One day everything was more or less normal, the next day I had to pack all my belongings and leave the country.

That may sound a bit more dramatic than it actually was, but in summary, that’s what happened.

I just finished my first year of the Natural Sciences degree at the University of Cambridge, UK and mid-March was when our second term was coming to an end (the Cambridge academic year is divided into three 8-week terms with holidays in between). The plan was to stay for a few days after lectures ended to relax and spend some time with friends before heading back home to Sweden for the Easter holiday. I was enjoying my time before suddenly the Danish government decided to close its borders and thus cutting off my route back home. That’s why I rebooked my plane ticket and packed up my entire college room in less than a day. In retrospect, I probably could have adopted my original travel plan, but things were changing fast at that point. I felt lucky to have really good friends who helped me when this happened, one of whom took a substantial amount of my belongings to her family home, where the items have been ever since.

Those few days also marked a significant transition for the university as well. Not long after I arrived home in Sweden did, the email rate from @cam addresses grew exponentially, much like the COVID-19 situation. Colleges (the University of Cambridge is a collegiate university with 31 colleges (of which each student is a member to) started closing down and urging students – even those who originally had planned to stay – to go home. The University then moved all its teaching for last term of the year online and the end of year exams for first and second years (most degrees) were decided to be formative. Suddenly, my room at home had turned into a bedroom, lecture theatre, supervision room and sometimes laboratory.

Since then, the situation led to many low-spirited moments. Firstly, it felt very sad knowing that I wouldn’t see any of my university friends until October, and I had not said proper goodbye to many of them when I left. Lectures seemed to have lost their sparkle and supervisions over video calls were clumsy.

However, I would rather reflect on the bright side of things. Soon I realised that things weren’t as bad as I thought at first. The lecture recordings enabled me to watch them at different speeds and pause when I needed. And although supervisions were a bit awkward still, seeing what my supervisors wrote on my computer screen (when technology allowed) was much more convenient than trying to read their handwriting upside down across the table. Moreover, now that I don’t have to spend time transporting myself from one place to another, I can spend more time on work and hobbies that I haven’t touched in many years.

Even though it was hard not seeing my friends every day, and the amount of stuff to talk about diminished as no one had a lot of eventful things happening in their lives, there were still highlights. We’ve played many games, done many quizzes and we even had a surprise birthday-zoom for a friend. I’m very grateful to have gotten to know so many great people during my first year that are so supportive and kind; there being someone who even ran errands for me in Cambridge.

With all my original summer plans out of the window, I was a bit lost in terms of what to do with my time; but I have now come to terms with the situation and found new ways to keep myself busy.

[submitted on 6/29/2020]