In her first post of the series ‘Send Coffee, Please’, Melina talks about coming back to university during the pandemic and how she’s coping in self-isolation.
In-person lectures, late nights out and socialising have been switched out for face masks, social distancing and curfews, and I imagine that throughout this period, most students are feeling frustrated and confused at the constant uncertainty of our university experience.
I, for one, have found myself fluctuating between extreme moods. Some days, I am positive and productive, but other days I am down and frustrated with my lack of freedom. Initially, it was easy enough to make the best of this situation, when we were able to meet others and retain some form of normality. With the introduction of the six-person rule and the 10pm curfew, this slowly began to deteriorate (at the time of publishing, Nottingham is in Tier 3). The situation plummeted, however, when myself and my housemate received alerts from the NHS app that we had come into contact with someone who had tested positive, and we are currently enduring eleven days of self-isolation. Unfortunately, this has meant we were not able to go out to celebrate one of our housemate’s birthdays, and the few hours we had on campus have been replaced by online seminars. Like many other students living in Lenton, we have had to find ways to hold onto our sanity as we spend every living moment in our student house.
In the knowledge that self-isolation has the potential to drive us all mad, the five of us in my house have organised various events for ourselves in an attempt to keep spirits up. The first thing we were sure to implement was daily exercise. Our little yard (or when it’s raining, our cosy living room) has become the setting for daily classes, hosted by a member of the house, and ranging from HIIT workouts to dance parties. Some days it takes an ungodly amount of motivation to put our gym clothes on and go outside, but we can safely say that everyone’s moods are lifted by just getting a sweat on!
Another thing we tried was painting. Since we had a birthday in isolation, we decided to paint a birthday sign. The results left a lot to be desired when it came to artistic flair, but the creative outlet – alongside Sandra Bullock and Hugh Grant in Two Weeks Notice on the TV – allowed us to escape the reality of being stuck inside for a few hours.
And, as expected, we have watched a lot (and I mean a lot) of TV. As a house, we are currently making our way through Prison Break on Netflix – definitely worth a watch if you are looking for a new show! In between this, we’ve watched movies like the new adaptation of Daphne du Maurier’s Rebecca, and every movie on Disney+. Next Sunday afternoon is already dedicated to eating cake and watching Hamilton!
But before that, we have another week of isolation so, until then, Send Coffee, Please!