American ??? day 15

7,434 steps 

Yesterday evening Eric and I were going on a walk, and we both confessed to each other that we'd been feeling a bit depressed. General malaise, a bit of despondency mixed in with a feeling that there's nothing to look forward to in life. 

We think it's a symptom of the social isolation here in the States. Eric is teaching face-to-face, but otherwise everything on campus is virtual. No real meetings of any sort. No events or concerts. Besides soccer practices, we have zero social interactions. 

Even pre-covid, life in the States was always very isolated compared to life in France. Here in the US, even in our small town where you'd think there would be a lot of spontaneous socializing, social interactions are almost always scheduled. You don't just head out your door and run into people. First off, most people go everywhere in their cars, so the sidewalks are empty. People tend to (over)schedule their children with after school activities so it's not very easy even to arrange play dates. 

And then the coronavirus has added another huge barrier to socializing. I don't know if our kids will be able to play with friends at all. We'd have to find a family that is careful enough to reduce unnecessary interactions generally yet permissive enough to be okay with kids playing outside together. 

We're surrounded by our family members all day long, so we're not isolated-lonely. Just friend-lonely. 

I'm mostly fine most days, but sometimes it hits me acutely. And I also haven't gone running at all since we got home. I should...I'm sure that would help. 

On to more fun things: Zari tried on one of Eric's soccer jerseys and it was a perfect fit! She's thrilled to add to her wardrobe. 

In between helping children every 5-10 minutes with school assignments, I did a lot of work getting our breech course platform ready. It's so close now! 

I also sewed the next fabric artwork as designed by Ivy, with help from Inga. It's themed "air" and shows a hummingbird in flight feeding from trumpet vine flowers. I suggested that we do the 4 elements (earth, air, fire, water) and Ivy loved that idea. So 2 more to go. What will we come up with for earth and fire? hmmmm.....