Quarantine vibes – Hello from Sydney!

This is my first post as one of the new first year diaries authors so big hello and virtual hug to you all!

My nickname is Schnetti, I am from Germany and live in Luxembourg – but most importantly – fell in love with Australia (and an Aussie bloke) back in 2018 during my working holiday year and decided to start studying my Bachelor of Commerce mid-year entry in Melbourne in March this year. Great timing COVID wise since I had just returned to Luxembourg in order to get everything ready to move to Australia when the borders closed.

After that, I enjoyed my freedom in Europe a little bit longer (Melbourne really seemed to be anything but fun), started (like everyone else) studying online and was really hoping for Aussie borders to reopen for semester 2. Hahah, I reckon we all know how that worked out.

However, since I have been in a relationship with an Aussie for over a year, I was able to obtain an exemption to travel to Australia (notably, after 17 rejected exemption applications) and am currently on day 6 of my quarantine in Sydney! Hooray (I guess?)!

That’s the good part about the last 7 weeks. The bad part about them was that due to organising my move, the exemption applications and living in a different time zone (and I’m sure all the international students here can relate), I had to put in much more effort to keep up with uni than I have to now. And to be honest, I couldn’t really be bothered doing that.

Now, 7 weeks in, guess what – it’s coming back and it’s biting me in the ass.

So I was holding big pieces on quarantine to get sh*t done! See a summary below:

Here’s the upside to quarantine – you’ve got loads of spare time.

Here’s the downside – you rather spend it drinking and zoom calling your friends than doing uni stuff.

Oh well, I’ll stop whining and better get started on my readings. (Why are there so many of them??)

To be fair, I can’t say I’ve not been doing anything in quarantine, but definitely less than I planned on doing. Maybe my motivation comes through tomorrow – lucky day 7?!

I hope you’re all healthy and safe (wherever you currently are) and I’m really looking forward to sharing my first year experiences with you, as this year will – undeniably – be very different to any other year before.

Talk soon!

Schnetti