Achieving the Extraordinary
Another quarantine day, has come and gone away, in Paris and Rome, and I am still stuck at home! Paraphrasing Michael Bublé seems silly but taking the situation in stride with a bit of humor has become my best coping mechanism. I also started wondering how other expats are surviving quarantine, so I reached out to some of the international community from Kennedy to find out more. At first, the feelings of anxiety, worry, concern, and uncertainty were unanimous alongside an addiction to the news that did nothing but exacerbate stress levels. Then, things started to slowly fall into place. Adjusting to the new schedule, including distance online learning (DOLP) was challenging, especially for younger grades who need more help with technology. “Setting routines are life savers and the daily emails from the principals have been very helpful and made the transition to DOLP go very smoothly,” mentions Ayako S. (JFK parent).
By Radia Si Youcef JFK Parent
Expatriation in Times of Quarantine
Pag. 5
As expats, we also have to face extra challenges. Being far away from home is the main one. Shelley B. (JFK parent) shared, “Homeschooling is rather challenging and I’m not terribly happy with it and not because JFK isn’t doing a good job with it. They are doing a great job. In fact, much better than I anticipated but it is difficult to not get burned out when your child sits at the computer all day – day in and day out – and struggles to keep up with the workload. ” Working parents and teachers also had to learn to work from home and to sometimes overcome technical difficulties as well as distractions to stay focused. Now, the idea of having no social interactions in the foreseeable future has started to sink in and it is the hardest to accept. These findings from our small community could easily be applied to the world at-large.
Expatriation in times of quarantine
