How IQ Has Been Innovating During Quarantine

As the new reality of a pandemic sets in and social distancing becomes the accepted norm, college students find themselves facing a void of unexpectancy as they hole up in their rooms. Now, in lieu of face-to-face interactions with people, we have been pushed to develop new ways to stay connected and still enjoy life while adhering to public health standards. Here’s what everyone at IQ is doing under quarantine to maintain their sanity!

Emily Jang

Thought Emory’s library only had textbooks? Think again! I’ve been taking advantage of Emory’s online library, which holds a large repository of books that include popular reads. There’s no better time to pass your quarantined days with a good book. You can read these online or on your reading device, if you have one! Access our library here! Here are some of my recommended reads: Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi, Pachinko by Min Jin Lee, When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi.

Coupled with social distancing and excessive time to dwell on myself (whilst ignoring the pile of academic responsibilities piling up in the background), I’ve been utilizing this time at home to reach out to friends and family through virtual communications! Here are some ways I’ve been spending time with them:

• Playing virtual games on skribbl.io, Jackbox games whilst sharing screens on Zoom
• Watching movies together through screen sharing on Zoom
• Binging Netflix documentaries with Zoom’s screen sharing option (Hey you cool cats and kittens, if you haven’t watched Tiger King yet, hop on it!)
• Baking bread together through Zoom

If you couldn’t tell, Zoom has become an essential during quarantine.

Rurie Yi

Participating in Instagram Live workout sessions: After spending my first two weeks in quarantine taking an average of less than 250 steps per day (I checked), I looked to the heavens and resolved to change my ways. This led me to discover the wonders of Instagram Live workouts, which many gyms and studios have taken to streaming for free in the aftermath of shutdowns. As someone who gets bored with individual workouts pretty quickly, the sheer variety of classes available ensures that I don’t lose interest, and the fact that they’re live further motivates me to stick with sessions until the end.

• Personally, I’ve really enjoyed the sessions conducted by Modo Yoga (@modoyoganyc) and PSYCLE (@psyclelondon), but I highly recommend doing some quick research to figure out which accounts are best suited to your individual preferences and time schedule (you can start with this list here).
• A quick note: although the classes are free, if you have the financial capacity please consider making a donation to the studios, no matter how small. Your contributions really matter in helping them offset the sudden loss of a majority of their revenues, especially in the cases of smaller boutiques.

May Zhou

Getting back in touch with nature: Before college, some of my favorite hobbies were gardening and bird watching/ animal identification. I lost the ability to fully be a bird-nerd at Emory, so coming back home and being able to tend to my vegetable plants and sit for hours with binoculars looking for woodpeckers has been really relaxing.

Playing (maybe too many) virtual games: I’ve always been someone who has loved online games, but lately I’ve been able to rekindle my addiction to Pokemon, Animal Crossing, League of Legends TFT, and Ace Attorney!

Binge-watching films and anime: I recently learned through one of my classes that Emory has an online database for films in the Library Course Reserves, so I have been watching a lot of films in genres that I was unfamiliar with. Highly recommend watching Chinatown (1974) by Roman Polanski! I also have been watching a lot of anime recently, and I just finished Hunter x Hunter.

Yifei Gao

Virtual lunch date? Hell yes! Ask someone out on a virtual lunch date! Or even invite your whole gang! Don’t be shy about reaching out to old friends that you haven’t talked to in a while too. Just last week I facetimed a couple of my closest friends from middle school! After all, nothing strengthens the bond more than spending one or two hours catching up while slurping ramen together and drinking tea…or spilling tea…if you know what I mean ;)

Become a professional photographer: Welllll…kind of. Since I have been spending an abundance amount of time with my cat, I’ve decided to make her into a model worthy of that Fancy Feast canned cat food cover. Glam up those around you and take some time to do photoshoots or even live sketches of those people lucky enough to be stuck in the same house with you…24/7.

Strengthening my inner Koreaboo: Ok so it has been about five years since I said I’d learn Korean and now that I have more than enough time on my hands, I explored the free courses on Coursera and found a class for beginning Korean taught by Yonsei University. Yes I’m “studying at” one of the top three Uni’s in Korea — no big deal.

Productivity? Ok…maybe. Between all of the karaoke nights and sushi takeout I had during the past semester, I’m a little short on money. Be proactive and email some professors about TAing or even doing a research project with them either for summer or the upcoming semester! You never know unless you ask! The opportunities are out there, go get’em tiger. Grrr.

Pingpong-ing and Jumping around: Youtube is a great resource if you want to hone your skills for a new hobby (for me, it’s ping pong) or get a sweat in! I’ve been watching lots of Youtube videos on spin serves for ping pong recently (even began watching an anime about it with one of my close friends). It can be really hard to stay active indoors, but there are some amazing Youtube videos out there! Personally I enjoy Chloe Ting’s videos for working out! You can find them here!

Amanda Chu

Journaling and Writing and Reading Poetry: Usually, I have an on and off relationship with my underutilized bullet journal, but given the recent abundance of mellow time, I’ve started . I skip all the fancy and elaborateness (I know my inner-perfectionist will take way too much designing). Waking up and taking as little as 10 minutes to write and has been so meditative!

Written by Emily Jang, Rurie Yi, May Zhou, Yifei Gao, Amanda Chu | IQ Magazine