All the best things to get up to in isolation from your very own UoB students

Bored at home? Stuck in isolation? Read on for some inspiration or some procrastination


This is for those who are bored in the house and in the house bored, isolating or in quarantine. We all recognise how easy it is for boredom to seep into your routine and daily life when you become locked off from the outside world.

But don’t worry, we have asked UoB students for what helped them pass the time and hopefully these will help you too. Here are some different ways you can keep busy and sane or take inspiration from.

Read on for UoB’s rockstars, cooking giants, culture queens and creative geniuses and what they got up to.

 

Music/Art

Use your skills, start a new project or an activity, and enjoy yourself. Steven Holmes, UoB second year Computer Science, spent 100 days performing a different song on the guitar during the first national lockdown.

Each day he showcased his talents on Instagram and took song requests from friends. Steven even used his musical abilities to raise money for the organisation ‘Black Minds Matter’. Although you might not be able to leave your house (or even your room), you can still have a powerful impact on the outside world!

 

New Skills/wholesome activities

For those who aren’t a musical prodigy, some other activities you can take on to stay busy include: reading (for your degree or actual pleasure); lots of Netflix, documentaries, movie marathons; learning a new language or practising one, which has never been easier with apps like Duolingo; gaming, sims, baking and cooking.

Isolation is the perfect time to get into good habits and enjoy experimenting with your food.  If you are looking for inspiration from a student chef look no further and check out bryccoli on instagram for third year UoB chemistry student Bryony Scutt. “Cooking is my me time, its really important to set some time aside in the day to look after yourself, especially if you can’t leave the house,” she told The Birmingham Tab.

 

Culture

Another example of a student in lockdown getting creative was Liv Saunders, a final year History student UoB student, who created an Instagram page dedicated to celebrating women in history. There are so many ways to get creative and share the things you love and are passionate about.

Starting a YouTube Channel with housemates is another fun way to stay connected to the outside world and keep yourselves entertained. Liv Saunders also spent time creating a cooking YouTube page called ‘Sarah&Liv’. There are endless options.

 

 

Staying Active

If fitness and staying physically active is a worry for you, then don’t worry, create a workout routine and stick to it, allow yourself the rest from the gym or your sporting commitments that you deserve. If you happen to be part of a UoB sports team like gymnastics then this might be an opportunity to tune into those morning zoom conditioning sessions with your team members.

Find a goal/skill that you want to work on: flexibility, press-ups, yoga, handstands. And it’s not like you would have had the opportunity to use Tiv gym anyways. Just as important as staying busy with physical or stimulating activities is sleep. The perfect time to catch up on sleep and fix a probably quite dubious sleep schedule. And let’s face it, sleep makes time go quicker so it’s a win win.

Bar Crawl/Pub?

If you are and your house are looking to spice up your monotonous routine why not create your own bar crawl? A few drinks and you and your housemates will forget you are actually locked up.

One house on Hubert set up a tour of UoB student’s favourite night outs. Everyone in the house was delegated a venue/night out. They started off in their version of the Goose doing a pub quiz that best of all was not over zoom. No attention to detail was spared as they had “football highlights on in the background”.

Next stop was Selly Oak’s beloved Circo-their living room-which they set up with lights and shots. Fab and Joe’s bar was up next and an actually pre Corona employee of Joe’s bar got behind a homemade bar to serve a beautiful collection of VK’s.

Of course this group didn’t leave out the soul busting and groove inducing Souljam. “I did some spinning some old skool tracks,” Leon told the Birmingham Tab. The night continues with them making it to stues for a vegan chicken nuggests party. Tektu featured after Stues and the festivities culminated in returning to Selly for some closing time Circo chaos.

Guidance and advice for students at the university concerned with the current outbreak can be found here.

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•20 Alternatives to your Classic Selly Pubs

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•World Mental Health Day: How to look out for yourself, friends, and your community