A couple of days ago (February 24th), I have been told that I need to isolate myself for ten days because one of my roommates came out positive for covid. At first, so many things were running through my mind:

How was I going to take my exams for next week (midterm week)?

Quarantining for ten days meant wasting about 1/3 of my month here in Rome.

Do I have covid?

I’m upset, but I don’t even want to talk to my roommates about this right now.

How will we get food? (We barely had any groceries left)

I felt an overwhelming amount of emotions because I felt like it was unfair. About three days before this situation, I had heard one of my roommates coughing all morning, but I never thought to say anything. I just kept my distance. I asked my other roommate if she was okay, and she said that she was fine. I thought to myself, maybe I am overthinking it. It turns out that she was positive, but what upset me the most was that she never communicated her symptoms to me. Thankfully, my two roommates and I tested negative, but we all have to quarantine because we are close-contacts.

As I was walking home from my covid test at Temple, I took the longest route possible. I sat by the Tiber River, right across the bridge from Temple Rome. I ate my packed lunch (fish sticks and a small salad) and received endless kisses from the sun. It was over 65 degrees this whole upcoming weekend!

Temple Rome has made it clear from the beginning that if one roommate tests positive, all the roommates would have to quarantine for at least ten days. Temple staff have been making many accommodations for their students that are quarantining again. After relocating our positive roommate to a different apartment, they sent two men to sanitize our whole apartment. Now, we are waiting for groceries to be delivered to us, which will be paid for by the school! We got to make our list of groceries as long as it was under 25 euros for each person.

Despite not being able to enjoy the fantastic weather this upcoming week or scouting out Lady Gaga, who is currently filming in Rome for her new movie Gucci, I have a couple of things I plan to do to help keep myself busy until my quarantine is over:

1. Journaling in front of a window I have and getting fresh air every morning

2. Reading more (I am currently trying to finish a Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara and start The Romans An Introduction by Antony Kamm)

3. Studying and practicing Italian

4. Editing more YouTube videos

5. Recently I finished watching Gladiators on Netflix (10/10 would recommend). I’m looking forward to watching “The Emigrant,” a 1994 Egyptian film by Youssef Chahine, for my Intellectual Heritage class.

6. Planning: restaurants to visit and weekend trip plans (the inter-regional travel ban extended to March 27th)

7. Cooking more after I receive my groceries! (My favorite noodles are pappardelle noodles, and I was able to find them freshly made at Mercato Tesstacio!)

8. Next week is midterms, so I will be doing a lot of studying!

9. Work on writing scholarships for my last year in college (I’m almost a senior!)

10. Try to workout every day (yoga, pilates, etc.)