Surviving quarantine
The last few weeks have been tough for me especially with a strep throat that started the first week of March, developed into light coughing and finally seems going away. I wasn’t too worried because I didn’t have a fever-like symptom. But my wife was so concerned and I was a bit obviously. I have never drunk hot water this much in my life. Like other college students, I had a great plan for spring break, a road trip to Utah and hiking its fabulous national parks. Hopefully, I can try during the summer. Staying home and locking myself in wasn’t really that bad. I ordered some board games to kill time and had Netflix dramas and movies to watch. My wife and I have been so busy since last August. She has been working two jobs. I have been working part-time, going to classes, and doing side projects. This quarantine kinda gave us some time to relax and spend more time together. Online grocery order and pickup service are awesome. Especially Walmart's grocery online and pickup service is on another level. I haven’t ordered food delivery. Food orders don’t seem to be safe enough anymore. But thankfully cooking doesn’t bother me or my wife. Also, we’ve been going hiking and playing catch-ball, tennis, and frisbee.
Everything seems perfect but apparently there is a downside. Working at home and taking remote classes are yet very difficult to adjust to. Living in a one-room apartment, there isn’t really enough space for me to just focus on solely working. We have one table in the kitchen and one builtin desk that my wife uses. Oftentimes both of us need to be on video calls at the same time and one of us needs to do in on the drawer in the bedroom. Before the outbreak, we spent most of our day outside. I left home at 9 in the morning and came back home after 8 pm.
Another thing that bugs me is the fact that I paid for all this tuition to do online learning. Yes, thing whole thing is unintentional and unprepared. But still, I think the school has to do something to reimburse partial tuition for this semester and adjust tuition for upcoming semesters. The sense of physically being in class is so important. It creates room and time for the students to interact each other and with instructors. I am not saying that those are no longer available but it now requires more steps and effort to have those privileges.
My wife is a Behavioral Therapist. She works with students behavioral disorders at a government-funded school. And her school, just like other schools in the district, is locked down. She almost lost her job. Luckily she kept her job for now but it doesn’t mean it is secured. Fortunately, we both work remotely and checks are coming on a regular basis. Still, we need a backup plan for worse. I believe many people do. I hope this whole thing ends soon and everything comes back to where it was. Until then, I have to adjust to this new lifestyle especially working style.
