Student of the Faculty of Architecture UMNE Haris Memić: My Experience from the Quarantine or Self-Isolation in Beijing
.png&w=968)
Student of the Faculty of Architecture of the University of Montenegro Haris Memić conveyed his experience in Beijing, where he left to work after master studies and exchange in Bari. His story is conveyed entirely.
Student Haris Memić: My Experience from Quarantine or Self-Isolation in Beijing
My name is Haris Memić, student of master studies of architecture on the University of Montenegro. I have been on exchange in Bari where I studies thesis related to technologies and 3D print in great scales. Upon arrival to Montenegro, I decided to go to work in China for my improvement with intention by the end of 2020 to defend master paper in Montenegro. I applied for the job in China in October and I was hired after fourth round of Skype interview. Very happy, optimistic so much that nothing could mislead me to give up on the decision I made.
December 20th: Flight from Tivat, over Moscow to Beijing. It was so cold that several layers of clothes doe not help. In those moment you only think about positively about the challenges.
December 23rd: First day at work, the only alien in the company, colleagues fantastic and projects to work on even better.
January 18th: Day when collective holiday vacation started, planned to last a fortnight. I planned all 15 days for a tour in Beijing.
January 13th: I hold in my hands two tickets to Shanghai and Guangzhou. The boss calls me, asks me if I have read the news and advises me to cancel my plans since the situation is to be serious. Not even in madness have I thought that this will be so serious. Sceptic for the whole situation, I did not cancel flights but only shifted them for a week ahead.
January 25th: During the day it was announced that people moving is limited and masks are recommended. I still had not taken this seriously, but January 25th is the Chinese New Year and when I saw that people are at home, I realized the gravity of the situation.
The next day I went to pharmacies, there were no masks, and when entering in any public institution the temperature was measured and that was the first time, I felt fear. In the last week of the month, from administration of my hood was announced that enter and exit of tenants was limited. End of January, I went for a walk, and I only met a few people in circle of several kilometers. I live in the Beijing center I tried to explain to my parents and friends but it is hard to explain until you experience it, that in the city of over 20 million people on streets there were no cars or people on streets is hard to imagine.
On social networks, people worldwide make many jokes unaware that this is easily transferable virus that may get to everyone. Honestly, I thought of coming back home, since the work was done from home, and honestly there was not much work and nobody thought about it when people die.
I decided to stay, everyone criticized me, starting from family, friends and the people who do not know me. Yet, I felt that was the right decision, for many reasons. One of them was if I had come back to Montenegro, there was a great possibility to catch a disease on plane or airport and the other thing was quarantine for two weeks back home and plus if I had come back to China I would have to be in quarantine for another 14 days meaning almost a month of quarantine in total.
I was lucky, so to say, since my diet was healthy with regular physical activities so my immunity was so strong. I started drinking ginger, lemon and garlic tea. And I ate fresh ginger. Three times per day. I always believed in natural remedies and healthy and regular diet. I think that is the most important to stay health in moments like this.
As for mental state, first days of February were very hard and somewhat physically exhausting. First of all, I was here completely alone, no friends, family, obligations free. I used spare time for creativity and unfinished business. An interesting thing is that one creativity is incentive for another one. I started with reading and training followed by painting and drawing, and reading in foreign languages, playing piano, teaching online courses. Days were minutes. For these 45 days I have done many useful things.
I tried not to be negative, not to read comments and many conspiracy theories. At the end of the day, event it was a conspiracy, like you know who is behind this. What does it mean for you and what can it change? So, I decided not to believe in theories, but to hope for quick recovery of the whole world.
Today is the First of April. Colleagues are slowly coming back to the office; life is coming back to normal. I still do things as I had been doing for the past two months, my organization is better and I tend to endure. I think quarantinechanged my life for better.
My advice to all is to try to stay home, encourage yourselves to do something useful or simply interesting I guarantee you it will affect your day, week, the whole month. You might reveal new talents you never thought you had. It is up to you! I wish that this situation passes as soon as possible and that you stay healthy.
Haris