Since our arrival to Umbria, my husband has lovingly nicknamed me “The Mosquito Killer.”
Armed with a spray bottle of vinegar in one hand and repellent in the other, I tip-toe around the apartment each night before bed. Eyes squinted, nose scrunched, I stare up at the ceilings. Could they be hiding in the 200-year-old tree trunk support beams? Are they perched in the crevices of the stone walls?
It's been two years since I've posted here. Two years of covid lockdowns, online teaching, then in-person teaching (in masks, 6-feet apart with windows open), then more online teaching. Sunday PCR and antigen tests, close contact quarantine protocols, and learning how to get over the crippling anxiety once pandemic restrictions were lifted.
This is just an account of what the last two years were like as a teacher (and why I've decided to take a sabbatical).