In light of the current coronavirus crisis, “social distancing” and suspended public life, people around the globe try to get adjusted to a new kind of “normal”. The same holds true for the three medical students and roommates Leonie, Marilena and Claire, who study and live in Munich.
Being part of the EUGLOH community themselves, the three of them give a glimpse into their everyday life during COVID-19 and how they navigate this unprecedented and challenging time.
Hello EUGLOH Community!
We would like to take this opportunity to share our everyday life during the COVID-19 pandemic with you.
We are three medical students from Luxemburg, South Tyrol and Germany studying and living together in a shared flat in Munich during this special time. We all decided to stay here in Munich, firstly to work and offer our help during this medical crisis, and secondly to stay away from our families, so we will not infect them as we work in the medical sector.
The most important thing for us at the moment is to stay positive and motivate each other in any possible way. For that reason, we are doing a lot of outdoor sports to leave the house at least once a day (even though we are not always enthusiastic about it), we are cooking healthier and we are trying a lot of new recipes, as we usually do not have the time to cook great meals. In our photos, you can see that we enjoyed our ‘vegetarian raclette’ even though it is already April and raclette is more of a winter dish.
Unfortunately, we will still have exams next week, or in Leonie’s case, the Basic Medical Examination in summer. Therefore, we are also spending a lot of time studying, or at least we are trying! The rest of the time, we are trying to stay in touch with our friends and families by calling them a lot via Skype or Zoom in order to spend time together, even if it is only virtually.
As mentioned, we are also working. Marilena is working for a general practitioner, doing a lot of blood collections and vaccines, but also assisting the physician during his normal consultations, as primary medical care needs to be guaranteed. They are doing a lot of laryngo-pharyngeal scrape methods as well as testing for the new corona virus.
Leonie and I have been lucky to find a student job with the Division of Infectious Diseases and Tropical Medicine at the University Hospital (LMU Munich). They were looking for students who could support them in a COVID-19 prospective cohort study. After getting some medical and hygiene instructions, our duty will consist in collecting blood samples in random households in Munich, in which they try to prove antibodies against the new COVID-19. Shortly explained: The blood collections will be repeated on a regular basis (after some weeks, after some months,..) to see what percentage of the population in Munich has already gotten infected, how many people will be infected by the virus after some weeks/months and how many people have not been infected yet. We are really looking forward to seeing the first results.
This was a short insight into our everyday lives. Things have changed a lot and our ‘normal’ lives were completely thrown over. Therefore, we are focusing on the good side of this crisis and we are using this opportunity to spend even more time together.
Stay at home and stay healthy!
Much love from Munich!
Leonie, Marilena & Claire