A week in my Quarantined life

Even though I am somehow convinced that we are all living the same lives, – I mean, you are at home, working, or schooling or whatever but, you are at home – I have decided to share how my week went; schooling and studying from home.

This is my first post of the year and I know I have a lot of stories to tell, but this is a start.

A week in the life of a 23-year-old international graduate student who is living on her own for the first time.

So far, I have spent 35 days at home, I have stepped out once to get groceries and I go out for walks twice a week. I have started baking, found a new love for my language: Ibibio, been taking long walks, sleeping, binge-watching The Office, spending 50% of my screen-time on twitter, doing every other thing but studying. I tried to do better this week and keep myself accountable. So, let us see how I did.

Sunday – It was Easter Sunday and I started my morning reflecting on God’s love for me, reflecting on the cross and how I want to spread love as well. I did not study at all. I also didn’t have any special Easter meal, because grocery deliveries have been slow. But I had chicken, so I marinated it for a special potato casserole meal I had saved a recipe for.

Monday – I made chicken- potato casserole, studied Cell biology, which has turned out to be my best course this semester. I thought molecular biology was my best part of biology but possibly because I’m not taking any Mol Bio course this semester, I have found a replacement. But cell bio is so interesting, I studied cell signaling pathways today (Why are cells so brilliant?). My professor actually says every topic is interesting. His love for the course is quite contagious because I am a convert. This doesn’t mean I will not complain about the course often, because it’s quite voluminous.

At about 11pm, I decided to make a snack and I did it; I made chin-chin!

Quite an eventful day.

Tuesday – I think I did too much on Monday to do anything today. My groceries arrived, but I was too lazy to cook. I had a four-hour-long Biostatistics class which I enjoyed. This is an easy class and I love it.

Wednesday – My cooking genes were activated today again, and jollof rice was expressed (biology joke).

Gene expression is the process by which information from a gene is used in the production of a gene product. Gene expression is important because, a gene can be present and not be expressed. Gene expression in a cell determines what that cell can do.

Today, I would have attended a department seminar, where a scientist from another university would talk about their work. I would have also taken a trip to Thermofisher-Scientific for Mass spectrophotometry lab class, however, I spent the evening baking banana bread with my housemates. I would like to share my experience with my evening labs at that facility because it was fun.

Thursday – The only noteworthy thing I did today was enjoying cell biology class. Today, we learnt about the cell cycle. One lovely thing about science is that you always learn something new. I have studied the cell cycle at every stage of my education, but this class was one of my best in a while. Oh, I also had a long discussion with my friend about how I haven’t joined a lab yet.

Friday – If not that I have classes, I will not know the difference between days. I miss the library, I miss study rooms, but I studied this evening. Five points to anyone who guesses correctly what course I studied this evening.

Saturday – Self-care Saturday started with a phone call from my sister and then some facemasks, hair care, and breakfast. I had a long nap after cleaning and then I studied Protein Biochemistry. I am proud of how much I have been able to cover this week. I studied quite a lot, not as much as I wanted to, but this is a start.

So, this is how I’m doing. I think I have come to accept what we are going through, and I appreciate all health professionals working tirelessly, the scientists working overtime to find a cure and vaccine for this. With Gods help, we will get through this. How is your life going amidst this pandemic? I would like to know! Tell me how you’re keeping your head above the water.