My experience with remote learning is better than I thought it would be. In the beginning, when everyone was adjusting to going to zoom meetings for every class and have to get supplies from school to do at home. I feel like I used my printer more in the past month than the past year, printing out papers and sheet music that would usually be handed in class. But I enjoyed working at home in some parts. For example, everything I needed was right there next to me and I didn’t have to worry about losing it (for the most part). Online learning also made me rely on myself and remembering all of my assignments and their due dates. I feel like my self-control improved a lot in the past few months. Online classes are not the best, but I am glad that everyone made them work.

In the beginning, I got up earlier for school at 7:15 because school started at 8. In the end, I got up at 7:50, because I got so bored of looking at my computer and didn't want to get up. It was good because I could hang out with my mom or sisters during the day. That was also the worse too, I got so sick of seeing the same people everyday. I think that the worst part of online school was that you didn't interact with anyone. I also didn't like being on my computer/zoom all day, because it got so boring. Also if you had a question about homework you had to email your teachers and sometimes they didn't reply until after the homework was due. I have to admit that our school made it very easy, but stilll had us engaged the whole time. It had its pros and cons.

So basically my routine is to do school. My experience doing online is absolutely horrible. I’m pretty sure my laptop is cursed. I wake up around 7:50 I get on my laptop and get on Axis. Then I hop on zoom and not even 10 minutes in I get kicked off. It’s so bad we had to get an Ethernet cable for school. And it was still bad!! Overall online school had its ups and downs. I was pist that zoom kept crashing but I was happy that I was working out of the comfort of my own home.

Learning remotely was a lot different than learning at an actual school. I didn't like learning virtual very much and I like learning at school much better. However, there were some benefits like sleeping in and having longer breaks. I did not like doing everything on my laptop because it is not good for your brain and it makes your eyes really tired. My days were very boring and I didn't get to socialize with my friends. I stayed home all day and most of my day was spending time on my laptop or phone. On a normal day, I would wake up and then get ready and then get on my laptop and do school and eat lunch and then stay home for the rest of the day.

Remote learning was not that bad. I got to work with my own comfort. I would wake up, go to class and then at break I would eat breakfast. On breaks I could also watch TV. The only downsides to it was that I couldn't see my friends that much, or if I had a question, it was hard to get to a teacher. I had plenty of good routines that I enjoyed.

When it was March, i first heard about this Virtual learning and i was very confused on how that would work. For the first 3 months of quarantine, i was at my dads in Northern California and thats where i started virtual learning and ended 7th grade. Virtual learning in the beginning was actually really fun. but as it progressed, it started to be emotionally and mentally draining. i wasnt taking care of myself and it became too much. so at the beginning of 8th grade, i decided to try and get myself back together. learning online was sometimes a struggle, like when we needed a paper we would have to print it or we would have to write everything down. it was often that i didn't really learn anything. it was a lot harder to learn online then i expected. although it was nice being home everyday, i found myself often in my bed and turning off my camera. yes, there are some negatives to virtual learning but, there are a lot of positives also. i stayed healthy. i didn't get sick which was the best positive that i could get. my grades werent as bad as i thought they were. i just needed to slow down and pay attention.

This story is about how I "hacked" a pandemic experience: wearing a mask as a young child. I was having trouble finding a mask that my youngest child felt comfortable wearing, so I made one from a pajama shirt she had outgrown! It fit comfortably and brought new life to an old piece of clothing that carries special memories from years past.

At the start of the pandemic, I was in an anxiety spiral. I was worried about everything from the health of family and friends to the possibility of nuclear warfare, and it resulted in some fairly agoraphobic, unhealthy coping mechanisms. I had recently moved to a new state, so I didn't even know the way around my neighborhood. I would stay in my room for days at a time, only socializing with the villagers on my Animal Crossing island. I was afraid to leave my house, afraid to grocery shop, afraid to pass someone too closely on the sidewalk. After several months of this behavior, and countless episodes of reality television, I recognized that I needed help. I began the process with a simple google search. "Online therapy options." After some trial and error, I found a therapist that helped me break out of my depressive, anxious cycle, in a way that was both gradual and socially distant. Through my work with her and some self-reflection, I found several things that help me cope with the current reality, allowing me to enjoy small joys throughout the day, and here they are: 1) Trails! I was a hiker in college, but fell out of the habit after graduating due to moving around a bit. Since I had moved during the winter, I hadn't had a chance to explore any trails near my new home. With some recommendations from both my therapist and the internet, I slowly began to venture into the outdoors. I started with a trail that was a 10-minute walk from my house, and eventually worked my way up to a state park about an hour away. It allowed me to feel comfortable leaving the house again in a way that was still Covid-friendly, and I gained a better awareness and appreciation of my surroundings. As an added bonus, I was able to experience Ohio autumn in all it's red-yellow-orange beauty. After a hot, humid, sad summer, some beautiful fall colors along some incredible trails were a perfect way to reset. 2) Books. I read more during the first few months of the pandemic than I had in the past several years combined. I was able to tackle books that had seemed too long and daunting in the past, as there was little to keep me from them, and it provided a sense of much-needed escapism. I rekindled my love of reading, worked through some of my "to-be-read" list, and incorporated reading into my daily routine, giving me something to look forward to and work towards during a time that felt stagnant. 3) Podcasts. I've been a regular listener of podcasts for years. I have the weekly release schedule of my favorite podcasts memorized, and at this point I turn to those for car rides before music. But, similar to books, I had put off some of the podcasts that require more attentive, prolonged listening; these were often podcasts that told a story over many episodes, both fictional and non-fictional. With stay-at-home orders in place, it seemed that all I had was time, and one can only spend so much time listening to the news, so I turned to podcasts. I listened to them when cleaning, when walking on the trails, when cooking, and even when I was just laying around. According to my Spotify Wrapped from 2020, I spent much more time listening to podcasts than music, and I enjoyed every minute of it. 4) Succulents. I have my mom to thank for this one! I had collected a large variety of succulents over the past few years, but had to leave them behind with my sister when moving at the beginning of 2020. With plant-shopping being extremely non-essential, I hadn't had the chance to start a new collection prior to isolation, and I had just accepted that I was no longer the plant-parent I once was. My mother, being the incredible woman that she is, decided that was unacceptable, and signed me up for a monthly succulent subscription for my birthday, in which I receive two baby succulents a month. So far I have eight little succulents, and they are thriving! 5) Cold brew. As an extreme coffee lover and addict, and as a barista, I couldn't make a list of my favorite things without including some form of caffeine. My favorite place in the world is a comfy coffee shop, but that obviously is not the safest setting to relax at the moment. I used this time at home to perfect my cold brew recipe, as well as play with all the different ways to enjoy coffee at home. While I still miss the atmosphere of a cafe, and will be back as soon as it's safe and smart to do so, I have had fun crafting new drinks at home. While I have had a variety of small enjoyments here and there throughout the last nine or ten months, these are truly the things bringing me joy and peace in this lonely, frightening time. Even when this pandemic is officially over, I plan to continue these practices, as they have become essential to my daily routines.

Holidays were really hard for a lot of people. While I don't feel like mine were effected too much, I think my story is still worth sharing!

It is important to understand how our society has dealt with this pandemic, and my entry covers what I enjoyed during the pandemic. Things that got me through and kept me sane!

My family had been fortunate to avoid COVID 19 for ten months. However, in December 2020, that changed. My symptoms began with a minor headache which, on day two, morphed into a minor cough. I was fortunate to never be hospitalized, but on day three, my experience underwent a strange and unexpected change. I began to smell the strong smell, of what could only be described as ammonia. I was once a cat person, and remember the smell of cat urine on a carpet or furniture if left untreated. This smelled exactly like that. My first reaction was to inquire of my family, and no one could smell it but I, which only served to make the experience all the more strange. When everyone can smell the same smell, it’s one thing but when only you can smell it you begin to questions your sanity. The smell of ammonia was strongest outside and somewhat subdued when indoors. It lasted for one day and was gone the next but it was strong to the point of discomfort.

If you've ever set foot in a deli - a real life, New York style deli or in my case a real life Texas deli, then you know about the powerful and delightful smells that can attack your senses upon entry. In my restaurant, the traditional odors of hot corned beef and pastrami mixed with sauerkraut, bacon and horseradish combine with the popular fragrance of Texas brisket layered in a spicy bar-b-que sauce and the undeniable fragrance of apple and pecan pie. Homemade beef stew, French Onion soup and Texas chili are reducing in the kitchen while the entire restaurant fills with the aroma of good food. There is nothing quite like a deli kitchen prepping, baking, grilling and cooking in the morning. These are the distinctive smells of my life before COVID-19. Shortly after March of last year, the city of San Antonio shut down all dine-in operations throughout the city and instantly took away our morning routines and systems, forcing our restaurant to evolve just to survive. Overnight, we became a grocery store with a curbside service selling raw products like eggs, tomatoes, cold cuts and sliced cheeses. The great morning aromas of the deli were replaced with the stale, cold odors of bleach and sanitizer. Sales dipped by seventy percent and even when dine-in was reopened to fifty percent capacity, we were forced to cut our menu by half. Now, as we keep paying for our holiday gatherings, the business has come back by half but it just doesn't seem the same or at least the smells do not. We are more of a to-go business now with items packaged and tagged in sugar cane boxes and biodegradable containers. The sweet mixture of multiple savory recipes and meats cooking side by side has been replaced by vacuum sealed soups and cold cuts prepared in a sanitized and disinfected central kitchen.

I am teaching HST 643 Global History at Arizona State University during the Spring A semester of 2021. For the second time, I am asking enrolled students to submit a sensory history story related to the pandemic. The students were instructed to read at least the introduction of Melanie Kiechle's Smell Detectives before posting their story. This way, they would have a better understanding of what sensory history is and why it matters. I revised the instructions this time to push students toward non-visual stories.

Two downtown bars in Windsor, Ontario, are offering live music alongside food delivery. Customers can choose from multiple "Gravy Train" packages which offer food and performance from a local musician.

Upon news of COVID-19 spreading in the United States, my parents and I made the decision that we were going shelter in place at home. While a lot of things remained the same, my parents began watching Clinton Kelly's 3H show that he did over his Instagram story. During one of Kelly's 3H shows my mom watched him make a lemon sauce. Since I am a huge fan of anything lemon, my mom decided to make it for my family one day and I fell in love with it. The sauce can be described as creamy, lemony, and cheese-y with a lemony smell. Since making the recipe for the first time, it has become my new favorite sauce. This story is specific to the pandemic since my mom would not have watched Clinton Kelly's 3H show otherwise.

An internet animator posted this art and I resonated with it quite a bit. The colors are nice and reminds me of the current thought process of this whole pandemic.

A piece of art done during the pandemic, done traditionally.

So basically, I was in school on Friday March 13th 2020. I remember very vaguely but in my last class I think it was, there was a huge announcement on the tvs. it said "Covid 19 outbreak" and I just remember what I was thinking what this was. I honestly had no clue what it was and where it came from. The joy of every kids having no school on March 13th. Little did we know, it was the start of the end of the world.

To be honest, this Christmas break i didn't do much. I normally hang out with friends and go on bike rides and just have fun. This time though, i didn't do that. I really just played video games with friends and spent time with family. Although I went to get my haircut and I did see David Price. (A former Dodgers Pitcher). So ya, thats my break, not too interesting.

I'm not exactly sure how the coronavirus started, however I believe it has been spread by an animal such as mosquitoes and yellow fever. I'm certainly not the most qualified person to ask but I do believe that it is a worthy theory because many other diseases and viruses are spread through animals.

My Christmas looked very different this year. I still got to see some of my family but most of them did not feel comfortable traveling. We had a zoom call for some of our family on the east coast and in England and they got to watch us open presents on Christmas morning.

In Hawaii, especially on the island of Kauai there were so many tourist that near the roads and tourist shops and restaurants you most heard traffic or people, and in the evenings live entertainment for tourists. Now, in the mornings you can hear birds and at night the crickets.

Lockdown restrictions to indoor dining at restaurants, which prevents friends from gathering and socializing in familiar locations.

In my line of work, which is construction management and execution, communication is key. Often, this begins and ends with emails, phone calls, and the occasional zoom chat to set a project up. However, once work commences, field superintendents meet daily with clients to discuss progress, delays, opportunities for improvement, and at times, complaining. Morning meetings are at the heart of the daily communications, and have always taken place at 7:30 am, with fifteen to twenty people present. From January 2020 thru the middle of March 2020, morning meeting went as they had in the past. At times, with so many in the room, expressing their ideas, it can be difficult to keep track of what is being talked about. In my role, I attend one or more of these meetings, at different jobsites, throughout the week. As Covid safety precautions took hold towards the end of March, I noticed that the meetings I attended were quieter. This was partially due to masks being worn. Whenever someone chose to speak, their voice, which had been loud a week or so prior, was now muffled and subdued. Additionally, people spoke no more than was necessary, the meetings were shorter than they had been. Gradually, power points were introduced on a screen each day so that talking was not necessary. Instead, the bosses laid out the schedule, expectations, and those in the room simply took notes. By the end of April, the morning meeting changed over to Zoom Chat, with everyone in their office, staring at a screen which displayed those same power points, saying very little or nothing at all. By this point, with social distancing in full-force, there was no need to speak. Notes were made by a Project Engineer containing key points and emailed to attendees after the conclusion of the daily Zoom. Suddenly, there was no face to face conversation, fewer phone calls, and increased emails. With masks across our faces, everyone continued their work in an eerie silence. The robust workplace, full of ideas and plans which must be heard, faded into blank stares saying nothing. With the New Year, I did not expect any change. It would be difficult to say when practices that existed only a year ago might return. This morning, I logged into Zoom for a pre-construction meeting, I was met with the same silence I heard just before the Thanksgiving holiday.

When Covid was new, no one really knew much about it. When it came out they were a lot of rumors talking about how dangerous the virus was. Also talking about how the virus was created. The biggest rumor was that a man in china decided that he would eat a bat and because of that he got covid from eating the bat, then he spread it to a lot of people, this is how it was said covid was spread all around the world. When is started I didn't really think about it that much, I felt like people were over exaggerating it (and I still do). I honestly wasn't sure if the virus was even real and it may have been a hoax. Now that we have had covid for about a year these are my thoughts about it. I am honestly not sure how the virus was created, people say it was still from china, other people say it was created in a lab by the government so it's hard to say what is truth and what is false. I understand that for people that have underlying conditions this virus can be deadly but I honestly think and flu or cold can be deadly in various levels. I do think it is good to wear a mask and to say social distance for peoples protections but I do feel like shutting down economy was something that wasn't needed as it has closed down many restaurants and stores, etc. Those are my thoughts about covid one year ago and my thoughts about covid now.

This is a 'pandemic hacks' upload for my HST 580 internship with ASU

From the beginning of this pandemic it has been said that bats were the cause of this virus. This is similar to other coronavirus sicknesses. With more and more research of Covid-19 I have learned more about the novel coronavirus. I learned more about the efficacy of different masks and how they protect against the airborne travel of the virus. My understanding of how the disease spreads grew during the course of the pandemic. The information about the cause remained the same.

This document contains several of my favorite things that have helped me get through the pandemic, such as video games, music, my banjo, cooking and my dog Dobbs! I submitted this from the ASU HST 580 internship course.

I have uploaded a story of scent. During the first part of the stay-at-home order in Washington state, March 2019, I baked fresh bread daily to help my family during the food shortages. The amazing aroma of bread filled my home and brought hope to my family that everything would be well.

This file contains both a photo and a text story to accompany it, it's mainly just my thoughts surrounding the holidays in the pandemic, firstly with what I did, what my previous Christmases were like, and my family's reasoning with staying home and abiding with quarantine restrictions in opposition to the many other examples of people breaking these restrictions for the sake of family. I think it's important mainly, because the pandmic has redefined, or put a new emphasis on familial love - do we love our family by choosing to stay home during a deadly pandemic? Or do we love them by breaking restrictions to visit them during said pandemic. Submitted for HST 580's first assignment at Arizona State University, Pandemic Prompt: Holiday's.

My wife and I are both public educators at Hamburg Area High School, a rural school district in Berks County, Pennsylvania. The Covid-19 pandemic has caused our district to fluctuate between in-person and virtual instruction. During virtual days teachers have been encouraged to teach from home to mitigate the risk of exposure to the virus. I conduct my American History classes from the office in our home, while my wife, a music teacher, performs virtual music lessons with her students in our dining room. This shift to virtual teaching from home has caused my classroom, which is usually quite traditional, to sound much different. While I attempt to educate my students on the finer points of American History, the sounds of young (and often struggling) musicians fill the air. Meanwhile, my two dogs also interject into class as they battle over toys and pillows. The Covid-19 pandemic has not only moved the location of public education, but also changed the way that education sounds. I recorded the following audio clip while my 3rd period AP US History class was studying primary source documents on the post-Civil War Reconstruction time-period (1865-1876) on Monday, January 11th.

When i first heard of covid, i didn't think much of it. I heard it was something in china and i didn't expect it to spread anywhere. Then i heard that it came to America and our school started discussing going online if it got bad. My school finally decided to go online and we started school from home and i have been doing it for almost a year now.

I think the cause for covid is the meat markets in China which were very dirty and many species were brought there including sick animals. There was also not very many precautions to prevent diseases or viruses from spreading from animals to humans. This caused the outbreak that spread around the world.

Covid had just started, and I was hearing news of a virus outbreak and places shutting down. In 2019 in Wuhan China there were rumors about someone eating a bat going around. The theory was that a man had eaten a bat and got sick and then spread it to other people. Another theory was about a laboratory in China. Many people including myself thought that inside a laboratory nearby there was some kind of explosion and the chemicals had made people sick. My beliefs haven't changed since then because I haven't heard a lot of new theories about how it had started. Overall, both of these theories do not seem too realistic and I was shocked when I found out about the possible reasons.

I have heard a lot of deferent ways that are very interesting. One theory is that people were eating animals such as bats that were carrying the virus. I thought it was a joke when I first heard it cause it seams silly, but it is true from what I heard. When I heard it I was confused on why people were eating bats.

When I first heard of COVID I was told that it was because someone in China ate a bat and got a virus from it that quickly spread from human to human. I also heard later that it had something to do with a chemical explosion. I believe it was more likely to be because of some sort of chemical reaction. I found out about COVID from my sisters in early January and thought that nothing was going to happen until we started going into quarantine and people started to refusing to wear masks and social distance it made me realize that it was more serious that I thought.

When the virus first started, rumors and theories raced around the globe about this new illness affecting certain areas of China. New ideas stormed everywhere regarding the cause of the virus. Many believed that it started in a market serving animals like bats. Others believe it escaped from a laboratory. Overtime not much has changed since the beginning of the virus and I am still unsure on what I think the true cause of the virus is, I think it is entirely possible that it could have come from a laboratory studying something close.

So, the first thing I heard to be the cause of the virus was because of someone eating a bat. A BAT!!! I thought that the person that did it went cookoo for coco pops or something because of all things they could've eating it was a bat! I guess he wanted to be like Ozzy Osborne or something. "Surprisingly", it was just a false rumor but at the time it was all over TikTok (probably the most popular social media out there now) and people where making memes and jokes about it too that were hilarious! A lot of people believed it but i'm not so sure what made them think that. All in all, it was just a very odd assumption that really got people talking.

In my own opinion, I believe that due to the lack of money and help from the government the Chinese had to resort to extreme means to feed themselves and their families. This is in no way their fault and probably is our fault as America and richer countries to not help and aid them. So from the lack of money in the slums of China, I think they had to eat not clean and weird things to stay alive which transmitted the virus from an animal to a human.

Infected bat infects people

I believe that Covid was started in all of the dirty towns of China. I think that because of the unsanitary conditions. Bacteria could have easily collected there, creating this contagious virus. Because it is a frequent place of visitation, it easily spread to mass quantities of people, who did not quarantine themselves. It then spread to America from trade. Because there is much a large trade between the US and China, it was perfect for the virus to spread.

When I first learned there was a virus going around I heard that someone in either the government or a high place started it for population control. At the time(and maybe still right now) there was higher population of seniors than children. Covid was originally affecting seniors so I believe this argument.

Many different people have talked about what they think caused the pandemic Covid-19. Personally, trying to take into account both sides, I would think the virus was manufactured in a lab in Wuhan China. I believe that this virus was a result of an attempt at biological warfare. Though this is a common belief, there is no real way to prove any guess or theory.

I believe that Covid was caused by some sort of bacteria in one the animals in the meat markets in Wuhan, China. I believe this because the CDC has released a statement saying that this is true. I trust them because they have the biggest and most trusted disease control center in the world. Also, it makes sense logically because these markets were not very sanitary and many diseases can come from animals, especially dead animals. Out of all of the theories I’ve heard, this one not only makes the most sense but also has the most evidence out of all the other theories. Many people believe the animal was a bat, but that has not been confirmed.

I think corona started out with an animal or insect. I'm not completely sure though and I don't know a lot about it.

When the stories of this mysterious virus that was killing tons of people in China started popping up on the news, people thought that it had started from bats in a market. Now we know that this was a lie and that it really started in lab. I was kind of astonished that this huge disease started from a few small mammals that were carrying a virus. I was originally kind of confused that somehow a few people eating bats had started a world-wide pandemic.

When Covid was first announced I figured it was just a regular sickness. Until the market crashed, now I knew if was purposeful. The virus could have been made in China or it was just made naturally. I researched and saw that China's market was slowly crashing, maybe they found a way to take everyone with them. Most cases like these are just powerful people wanting to keep their power or seeking more power. My views on Covid-19 have changed since, that only affects people with pre-existing disabilities or diseases. Also it affects older people a lot more than younger. Maybe this whole thing is just a huge hoax to make the market start to go up. Since most of the deaths are just due to their pre-existing conditions. In my opinion Covid doesn't exist or was a virus spread to crash and rebuild the market.

What I learned to be the Cause of the Corona Virus was that someone ate an animal in China and it spread through the people everywhere in the world causing a pandemic.

The China virus in my onion started in China. I haven't done much research or herd many conclusions about what started covid though. I believe it escaped from a lab while doing research and experimenting. That is my thoughts and option on the virus and I also think there could have been someone created covid already knowing how to vaccinate himself and cure the virus.

In March at the beginning of the COVID-19 virus I was told the the virus originated from people in China eating bats. At the moment I believe that is the biggest theory but I have also heard people say the the virus was manufactured by the Chinese government and other things. There are many theories and the bats, and the government theories both seem plausible. However I am still very unsure where the virus originated from but all I know is that I hope things return to normal soon.