Life at UCB through the eyes of our international student bloggers

What to do during the quarantine?

What to do during the quarantine?

Hey everyone,

As you might have seen last week, I posted the first part of my trip to Brussels, but this week with the coronavirus situation happening I thought it was not fair to talk about trips, but don’t worry I promise I will bring you the second part when this situation calms down.

I know quarantine can be quite dull, and for me, at the moment it is very stressful since the deadline for my dissertation draft submission is very closed, and I want to have everything done if possible. I decided to come back to Portugal due to this situation because I was scared that they would lock down the country and I wouldn’t be able to  come back. I am now home and in quarantine, and I can’t leave the house.

During this period I recommend you should do the things that usually during the working or studying period you don’t have time to, and most of those activities you can do from home.

  1. Read books

I know that usually you have time to read, but for me I always have to learn a lot for university, when it comes to really reading a book that I like, I just can’t. Now during this period, I am trying to read at least 20 pages of my book a day, so I can finish this book and start a new one before summer. I am not a person that loves to read, but to be honest the past two years I have been enjoying it more and now I have started reading books in English to expand my vocabulary.

  1. Exercise

I hate exercise, but since I came back home, I reserve 30 minutes of my day to actually exercise. Being at home all the time is just bad for me because I start eating more than I should and since summer is almost here, I should be preparing my summer body. I don’t believe in a perfect body, I think you should like yourself the way you are. I am trying to exercise now to make sure I don’t gain a lot of weight.

  1. Meditate

Most of my friends meditate or do yoga and I never tried either. So I decided to write it on my list of things that I want to do now that I am home, and if you know any excellent app’s to help please let me know.

  1. Update your series and movies

Obviously, this one had to be here. I already wrote some posts for the blog where I talk about my favorite series and movies, and now that I have more time I will start watching all of them again to keep me up to date. Another good thing I have to tell you, Disney+ is coming to the UK this week, and my friends and I already bought it for the year, because we want to watch our childhood movies again.

  1. Keep up with your university work.

I know that it is tough to be focused at the moment! I can give you my example, for 3 days in a row I have been trying to do my methodology because sometimes I just can’t focus. But you should try because it is so much easier when you don’t leave everything until the last minute.

  1. Organise your wardrobe

My last tip is to organise your wardrobe. As I mentioned before, summer is almost here, so why not organise it and sort the pieces that we don’t wear anymore and donate them?! When I was still in the UK, I went through my wardrobe, and I filled two big bags just with clothes that I don’t wear anymore.

These were my tips for you to do now, but let me know what you have been doing.

See you next week,

Madalena Ribeiro



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