Day 136: Pandemic Recollections
Day 136: August 9, 2020
Global Cases: 20, 017, 017; Deaths: 733, 619
Egypt Cases: 95, 492; Deaths: 5, 009
Aziza Ellozy
Associate Provost for Transformative Learning and Teaching at the Center for Learning and Teaching
About two or three weeks ago, I was asked to share my reflections and my typical activities during the COVID-19 pandemic. I got distracted by other things and procrastinated until today when I am enjoying very untypical pandemic activities: I am in Gouna at my sister-in-law’s beautiful property and I spend my days biking, swimming and enjoying good food in the best of company – that of my sister-in-law, Farida and her husband Amin.
We are still socially isolated, but I have to admit that I have relaxed my constraints quite a bit after a strict lockdown for three-and-a-half months. I attend to important work-related activities but I try as much as possible to disengage during this much-needed break.
However, during this unusual period of our lives – and contrary to what other people have felt – there was not a single day in which I was bored or lonely, although I live alone. My days were full: on week-days I would be mostly meeting with my colleagues discussing, planning, presenting, arguing and on the whole being happy to “see” each one of them and succeeding to be as productive as when we were face to face.
Most of my days were exhausting, at times frustrating and stressful, but always fulfilling. Because of COVID-19 and what it represented to faculty and students going online, we were faced with situations and challenges we had not anticipated,;and because I felt that we could make a difference, I remained engaged and excited.
My evenings were full, too: although I often had work-related meetings that extended beyond the supposedly traditional end of work day, part of my evenings was reserved to Zoom meetings with my family abroad or to connecting with friends here in Egypt. I tried to make time for pleasure reading, a luxury I did not have much time for in pre-COVID days.
Zoom has been an unexpected gift for me as some of my closest family members live abroad. I remember cheering up my 14-year-old grandson who lives in New York and whose birthday fell at a time when New York City was considered to be the epicenter of the pandemic, “Do you realize that this is the first time we celebrate your birthday with all your cousins, aunts and uncles in Argentina, London, Cambridge, Canada, Egypt and California, all present together in this celebration?”
Regardless of the work set out for the day, I had developed a certain daily routine which I have not changed until fairly recently with the advent of the summer semester when I relaxed some of the timing of my activities. But in general, I wake up at 6am and read the news.
At 7 or 7:30am, I work out for 15 minutes followed by coffee and breakfast. What happens next depends on my schedule. I would either go for my daily bike ride, then get ready for work or get ready for work and save the bike ride for the late afternoon. A relatively flexible work schedule and more time for exercise were definitely two of the benefits of working from home.
For The Caravan’s previous diary entries in Arabic and English go to our COVID-19 Special Coverage page.
There were other rewarding experiences that I shall miss when life returns to normal. For three-and-a-half months, I was one of the lucky ones who was not confined to an apartment. I learned to enjoy my garden and to observe nature day in and day out. Paradoxically, the lockdown created a silence that made me more aware of the different sounds surrounding me. I delighted in the chirping of birds and the soothing sound of the fountain in front of my house. I became more observant of nature.
But don’t get me wrong, I am eager to return to “normal” work. Like students, who want to see and interact with their professors and fellow students, I want to see and interact with my AUC colleagues.
