Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker announced on March 23 a stay-at-home advisory for all non-essential businesses, which is expected to continue through the month of April to control the spread of the novel coronavirus. So all colleges in the state are required to close during this time.
Before the announcement, universities and higher education institutions in Boston had already taken measures, canceling in-person classes and switching to online classes for the spring semester. Students were sent home, saying goodbye to normal campus life.
But not all students could return home. They had to hunker down in their dorms. Small foreign groups left on empty campuses in a city shutdown. So how are they doing during this isolated time during the coronavirus pandemic? How are they getting along in their studies, socializing, and trying to adapt to an extremely new pattern of life? Sampan interviewed three university students from different backgrounds to get a sense of these students’ interrupted lives.
Life goes on despite drastic changes
In a post on her Wechat account, Xiaoyi Liu, who is from China, wrote, “Having been lying at home for six days, my lower body is deteriorating.” Liu is a sophomore at Boston University. Although the university stopped all in-person classes, and she goes on with her daily classes, but all at home.
Studying Linguistics and Computer Science with heavy a workload, learning from home has its good sides from Liu’s perspective. Liu now sleeps until 10 a.m., which was a luxury for a daily commuter. With Studies being the focus of her life, Liu usually starts her day checking lessons on the Blackboard, educational software B.U. students and professors use daily. With the extra free time, she gets more time to watch her favorite TV series on Netflix, sometimes until 2 p.m. She also started to exercise following Keep, a mobile exercise application popular in China. It is a new routine she follows to try and stay in good physical condition.
Live class is as real as a normal, in-person school class, although Liu attends class in her bed with a laptop on the table next to her bed. Students and professors see each other through the little window. Students can ask questions and communicate with the professor like they would in a classroom setting.
Being stuck at home, students are coming up with ideas to make life more interesting. Some of Liu’s classmates uploaded a picture as the background of a window. A student uploaded an image of Pikachu, a Japanese cartoon figure, and the student’s face is placed above the figure’s stomach. Another student chose a picture of an empty room, making the viewer feel like the person was at the classroom.
Online class has its flipsides. For example, Liu said sometimes it’s difficult for her to concentrate, and she can’t help but check her phone from time to time. Accordingly, she has to go back to the point that she missed after the class, which lowers her study efficiency. She also tends to lose track of time staying at home all day, sometimes causing her to be late for class.
Overall, Liu is content with her current life. Although her mother wants her to return to China before the semester ends, she insists on staying in Boston, considering the convenience of taking class without time gaps and internet barriers, in addition to the inaccessibility of flight ticket going back China.
“My mother leaves me long paragraphs convincing me during my sleep, but she also respects my opinions,” Liu said.
As for the coronavirus, Liu thinks staying here is safe so long as she does not go out. Being cautious and dealing with the pandemic, Liu does not leave home except for picking up take-out food downstairs or going grocery shopping. She even decided to stop ordering take-out with her only roomie, who shares the apartment with her, under the fear of the potential virus at the take-out.
Adapting to a difficult situation
“It’s a tough situation, but I’m looking for the ways in which I can make myself happy, and I still feel like I’m achieving stuff,” said Daniel Pooley, who was born in Thailand from British parents, and a junior majoring in percussion at Boston Conservatory at Berklee. Currently, he is living with one of his three roommates in an apartment in Allston.
Unlike Liu, whose class schedule was not affected a lot by the current situation, some of Pooley’s classes were entirely changed in content, and he also lost some chances to practice. Staying at home means he does not have access to those large instruments at school, nor can he get hands-on guidance from professors. For example, his marimba ensemble class was turned into score study discussion, in which students learn and practice the basic principles of running an effective music ensemble rehearsal.
A decrease in the workload caused Pooley to come up with multiple ways to fill the time.
“They don’t take up anywhere near as much time in the day as my normal schoolwork was,” he said. So he has developed several side projects, utilizing resources he has and digging deeper into his personal interests. One of them is vibraphone, which he has with him. He printed out every piece of the score he could find the day before the school closed. Now he has time to play every single piece of them. He also teaches himself new music styles like jazz. And he is considering picking up bass guitar.
Pooley has days when there is no class. Staying at home all day, looking at his phone and doing nothing is another kind of routine. “I think that’s something that I’m battling right now,” he said.
Pooley’s family now lives in Seattle, where the pandemic is more serious. They keep in touch making sure everything is okay on both sides.
Returning to one’s home country
On March 19, Hashimoto Akira posted an announcement on his Facebook. He is a journalism graduate at Boston University from Japan. He wrote, “Due to this chaotic coronavirus situation, I decided to go back to Tokyo from Boston today. Dear all my friends in Boston and other places in the states, I am sorry I need to leave the country in this way. I will be back in this fall so please stay in touch by then through SNS or whatever way that can connect us…”
Akira lived on campus, and he still needs to pay for the rent even though he left ahead of time, and the monthly rent is $1,950 dollars. He made the decision despite of the economic loss. The reasons are multiple.
First of all, Akira thinks the situation of the coronavirus pandemic in Japan is slightly better than that in the U.S. “I feel like the wave of the coronavirus basically moved to the west from the east, while we still need to be so cautious, of course,” he said. Since all the spring classes are going to be held online, and he already planned on doing internship in Japan, there is no point staying in Boston anymore for him. In addition, he has a concern that Japan may restrict travelers from the U.S. in the future.
At the time of the interview, Akira was back in Japan for only four days and was still adapting to life back home. Jet lag is troublesome, and he tried to get on to the normal time schedule following the meals with his family, his parents and sister. The 13-hour time gap between the two countries affected his online classes. For example, he has a class beginning at 2:30 p.m. in Boston, which is 3:30 a.m. in Japan. He had to email the professor asking for alternatives take the class, and luckily, he was allowed to watch recordings of the class.
With the money loss and the inconvenience of online classes, Akira could still see the silver linings of the crisis. “I should appreciate something that I take for granted, so taking my dog Ashley is one of the things that kind of makes me think something like that.”
