Day 10: Exploring Technology to its Fullest

Day Ten: April 5, 2020
Global cases: 1,272,902; Deaths: 69,427
Egypt cases: 1,173; Deaths: 78

Caroline Nassar
Senior Career Advisor
AUC CareerCenter

I hear the alarm ring and I turn to close it, then I remember I’m working from home so a big smile fills my face. I get up and prepare myself a good cup of coffee and watch the news while checking my emails and review the plan for the day; this is my “me” time before the rest of the household wakes up.

As I’m finishing up my coffee, my brothers wake up to also work from home. We prepare breakfast and get dressed for the day. I have created a corner which I “shot gun” as my work station. We have breakfast while each one of us puts on their headphones and the sound of the clicking on the keyboard fills the room. We have designated the closest room to our internet router as our “office space”.

As the day goes by, we rotate going into the named “isolation room” that has the best MIFI internet connection for any zoom meetings or appointments. Through all these shenanigans my parents roam around the house trying to find a place to sit in and enjoy the day. They are very understanding and created for themselves a work-free zone and moved the TV there so they enjoy their day without disturbing anyone of us.

We try to coordinate our lunch breaks together so we have some quality time, then it’s back to the click.. click.. click.. on the keyboard. I am a great advocate for technology so I am really enjoying exploring ways and techniques to utilize it to make my day to day work more engaging. Throughout this quarantine time, I usually attend team meetings and meet students and alumni one on one over Zoom.

Personally, I watched many tutorials on utilizing Zoom to its full potential. Some days I conduct workshops over Zoom; but that took a bit of trial and error to figure out a system that would suit the situation and ensure the participants are engaged.

My favorite function about Zoom is the breakout rooms where I divide the participants into groups to hold smaller discussions where I too can join and answer more individualized questions then it’s back to main screen to finish the workshop.

When the work day ends our house transforms into a small gym where one would follow a trainer online another walks on the treadmill while another is jumping rope or do any form of exercise or simply just lay on the couch after a long hectic day. Snack time is accompanied by some puzzle time, which became a favorite activity for everyone.

This is followed by a family movie night.

Finally the day is coming to an end and each one retreats to their own room making phone calls checking on friends or enjoying some alone time; then we head to bed to restart the day again.

For The Caravan’s previous diary entries in Arabic and English go to our COVID-19 Special Coverage page.