I’m an ex-pat Seattleite living in Western Austria, in Dornbirn, Vorarlberg to be exact… about as far West as you can get to the Swiss/Liechtenstein border, and about 20 minutes south of Germany. It has been a rapidly changing situation here… from everyone just “business as usual” on Friday morning, to today’s total quarantine for the country. It is so surreal. I was up taking pictures of birds on Lake Constance (where everyone was keeping their distance from everyone else) when I got a text from my girlfriend in Germany to get home as quick as possible. There were no checkpoints or anything on the drive back, but I imagine that will change soon too. Friends in Italy have been a valuable source of anecdotes about what to expect.
As of yesterday there was still plenty of food in the stores and I am stocked up on pasta and other essentials… my work is all home office now, but I worry about the implications there too… we do tech work, so in theory it is all still possible, but theory and practice seem to be widely divergent concepts these days.
I stay connected via Zoom mostly… occasionally just sending out links to sessions where friends and family can just drop in and say hi. That has been a real lifeline this weekend.
The bright side is that my neighbors and I are all checking in with each other and making sure everyone has things they need… and I am walking distance from the supermarket if anything becomes necessary.
If anyone wants to chat, you can either partake of the comments or PM me if that is easier for you. Thanks for listening.
Frank