Quarantine: The longest week of my life
- Lia <3
- Feb 23, 2022
- 3 min read
Honestly, most of the days were the same, so here's a day-in-my-life quarantine in Korea, followed by a few special events that took place.
I usually wake up around 5 or 6 AM
I then grab breakfast from outside my door. We had two types of breakfast: porridge with snacks or sandwich with snacks. Breakfast comes around 6:30 AM, lunch at 12 PM, and dinner at 4:30 PM.
Today's breakfast was a sandwich with snacks!
I will now rate these items out 10 in my opinion: the sandwich (10/10), the yogurt (10/10) the potato chip crackers (8/10), the cereal (5/10), the chocopie (3/10), the juice (6/10), the milk (2/10)
Korean snacks/yogurt are pretty similar to American snacks. HOWEVER, the sandwiches were totally different. This was a triple-decker sandwich (3 slices of bread) and the bread was SO SWEET. A lot of people didn't like the sandwiches because of this, but I liked it!
I usually ate my breakfast while sitting on the little window seat. From my window, I could see the construction next door and had half of a city view.
^ Having breakfast on the window seat
Me, having fun looking at the city -->
After breakfast, I'd usually study a bit or watch videos. We had a HUGE packet of vocabulary we had to go over during quarantine so, I was spending a lot of time with my friend Quizlet.
Here's a quick tour of my hotel room!
Then I'd have lunch, which was usually something like this:
After the 5th day, it was really hard to eat this stuff, but we persevered.
I'd also often call my family or the other NSLI-Y cohort students just to chat and stay sane (NOTE: I said I call my sister every day but that is an exaggeration. We probably talked like twice during quarantine):
Another example of lunch:
I didn't get any pics of dinner, but it was very similar to these, just with a side of cold soup! Then, I'd do some exercises with the cohort over zoom.
I'd then get ready for bed, catch up on the latest episodes of My Universe and Freaking Romance, my current Webtoons, and hit the hay around 9 PM. Getting used to the time change was a bit difficult. The first few nights, I woke up around 2:30 AM, take a nap in the middle of the day, and go to bed around 8 PM.
We also had to take a covid test on the 1st and 5th days of quarantine. This was the BEST part of quarantine because we got to take a bus through the city to the testing site!
The covid test was...only slightly painful. Contrasting to the U.S. "swirl" method, the testing site stuck the swab into one nostril deep enough to touch your brain. It was really quick, though. That was nice.
Another fun thing that happened during quarantine: My birthday!!
My cohort was SO SWEET and made this amazing birthday card for me filled with heartwarming messages.
They're literally the best and made my birthday so amazing. I love them so much <3
I also learned 산인식 by 박지윤 because I turned 19, which is the age of adulthood in Korea! Lianna also sent me a birthday song, "Rose, Scent, Kiss" by AB6IX's 이대휘, which has found its way into my heart and will become a regular bop for many years to come.
Finally, As a surprise, William and the Better World staff sent us all Korean toasted breakfast sandwiches and mango smoothies!!! I was so happy I almost cried.
We also had our placement tests on my birthday, but luckily, mine went very smoothly. I was in such a good mood, I wasn't stressed and did my best!
On the last day of quarantine, the weather was absolutely lovely. The world was inviting us into its big, welcoming arms.
^An exclusive interview with Roxana just minutes after being released from quarantine.
We dragged our luggage and tired bodies out of the hotel and onto a bus waiting outside. T'was a beautiful bus: A bus of freedom; a bus of hope.
And now, with our newly acquired freedom, our next adventure began~
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