We are only one month away from 2021, meaning that we have been in a global pandemic for 11 months. Everyone in the world knows how Asia and America are dealing with Covid, and the only news that we hear from Europe are from either France or Italy. But what about all the other smaller and lesser known countries in Europe. This week I interviewed some of my relatives over in Albania (a small country across the Mediterranean Sea from Italy) and Australia and asked how they are dealing with Covid, and what they are looking forward to after it lowers down.

What is an everyday life like in Albania now that Covid has been around for almost a year?

It really hard. America can’t even compare to what is happening in over here right now. Cases are rising fast and there are over 21,500 cases, around 520 deaths, and 11,300 recoveries, in Albania alone. We are required to wear a mask as soon as we step out of the house, not only do we have to wear them in public but even if we aren’t around anyone and in complete nature. Two year-olds and older have to wear a mask, and kids are somehow still going to school, but I have a feeling they’ll be sent back since the cases here are rising daily.

When did kids start school and how are they handling this at such a young age?

They started school on 15th of September and they have to wear masks in school, of course. I don’t think they know what is happening here, maybe they are thinking that wearing a mask is just another fashion trend and not that we’re actually wearing them by law. Even if they know what was actually happening, I don’t know how they would handle it, maybe just like the kids in America. I’m talking about the 5 year-olds and elementary school kids, not the teenagers because they already know what is happening, but I’m guessing that they just do whatever their parents tell them because if we explain this whole thing to them they won’t understand a thing or they would probably ask a whole ton of questions and us parents might not know how to respond to a huge question being asked by a 5 year-old.  But like I said before, I have a feeling that they’ll be sent back soon.

What is it like living in Australia during a World Wide Pandemic?

I would say things are going pretty mutual. We are trying to lower the cases down a little and we are up to 150 cases total and around 900 deaths, so it’s not that bad. We do have to wear a mask of course and we do keep social distance as well. But besides that everything seem normal. Kids are back in school and parents are back at work. But everyone is really happy since there have been no new cases for the past 5 months. Melbourne is on lockdown though, so it’s not going good there.

When did kids start school and are they required to wear a mask?

Well, we are very different from America having that we are on different hemispheres, but we started school in January. Kids aren’t required to wear a mask, at least not in other cities. I don’t know about Melbourne, but where I am, the cases aren’t that bad so you don’t have to wear a mask. We did do online school for the first half of January, just to take extra precautions, but now there are barely any cases here so we switched to in person school.