PIE Blog

Posted on November 10th, 2020 in Blog by Ammar Alhussain

Living abroad so far away from your family, friends, and a normal lifestyle is so hard. On November 12th, 2019, I traveled to the United States of America to study the English Language and continue my master’s and Ph.D. degree. What happened next – the COVID-19 virus started spreading through the US and schools decided to stop attending and settle for online study.

My roommate and I started to think about some activities that we can do during the quarantine. We organized our time like this: first, we had classes in the morning. Then, we cooked our lunch. Actually, we started learning how to cook traditional meals that we used to eat in our home country. After that, we started doing some exercises in order to keep our bodies healthy and safe during that hard time. We walked around our apartment complex and we discovered new places to walk through, like Eagle Creek Park, which is very close to our apartment. Next, we tried to do our homework and eat some snacks after our workout. Finally, we ended our day by watching movies or TV series. This daily schedule was so fun, and I can’t forget that time.

Having a roommate with me in that difficult time helped me to cope with being so far from my family and not being lonely during that time. In addition, having a schedule like that helped me to be safe from the virus and not feel homesick.

Here are some pictures from my time in quarantine: