Santiago de Chile, February 20, 20h05: Oriana Figueroa, candidate for a Doctorate in Social Complexity Sciences, boards the LAN flight that takes her to Madrid, Spain. She has been waiting for months for this moment: her three-month internship with the expert in psychophysiology, Professor Luis Carretié Arangüena, from the Autonomous University of Madrid. There, the 2017 generation student enters the CEACO research group (Brain, Affection and Cognition) to learn a new technique, another theoretical framework and the making of electrophysiological records, as she will study the dark triad of personality with evoked potentials.

February 26th: the first confirmed infection is detected in Andalusia, being the tenth positive in Spain.

March 9: 999 positive cases and 16 deaths distributed throughout the 17 autonomous communities.

March 14: Spain has about 6,000 cases and 200 deaths, with the cities of Valencia, Vitoria, and Madrid being three of the main cities affected by the pandemic during the quarantine. The Spanish Council of Ministers declares a state of alarm throughout the country. 

31 March: Spain recorded the highest number of detected cases (9222) in a single day, and two days later, the highest number of deaths with coronavirus in a single day (950). 

Madrid, April 4 – In the midst of an uncontrollable rise in the curve of COVID-19 infections and deaths, Oriana is returned on a LAN flight at 16h35.

A month and a half and the curve of Oriana’s plans went up and down suddenly, leaving behind weeks of careful planning, dreams and research. “What’s next?” “How do we move forward in the midst of a pandemic that is far from over?” Oriana tells us in a testimonial story about what she experienced during that time of uncertainty in the Madrid of the COVID-19 and about the progress of her projects, the support received by her colleagues and family and her new blog.