lunch 15:00 I watched a movie and then did some activities about it 18:00 I continued with the homework.

8:00 We did the gym routine.

9:30 We had dinner.

2:00 While my friends and I were in the call, we started to talk about coronavirus and how this pandemic could end. It was really hard when I started to think that this crisis is going to last long. I know this is probably going to sound selfish, but it was supposed to be our last year in school, with the trip to Bariloche and all the parties and now all those things are probably gone. I have not been able to find even a way in which this finishes with a happy ending, so let’s see what happens next.

This isolation has been too long, I really miss everyone, these days I cannot take it anymore. I want to visit my family and friends, to go to school, do sports. I want to go back to my day to day routine. I know I am lucky because I have a big house, with a park and pool, a nice family and good health, but I really want this to end in order to be able to go out.

5

Trinidad Rivas 6to Economía

Trini’s Journal MARCH 2020 MONDAY 23rd: So it’s been 4 days since the mandatory quarantine has started. However, it’s been 8 days since I haven’t left my house, just for precaution. I’m handling it pretty well. Luckily, I get along very well with my family, so that’s not a problem.

We usually try to do activities together so as not to get bored or feel “lonely”. We play games together, watch movies together, and do some exercise in our backyard together.

Today I woke up around 11 o’clock, had breakfast with my sister, and then we helped our father organize the things that he bought at the supermarket. It is like the fourth time in 10 days the he goes to a supermarket and buys food that could feed us for a whole year. I don’t know if it is just for precaution or if I should feel a little bit worried, but I don’t. Then we decided to carry out the sport routine that our volleyball teacher had sent us. It was harsh, but we were able to complete it. After that we had lunch, and then I continued my reading of “Small Island”. I only read one chapter as I was feeling a little bit tired. I usually spend like 7 hours a day doing school stuff, but today I decided that I wouldn’t. I was saturated by all the homework that my teachers were sending me; sometimes they just don’t understand that their subject isn’t the only one we have, and send us tons of homework to do. So I decided I would take a day off. I didn’t do something productive with my free time, I just watched TV with my sister. She should have been doing the homework that the university had sent her, but she decided to take some time off too. Then I decided to watch the news, so as to know what’s going on with this pandemic. That’s when I found out that I won’t be starting school until the 12th of April (supposedly). It was obvious that this was going to happen, but still, it was a little bit depressing hearing about it. It is my last year at school and I want to enjoy it as much as I can, but I’m not able to do that because of the coronavirus. Actually this virus has forbidden me a lot of stuff. I was supposed to go to Paris with my cousin on the first days of April, but I clearly cannot do that. I also had my aunt’s wedding in April, which was going to be in Cafayate, but that got suspended too. I even had the dress and everything, but I guess I won’t be needing that for some time. Anyways, we then had dinner, and afterwards we continued to watch TV with my mom and my sister till 1 o’clock in the morning.

That’s when we finally decided to go to sleep.

TUESDAY 24TH : Today was a more productive day than yesterday. I woke up at 10 o’clock in the morning; I had some iced coffee as breakfast and then I begun with the school homework. Before I could even notice it was lunchtime and we ate a very tasteful corn pie. After that, I decided to read “Small Island”, but then I got bored so I started to write an English essay. However, I didn’t even get to finish it because my

Trinidad Rivas 6to Economía family wanted to play “Burako”, which is one of my favourite games. We teamed up as we always do: my dad and my mom, me and my sister. We, of course, won for the third time in a row. My mom says that’s because she does great in love and as the saying says, “if you do badly in the game you do well in love”. Anyways, we had bet who set and raised the table, and as my sister and me didn’t have to do that, we decided to cook. It was taco night today, and I don’t want to brag but they were delicious. We then decided to watch the best series in the world: “Vampire Diaries” (of course my father doesn’t like it as it about teenage lovers and vampires, so he just played with his computer). After 2 chapters I went upstairs to my room to watch a movie that one of my teachers had sent me. But I got distracted with my phone and before I could even notice it, it was 2 a.m. in the morning, so I decided to watch it tomorrow. I sometimes think that I should set aside my phone for a few days, like if I need to have a break from it. I spend like 5 hours a day with it, and that is not healthy at all. It consumes me. But at the same time I need it to communicate with others, especially in these times of quarantine. I need to speak to other people, hear to other voices, see other faces; I need to feel that I’m with someone else than my family all day. Anyhow, I wasn’t able to sleep until 3 in the morning, as my head was full of absurd thoughts.

WEDNESDAY 25TH: Wednesday: the worst day of the week. I always thought as Wednesdays as THE MOST AWFUL DAYS. There’s nothing particular about them that makes me hate them. It’s just that is the middle of week, the part where you don’t feel excited to start the week, and you can’t feel excited for the weekend, you are just stuck in the middle. Wednesdays really annoy me as you can see. It’s similar with the things people say about having 3 kids: the one in the middle never feels special. However, in these times of quarantine it doesn’t even matter what day of the week is, as they are all the same. The only reason I’m keeping track of the days is so as not be late for handing in the homework. Apart from that, it doesn’t really make a difference whether if it is Monday or Friday, it’s the same.

As every day from the past 10 days, I woke up, had the same breakfast (iced coffee) and started with the school homework. YOOHOO!! Then I had lunch, and guess what? I continued with my homework! So exciting!! Well, anyways, then I had to watch a movie in order to complete a school assignment, which surprisingly was pretty cool. Afterwards my family decided to play Burako, again, with the same teams and the same bet. Of course my sister and I won, for the fourth time.

We then had dinner and watched a movie together. When the movie was over, we all went to bed, and instead of sleeping, I decided to continue my reading of “Small Island”. I read like 3 chapters until I fell asleep.

My day wasn’t exciting at all, I think that the best thing of my day was watching my mom accidentally fall to the pool with all her clothes on. Just thinking about the moment makes me laugh!

THURSDAY 26TH: Today was good day. I woke up, earlier than the other days, around 9:30, which is very early for me. I had breakfast with my sister, and of course then I started with my school homework. I was surprised to see how many assignments I

Trinidad Rivas 6to Economía was able to complete before lunchtime, so that made me feel very happy and relieved. After lunch, I continued doing school stuff, and around 5 in the afternoon I decided to cut my mom’s hair. She didn’t know what she was getting into. Poor thing. She looked like Matilda when I finished; the only difference is that her bangs looked horrible. We decided not to make much a deal of it and so we just laughed, a lot.

Then my mom, my sister and I, decided to do some sports. Today’s routine was the hardest so far, we were almost dead after completing it. Immediately after that, I had a shower, were a bad idea came to my mind: “What if I cut my own hair?

Would it end up as bas as my mom’s hair? I should try.” As soon as the scissors touched my hair, all I could feel was instant regret. When I finished it didn’t looked so bad, it wasn’t uneven at all, it’s just that it was too short. And when it dried it looked even shorter. Anyways, hair grows, and my hair really needed a haircut, as my ends were very dry.

It was dinner time already, and of course when we finished, my mom, my sister and I decided to watch “Vampire Diaries”, while my dad played games in the computer. We just love that series, so we watched like 3 chapters. Then we went to sleep, but as always, I got very distracted by my phone, and feel asleep like at 2 o’clock in the morning.

FRIDAY 27TH: I used to love Fridays. It was the day of the week where everyone was happy, always smiling, as the weekend was starting. Now, there’s nothing to love about them. It’s like every single other day. I don’t care if the weekend is coming, in fact it makes me sad thinking about it, as I’m not going to be able to go out with my friends to a bar or to a disco. However, I’m not saying that today was a sad day; I’m just saying that it didn’t bring me the happiness that it used to.

Anyways, my day was pretty much the same as all the others. I woke up, had breakfast, started with the school homework, then lunch, then continued with the school, then TV with my sister, dinner and finally go to sleep. I think that one of the reasons why I’m not having a bad time during this quarantine is because I have a sort of routine, to keep my mind busy. Many specialists say that a routine is needed, in order to not get bored or depressed. Although I hate having so much homework, I also feel thankful that I have something to work on.

I almost forgot. There was something different this day. A nurse came to our home, and gave us an anti pneumonia vaccine. This one supposedly helps you if you have Coronavirus, as it softness the effects it causes. My mom and my sister were scared, as they hate needles. My father and I on the other hand, didn’t even care. I’m not scared of them because many years ago I had a serious illness, and I needed to draw blood regularly. So, I’m used to needles, they don’t scare me nor hurt me.

SATURDAY 28TH: 13 days. The longest 13 days of my life. I feel like a month has passed since I haven’t left my home. But no, not even 2 whole weeks. Just 13 miser days. I really want to leave my home, like really. I never thought that I would be saying this but gosh I miss school so much. Seeing my friends every single day, learning new

Trinidad Rivas 6to Economía things every day, I even miss Anna, the buffet saleswoman. And just the mere thought that I won’t be starting school for like another month makes me want to cry.

Enough with the depressive thoughts. Let’s start with my day. It started different from the other days, as my arm hurt a lot. It was because of the vaccine they gave me yesterday. I couldn’t even lift it. Anyways, I didn’t have breakfast, as I wasn’t feeling hungry. As always, I started with my homework, had lunch, continued with my homework and then we decided to play Burako. Not shockingly at all, my sister and I won AGAIN. It is the fifth time in a week that we won. We are invincible. Then I continued with my homework until dinner. Afterwards, I facetimed one of my best friends that lives in Orlando. She moved there like 3 years ago, but every single time we talk it’s like she never left. We talked for like an hour, and then my other best friends joined. We were 6 talking now. I miss them a lot. I’ve never laughed so much since the quarantine has started. It felt great talking to them and seeing their faces, even if I just saw them from a screen. We talked for a while, and then I realised that it was 2am so I said goodbye and went to sleep.

SUNDAY 29TH: Today is the last day that I’m supposed to write this this journal. However, I really enjoyed doing it, so I guess that I’m going to have one for my own. Like my own diary. I think that writing my feelings and my thoughts would not only help me remember them in case I need it, but would also be great to express all those emotions that may be hidden.

Sunday. Today I was supposed to have my first volleyball match of the year.

I have been playing volleyball for the past five years now, and I really miss it. And I not only miss the sport, but also my friends. I laughed so much with them in the trainings and in the matches. I need to see them, so I think that I’m going to call them tomorrow.

Speaking about my day… I woke up thinking about this, about how much I missed volley and my friends, and so it wasn’t a very good morning. I was a feeling a little bit sad. My day went as all the others: breakfast, homework, lunch, homework and then Burako. I should now say that I am surprised to the fact that my sister and I won again. 6 times in a row. My parents should feel ashamed about this. I think that my sister and I should teach them how to play Burako all over again! Then we had dinner, and when we finished, my sister and I obviously turned the TV to watch “Vampire Diaries”. We only went to sleep after watching like 4 chapters, as it was 2 in the morning.

Monday, March 30 2020 It is the fifteenth day of quarantine. I wanted to walk my dog with my sister but my father says that we should not go by two, so I stayed at home. My mom is teaching me how to crochet and I’ve made my first project: a tea mat! Although it took me a lot of time to do it the process of making it was very interesting and I want to do and create more things. There is only one day left to start school again but I think that the quarantine is still going to be prolonged some days more, because there could be people who don’t know yet if they have the virus. Today I also video called my grandparents, who are living in Shanghai. They are in quarantine too and they say they are all well. That made me feel relieved. They are very cute and I love them very much.

Tuesday, March 31 2020 As I expected, this afternoon they announced the extension of the quarantine. I don’t feel it is a bad decision because this is a way to prevent and protect ourselves longer from the virus, making lower risks. And also I think that it is a good time to learn new skills, although with all the homework that they are giving us, I think that I will have little spare time. But, today I managed to have time to make a banana brownie! The appearance of it was not as good as I had expected, but it did taste really awesome.

In the morning, we had a meeting with the teachers of art class, it was a good and new experience and I think that it is a nice way to start classes again. Other teachers are also scheduling new classes already and we are full of things to do, but it is good to see my classmates again.

Wednesday, April 01 2020 Today I got up quite early. I enjoyed every day in the morning standing on the terrace and absorbing the sunlight. I’ve never had such a peaceful time without noises of cars, buses and machines coming from the streets.

These days at home we are trying to do some exercises so we don’t stay all day seated, it’s like a family sport. And it is a lot of fun doing it with my family. But sometimes I just think that we are everyday doing the same routines. We get up, eat breakfast, do homework, do family sport, eat dinner and we go to sleep, just to do the same things the next day. Maybe I have to find more interesting activities to do, so I don’t feel so bored.

Thursday, April 02, 2020 Today I made another thing with crochet! It is a coin purse. This time it was easier to do it, and I really like to crochet because you can make from a hook and yarn lots of things: socks, scarves, bags, etc. Now I think that there are advantages and also disadvantages to staying at home. There aren’t lots of things to do when you are confined in your house, but at the same time you have spare time to find and explore new things that you haven’t had time to do before, like cooking, doing crochet, watching more movies or TV series… The real problem is maybe that we are tired of staying always in the same place with the same people everyday, because we are used to going out, meeting friends; or going to school, being with our classmates. And this is a new experience we have never been in, we still have to get used to. Although we have lot of time to do things that before we had not time to, it is also tiring, because we are still following a routine every single day with our families (and also because we are full of work to do from school).

Friday, April 03, 2020 Today was a very shiny day, as the others days, although it was very cold too.

Luckily I have my kindle that makes it easy for me to read books and files. I always read with the kindle and I’ve learned how to download books without buying them from the Amazon store. These days apart from reading the books I have to read for school, I’ve been reading a book called “Beneath a scarlet sky”. I started reading it a few weeks ago and today I’ve just finished it! It is very interesting because it is based o n a true story and it will be filmed into a movie. I am really looking forward to watching it! The plot is about an Italian boy and his experiences during the World War II. He helps Jewish people escape from the Nazis by crossing the Alps; he also becomes a spy in the German army…, anyhow, it is a very good story.

Saturday, April 04, 2020 Now that my mom is at home, she is always trying new recipes and doing delicious foods. If it weren’t for the quarantine, she wouldn’t have so much time to do that many things.

This year I’ve started using the bullet journal, which consists of writing down the entire schedule of things that you have to get done on the day, or in the month. And it is very effective, also because I like to have everything planned and organized. At first I couldn’t finish all the thing that I had planed to do, but little by little you can get used to it and it is helpful to organize yourself. Especially now that there is homework to do so I can separate them in tasks to do everyday.

Sunday, April 05, 2020 Everyday after lunch I watch series with my sister, it has already become part of our routine. These days we are watching “Orange is the new black”, that talks about life in a women’s prison and the interesting things that happens there. It is good to spend time with my sister and have fun together. Sometimes I think that my sisters are very annoying but other times I just enjoy being with them, watching TV series or accompanying my other sister to play puzzles.

Monday, April 06, 2020 Today my art class teacher sent me a message that I have to start drawing by myself (because I attend art classes outside school). So, I have to start drawing in my house on my own. I am not so confident about drawing without the teacher’s guidance, but there is no other way so I will just listen to her, if not she sure will kill me if I don’t hand in my drawings later! So my day today consisted of doing homework and start drawing.

Tuesday, April 07, 2020 Today the day was very cold, and the wind was very strong. So I had to go to the terrace and stay there so I could get a little warm, I really like to sit under the sunlight and feel the warmth. My dog also likes to lie under the sun and he would give me his

paw so I could cuddle him and massage his belly. By the way, in a week he is going to be three years old! Today I also tried my grandma’s recipe of a cake. And with the help of my mom it resulted very good!

Wednesday, April 08, 2020 Today I had inspiration and I decided to start doing a bag with crochet. I know that it will be a little difficult, and that I may not have lot of time in the day to do it, but I just want to try. My mom has a lot of yarns and different types of crochet needles, so I have to take advantage of it. These two days my mom has always wanted me to cook with her, yesterday was cake and we have not even finished it yet and she already wants to do another thing. And today we made some Chinese food. Then the rest of the day I just did homework, and of course I had to keep drawing!

Thursday, April 09, 2020 This is the last day of writing journal. I think that recording and writing down what I did and some of my thoughts also were part of my day. I used to write journals, but because I had no time so I stopped writing.

I just wish that the quarantine would finish soon, but first of all that the virus can spread more slowly and affect fewer people.

23/03/2020 DAY 1 Dear Diary, I’m getting frustrated about this quarantine. Maybe it's not just by the fact that I can't go out of my house, which would be bearable, but that the school is giving us so much homework is stressing me out. We could never in a lifetime finish the tasks they gave us in our normal classes. I'm studying more hours than I would at school. Even the teacher of physical education is giving us practical work to do. This is getting on my nerves.

On top of that, I can't stop worrying about what is going to happen this year.

This is the last year of school, in other words, the only one I want to go to school every day. I don't want to lose this experience because of this issue. I am aware that this is pretty selfish and egocentric but I really want to enjoy it as much as I’m able. The chances of our graduation trip getting cancelled are reaching higher and higher. That idea is tired of running around my mind.

I know that this should not be a thing to worry about with all that's been happening, other countries are losing hundreds of people per day, and then, here I am, worrying about my last school year, I’m an awful person.

I hope that coronavirus disappears as quickly as possible.

I’m fed up with all this, every day it is getting worse. The only thing that is good enough is that, for the time being, it is not a big of a problem in Argentina. But we are perfectly aware that in other places, they are suffering a lot.

I'm so sorry for them, no one deserves this, and I wouldn’t wish it on my worst enemy.

I wonder when they are going to find a cure; it should not be that difficult, right?

I mean, the United States, China, Germany, they have the best technology and science.

I'm stressed out, I'm not keen on doing anything, I can´t stop wondering if this is actually getting worse with time. I hope not.

24/03/2020 DAY 2

Dear diary, Today one of my French friends contacted me with the idea of making a report of Argentina and everything that’s been happening. Including government measures, people´s feelings, and the virus’s impact. So we started talking about all this stuff, and I asked her how everything was going in France. When she started describing all their country is going through, I couldn't believe how she was still staying positive.

As I talked to her, an idea came to my mind. I started sending messages to my foreign friends.

I talked with many of them, from Singapore, England, Canada, Japan, Indonesia, etc. But my friend from Italy was the one who really got to my heart. He began telling me how everything had started and how the situation developed until now. He told me that every day around one hundred to one hundred and fifty people died.

Emanuel, my friend, explained to me how their medical technology wasn’t enough. Those doctors had the awful obligation to decide which person to give medical attention to and which not. They were literally deciding who was going to live or die. If you were old, had some kind of breathing condition and the virus entered your system, you were just sent back home, in other stronger words, to die. The doctors needed to give the priority to the younger people.

Emanuel said that the modern current heroes, the doctors, were the ones with the highest death toll. They are lost and horrified.

Also my friend from the UK told me what Boris Johnson, the prime minister, said to England. “He actually exclaimed that he was not going to take any measures for the country because it was going to help make the virus cease spreading faster, and told the people to be ready for loved ones to die at an early age”- her words left me terrified. How can someone think like this, support those ideas, and communicate them so freely? In what kind of world are we living? I can't believe this.

After hearing from my foreign friends, I understood that my preoccupations were less than nothing compared to theirs.

25/03/2020 DAY 3 Dear diary,

Today I made a video conference with my friends as we needed to see a movie together for an art project of school. I missed them a lot, we talked for about two hours and we stood online two hours more while watching the movie. I laughed a lot with them, but then I started thinking that it is going to be a very long time until we see each other again. I can't tell when this crisis is going to end. But I am sure of one thing, they are going to extend lockdown days, maybe by two weeks, maybe one or two months, who knows.

The number of people with the virus continues increasing as the number of deaths, the speed is appalling. Everything's driving me crazy, it does not matter to whom are you talking to, you are surely talking about the coronavirus.

I never thought this could come so far, when it started in China I thought, “It is Asia, it will never get to Argentina, it is impossible�, but then it started invading Europe. I was more concerned by then, not that much yet. But when I heard that it had arrived to Brazil, was the moment when fear started running through my veins. I started wondering if it was actually possible, and then, in the twinkling of an eye, all of sudden, it was here. The government started taking measures, telling us to stay at home.

I know I am repetitive, but it is the only thing I can think about.

26/03/2020

DAY 4 Dear diary, I woke up in a different mood. I feel more willing to do everything, I am starting to get positive, if not I will go batshit crazy. But I got depressed by the fact that school keeps giving us tons of homework, we are not machines. I am studying ALL day long, it is even worse than when I actually went to school. I undoubtedly would rather go to school than this, it is too much. I believe that teachers are not realizing that their subject is not the only one we have, because it is taking hours or even days to finish only one assignment.

I am tired. I want to do something more than studying all day, and I guess that that's the reason why I am so concerned about everything; it is because I can't relax my mind for just one second. Believe it or not, even my parents are asking me to stop doing so much homework, that it is enough. I just want to leave everything for ONE day and do less than nothing.

My brother goes to university, he is starting his last year to be an accountant, he studies at the “Universidad Catolica Argentina”, but he is doing half or even less than what I am doing for school.

I began saying I was getting positive, but as I kept on writing I realized that I’m actually not, I am done with everything. I want school back, I’m not even asking for holidays, just school.

Moreover, it keeps getting worse; today I have Hockey training ONLINE. I don't want to do it for a million reasons, but most of all because I am tired, and nobody is going to change my mind when I say that it is entirely school work’s fault.

27/03/2020 DAY 5 Dear Diary, Today I talked to my friend from Chubut and she told me about everything she has been through.

Two weeks ago she managed to return from her trip to the United States, it was a very gruelling experience and she had to handle so many problems by herself I can’t even remember them all. She had bought the flight tickets before the pandemic started.

When the time to leave the country arrived, there was no coronavirus or quarantine in Argentina yet, so she took the flight without any worries. Gala, my friend, stayed in the United States for one month, she went to visit her aunt and cousins that have recently begun living there. She stayed in their house and enjoyed her holidays.

All of a sudden, the virus arrived in Argentina, and in the blink of an eye we were on lockdown. Gala needed to return but all the flights were delayed and some even cancelled. She is twenty years old but she was alone so she couldn't keep herself from panicking. As far as I know, it was a horrible experience, she wasn't even sure if she was going to return or not. After two or maybe three days the problem was “solved” and she managed to get to Buenos Aires. She owns an apartment in Buenos Aires because she moved temporarily for studying, but she could not get to Chubut.

She was frightened for days, fearing she might have the virus due to everything she had been through, but after all, two weeks went by and she is asymptomatic.

I can’t imagine how she felt all those days alone, fearing she might have something, or even worse, the days she had to wait in the United States without knowing if she was going to be able to come back. That was when I realized once more that I am very lucky; I am with my family and at home.

28/03/2020 DAY 6 Dear diary, Today I had an amazing day. I made hockey training online with my coach and all my team friends. It was pretty exhausting; we did tons of different types of exercises. We moved from one side to the other, we did squats, mountain climbers, skipping, a bit of running, jumping, also lifted weight with our arms and legs. The whole work lasted about forty minutes, and being honest, those were the worst forty minutes of my life. I could hardly breathe.

From the beginning to the end, I had been wishing for it to stop.

Finally, we did, and our trainer congratulated us all, but the best part of everything was that he had prepared a game. He divided us in two groups, the yellow and green team.

My team is called “Lemon Yellow”. The game is about competing with the other team and achieving different victories, which gives you a certain amount of points. It lasts for two weeks, and every day we have to complete three different challenges. The team who finishes and sends it all via whatsapp first, wins.

Today, they asked us, initially, to make an ability with the stick and the hockey ball, while saying the seven time table. The ball could not fall to the ground until we finished saying out loud all the numbers. I did that one, and sent it ahead of the other team. The second one was to get the birthday and the ID of the coach from league B. The “Green team” got it first. But the last one was to get a video of a famous person saying hello and the name of three hockey players. My team was quick enough to achieve it before the others.

We asked for the video to a famous hockey player from Argentina “Leonas” and she answered very quickly. So we got two out of three, consequently we won the point of today. I am very eager to know what our next challenge will be, but I have no doubt that, at the end of the two weeks, my team is going to reach the final victory.

29/03/2020 DAY 7

Dear diary, Today my Spanish teacher gave us a long Essay by Ernesto Sábato. It was so long that, at first I was not willing to read it. It has around fifteen pages, so it didn't seem really appealing. Moreover, I was pretty tired as I had woken up very early that morning.

The title was “Ensayo de la educación”. After ten minutes of just staring blankly at the pages I started reading hastily, but as I continued, I was absorbed by the language used and the extremely interesting topic.

It was about how poor education was getting, it explains how most of the teachers give classes without breaking away from the given “programme”.

They teach us difficult definitions, and force us to memorize everything, commas, stops, percentages, dates, names and surnames.

We must learn everything just like the book says and the one who does it is considered a “perfect student”.

But, is this the proper way to teach? Are all those definitions going to be remembered when we finish secondary school? If you are wondering, the answer is negative.

All the “best students” are those who sit in front of a book and punish their heads until the information sticks into their brains. But do we actually learn something by doing that?

I had had the best average in the classroom for four years, but, can I say that I am satisfied with the things I have learned?

I am pretty aware of my 10 in Chemistry last year, but do I remember now anything of the subject? I can't even say the base of the simplest topic.

So I can say that I absolutely agree with Sábato. The level of education is continuously declining, and it is now that we have to stop, think about it and ask ourselves if this downward trend is ever going to cease.

Martin Jeon, 6th year Essay Writing Workshop

Journal March 30th Monday A day that seemed to be boring like these days of quarantine has started. Today was a bit busy but I somehow like this kind of busyness because I have been so lazy for the last 2 weeks. But today has begun with two projects to be handed in until 10:00 AM, fortunately they were from my favorite subjects, Math and Math in Spanish, that’s why I could finish in an hour both projects. However after I submitted them I could not hide the dissatisfaction in terms of my attitude that I have been always under pressure to meet the deadline. Well, I should change this lousy habit despite the quarantine. In the afternoon, I was charged to do the next projects whose deadlines are for tomorrow. The projects were horrible and awful. First, I hate one of those subjects, Organizational Project. Second, I do not want to do the project of Gym which used to be a gift for me and others also. Third, the project of Mrs. Antognoli was so stressful as I had to find out the answers from the Commercial Law Which contains hundreds of articles. Since 10:00 PM I have been able to enjoy freedom. Despite the hardworking, I felt the satisfaction that I have not felt for a long time.

March 31th Tuesday Today I woke up little bit earlier as I had a video meeting of Art. I discussed about the big project of the year which is making a short movie. It was somehow annoyed because the meeting was at 10:00Am but in few minutes, the bothersome disappeared as I unconsciously enjoyed talking about the project with my close friends. How great will be our movie? I am already expecting our movie to be the best. Honestly, especially in these days, I am interested in filming and watching movies and producing skills shown in it. Apart from that I really liked that now the Korean movies have

Martin Jeon, 6th year Essay Writing Workshop such a great reputation over the world due to “The Parasite” of Bong Jun Ho. I hope that our movie will as great as the parasite, though I know that it is impossible. In the evening I was free from the pressure of the bunch of projects. I enjoyed totally watching the movie “The Invisible Man”. The main actress was wonderful, she expressed skillfully the suffocating feeling at moments that the people around her do not understand her and consider as an insane person. She was brilliant and the way the movie was produced also was remarkable. I think there are several stuffs that we might applicate in ours. What a literary day was today!

April, 1st Wednesday The sunshine of 7 o’clock woke me up burning my face, Why didn’t I close the curtain yesterday…

That’s how today started. Until the noon I was charged to arrange with the projects as usual, then in the afternoon I began something I would not have done in these days if the Covid-19 had not dominated the world. I have been practicing playing piano as now the time is the only thing we all have. Today I began with a new song that I have tried but I easily given up. The level was much more complicate than I had expected, the range of Octaves was extremely wide and the pattern and the velocity were so fast and dynamic. My fingers got frozen when I got started practicing. I think to be able to play it completely, it should last at least a month of practicing. Despite the difficulty I was thankful for the fact that I have enough time to do what I’ve always wanted to.

Martin Jeon, 6th year Essay Writing Workshop

April 2nd Thursday Like the normal days of the quarantine, I was charged to do the projects in the morning, fortunately they were not as difficult as Antongnoli’s one. Then I check out if there were any new issues in regard to UBA 21. I was so concerned about how the exam will be because this exceptional situation affected also to the method of evaluation of UBA 21. Fortunately the courses have not started but as my goal is to finish all the subjects of UBA 21 in this year, I hope I will be fine despite the delay of the courses. In the evening I went out to the balcony to get a blow at least and I looked around, the city which used to be full of noises of vehicles was so calm and quiet. The buses were passing through normally but there was nobody in it, even though I already knew it, I was kind of surprised. When will this horrible situation finish at all? I really don’t want to end my last year of the secondary school like this, submitting the projects on-line and being locked in this small apartment.

April 3rd Friday How fast the time goes by despite the quarantine! I am surprised that I am in April still in relax.

I think in these days so alike without any interesting stuffs, it is easy to go into the swamp of depression, so today I spent time doing what I like. I played the piano for 3 hours and the song that I began in Wednesday became more familiar and I reached until a quarter out of the total length. Nothing is impossible if you do the best! Then I watched some video clips in YouTube and I discovered by chance a wonderful playlist of attractive songs. One of them especially suited perfectly my taste! The song is called “Dead Celebrities” of Easy Life, its mood and message touched my heart and its catchy melody line fascinated me. The lyrics were also great, especially “And one day I could be a distant memory” made me think of my friends and family in Korea. Then I

Martin Jeon, 6th year Essay Writing Workshop discovered the other songs of Easy Life, and I am sure that they are genius, how haven’t I still known this band! Their songs have in common the vive of easy life indeed! When I listen to their music I kind of feel freedom from the busy life (Changing into “easy life”). Well, today was successful as I found out a wonderful band.

April 4th Saturday Today I literally did just one thing, which is watching series of Netflix. Honestly this is what I do the most in these days but today was full of Netflix. The reason for it is because of the “La Casa de Papel”. The performance of the Character, Professor was remarkable and the story was so intense and well made. The intelligence of the Professor that produced a chaos to the police in the series was brilliant. As it was so attractive I could not stop watching it and I have reached until its fourth season. This is also one of the stuffs that would not happen in ordinary life!

April 5th Sunday Well, this Sunday doesn’t seem to be special as now, every day is Sunday. Like normal days, I spent time watching YouTube videos, and by a chance I watched a Vlog of a real surgeon life. It

Martin Jeon, 6th year Essay Writing Workshop was overlapped with my ideal future life, it seemed to be busy and under pressure as it deals with someone’s life. After watching it, I asked myself “Am I sure that I can be a surgeon despite the long and hard career and the pressure of deciding between life and death?” Still I am not sure about this question but based on the interests and the passion, I am sure that if I don’t become a surgeon I will regret. Then I thought about the applause at 9:00PM, can I be the person who deserves to receive that applause? Well, still there is no comment for this question, I still don’t know if as a doctor, I can sacrifice despite the risk of being infected. Then how heroic are the doctors and nurses that voluntarily are fighting against the virus! I really admire them and I hope I will be as great as them also.

1 My journal

• 1st April: I woke up at around 8:30am, since I had a language Zoom meeting to connect to. I had a cup of coffee and a toast for breakfast, as usual. The meeting seemed eternal to me; it was only 40 minutes long, but it felt more like hours.

Today was a busy day as regards homework and assignments, so once the meeting was over, I decided to do as much of them as I could. Speaking the truth, I spent most of my day on this, as I had to complete several tasks on subjects such as literature in spanish, essay writing workshop in spanish and philosophy. I only stopped to have lunch, so we could say today I was buried in homework.

However, I found my philosophy homework really interesting today. Philosophy is supposed to make you think and reflect on certain topics, and in certain circumstances such as the ones we are undergoing, this thoughts can have a really powerful impact on how we carry on with our daily activities. It made me reconsider how much value I usually I give to things that seem common, such as going to school; now that I’m not going I can realize how essential it is for my life. Thinking about this actually made me feel rather emotional.

In the afternoon, I did my workout routine with my sister. I do not enjoy that much, but I have to be perseverant about it since otherwise, I will lose my physical state for when I return to training again. Once I was done, we had some salmon for dinner, which I really enjoyed (yes, food has enough power to change my mood). Afterwards, I watched my series, Gossip Girl, until I fell asleep.

• 2nd April: My day started at around 11am, when I woke up for a Zoom meeting with my Economics professor. As soon as I got out of bed, I headed downstairs with the intention of preparing myself an iced coffee to get through my class, only to find out we had run out of coffee.

This was cause enough to say that I started my day with the left foot! Luckily, getting to see my friends once our meeting began improved my mood significantly. I miss them so much.

Right after our meeting finished, I decided to carry on with my school activities and tasks as usual. Generally, I try to get them done as early as possible so I can relax for the rest of the day. A couple of hours later, I had already finished so i decided to help my dad prepare pizza for lunch. Actually, I’m not a cooking person neither do I enjoy doing it, but it helps me get distracted and at the same time, be productive.

Having woken up relatively early I decided that a nap would be nice, specially since it was a cold day. I turned on the tv and started watching Netflix, but I fell asleep before I knew it.

Under normal circumstances, I do not sleep THAT much, but I believe that sleeping helps us stop thinking for a bit and getting distracted from what is going on. In my case, it works as a sort of way to turn off my feelings and my mind, ‘cause otherwise I would be crazy already!

I woke up from my nap at around 6pm, just in time to do my daily workout routine, which takes me around one hour and a half. Doing it with my sister means laughing a lot, so it’s not as bad as it may sound. Working out makes me feel rather relaxed and happy, I could say. It is a very effective way of relieving stress. Once I finished, I was about to enter the shower when my grandparents called me. The fact that they are spending quarantine alone and that they cannot even go grocery shopping makes me sad; I miss them a lot.

After dinner, we watched a movie with my family. It was really interesting, so we enjoyed this moment a lot.

• 3rd April:

2 Today, there were no meetings to connect to, so I was free to sleep until the time I pleased, this is why by the time I woke up it was already lunchtime! My schedule is pretty messed up now that i’m not going to school, but i am slowly trying to correct it, otherwise it will be really hard to adapt myself once school begins again. Having finished eating my Caesar salad I decided that it was about time that I kept going with my schoolwork. Today I had to complete a Language task and some math activities. I find the first subject pretty interesting, however, I hate doing maths with all my heart. I have never liked it and never will; it’s just too technical for me.

Once my suffering ended, my sister and I proceeded to prepare some cookies. We looked up the recipe and got onto business. I can say those were the best cookies I’ve ever had! As a matter of fact, we ended up eating half of them at the very moment. This might not have been my best decision, as my workout routine wasn’t t gonna do itself.

I could not skip my routine, so I ended up feeling rather sick once I was done! Those cookies were definitely a bad decision. I took a shower and headed to my backyard to play with my dogs. They are the only ones happy with the quarantine situation, as they get to spend the whole day with us!

I felt my day had not been productive enough so I decided to clean the upper floor of my house to help my parents. I feel rather guilty when they do all the chores by themselves, so I figured they could use a hand. We had pasta for dinner, which got me into a happy mood since it’s my favourite food.

• 4th April:

Today, I woke up at around 10am. I didn’t get a well night sleep and that’s why I was not having the best mood. I felt rather nervous and tired, but I decided to keep working while I had breakfast. I did this until lunch, when we had some chicken with mushrooms. It was really delicious, but not even food could get my mood to change.

It persisted throughout the day, so I decided to do some online yoga in order to relax. I figured this would help relieve some negative emotions and tensions I was feeling. It really helped, but i certainly did not expect it to be so exhausting! How was I supposed to workout after that? I don’t know, but I got through it despite my physical fatigue.

I had relaxed enough when I realized I had forgotten to do my Economics homework, and it was due tomorrow! This made me feel a little stressed, since I always try to do my work with anticipation, but it is not a subject that I have trouble with, so I was done in a couple of hours.

After dinner, I decided to watch a movie when my friends called. We talked for a long time and laughed a lot. They make my day so much better! The problem was that I could not get to sleep afterwards, no matter what I tried. I rolled over in my bed until really late. This is never good, ‘cause being alone at night makes me think a lot about what we are going through, which makes me kind of sad. Being on lockdown, missing my friends and family and missing part of my last school year are all facts that make me feel emotional whenever I think about them. However, I believe this will make me value them more once this is over.

• 5th April:

3 As soon as I woke up, my dad asked me to help him prepare a barbecue for lunch. I couldn’t refuse, so after breakfast I went to our backyard with him. While we waited for the fire to start, we played some volleyball together. I really miss training!

The barbecue turned out excellent, and he was really happy about it. I tried to destine my day to distract a little bit rather than focusing on school but I cannot avoid work. I spent most of my afternoon working on an art task, which is kind of fun actually.

Once it was teatime, I prepared some iced coffee for both my sister and I and we ate the remaining cookies while we watched a movie. Afterwards, we decided to train together, so I could say we spent great deal of our Sunday together.

At dinner time, I helped my mum cook some empanadas. My mum is not the best cook and neither am I, but empanadas are one of her specialties; they are delicious.

After dinner, I was heading to bed when an old friend called. This made me really happy, since our relationship had been rather detached since she changed schools a couple of years ago. We took a couple of hours to catch up, but I could say this was the highlight of my day.

• 6th April: Today, I had to wake up at around 9:30 in order to have breakfast before my Christian education Zoom meeting. My mum had bought coffee yesterday, so I could enjoy my iced coffee in the morning. Once the meeting was over, I proceeded to do some of my homework until noon.

At around 2pm, I helped my dad prepare some salads for lunch. After eating them, I realized I was really tired and didn’t have that much homework, so I decided to take a nap. As soon as my head touched the pillow, I fell asleep. I love sleeping, especially when it’s cold outside.

Once I had woken up, my sister and I proceeded to workout, as usual. This is a really relieving moment of my day. It improves my mood significantly even though I get exhausted.

For some reason, I was still really tired after dinner, so I went to sleep early.

• 7th April: My alarm set off at around 10:30; just in time for my art Zoom meeting. After discussing about some movies we had to see, I went outside to play with my dogs. The day was kind of cold, but I enjoyed it anyways. As soon as my sister woke up, we decided to go and play some volleyball. Since we were in the mood for sports, we switched our usual workout schedule to the morning. Contrary to what I thought, working out earlier made me feel more energetic for the rest of the day.

After preparing some grilled meat for lunch, I realized it was about time that I started doing some school work. I didn’t have that much to do, but I’d rather do it before so I have more free time.

At around 5pm, my sister and I decided to prepare a cake, so we headed to the kitchen. It took us more time than expected, but luckily, it turned out to be pretty tasty! After eating some of it, I decided to read a book.

I read for about an hour when my mum asked me to help her clean up the house. Even though i didn’t want to, I cannot refuse to that.

My days have been rather repetitive and boring, but there’s nothing else to do if we want to help solve this problem. When I think about the situation we are facing, I sometimes feel as if we were living in a sci-fi novel. Who would have imagined that a pandemic outbreak in such a developed context would stop all sorts of activity all around the world? It just strikes me to think about it. These are some of the questions that keep me up at night. The idea of a beloved someone or an acquaintance getting infected just frightens me. These thoughts are the ones I try to avoid when I go to bed, but sometimes it’s just impossible. I

4 hope this situation is solved as soon as possible, so that casualties are as reduced as possible and everyone can return to their normal lives.

A picture of the cake we made.

ASSIGNMENT #3 Instructions: Write a journal for a week.

-

Refer to activities you do, feelings you experience, thoughts or ideas that bounce around, hopes, longings, things you learn, things you wonder, etc.

- Find a moment when you can close your eyes and reflect on your day, ask yourself questions, dive in and start writing.

- There are no word limits.

- You can include photographs.

- Specify days of each entry.

- Be truthful.

Thursday 2: I am starting to write this journal today because something had happened and I want to “register�. Some time ago, more or less in February, I downloaded “Tiktok� on my phone, I started using that app as a way of entertainment. Last week, a friend of I, decided to create an account, but not a personal account, it was a grupal account where my hole group of friends had the chance to open it and manage it from their cellphones. It was a little bit boring so I decided to post a video. I was not hoping to have a huge impact, so hours later that surprise me as many people started following us, actually, we have more than two thousand followers.

From my point of view, it’s a lot and this makes me feel happy. Apart from that, I’m having a delicious lunch, made by me! I’m a chef now. I did a mix of cooked vegetables (onions, potatoes, broccoli, sweet potatoes, and tomatoes) with two eggs. It may sound horrible but it’s a tasty dish that I learned from my grandmother. Once I finish my food, I will go to my bedroom and start doing my homework.

It is at 6 o’clock and I had already finished my homework. My friend, Ileana, has sent me some pictures of her and she is asking me if I have time to edit them. Edit pictures, it is something that I really like, I could say it’s one of my hobbies cause I really like to search a proper illumination, contrasts, and create a clear picture of her đ&#x;’—. I will attach the before and after of the picture as to see the difference: AFTER BEFORE

It’s night and I didn’t do much more than editing, I think that this quarantine it’s a little bit boring but we can overcome this situation cause in the second war world, many jews had to be enclosed for three years, without water, sunrises, food, without all the commodities we as humans have nowadays so I’m glad of having a bed, food, water, my appreciated phone, my netbook that it’s essential to do all my homework and sometimes see a movie, and so far so on.

Friday 3: I woke up at 9:00 am, I had my breakfast meanwhile I was having my first online class of art and honestly I was super tired. I drank a cup of Dolka coffee (from my point of view, it’s the best brand of coffee here in Argentina cause it’s different and richer in flavor than others) and an avocado’s toast. Then, I did my homework and helped my sister with her.

Now it’s 2:00 pm and I have already had lunch, I ate a salad with chicken, and now my grandmother it’s going to teach me how to do “puntillismo” (I don’t know how it says in English) but let me explain: in a surface, it does not have to be plain, with different colors and shapes you create a unique acrylic’s paint make by dots. I will do it in a coffee jar because it’s the only thing that I have. I believe this is a great idea cause I am going to spend time with my grandmother and she is going to stay positive with my presence. After three hours, this is the final result:

I really like to do some creative stuff because as I said before, I spend time with my grandmother and we both entertain ourselves for a while, chat and laugh at my brothers' anecdotes. Now I’m going to read a little bit of Small Island and then I will take bath, I hope dinner is made for when I finish bathing because the truth is that I'm very hungry jejejee.

The food was really delicious, my dad cooked a slice of meat with potatoes and now I'm going to go to bed because I'm so tired, I'm sure I'll see a couple of Tiktok before I go to sleep, but it’s okay.

Saturday 4: It’s 3:00 am and I started feeling so bad, I think I have a fever but I find it very strange because I'm doing quarantine and I haven't left my house for 20 days. The truth is that this situation

scares me because in the last few days I've been spending them with my dad and grandmother and if I was infected with COVID-19 I’m sure I infected them.

Now it is 9:00 am I drank paracetamol but I still have a big fever (39:5). The truth is that it was a very ugly moment, now it's 22:00 pm and I can take the time to write a little bit, but at 9:00 am., my dad was so worried, he started calling the 107, 148, OSDE and anyone answer. The fever kept going up and we didn't know what to do, I showered with cold water but the fever still didn't come down. I had to lie down and wait. 3 hours later, OSDE replied and told my dad to stay calm because I didn’t have sore throat and cough and I could normally have dengue, although it’s necessary to come to a laboratory to detect the disease.

Sunday 5: I woke up with 39 fever, still doesn't come down and I still feel bad, we don't know what it can be, but for now I'm the only sick one at home. The truth was that I ran out of appetite and during the day I didn't eat anything but I'm drinking a lot of water. I bathed three times to get the fever down, but there was no good results. The doctor thinks its dengue because of the symptoms I'm presenting so I believe this is a good news.

Monday 6: I couldn't sleep so I put on Tibetan music so I could rest. My father wakes me up at 11:00 am because the lab was downstairs, they made me all the necessary tests and after that, I returned to my comfortable bed. I started to feel bad again like weakened, so I asked my doctor and she said to me that it was normal so I didn’t worry. The disadvantage was that I couldn’t move from the bed because I was going to start feeling powerless and very weakened and it was so boring and stressful for me.

Tuesday 7: I still feel very bad, I'm calm because my grandmother, my sister, and my dad feel good but the fever is still high and my head still hurts a lot. I eat very little during the day, for example, today I had tea in the morning and I had a soup at lunch and nothing else. Its six o'clock in the afternoon, I don't really have the strength to write, but well. I try to use my cell phone as little as possible so I don't feel more tired than I am.

I'm worried because now my dad has a fever, he has got the first symptom and now he’s really bad in bed. I'm really scared, and we have to wait for the doctor who comes in three hours.

Wednesday 8: My dad is under observation for 48 hours and I still haven't recovered. The truth is that it is very crazy because you take care of yourself and take precautions to end this way, it’s unbelievable. I don’t do much, I don’t see any movie or novel, I try not to use the cell phone and this helps me. My sister and my grandmother are feeling good and that calms me. I tried to be as positive as I can.

2nd of April: Thursday Today is the day of the Malvinas veteran, and in my family it’s a very special day because my uncle fought in Malvinas. I started my day late, as always as we have been quarantined. When I woke up my mom was working, so she told me to prepare some food to have a quick lunch and continue working. I prepared some steaks with rice and they weren’t the best, but it wasn’t that bad. About 2:00 PM, the WhatsApp family group was full of messages for my uncle and recognizing both the courage of my uncle, as well as that of my grandmother. From 2:00 PM from 7:00 PM, I do nothing. In my house, there is only one computer and my mom uses it all day to work. So, only when she finishes working, can I use the computer to do school things. I did about 3 activities from school and then I went to finish the Netflix series I was watching, “Elite”.

At 9:00 I had pasta for dinner and went to my room to play videogames. I played two hours before I got bored and started seeing a Spanish movie called “El Hoyo”. I finished seeing that movie at 4:00 AM and I went to bed after that.

3rd of April: Friday I started the day thinking that there are not going to be more assignments from school until Monday, so I felt a little quiet. As I woke up at 10:00 AM, I had a lot of spare time before my mom left me the computer to finish the two activities for today and decided to clean every single drawer of my room. I was cleaning from 10:45 AM to 12:00 AM, but for me it seemed like 20 minutes because with the music and all the old photos I found it more bearable.

After having the pasta from the previous day, I found that TycSports was replaying old matches of World Cups so I spent about 2- or 3-hours seeing matches that when I was a boy, I could not analyze they way I can do it now. When the matches finished, I took a time to think how much my mom works every day and started thinking about ways in which I could help her. I decided to make her some toast and mate, so she could snack without stopping working and finish earlier. After that, we had fish and rice for dinner, and I fell asleep watching the tv in my room.

4th of April: Saturday Saturdays at my house tend to be very productive even though we are only two at home. My task of almost every weekend is to mow the grass and, in summer, clean the pool so we can spend the whole day there. I woke up at noon with my mom preparing baked meat with potatoes for lunch.

After eating, I decided to see if I could advance some works (see above) from school. I spent 2 hours making and starting activities from school until I started to smell some cake that my mom was making, which made me leave the computer and have a snack with my mom before mowing the grass. Usually, it doesn’t take me that long to mow the grass, but today I was relaxed and checking my phone all the time, so it took me a little longer . At night my mom prepared her specialty, homemade pizza. Later, I played videogames with some friends until the desire to sleep beat me.

5th of April: Sunday In my family it is common to use Sunday as a day of rest and today was not going to be the exception. It was a calm day and we didn’t do so many things.

We have some sandwiches for lunch and while my mom was having a nap, I took advantage and continued doing some stuff from school almost all day. Weekends are when I need to take advantage of the fact that my mom doesn’t work so I have the computer for me the whole two days .After doing the activities, I decided to call my three grandparents to talk with them to see how they are doing in this quarantine and entertain them AS much as I could.At night my mom asked me to make a barbecue, so I did it, and it was pretty good.Both my mom and I went to sleep early, I had to wake up at 8 to join an online class of art.

6th of April: Monday I woke up early for me, it was 8:00 AM when I went downstairs to prepare some breakfast to be awake in the class. This is my first online class, so I woke up even more early to prepare all the app. At 9:00 the teacher sent us the link to the class, and we talked about 40 minutes, because that is the limit of the free subscription to the app. After the class, I went to sleep a little bit more, but it turned into/ ended up being a lot more because I woke up at 1:00 AM. I had a good breakfast, so I decided not to eat lunch and wait for the snack. I spent the whole day playing videogames with friends until my mom stopped working, so I started doing more activities from school. The problem was that my mom had a lot of work that day, so I could use the computer very late and I needed to do a lot of tasks . That’s when I decided to have a quick dinner and do the activities without stopping until I finished them.

7 of April: Tuesday.

I started the day doing the activities, I didn’t sleep the whole night. The other problem I had was that I had to be in two classes before noon, therefore, I decided to stay awake after finishing all my works at 7:00 AM. When my mom woke up, we had breakfast together and then I joined the first class of the day, Economics. It was a good class, we talked a lot about the subject in general and how are we getting through this quarantine. Before the next and last class started, I made another coffee so as not to fall asleep. At 11:00 AM the math class started but in an unconventional method, a live video on Instagram. After the two classes, I had an express lunch and dashed to my bed.

I slept all day, waking up at 6:00 PM. This situation got me thinking that if it's difficult for me, having only one computer, to make stuff from school, I can't imagine those kids that live in poor conditions and how education is given to them. This problem has affected a lot of people and I can't stop thinking of those people that have a very bad time with this disease and how lucky I am.

8th of April: Wednesday I woke up at 9:00 AM, logically because I had been sleeping since 6:00 PM of the day before. I started watching the new season of “La casa de Papel” on Netflix, I spent most of my day doing this.

But at the end of the day, my mom received good news in her work, and it made me think about how well we are getting along while we live together every day.

It is not that we get along terribly, but every now and then we have some argument but it’s been a long time since we haven’t had any.

9th of April: Thursday On the last day of this journal, I started my day with an online class of Christian education that turned into a counseling class because Pablo, the chaplain, couldn’t get a good connection to join the class. The class ended at 11:00 AM, so I helped my mom to prepare the food for t lunch. We ate some salad with steaks and then she left me the computer to finish this journal.

While writing this, I talked with my mother and reached some conclusions about this quarantine, even though it's not over. The main themes we touched upon were how this situation had affected our family and friends, how fast the students

and teachers got used to this new way of education and finally, how people with poor living conditions could make this quarantine more enjoyable and overcome this situation.

Journal from Isabella Peralta: Monday 23rd March: Today, I woke up at 10 o’clock and I went to the kitchen to get myself a cup of tea to start the morning the best possible way.

Then, as usual, I started doing homework for different subjects.

At noon, I learned how to make a tuna pie that is my mom’s speciality at cooking. It was fun and I laughed a lot.

After lunch, I took a nap and continue reading “Small Island” on my phone which I’ve managed to purchase it with a book app, something like Kindle.

In the afternoon, I worked out a routine that I’be created for myself based on what I usually do on the tennis training. Doing exercise is so heartwarming to me that I think I won’t stop doing it ever, at least once a week I have to work out.

11pm: I watched “The Irishman”, a movie directed by Martin Scorsese. Another masterpiece from this great director. Loved it.

2am: I read some chapter of the book and went to sleep.

Tuesday 24th March: I started my day cleaning up and organizing my bedroom that has been a mess for a long time.

While I was tidying up everything, I heard some songs from Rex Orange County. A beautiful band that plays songs with some Indie Pop style. This band reminded me of the Lollapalooza festival and got a little upset because I’ve been waiting for it for months and has got postponed. I guess I’ll have to wait a little more.

12 pm: I had breakfast and cleaned the dishes to help my mom with housework.

At evening, I’ve met with my friends on Skype to catch up with things and I really enjoyed it because I missed them. It was a great time.

1am: As common, I watched a classic movie called “Godfather” starring Al Pacino.

Unpopular opinion: I prefer “Irishman” over “Godfather” but I can’t say it is not an amazing movie that marked a before and after in the history of films.

I feel sometimes that I’m a cinephile but it’s wonderful how movies make me laugh and clear my mind of all this awful things happening to us. I sometimes use watching film’s as an antidote to make myself feel better.

Wednesday 25th March: It’s incredible how much it improved my relationship with my mother. I guess that this quarantine has helped me to reinforce my relation. I’m normally used to argue almost every day with her because when I come from the school I’m generally in a bad mood so I usually took it out on her. I’m trying to change that attitude because I’m aware that is not the way to treat her.

I’m feeling a little down because I miss a lot my dad and because of this situation, I am not able to be with him as I’m spending the quarantine with my mom. I really, really miss him. I’m feeling a little gloomy.

Thursday 26th March:

Yesterday, I was a little depressed, but today, I woke up and started the day differently. My mom and I did some yoga from a video in Youtube and I really felt calm and serene after that. Something strange but It surely made me disconnect from my thoughts.

After the yoga time, we had lunch together and I went on studying. Read some chapters from Small Island and took a nap.

11pm: I don’t know why, but at that time when I’m not doing anything productive, I always begin to feel a bit anguish. It’s like I have a stomach ache, but it is not because i’m sick, but it’s more related to my emotions. It is also something that I’ve already experienced and I’m not quite sure why it happens.

At 2 am, I decided to watch some episodes of Friends so I could distract and fell asleep.

Friday 27th March: Woke up and called my Grandma to see how she’s doing. I miss her so much because I usually spend a lot of time with her and being so many days apart it’s making me a little gloomy.

11am: Worked out and felt better.

Later that day, I watched “The Wolf of Wall Street”. Spectacular movie, with spectacular actors, what better than Leonardo DiCaprio? I guess no one.

At night, I opened up with my mom and told her what has happened to me, about feeling down and distressed. She told me that It’s not something strange and that it is another lockdown’s consequence. My mom taught me how to meditate properly to feel better. I tried it before I went to bed and I think that it improved my mood, although I always thought that meditation and yoga were silly things but they actually work.

Saturday 28th March: This day, I got up a little late from bed as yesterday I stayed awake until dawn. Watching movies as expected from me.

I watched TV and then bake homemade cookies and not for showing off but they were delicious.

After dinner, I met with my family via Skype to celebrate my cousin’s birthday. I laughed a lot and realized how much I need them. Like they say “You don’t realize what you have until It’s gone”. I think that this is the perfect quote for this moment, that I finally understand how much I need them and how happy they make me feel.

I was in a good temper after that meeting. I feel lucky to have such a lovely family that cares about me. :) Sunday 29th March: This morning, I woke up early so I could do homework and some things from school.

I am going to be honest with you, I didn’t do so much today. It was a relaxing day.

Something that it think is important is that I’ve been talking to a guy some weeks ago. I met him in Pinamar, a trip I did with my closest friends and It was nice meeting him. So lately, I have been talking to him, pretty much all day. I love chatting with this guy because he is really open- minded and we actually have a lot of things in common. So yeah, I will probably arrange a date with him after the quarantine.

The important thing is that I had a deep conversation with him and it’s amazing how comfortable I feel talking to him. I talked about my feelings and he gave me advice and I really like to be able to have a person like this. It is rare coming from me to open up my feelings so much to someone because the truth is that I am a fairly closed person who does not usually shares everything that happens. So, I think I was quite relieved to be able to express what was worrying me.

My journal April 1 Wednesday,  I can’t the president just extended quarantine, now we’ll have to wait another 12 days for this to end (supposedly).  To kill the time, instead of just sitting doing homework or playing videogames, today started working out.  Before I going to bed I start thinking about the situation we are living in, it’s really sad how many people are dying and how people are being trapped in their own houses April 2 Thursday,  Today I started my day kind of late, I woke up at 1:30 pm and went straight up to the kitchen to grab lunch.  As soon as I sat down in my room, I saw all the homework I had to get done for this week, so I did it.  After that I started my workout routine and I got tired very quickly.  At 1:00 am joined my friend’s online party and played videogames with them for two hours, then I went to bed.

April 3 Friday,  Today I started my day really early, I woke up at 9 am because I had an online class. After it finished, I got back to sleep (hahaha).  At 3:30 pm I finished my homework for this week, so I decided to watch some Netflix and chill for the rest of the day.  As usual I played video games with my friends for two or three hours.

April 4 Saturday,  Today was one for the books, although I had to lots of homework I managed to get it done and do want I wanted

 Not only I relax almost all day, but also the new “casa de papel” part 4 just came out, so I couldn’t help myself and watched it all night.

April 5 Sunday,  Today I really did nothing but thinking about the virus and that the timing couldn’t have been worst. Just when I’m in my last year of high school and I want to go to enjoy, classes are canceled. I’m very sad and the worst thing is that nobody knows when it is going to finish.

April 6 Monday,  Today I handed in some homework that I had left and also had an online class at 11:30 am.  Right after that my friends and I did a video call and saw “face to face” after a long time.  For dinner, my dad and I grilled some delicious burgers.

April 7 Tuesday,  Today, once again, I had to hand one essay and some math homework.  I asked my brother if he could cut my hair, so he did. He did such a good job and later I cut his for the very first time, I think I did a really good job.  After that I facetimed Hanna and work out with her.

April 8 Wednesday,  Today was an exhausted one, I woke up at 8:30 am because I had a zoom class. After this I got right back to bed.  Got up once again at 2:00 pm and joined another class, but this one was via an Instagram live.  After the live, I went to my room and finished all the homework I had left and chill for the rest of the day.

Dear journal, March 31, I started my day with a Art zoom class at 10 o´clock. It was a very interesting class and it was the first time we use that app; at first, I didn’t know how to connect myself until my partners send me the link, then I had the problem of the audio. The teachers explained me and continue with any problem. Thanks to the class and my friends, I was able to do a list of movies to see when I am bored, they recommend series too, but I am not into series.

At 1:00 pm I cooked a delicious pizza for my siblings and my parents. When it was time to eat, I had a discussion with my sister because she occupied my place at the table. It finished when my father told her to move because it is my place, obviously she cried and with my brother we started to laugh. As a result of laughing, my mother said me to wash the dishes and my brother to pick up the dishes from the table.

On the afternoon, I had a really long nap, approximately three hours. When I woke up it was dinner time, we ate and at 11pm my best friend called me to talk about my day, I really miss her. I miss everything, the school, my friends, parties. Every time I miss those things, I start to watch old photos, it makes me happy.

Dear diary, April 1, I woke up at 10 o´clock because I had an English class at zoom. it was difficult to me because last night I went to sleep at 6am. Luckily, the teacher had a problem with the app and late the class at 11am. Obviously, I went to bed again and woke up at 10:50am. In my opinion, it was a boring class, we only check the answers, I hope I would had stayed sleeping.

When the class finished, I did some homework until 12 pm and went to sleep again. I woke up 3pm. As my family had already eaten, I had to cooked myself. I prepared a salad and sat on the sofa to watch a movie with my brother. We didn´t know what movie to choose, so I recommended one from the list.

Finally, we agreed on choosing “the hole” (it was hard, but we agreed). It is a really great film; I would recommend it to anyone.

At night, I cooked the dinner, my sister cleaned the table and my brother washed the dishes. Then, I went to my bedroom and started to watch another movie from the list. This time, I fell asleep earlier because at the next day at 10:30am I have a Math class and then, at 11:30 am a Project class.

Dear journal, April 2, I woke up at 9.30am so I could have breakfast, but I was not hungry so I only drink mates. At 10:30, the Math class through Instagram started and I didn´t have any doubts about the theme, I could do the activities without any problems. In the instant the class finished, the one of project on zoom started. I had a lot of fun in this class because this was the first one that I had with my classroom partners alone.

At 11:30 am, the class finished. As I has nothing to do in this quarantine, I decided to re-decorate my room. This day was the day to start, I had decided to paint my room. At 1pm, I went downstairs to had lunch with my family. They started to make fun of me because I don´t know how to paint, so they offered me help. I accepted and when we finished eating, we went upstairs, and they started to paint while I was watching them.

In the afternoon, I had a nap until 5pm. Then, I started to do homework until it was dinner time.

Obviously, I called my friends to make me some company. After dinner, I called my boyfriend and we stayed talking until 7am.

Dear diary, April 3, I woke up at 10:00 am because I have an English class at 10:50, it was really difficult to wake me, but I finally made it. Also, it was difficult not to fall asleep in the class. When the class finished at 11:30, I cooked pasta with sauce for my family and then, I had a really long nap. I woke up at 6pm. When I went downstairs, my family was playing TEG. Without doubting it, I joined them and We played for five hours until dinner was ready.

It was a really boring day. As the days goes by, I have less things to do. That is why, I like that the teachers send us homework to keep my mind occupied. Although, I would like that some classes were later.

After dinner, I called my grandparents that live in Cordoba to know how they were doing. They told me that as they had 86 years, they are not having contact with people but apart for that they were great. As long as I finished that call, I went to sleep.

Dear journal, April 4, I woke up at 11am. As I didn’t have any classes, I asked my father and my brother to finish painting the room. They left it spectacular, the only thing that is missing are small lights in the roof.

At the afternoon, I did some homework for Monday and when I got bored, I went to my brother bedroom and we started to watch movies.

At night, I called my friends and we talked for hours. We had so much fun. Every time I talked with them, I remembered how much I miss school, seeing them. Also, I remembered the fact that is my last year so, this make me sadder.

Dear journal, April 5, I woke up at 12:50. It was a family day, I am not kidding. When we finished the barbecue at midday, my parents took a nap while my brother and I watched some movies. My little sister started to bother us, she started to turn off the tv or shouting, so a fight took place. My shouts woke up my parents, and they took control of the situation.

We continue watching the movie but this time all the family was there so, nobody can fight. Later, we continue playing board games like uno.

At dinner, we discuss who was the winner of all the games, trust me it was a really long discussion. This makes me reflect that after all I really love to spend time with my family, and quarantine time is useful for this.

Dear diary, April 6, I woke at 9:30 for an English class; this time was easy because last night I went to bed at 10pm. This class was different from the others because only 4 people connected, I don´t know why they didn´t join but I think that is an act of disrespect. At 11am, I went to sleep, and I woke up at 2pm when lunch was ready. After lunch, I did some homework until my parents gave me the responsibility to take care of my sister while they go to the supermarket. For entertained her, we filmed some tik toks.

When my parents came back, I had the time to take a nap. When I woke up at 7pm, I called my friends and we started to play “charades”, I never stopped laughing not even for a minute. At the moment, I finish the call I started to watch photos and the depression hits me again. Finally, I stayed asleep while I was watching them.