Week 1

 Hi everyone!

This week started off pretty busy right off the bat. I have noticed since the pandemic started that I get tired much quicker, even when it comes to mundane tasks that I used to do so often. I believe that this is due to having been locked inside for many months with basically nowhere to go and nothing to do, so now whenever I have any plans they end up occupying my mind and taking out a lot of energy. 

I flew home on Monday because I was getting the second dose of the covid vaccine on Wednesday. I participated in the Moderna clinical trials in Sacramento, since I am from Davis, and so I have to travel back home to get the vaccine from them. Even though going home to visit is such a normal thing for college students, I still feel that this visit in particular is being affected by the coronavirus. Clearly, if the pandemic was not happening I wouldn't be going home for the vaccine, but beyond that, I normally would never go home to visit in the middle of the week. However, given the circumstances, I had to work around the vaccine schedule instead of my own. 

It was very fun to get to see my family and a few of my home friends since everyone is starting to get vaccinated. However, I do wish that I was able to choose a more convenient time for my trip since the majority of my time at home was filled with zoom classes and recorded lectures. I definitely still made it a worthwhile trip, but the activities I did at home were slightly altered from what I normally do. My friends and I ended up going to a coffee shop to do homework and accommodate everyone's conflicting zoom schedules. I loved being able to visit all of my favorite restaurants in my hometown and it was very reassuring to see that things were starting to open up more and looked a little more normal than the last time I visited. My family and I definitely took advantage of this and ate out almost every night, which I loved doing because it meant I got to eat lots of delicious food while supporting all of the smaller restaraunts in our community. Although I flew back on Thursday, making it a very short trip, I still had a great time filled with delicious food and excellent company, especially from my pets (featured below)!

This weekend will definitely be filled with lots of catching up on school work from the past week, as I didn’t want to spend much of my time at home glued to the computer. I am hoping I am able to finish up watching the lectures I have put off fairly early into the weekend so that I will be able to enjoy some time outside, hopefully at the beach, because it looks like the weather is going to be great! 

My schedules have definitely begun to adapt to life during the pandemic and although there are so many things that we cannot currently do, it has taught me to enjoy the little things in life that we can still do. I am so lucky to live in such a beautiful place with so many opportunities to enjoy the outdoors and visiting Davis really reminded me not to take for granted all of the hikes and beaches I have access to in Santa Barbara.