Two weeks ago--before I left with 15 students for a Spring Break study abroad trip to Berlin--I saw a few coronavirus cases in Germany and was joking that if I had to be quarantined when I came back I would prefer the Army barracks to home because I could work as well as catch up on sleep, knitting, and Netflix.

One week ago, I was contacting the University asking if they were ABSOLUTELY sure we were ok because the number of cases in Berlin were starting to increase--doubling over a few days--and should we consider quarantining ourselves when we got back. I'm not going to throw them under the bus but the response seemed to be focused more on the CDC and their unwillingness to officially raise Germany's health threat level to what was actually happening on the ground with my students and me. Feel free to check Worldometer for Germany from 2/29 to 3/4 and understand my concerns.

Today, my students and I continue our self-quarantine for another 10 days, I'm moving my university classes online, and I anticipate that my three children will be doing homeschool/online school for at least through April. Dave (hubs) works at a retirement community. This is not a drill for them. And this NY Times piece suggesting the peak infection rate could be JULY says we could all be here a lot longer than April.

So, to keep from going crazy(er), I'm starting my Vlog back up. I'm going to be posting more here. And I'm going to share lots of advice (assvice, really) based on my research and experience of being online since 1984.

First, show you care. Work is important. School is important. But the human, socio-emotional connection to your family, friends, work colleagues, and students is THE most important thing right now. We are all scared. But soon we are all going to be very bored. ((Hopefully. I ready for it to be boring)) So: SUPPORT. Act like you care about your people more than you care about their work, the education, and following the standard organizational rules. Now following the pandemic rules? Hell to the yeah.

Second, embrace that things are going to be very different. Try new ways of connecting and working. Email is a cold medium. Google video chat with your colleagues instead. I don't care if you are not "dressed" for work (as I am not dressed for work right now). We can keep our connections closer and work, learn, support each other better if we can see each other and share socio-emotional cues. Try it. I am going to do so today. I'll report back on Monday

We may be here for a very long time. Vow that you are going to check on the most vulnerable in your community: the elderly, the single moms, the working poor, the homeless. If we take aggressive measures, we're going to keep the infection rate down. We will slow the roll, flatten the curve, and keep more people alive. BTW, whoever came up with "flatten the curve" as a public health policy slogan deserves a raise. ((See what a google search can tell you???)) It's as good as "Brexit" as trying to explain what we need to do. I hate Brexit as a policy, but it's a very catchy phrase.