We spoke to Maria, who is currently quarantining after arriving back in Bath, for her top tips to make the most of your quarantine experience...
Exercise
First, it’s important to work out for at least a few of minutes a day. During quarantine you won’t be moving around as much as you normally do, and thus stretching and moving your muscles will greatly beneficial for your physical health, which’ll make you feel happier too! There are lots of apps you can use such as Seven Minute Workout, Pear or simply YouTube.
Read
Secondly, quarantine is a great time to read interesting books and articles. There are thousands of free online resources that you can use. Reading or listening to an interesting and insightful podcast is a wonderful way to occupy your time!
Upskill
Next, it’s a brilliant opportunity to develop new skills. Lots of courses are available via online platforms such as Udemy, Coursera, LinkedIn Learning or MasterclassS, and of course Skillshare. There is a myriad of new skills to explore: origami, speed reading, the basics of marketing, video editing or even coding. I recommend using Code Academy if you want to improve your coding skills.
TV
But you can’t just work through quarantine, there’s lots of amazing TV series and movies available on streaming platforms such as Netflix, Disney+ or Amazon Prime. My favourites are Brooklyn-99, Modern Family, Lucifer and the Godfather films. Trust me, you’ve got time to binge all of these. And the fact that many of these streaming platforms have a free monthly trial is extremely beneficial in this case.
Cooking
One of the things I personally enjoy doing the most during quarantine is cooking and baking. There’s many apps with which you can find new recipes, such as Yummy and Tasty. If you're not able to cook, watching cooking videos is just as relaxing. I personally watch them on YouTube, and I particularly like Binging with Babish, Gim's Kitchen and Buzzfeed Worth It.
Socialise
It’s also important to stay connected with friends and family. Humans are social creatures and thus it’s important to talk with other people while in quarantine. You can call your family and friends, chat or play online games with them. You can also talk with your future course mates through the course-related messenger chats that are usually created by the department or society - I personally belong to the Physics department, so in my case this would be PhySoc.
Clubs and societies
During quarantine you can also investigate the different societies and sports clubs here at Bath, in order to get a feeling of what your University life will be like. The University has many amazing groups that you can join, such as the fencing club, the pole dancing society, and the newly-created assassin's society! You can find everything that the Students Union has to offer on their webpage.
Jobs
If you'd like to start a part-time job during your studies, you can also look for the available vacancies through the SU jobs page, or start looking for one on your own during this time.
Banking
Another very useful thing to do during quarantine can be to sort out a bank account. As an international student myself, I can tell you that having a UK bank account is extremely useful - this has to be opened online anyway, so you might as well use your quarantine time to do so!
A healthy space
It is also important to keep a window open in order to refresh the air in your room and let sunlight get in, so that your sleeping schedule won’t be affected by the routine change. It is easy to loose track of time during quarantine, so sticking to a normal sleeping routine is important for your physical and mental health in the long run. You should also make sure that your room isn’t too messy for the same purpose.
I really hope that you guys have a fun and productive quarantine, and see you all in two weeks ! 😊
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