Lockdown Stage 3: what to do at home?

Yesterday, the Federal Government announced new lockdown rules. From 11.59 tonight, Victoria will introduce Stage 3 restrictions.

Gatherings of more than 2 people are forbidden, unless it includes the people in your household. Public parks, skate parks, playgrounds and outdoor gyms will be closed. From now you will only be allowed to leave your house for 4 reasons: – Food and supplies – Exercise: going for a walk a run or a bike ride to stretch your legs but only in your neighbourhood – Medical care – For work or education (if necessary: if you can’t work from home) Because of the COVID-19 crisis we are all stuck home in Australia far away from our families and friends, sometimes without a job and money. So, let’s make the best out of this shitty time and realise all our wishes: Learn how to play guitar, watch all the Harry Potter’s in one day, start a morning workout routine. Several online platforms offer free activities to help not be bored at home. Here are some tips to help you get started:

• Play old games with your friends

If you want to have good times with your friends, even though you don’t get to see each other, you can play games online. Old games are back in fashion! Words With Friends (Scrabble) Draw Something (Pictionary) and other app games are kicking around and just waiting for you to challenge someone. You can be on a video call from your computer and playing together on your phones at the same time. Stop the Bus (Baccalaureat for French) this is a great game to improve vocabulary and you can use it with any age group and any level. You just need a pen and a piece of paper and you can play with your flatmates or online with your friends on video call.

• Visit the world’s best museum and exhibitions

In Melbourne: The NGV offers virtual tours of all its current blockbuster exhibitions including from March 28, the amazing Keith Haring | Jean-Michel Basquiat: Crossing Lines. Exhibition. https://www.ngv.vic.gov.au/channel/ The Melbourne zoo is doing a live streaming of its baby animals https://www.theurbanlist.com/melbourne/a-list/melbourne-zoo-live-stream Worldwide: Lot of museums are offering virtual tours of their exhibitions during the coronavirus outbreak. An amazing opportunity to see The Mona Lisa at the Louvre, the Rosetta Stone, Egyptian mummies and other ancient wonders at the British Museum or some French Masters like Cézanne and Monet at Musee Orsay. - Louvre https://www.louvre.fr/en/visites-en-ligne - British museum https://britishmuseum.withgoogle.com/ - Guggenheim museum https://artsandculture.google.com/partner/solomon-r-guggenheim-museum - Orsay https://artsandculture.google.com/partner/musee-dorsay-paris

• Exercise

You can take care of yourself in Coronavirus Quarantine or Isolation by starting your exercise routine at home. - Lots of Melbourne gyms and yoga studios are offering online classes during the outbreak. Full list below https://www.broadsheet.com.au/national/active/article/live-list-online-exercise-classes-do-your-living-room - If you are into yoga, lots of platforms are offering free classes. The Instagram yogi Adriene offers free access to yoga classes on her Youtube channel https://www.youtube.com/user/yogawithadriene Another good platform for yoga with different levels, length of classes and type of yoga https://www.doyogawithme.com/

• Read free ebooks

You never have time to read a book, here are some website offering free e-books to help you get started during the coronavirus outbreak Versobooks: https://www.versobooks.com/blogs/4604-free-quarantine-ebooks Victoria State Library: Free membership and access to ebooks, music… https://www.slv.vic.gov.au/ Audible from Amazon: is giving access for free to 100 audio books https://stories.audible.com/start-listen

• Learn new skills

Some platforms are offering online courses to build new skills with courses from top universities like Yale, Michigan, Stanford, and leading companies like Google and IBM. https://www.coursera.org/coronavirus https://www.edx.org/ A new language https://www.duolingo.com/ https://setapp.com/apps/wokabulary https://www.hellotalk.com/?lang=en

• Relax and take care of yourself

The most important if you feel anxiety during this hard time is to do meditation; you can find meditation videos online to help you started Meditation for anxiety https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4pLUleLdwY4 Yoga for anxiety https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hJbRpHZr_d0

• Virtual Party

You can download the House Party app, which allows you to do a video-chat with your friends (up to 8 people) and start your virtual party. STUDY DESTINATION HOUSE PARTY / SUNDOWNERS DJ SET we sadly had to cancel our big summer closing party (Monday 16^th of march) in St Kilda Beach because of the COVID-19, let’s do it on Wednesday night. We are going to live stream on Instagram DJ Set for an hour and party all together. Friday 3rd of April at 7pm Instagram live @studydestination_ with DJ @davidjamesdontkildavibes https://www.mixcloud.com/davidjamesdjm/ Stay home, Stay Safe, Save lives!