Sophie, qui vit en Autriche à Vienne est confinée dans un petit village Autrichien. Etudiante en droit, ses amis et ses cours à l’université lui manquent mais elle profite de ce temps pour lire et écrire. Enfin, Sophie espère que le monde va changer et que chacun saura tirer des leçons de cette période de confinement.
Hallo, Grüß Gott! My name is Sophie Stemberger and I am 19 years old. I usually live in Vienna, Austria, but I am currently spending quarantine time with my parents in a small village in Lower Austria.
We are all supposed to stay at home and it has been that way since March 12th, I think. I’ve lost all understanding of time. The Austrian government enforced very strict rules very fast. All schools and universities are closed. The only reason to go outside is to go grocery shopping or for a walk with the people you live with. All stores except grocery stores and pharmacies are closed, but our chancellor is planning to reopen small shops after the Easter holidays. The final exams in school are still taking place this year in mid-May. Also people are only allowed to go inside stores if they are wearing a face mask and gloves, but the gloves are just recommended.
I am currently in my second semester of law school and all of our classes are online. I graduated secondary school last June. The university of Vienna is trying to figure out the best way to get through this very strange time, but the law university is struggling with finding a solution to do exams. My final exam for the last semester has been postponed many times already and the next goal is May, but since it is too important of an exam to take it online they still have issues. I miss studying with my friends and going to the library. It’s very difficult to stay motivated when studying from home.
As I mentioned before, it is very hard to motivate myself to study for university. I still try to do a little bit of work every day though and online classes are getting better too. Netflix and Houseparty are probably the two apps I use the most right now and my phone is always out of battery. I go for a lot of walks and play board games online with my friends. Reading and writing are the two things that keep me the busiest but also distract me from all the scary things happening around us. In my village there aren’t any things to get involved in so I try and stay home in order to help people.
Mostly, how I was stressed about stupid things. I tried to do everything at once before and didn’t really take time. Now that all I have is time, I’m more focused and can actually get things done. I am always on the move so this down time is probably good for me, even though I find it boring. I also learned how little it would take to save our environment. I mean in a short period of time so much has changed for the better, which makes me very happy.
The Austrian government does a press conference every day, which already annoys a lot of Austrians, since they say the same things over and over again. The news is also broadcasting 24/7 and I honestly cannot remember the last time they talked about anything but Coronavirus. I know it’s an important topic but without social media and my exchange friends I wouldn’t even know about anything else going on in the world. The internet is probably my main source of information, as I also read online newspapers.
The first thing I’ll do is probably hug my friends for about an hour ! My favorite place in Vienna is closed at the moment so I will probably go there and think about how different everything will be now. I don’t think the world will be the same afterwards, or at least I hope not. I am going to enjoy every second of freedom, and will probably have a glass of wine or two.
Stay positive. Things suck right now, but everything will be better soon. Use the time to do something productive. I bet you told yourself once before “I wish I had more time to do _____”, do exactly what comes to mind first when reading that sentence and take as much time as you need to do so. Listen to music, dance, eat, spend time with your loved ones. Always remember, you shall survive this too.
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