Ronja Borgmästars, November 2020

Ronja

Hello everyone!

You might have seen my profile up on the Edinburgh Student Fundraisers’ Instagram (@ed_studentfund) or on our website – I’m Ronja, in my 3^rd year of studying politics with quantitative methods and have worked part-time as a student caller, fundraising for the Edinburgh Fund, since my 1^st year here.

I thought I’d write today about how COVID-19 has impacted my life as a student, with more focus on the non-academic part of student life. Firstly, I’m not able to carry on with student calling as usual – it’s not something we can do from home because of obvious logistical and GDPR reasons. Instead we’re organising an online donating campaign, as well as writing about the student experience and what it’s like to work as a student caller. It’s a very different approach from our usual, and very different experience for us student callers too, as we don’t get the interactive part of talking to alumni in the same way. However, I’ve always enjoyed creating social media content and writing, so I’m glad that I can still continue participating in and working for a cause I care about in a way I like.

I’ve joined the volleyball club at university this year, and despite a tightening of restrictions in the beginning of the semester, I’ve been lucky enough to be able to continue with my sport. We have beach volleyball once a week at Portobello beach, where I run to with my flatmate (who also does volleyball), and one session a week on the Meadows (if the weather permits) – so no training inside, as we usually would have. Additionally, we occasionally have tournaments during the weekends. We need to sign up well in advance to the sessions because there’s only a limited number of places, and they do fill up quite fast. Before getting on the court we take our water bottles away from all of our stuff (so we don’t need to go rummaging through our bags for our bottles when playing) and sanitize our hands and forearms. On court we play normally – but avoid high-fiveing and hugging our teammates. We’ve been quite lucky with the weather so far, but it is getting pretty cold – especially on the sand with no shoes!

I also like going to the gym and have a membership at the PureGym that’s closest to me. I have an app that I can use to check how busy it is and try going in the morning or late evening to avoid the busiest times. There’s lots of sanitising stations as you now have to wipe down all equipment after using it, as well as a taped area around each machine, so that nobody goes too close to anyone when they’re using that particular machine.

Seeing friends and socializing has also taken a very different form this year, especially since the closing of pubs and restaurants in October, and not being allowed in other’s households. I like seeing my friends for long walks (the Water of Leith and Blackford Hill are favourites of mine) – or meeting to study at Teviot Row House. The opening hours are reduced and it is table service only, but it’s worked really smoothly so I’m glad to still be able to enjoy the famous nachos.

My colleagues (fellow student callers) will be writing more on the topic of student calling in times of COVID-19 and student life in general, until then – take care!

Disclaimer: this post was written during week 44, and is reflective of the current COVID-19 restrictions. At the time this will be published, restrictions might have changed, and the university’s and sports clubs’ activities will of course be in accordance with these.

Ronja

November 2020