Undergraduate Life During the Covid-19 Pandemic - Group 1 Interview

CHRIS PETERSEN: Today is March 10, 2021. This is one of two group interviews that we're doing for the class, "Hidden History of Women at OSU." We will be interviewing ourselves, essentially. These are three students in the class and myself. What we're trying to do is to collect an account of this past year, which has been a historic and unusual year in many different ways. The focus primarily will be on life during the pandemic for students. We've got questions that we've prepared for ourselves to try to divine that a little bit. I have questions that I've prepared for the whole group as well that we'll get to a bit later on.

I'll ask you all to introduce yourselves in a second, but the first thing I'll 00:01:00say is that we've talked about verbal consent in advance of this. We're all on board with that. This is a recording that's going to be collected and preserved in the Special Collections and Archives Research Center and probably transcribed at some point and made available for researcher use. Again, we're trying to collect and document what student life was like during these unusual times. We are going to, as I mentioned, have students interviewing students as the first, essentially, half of the interview and after that I'll have some questions for everybody and a few targeted questions for individuals as well. The order that we're going to go in is that Nico is going to interview Sydney first and Sydney will interview Luna and Luna will interview Nico. That's the pattern that we're going to follow. I'll be kind of our time keeper, although I'm not too worried about that because we've got a couple of hours to get through. As I said, I'll have some questions at the end for everybody as well. Before we start with the student-to-student interviews, I'd like to ask each of you to introduce 00:02:00yourselves by giving your name and your year and your major and your current location. Why don't we start with Nico?

NICO ENRIQUEZ: Okay. Hi, my name is Nico. I am a third-year biological engineering student. I'm currently in Portland, Oregon.

CP: Sydney?

SYDNEY KLUPAR: Hi, I'm Sydney Klupar. I'm a fourth-year in environmental economics and policy. I'm here in Beaverton, Oregon.

CP: Luna?

LUNA WARREN: I'm Luna Warren. I'm a first-year digital communications arts major, and I'm currently in Callahan Hall on campus.

CP: Okay, perfect. So I'll switch the view to speaker mode and then we'll start with Nico interviewing Sydney. Go ahead:

NE: Cool. Sydney, we know that you were studying abroad when Covid started hitting the world. What was it like to be abroad when Covid-19 first hit? SK: Yeah, so it was really interesting because I was in New Zealand which has handled this whole thing pretty spectacularly from day one. I can remember right when Covid-19 started, kind of leaving China we got this email, all of the students who were not in the U.S. basically said think about registering for spring term on campus. We might have you come home. It was this almost ominous 00:04:00email of not a threat but hey make sure you know you might be leaving. The university I was at, Lincoln University outside of Christchurch, does semester system. I was halfway through my term. I wasn't going to be able to stop taking those classes and start taking spring classes. I remember there was a lot of chatter about that with me and my advisor and the other girl who was there with me from OSU about what was going to work. I remember my advisor saying don't worry about it. There's no way you're going home. Just stay there. Keep taking your classes. It's going to be fine.

Then, I remember after that maybe a week later we got this email that said, hey you have to be home in the next two days. If you're not home in the next two days we're going to unenroll you from this school. You have to come home. You 00:05:00have to come home now. It was all so confusing and nobody knew what was going on. Even these emails the language of them was ambiguous. It was this I don't know what I'm going to do. I don't want to stop going to OSU but at that point still Covid-19 hadn't really hit New Zealand. I remember just being terrified of international travel was exactly what they were telling you not to do. I remember being so scared because I was sure that if I got on a plane right then I was going to get it. I just remember there was a lot of communication and I ended up applying to stay and we ended up talking with Ed Feser, the vice provost, and it was this whole thing because I firmly believed that I was safer there than I was going to be here. Then maybe three days later Jacinda Ardern, 00:06:00the prime minister, basically said anybody who doesn't live here get out we're shutting down the country in two days and if you're here you're going to be here throughout the whole thing so make sure you make the right choice. There was all this talk about how commercial flights were going down and they were going to stop doing international flights. Basically if you didn't leave in those two days you were going to be stuck there or you were going to have to get the Army to come pick you up and that was going to be tens of thousands of dollars. It was two days that I said alright, I'm leaving and then I was packed up and on a plane for 13 hours. It was definitely this whirlwind of nobody knows what they're doing and we just have to make a decision now because if we don't we're going to be stuck.

NE: How did the coursework over there transfer? Did you ever get to finish that or did you just have to immediately come over?

SK: We were already a week away from two-week break. As it was getting more intense and Jacinda said hey we're done. We're locking down. The school canceled the rest of classes for before break. We had this three-week break. I emailed all my professors and explained what was going on and it was honestly they gave me the grade that I had then for the entire semester. I did end up doing a little bit more coursework but it was basically anybody who had to fly halfway across the world was not expected to get any quality work done. It was kind of nice because I had a couple of months basically where I wasn't really doing anything but I still got all the credits I needed to get to stay on track.

NE: Awesome. How has it been spending your final year online?

SK: I mean, I think it's almost the same. I have always thought of myself as a pretty hard worker, but things have been so flexible, at least with all of my professors. Online courses have been, oh don't worry-the due date is flexible. Just get your stuff done by the end of the term. We understand this is a hard time and I feel like a little bit, I've honestly been bummed out because I don't feel like I'm getting pushed as hard as I was pushed when I was in classes on campus and these classes that I'm finishing up now were some of the classes that I was most excited about because they're the pinnacle of my degree, teaching me these hard skills that I'm going to take forward with me but it just all feels a 00:09:00little bit anticlimactic. It's just this oh, get it done when you can. Don't worry about it. It's been tough, honestly, because I feel these are the classes that I wanted to take since day one and they aren't what I thought they were going to be.

NE: How has this attitude affected your coursework?

SK: I think definitely it's probably affected it a little bit for the better because I tend to do things way too above and beyond. I put too much work that I'm getting back out. It also has been, there have been a few times where it's that oh get your coursework done by the end of the term. I've gone, alright, sweet. I'm going to take a few weeks to get this done even though it was due two weeks ago. That's something I could never imagine myself doing before this whole 00:10:00Covid-19 taking classes online. I just feel like I have taken it as permission to slack off a little bit as much as I say oh it's just forced us to-part of it is I just don't have the same motivation to get stuff done by the deadline. I think partially, too, because the relationship with professors has changed and there's professors who I've never seen in person, who I've never met in person, and I'm even doing my thesis right now. I have two thesis mentors and I've never seen them in person. We met last summer and we've been working on this research together and I'm not even sure if they have legs. They could just be these ethereal people that don't actually exist. It's definitely been strange, that 00:11:00change in relationship between people.

NE: Thank you. Are there any good things that you feel have come out of this pandemic?

SK: I think definitely I have more time, too, is the thing. I don't have a car. I would live off campus and for a while I was living a couple miles off campus and I would have to take the bus in and get creative with how I was getting around and some of these commutes would be, I would spend two and a half, three hours of my day just getting between places and now I have that time back. I have been able to put more work into some things and also it's just been nice to have time for my hobbies and time to actually relax. I feel like during a 00:12:00regular term there are some days where I just get home at 8:00 p.m. and I go straight to bed and then I get up at 7:00 a.m. and do it all again. Now, I have so much more down time and it's been really awesome, actually, to be able to have a better school-life balance and be able to actually relax and have hobbies and look into getting new hobbies. I have this whole list of things I've wanted to do and I've actually started to check things off because I have time to do them.

NE: That's awesome. You touched on this briefly, but how has it been conducting your thesis research during Covid?

SK: It's definitely been different. I think in general my thesis is a little bit 00:13:00different because I'm not a hard science major. I'm looking into environmental policy in Benton County. It is a little bit more thought driven and more literary research driven as opposed to being in a lab and doing actual physical research. But I do feel this online portion of it has made it feel like I'm not really doing anything. I remember a conversation I had last week with one of my mentors and I was like am I even like getting any results? Am I even doing anything here, or am I just pushing papers around? It's definitely been this, I feel like it's almost on steroids of having to like push forward for myself. I understand that the thesis is a personal driven project, but I feel like 00:14:00especially in Covid I have to make sure that I'm getting my stuff done because it's not even like I'm going to my mentors to go chat with them. I have to get this done and send it to them. There have been problems with, one of my mentors has gone radio silent for a while before. It's not even like I can go knock on his office door. I just have to hope that he emails me back eventually. I feel like it's been a little bit more stressful than a regular research project because we have to do this whole thing online.

NE: Thank you. Is there anything else that you'd like to share about your Covid experience?

SK: I don't think so. I think that's about it.

NE: Alright. Thank you very much.

CP: Great. Okay, so now we will shift our rotation and Sydney will interview Luna.

SK: Hi Luna.

LW: Hi.

SK: I am super interested about what it was like making your college decision in the midst of this because at least for me I remember having to make it around March. Did you already decide on OSU or what was that process like for you?

LW: I'd already decided on OSU. I'd only applied to a few places and OSU would have been the cheapest because it was in-state for me. I'm from Portland. It also had the digital communication arts major, which I don't think any other places I applied to had equivalent majors because it's like a broad media studies, media creation type thing. I was really interested in that. I think it may have been right before the pandemic I decided on OSU. Then the pandemic hit. 00:16:00I was like, it's probably the best anyway because if I end up going on campus, which I did, it won't be far from home. I won't have to take any flights or long drives or anything.

SK: Was there communication with you as Covid-19 started hitting and things became more evident that it was going to change?

LW: I don't entirely remember. I know I was getting emails from them and it was obviously at this point is it going to end soon? Is it going to end in a couple of months? Is it going to end before school starts? I feel like they were banking on things being better before school started over the summer. Then it became you don't have to be on campus but you could be on campus. We're going to have campus open. At this point I'd been planning on, I'd been really excited about moving to campus because I was going to do it with a friend because we 00:17:00both got in. We both got a room together. We decided, you know what we may as well just go to campus. We'll just live in our little residence hall and try to stay safe there. We did.

SK: It was in the summer when you realized that you weren't going to be able to actually take classes on campus?

LW: Yeah, I remember seeing things. The big thing was the school didn't really know. I remember getting a graphic of, in an in-person class here's how we set it up and having little visual of students distanced in a big lecture hall. I don't think they ended up doing that at all. At least, I haven't seen any classes that were in person. All of mine have been remote. It's just funny to see them trying to figure things out through the emails. Things would 00:18:00consistently be changing. Like, actually we're going to have some in person; actually, never mind, none.

SK: How did you cope with that realization that you were going to have to start college online?

LW: I was stressed about it. I was not happy about it, but in the end, because I am a first-year. I was thinking about the fact that I've got a lot of bacc[alaureate] credits that I've got to get out of the way and I've got just my basic major requirements that I need to get out of the way. I have a lot of classes that I'm not, or I wasn't, super interested in. I'd already been planning on getting those out of the way. I was like, you know what if I'm going to be taking all these online classes at least I can just get some stuff out of the way and take the actual things I'm excited about whenever this is over. 00:19:00We'll be back on campus.

SK: What are your impressions of OSU having only gone to it during the pandemic?

LW: Not the best, but at the same time I'm aware that's probably because everything is shut down. Things aren't open that much. I feel like that's my main thing I've noticed. Obviously buildings and stuff aren't going to be open because there aren't classes in them and they're trying to keep people out. But specifically the dining halls, trying to figure out when different places open, when you can get food is kind of difficult. I feel like the hours keep changing. They're not quite steady. It's that. Everything's a little bit haphazard. No one's really prepared for this. Even now, a year in, still no one fully knows 00:20:00what to do. That includes an entire university trying to run.

SK: Do you struggle with being able to get food when you're hungry?

LW: Not really. It's mainly the little delivery robots that have seriously helped, because those are on campus now, little food delivery robots. Things are open at weird hours and it's mainly my roommate, my friend, has some pretty serious food allergies. Trying to figure out where to get food in accordance to that when there's only a few places open and you've got to be like, hmm, does this have dairy? Can we get anything here that we know for sure won't have any nuts or dairy in it? Again, it's a little difficult. Little on-campus grocery store's been a life saver. We just bought a bunch of stuff there and now if 00:21:00things aren't open or nothing looks good we'll just make beans [laughs].

SK: Have you been able to get off campus much at all?

LW: Fall term, yes. We walked around Corvallis a little bit, checked out various places. I mean obviously things aren't open for hanging out but you can go in and look around. We went to a bookstore. We went to a couple different food or coffee places and I picked stuff up. That was nice. But then there wasn't the most to do. Especially as it got colder we didn't really feel like standing outside a lot. Then there was a worse outbreak, or more Covid on campus, not that long ago. It was like week five or something that we had to start doing the weekly testing. We decided we should not just be going out a lot. A lot of 00:22:00people are getting Covid, so we holed up in our dorm a little bit. We've checked out off-campus a little bit. We explored a little. We took one bus trip down to Albany, I think, around Halloween to pick some stuff up. That was a mess, because neither one of us can drive. We had to make transit and then we got lost and things are inconvenient right now.

SK: What are your impressions of Corvallis and Albany?

LW: I'm from Portland, so things seemed a little...I don't want to say boring. I feel like that's mainly because of the pandemic and because everything's closed so there's not a lot to do, but pretty much that there isn't a lot to do. That was my main impression. Corvallis as a town or the nearby areas really wasn't 00:23:00one of the areas that I chose OSU, because that was something that I'd considered when I was looking at colleges: oh is there stuff to do around here. What could I do around here? Can I get jobs around here? That wasn't one of the selling points for OSU for me. It was mainly the major and the size and price. It's kind of what I expected. A little boring, because everything shut down, but that's just how it is.

SK: You did touch on this a little bit but how are your classes going?

LW: They're going okay. It's odd, because it's my first year in college. I don't have anything to compare them to, exactly, other than high school classes and I know that's not the same thing. I don't hate the online format for a lot of reasons. I like being able to wake up a few minutes before my class and then go to class. In general it's pretty convenient to have, like you said in your 00:24:00interview, I have more time to just do stuff now and I can try other things and I don't need to worry about transit and getting place to place, which was something I was a little worried about. In that way, it's really nice. It's also kind of annoying because I'm taking, especially this term, I'm taking multiple, more studio-esque classes, classes where I have to make things. I'm taking a digital art course and a screenwriting course. If I have any questions, I have to email and hope they respond, which is especially annoying with the digital art course because it's a lot of very specific technical questions. I have to just either sort through the recorded lectures to try to see if my question gets answered or email the teacher and see if he gets back within a reasonable amount of time. It's a little annoying.

SK: Are you able to stay engaged?

LW: More so this term, I think. It's a lot easier to get distracted because I'm sitting in what is essentially my bedroom now and I'm always here with my roommate, my friend, and it's just easier to get distracted, but it's not too hard to stay engaged, I guess, as long as I don't have my phone with me. I'm interested in the classes I'm taking, which is good. I think that helps.

SK: Do you have anything else you'd like to add?

LW: No, not that I can think of.

CP: Terrific. Thank you both. The last shift in our rotation will be Luna 00:26:00interviewing Nico.

LW: Hi. Where were you when Covid started in last March?

NE: Well, I was in Corvallis in an apartment with my partner and then two of our really good friends.

LW: You mentioned that you're in Portland now. So, you moved out of the apartment?

NE: Yeah. Following at the end of winter term just before spring break started, so during finals week, I packed up everything and left.

LW: Wow. That was last winter?

NE: Yeah, last winter. We... let's see what happened? I think it was a little scattered because that week ten and finals week I was really, really sick. We didn't know what it was. I don't think it was Covid. There was that other sickness that had been spreading around people we had been interacting with and stuff since before. People were really scared about Covid. There might have been a case or two down on the East Coast, but I don't think it had made its way over here. I don't think it was Covid, but I had been really sick and so myself and my roommates were trying to stay as far away as possible, staying distanced and quarantining me in my little bedroom. Moving out we were all sort of just 00:28:00separate and doing our own thing and trying to stay out of each other's way and not communicating with each other and not helping each other move out. It was really strange moving out. By spring term we'd moved out and I've been here since at my parents' house.

LW: How were finals during that chaos?

NE: Finals were, well, they just weren't to be honest. Some of them had projects that were still due. That ended up happening but if I'm remembering correctly most of my classes didn't even have finals. I think week ten was when the 00:29:00reality of Covid started to hit and I think they just stopped classes that week and they just canceled classes for all of late week ten and I think most of our week was canceled. The time finals week came around a lot of teachers were like we're done, or I guess maybe one or two had we'll have an online test. I think one of those even got thrown out. Most of them just didn't have finals.

LW: Wow. How does OSU education compare online versus in person?

NE: For me specifically in my major, I don't think any of the difficulty has 00:30:00gone down. Certainly, it's been made easier in the fact that I can look through my notes and not have it be considered cheating in the middle of the test, but for a lot of my classes I would be able to have a note sheet to bring in anyway because of just the way a lot of engineering coursework works. You have to remember equations for different setups for different types of flow. There's no way that you could remember all of that and even when you're graduated you're expected to have charts and graphs and tables of equations and stuff to make it easier. I really don't think it's gotten easier. They have given us more time to do tests and finals and midterms, which has been a blessing, for sure. Not 00:31:00having to walk to classes or get to classes has also been nice. I mean, you mentioned just waking up and rolling out of bed and you're there in class. Yeah, that's been great, especially with the amount of work that I'm doing. I think I actually counted how many hours a week and I think I was up at like 45, 50 hours a week, which doesn't sound too bad. I would do it seven days a week. I work weekends on homework, like a good seven hours a day. I just couldn't imagine having to travel to classes on top of all that. It's hard enough.

LW: Yeah, wow. How has Covid impacted you personally? More than you already said?

NE: Financially, it's actually been pretty great. One of the reasons why I went to OSU was because I was able to get some scholarships, which helped cover the tuition costs. My main cost of going to college is housing, finding housing and getting food. Now that I'm here at my parents' house I don't have to pay for housing, at least not monetarily. Same with food. The cost of education has gone down dramatically, especially since even though the classes are online it's not 00:33:00in the online tuition so it's still in state, in person for me, which is a lot cheaper. On top of that, I mean I haven't seen my partner in person in a few months because they have, they're at risk. They have some underlying conditions that could make getting Covid a death sentence. Not just for themselves, but for their whole family. Having a long-distance relationship basically when you are a mile away [laughs] has been interesting. On top of that, I mean living at home is definitely different. It's not just, certainly it wasn't just me time in an 00:34:00apartment but is more so not my time when I'm living at home because my parents they have an expectation of what living at home looks like and so that's what it looks like. I haven't really been out. I haven't communicated in person with a friend in nine months, maybe? 12 months? I'm trying to be really good about following Covid restrictions. It's been very quiet, very boring in a sense. Finding things to occupy my time isn't hard but it certainly feels like I'm stagnant.

LW: Is there anything else that you want to bring up?

NE: No. I don't think so.

LW: Alright.

CP: Excellent. Thank you both. Thank all three of you. I have a lot of questions. Most of them are for everybody, but I want to start with Luna. I really am interested in dialing into this experience of campus life during the pandemic, specifically the dorms. The first general question I have for you, Luna, is how would you characterize the atmosphere in the dorm the last couple of terms?

LW: I'm not entirely sure how to describe it. It's odd because I don't have anything to compare it to. It's not lonely, exactly. There are definitely other 00:36:00people on my floor. I consistently run into people as I'm walking through or heading to the bathroom or the little lounge or whatever. People do talk to each other, especially on weekends and stuff. I can hear people talking in the hallway. I haven't really interacted a lot with people in my dorm. It's just hard to get to know them and I feel like a lot of people got to know each other early on, beginning the fall term. Now they hang out sometimes. I didn't really do that. It does seem like there aren't as many people as there otherwise would be, at least on my floor. There are a lot of empty rooms, especially for a while you could see people come and go from rooms or the name tags taken off the door 00:37:00or different people between fall and winter term and that was a little odd. Sorry, my roommate's back. Pretty much that.

CP: Are most of the rooms single occupancy?

LW: A lot of them are single occupancy. There's still a lot of doubles. I'm in a double, but I could think of many people, or quite a few rooms that are single occupancy.

CP: What kinds of protocols are you asked to follow in terms of are there specific rules that are being followed in the dorm right now Covid-related, like masks, for example? How are you able to-what's the level of freedom you have to move around?

LW: I'm trying to remember. I know you can't bring people from outside like the hall anywhere other than the lounge or the first floor. If you want to hang out 00:38:00from somebody from a different building you could go into the lounge with masks on and that's about it. I'm pretty sure you can move between floors, though, if you live in the building. All of this is with masks. I think the only place you don't have to wear masks is in your own dorm or if you're taking a shower and brushing your teeth in the bathroom. Then there's limits on how many people are allowed in different rooms. I don't think there is a limit to the people allowed in the bathroom. I'm not sure, but there is for little mini kitchen on the floor and for the lounge.

CP: So, if you step outside of your room into the hallway to go anywhere you must have a mask on before you leave your room?

LW: Yeah.

CP: Are the RAs playing a role in-I'm curious to know what the role the RAs are playing in the dorms.

LW: I'm not super sure. I mean, we definitely have gone to our RA for help a 00:39:00couple times but it really wasn't about Covid related things. I'm trying to think. I haven't seen too much of the RA like enforcing Covid rules. Mostly, we were in contact with him through email. He pretty much brings up anything that's been going on, like we've gotten emails like someone keeps slamming the door really late. Stop slamming the door. It's kind of general things.

CP: The rules are pretty well self-policed then, sounds like?

LW: I think so.

CP: You mentioned the dining halls. I'm curious to know what the protocol is there. It's hard to figure out when they're open, but if you do go to the dining hall what rules do you have to follow once you're in that space?

LW: Pretty much the same thing-masks the whole time. There's technically a limit 00:40:00to the amount of people allowed in the dining halls but it's a pretty big limit and I don't think it tends to be met, or at least it hasn't in a while. You're meant to stay six feet apart and social distance in lines and stuff but it's difficult because of the way it's set up where everything, all the different lines kind of intersect each other if they get long enough and all the different foot court areas are scattered around. It's mainly just the masks, honestly.

CP: What about when you sit down to eat or do people just get their food and leave?

LW: You get your food and leave. You can't sit down and eat. I know they tried that late fall term. It did not work. For a while people ate outside. I know I ate outside a little bit, like open air. But it got cold and now pretty much just take food back to the dorm.

CP: Once you've finished eating, what do you do with the container?

LW: You just throw it out. It's a recyclable container. I don't know. They end up piling up in my room sometimes.

CP: So you mentioned the robots, too, and they are an icon of this period of time. They didn't exist before this year. Tell us about the process of getting food from a robot. How does that work?

LW: It's pretty convenient. You order from your phone. There's a little app you get. You can order from the different dining halls. They're open at kind of weird hours, though. It will show a little map. It will alert you once the order's been received and the food has been prepared and the robot's been sent out and then it'll alert you when the robot's almost there. You go down to meet it, use your phone to unlock it, take the food out of it, use your phone to lock it again and it leaves. It's kind of cute, a little weird.

CP: How long does it usually take from the time you order to the time you get your food?

LW: It depends on where I'm ordering from. If it's from somewhere not nearby then 20 minutes, half an hour. If it's from somewhere pretty far away, 40 minutes. I don't think it's ever taken an hour. It's always been below an hour.

CP: You mentioned that there has been at least one outbreak on campus. This is not something that's been broadcast by the university, but they have to report the statistics, so the information kind of trickles out and you can put two and two together. It's known that there's been at least one outbreak, if not more than one. Have you experienced that on the ground, so to speak? I'm guessing there was communication about that. Can you tell us about that experience?

LW: We just got, because fall term they would alert you if traces of Covid had 00:43:00been found in your building. I think they tested the water. They'd alert you. You'd have to go get tested to make sure you didn't have it. I never had it. Then this term I think in week five, maybe in week six, we got a notice that was like, I don't remember what the email said but it boiled down to like there is more Covid on campus. You're going to start, everyone's going to be tested weekly. I just assumed, I don't know you don't start testing everyone weekly unless something's happened.

CP: How does that work? How does the required weekly testing work?

LW: Once a week you get an email on your phone. It comes with a little scannable thing. You have to go to a testing location at a certain range of days. You go down there. They scan your little barcode. You do the test. It's the little 00:44:00thing that goes up your nose and then within a few days they let you know whether or not you have Covid. I think they're supposed to call you if you have it but they just email you if you don't.

CP: This is the TRACE OSU project? Okay, and those locations are at Reser Stadium and I think behind the Kelley Engineering building, if I remember properly.

LW: Reser Stadium and Memorial Union, somewhere in Memorial Union.

CP: Okay. I have a question about space outside of your dorm, but I don't know about to what extent you have explored or not but I believe that Dixon has remained open. Is that correct?

LW: Dixon?

CP: Yeah.

LW: I have not been in. I think it's open, though.

CP: The MU also? Have you spent much or any time in the MU?

LW: I've been to the MU, especially fall term. It's just kind of nice to go in there. But I feel like fall term, or maybe in winter, you could eat, like 00:45:00physically take off your mask and eat in the MU in the very specific large dining area. I remember that being a thing. I don't know if it still is. Otherwise, people still have their masks on but it seemingly was one of the few places where people could just sit down and stay because there would always be people sitting and doing their work in there.

CP: Has there been any attempt at building community within the dorm or between students. Has the university tried to facilitate that at all?

LW: I think there has been. I don't know how much it's worked on me in particular but I know that other people, at least on my floor, interact. I see people watching movies a lot in the lounge with masks and stuff. I don't know 00:46:00how much that's through university efforts or just through people like meeting each other, though.

CP: It sounds like the trend has been fall was a little more relaxed than winter? On campus and then in the dorms?

LW: Yeah.

CP: Okay. Thank you. I want to switch to a different view where we can see everybody and I'll start asking questions of everybody. I think the first thing I want to do is a question I often ask towards the end of an interview but I want to ask it here to set some things up a little bit and that's to ask of each of you to describe what a typical day looks like for you know? A typical day during the "work week."

SK: I'll start. During the week my schedule is pretty variable across different 00:47:00days but I try to get up at 7:00 a.m. every morning. In the fall I did a whole sleep in until whenever you want to kind of a thing and that just really threw my schedule off. Now I try to get up at 7:00. Usually I just-I am an early bird because in the afternoon as soon as I hit the afternoon slump I'm just no use to anybody. I'm trying to sit in front of my computer at 9:00. I usually have my first class of the day at 10:00 so I try to get a little work done before that. Then I do the whole class thing. It depends on the day, what times my classes are, but I try to get work done sometimes during class as well and then in between them. It usually just consists of homework or doing other work stuff. 00:48:00Then, yeah, the latest class I have is actually from 4:00 to 6:00. Sometimes on those days I'm done by 2:00 and then I'll usually just be, like right now I'm knitting a blanket so I'll be knitting and watching TV. I have a pretty long wind down at the end of the day.

CP: How about you, Nico? What's a typical day like?

NE: Well, I get up almost every day at 9:00 during the week and then sometimes I'll have breakfast. Sometimes I'll just sit on my bed on my phone until class starts at 10:00. Then from 10:00 until about 4:00 or 5:00 I will either be in 00:49:00class or doing schoolwork. That's typically without, maybe with one break where I need to walk my dog or to have some lunch sometime around 2:00 because that's about when classes end for me. Then I eat dinner and read a book and then go to sleep and do it all again the next day [laughs]. On weekends I normally get up at like 11:00 but then I'm working until about 7:00 just getting stuff done.

CP: Luna?

LW: I don't know if you can hear the lawnmower behind me. I'm sorry about that. I also tend to get up at like 9:00 and then don't tend to get out of bed for a little while after that. Sometimes I do. It depends. My classes, I think on the days that I have classes they all start at 10:00 and then I just do my classes or classwork until usually about 12:00 or 1:00 because that's when my classes end. Then study or get food, whichever comes first there. Then, some days I have a weird, we have our class at 6:00 on some days that I'll do. I don't have a 00:51:00very good schedule. I tend to-the days and the times that I have really vary. It tends to be doing work or eating or my daily things trying to fit that around various classes. I tend to stay up kind of late, though, which isn't the best. Usually, I'll tend to do my work in the afternoon between classes or after classes, usually by like 8:00 or 9:00 I'm done with my stuff. I'm just going to watch shows or sit in bed or just relax in whatever way.

CP: Let's go back to Spring 2020. We've touched on this to a degree with Sydney's story about New Zealand and Nico's story about being sick and finals essentially not happening. The pandemic really hit right around the end of that 00:52:00winter term at OSU. Then faculty had one week to basically figure out how to teach online. I'm sure this was the case for you as well, Luna, in high school. Tell me about that experience of that transition academically. What were you experiencing from your professors who had to figure out how to do this in essentially one week?

LW: Obviously my professors were not at OSU. I was in high school at the time. It really varied. Again, there was no precedent for this. Some teachers were kind of like okay just turn in any late work. Otherwise, we're done and your grade's your grade. Some teachers tried to keep going. I was taking a couple AP classes and we hadn't done the AP tests yet, which was a huge part of AP and so 00:53:00the teachers didn't want to leave us hanging so we had one teacher that just recommended us to a series of videos of online test prep. Then one teacher that kind of kept trying to teach us concepts or made videos, video-recorded lectures that we were supposed to learn from. But we never managed to get to the actual AP testing, like test prep, part. That was not the best. We didn't really get to learn much about how the test itself functioned. We had to learn that on our own.

CP: Did you take the exam?

LW: I did. I was taking a couple AP. I was planning on taking three AP exams, one of them was an art portfolio that I didn't really change once Covid started. It was just smaller. I just turned that in. Then one of the tests I ended up not taking. I realized it wouldn't really add any credits for me. I ended up taking 00:54:00the AP, or Calculus AB, test, which I was not at all prepared for. I had to take it online. It was only two questions that had parts and with one of the questions I messed up the beginning and then just everything from there I messed up because I messed up the beginning. Did not get a good grade on that test.

CP: High school kind of stopped, it sounds like.

LW: Yeah.

CP: What about Sydney and Nico?

SK: My university in New Zealand, Lincoln University, was a pretty small school and the term started early February and they had some international students from China who couldn't even come to begin with. All the professors were already 00:55:00required to record all the lectures and post them online. They had done that before the term had started. When we shut down and we had that three-week break, I think every single one of my professors just posted all of those recordings that they already had. Then it was like, it was "do it at your own pace" kind of a thing. Then at the end I think two of my classes had exams, but they were, you got a week to do it and you could use any resources you wanted and so yeah. It was pretty much just do the best you can do. We're probably going to give you an A anyway.

CP: That was spring term? That was your academic experience spring term as well?

SK: Yeah. I didn't take classes at OSU in spring term, even though I was here. It was technically summer, or fall, semester since they're flipped. Yeah, that was that entire term it was just kind of do classes at your own pace. All the lectures are already posted online.

CP: Nico, what was it like for an engineer during spring term?

NE: Well, I have a lot of teachers in my extended family and so one of my aunts, and she teaches younger, but she talks about how all the students are the victims of Covid. I'm sorry can you guys hear that? That's, sorry. One second. Sorry, somebody keeps throwing a ball for my dog and he's making a lot of noise. 00:57:00Students are the victims and it wasn't to that extent at OSU that spring term, but it certainly was a lot more lenient. There were a lot of professors saying things like oh we completely understand that this is a strange time for all of us. Your needs might be changing. Your availability might be changing. A lot of professors had secondary midterms or finals, which was not, I mean they still do that this term just less this term. I think everybody was doing that spring term just because nobody knew [audio cuts out and freezes].

CP: We still see you, Nico. You froze up. Maybe you froze up again. Yeah. There he is. Can you see and hear us, Nico?

NE: Yeah, now I can. I'm sorry. I don't know where I cut off.

CP: I think you said something about a secondary midterm? Is that?

NE: Wow. That far back. Okay, yeah secondary midterm and secondary finals. All of the professors were doing that like having options at different times, different tests, making a second test. To an extent, that's continued to this term and last term. Certainly-

CP: Can you explain what that means? What is a secondary midterm or final?

NE: Well, in some cases a secondary midterm or final would be like they would have another option instead of taking a midterm or a final. That wasn't necessarily common. I think that might have been one class. In most cases, they would write a second test for both the midterm and final and have it at a completely separate time depending on the needs, because teachers were more accommodating to students who were in a different time zone during spring term. They were really prepared for that or trying to be. As I said, it's kind of carried over into these two terms but it's definitely not overwhelmingly so. 01:00:00It's not every class like it was during spring term.

CP: Has anybody taken a lab class in the last year and if so how does that work?

LW: I'm not sure if it qualifies. I think it does. I took astronomy, which had some labs. They were all do from home. Most of them were just mainly math based more. I'm sorry I don't know who's calling me. They're pretty easy to do from home. Mostly you had to do them on paper. There was only that involved actively going out and doing things. There was one you had to observe stars for multiple nights. That one was difficult because it involved going to multiple locations and it had to be locations with different amounts of light pollution and I don't 01:01:00have a car. I don't know anybody with a car and I didn't want to do public transit because of Covid. That was kind of stressful. I ended up just doing it when I went home at one point for a little while and I ended up doing it then. Otherwise, I assume that the labs were changed. I assume that they in person you would have had to do things in groups or with more actual interaction going on. They were just changed to paper labs.

CP: It's interesting to hear you talk about transportation, Luna, and how much of an issue that's emerged as. It's not something I thought of, but it's clearly a theme for you.

LW: Yeah. I was in the process of getting my license before all this started. Actually, I was starting when all this started and I kept learning how to drive 01:02:00with my parents because at the time when it started I was still in high school and I was living with my parents. I then failed the test and then had to go to college. I didn't really have time to do that anymore. I didn't have a car or people to practice with and so I still don't have my license yet and I'm hopefully going to deal with that over the summer but for now it's been difficult because I don't have my license and my friend doesn't have their license and also we don't want to go into other people's cars right now because of Covid. We took the bus at one point back in fall term and that was a mess because we hadn't taken any of the buses in Corvallis before and also it was just nerve-wracking. There was a guy that didn't have his mask on right. We were kind of like, what are our risks there? We didn't really want to talk to the guy. But at the same time he was just sitting there with his whole nose out. It 01:03:00was kind of stressful. It really got difficult when we ended up having a couple times now we've had to go to the emergency room, mostly because of my friend's allergies but also at one point I got a minor injury. We just had to Uber to the hospital because neither of us had cars and the first time we took an ambulance but after that we were like, wow, ambulances are expensive and we shouldn't do that. So, we've been taking Ubers to the hospital.

CP: Nico, any lab classes?

NE: Yeah, there was a micro-bio class that I took spring term. That one actually 01:04:00might have been online anyways, but it might not have been just a remote class but it might have also been online. No, it might have been remote. There was a lab section where you're supposed to learn proper lab technique during those labs as well. It's stuff like don't put your hand over the culture or special ways of marking your petri dish [audio cuts out and freezes]. Oh no my video is frozen again.

CP: Documenting the Zoom era for the future, as well.

NE: I'm back.

CP: We lost you at petri dish.

NE: Yes. Petri dish. I kind of stopped after petri dish because I noticed all of you kind of stopped moving on my end [laughs]. Petri dishes and obviously we didn't have it and oh, all the Bunsen burners that was also fun. But, we didn't have any of that stuff we had to cut it out like we were in first grade or something and tape the circles together [laughs]. It was, I think our Bunsen burner was a cone, just like a cone of paper sort of like the hat from, I don't know, the '70s. We would have to record ourselves using Zoom taking these paper tubes and putting them over our paper Bunsen burner and taking our pens and pretending it's our loop and flame the loop. Funny, strange things. Really 01:06:00inconvenient. It was really inconvenient. Then there were other aspects of the lab: supposed to identify different bacterial cultures and for that kind of stuff they had online simulations. That might have already been prepared. Maybe it's not for this class by this professor, but online simulations that exist. You click stuff and point at stuff and you follow the order of steps that need to happen in order to get your completion and then you screenshot your completion and sent the completion to them. That was my only lab lab. But I have a lot of studios and stuff. That's what they call them in engineering, which are recitations and lab groups and we work together in groups to complete an assignment. Those are pretty much the same. We have breakout rooms in Zoom and 01:07:00we work and you complete it and everybody has cameras on during that period of time. That's pretty much the same.

CP: How has group work been for people? Has it been harder or easier? Different?

SK: I find it incredibly awkward. It is one of the most awkward things. I tell this, it's not a joke, but it's a joke, of something happens to my computer when I click the breakout button. It just closes down the whole meeting, just because there is this like-I don't know, especially when nobody has cameras on-there's 01:08:00just this nobody wants to be there, and I feel like there's this dance you don't want to be the person that's participating too much and hounding everybody else but you also want to get the work done. When nobody's talking it's this super awkward I don't know what to do here. So, breakout rooms are definitely the bane of my existence. In general, I'm more of an individual work person. I don't love group work, but especially now. It's just ugh.

CP: Is that a shared sentiment with Nico and Luna?

LW: [Nods head yes].

NE: To an extent I feel the same way. I definitely am the one to break the 01:09:00silence and potentially over participate in a way. But I typically, if I'm with this group often enough, like five weeks, which is pretty normal for my class, I'll tell them, I'm like yeah so I don't like sitting in silence. I want to actually talk about this and do the assignment. If it ever gets to the point where you guys just want to stop hearing me talk, you can just tell me to shut up and I will and being very honest about that. But in the meantime, just going for it because yeah. Having that awkward silence is painful, sometimes. But also I sometimes just don't talk because I know there's a lot of introverts in my groups who just need to process it more before they share if they want to share 01:10:00and I try offer that opportunity to when it crosses that line to nothing's happening I think I have a pretty good grasp of that and like okay. I'll do it. But certainly for smaller groups, like some are less frequent groups that I had fall term and the teacher would send us to a random group every time. Silence was very common.

CP: I'm guessing that social ties are being maintained over Zoom, too, but maybe I'm wrong about that. I'm curious to know about how you're able to keep social connections going and if that is over Zoom if it's a different type of experience or if it's the same kind of awkwardness, Zoom oppression?

SK: I don't really do, I guess the whole Zoom, I don't set up meetings to talk with my friends. It's mostly through my phone, Snapchat or text or phone calls or Facetime or something like that. I know that in the fall for me one of my biggest social outlets is that I'm in the marching band and that didn't, well, it happened online this year and for several reasons I decided not to participate. I know that there are others that they did the whole band camp over Zoom and they were all playing over Zoom. I didn't participate in that and that was the right decision for me. It's mostly I think that Snapchat is my main method of communication because it's really easy to just send a picture of 01:12:00something to your friends and you can feel connected in that way.

LW: Yeah. I can't say that Zoom and breakout rooms and talking over Zoom works great for classes and for being able to-I listen to some of my classes like kind of keep up the atmosphere of discussion and interaction. But I never really used it for much beyond that. I used it for classes. I use it for meetings for more professional things. With friends I can't just use my phone. I don't know how Zoom meetings would work that involves a lot of planning. I can't say I've met too many people like through my classes that I've ended up talking to. I know 01:13:00last term we ended up, the seminar I did last term we ended up with a group chat and stuff and that was pretty cool. It's a little harder because everything you say in the Zoom chat or in the class Zoom chats, everyone's hearing it or at least the teacher can see it and it's like you're always, if you're talking to somebody, you're also being watched. It's just a little awkward.

NE: I definitely don't use Zoom for friends, hangout with friends. I find I don't-like I've hung out with groups less often. It's more like individual, maybe two max, two of my friends at the same time. We've found different platforms. Facetime is typical but depending on what we're doing I found several 01:14:00different types of apps that let you watch what other people are watching at the same time. So, Netflix parties probably one of them that you might have heard of. There's others that have more than Netflix, like Amazon Prime and stuff, that I've used occasionally. Certainly having it online makes it a lot, it puts a schedule on your meeting more so than if you're in person. I think if you're in person meeting with friends in-person people tend to allot more time for themselves. They give themselves the day, whereas if you're online or if you're on Facetime they'll have a couple hours. Even if you're planning it as if you're going to hang out in person for a day you might only get a couple hours and then 01:15:00it's: okay I got to go. Life, physical life, non-virtual life still trumps your virtual existence.

SK: I find, too, something that brought up for me is I like to study in the library or the MU or something. Before there were oftentimes I would see a friend walking by and then they would come and sit down with me and we'd study together. There is none of that anymore, so I think maybe I talk to people less simply because I don't see them and then we go get lunch or whatever. There's none of that spontaneous-everything is really scheduled.

CP: Have people felt that there is-the type of communication is obviously different. As Nico mentions, it's harder to spend a lot of time with somebody in 01:16:00a virtual space than it is in person. Do you feel there has been an increase in the frequency of contact? Or has that decreased or been about the same with your friends?

SK: For me it's a big decrease. I find just in general I don't tend to reach out to people through my phone unless there's actually something to do and we're going to go meet somewhere. I'm just not a big texter or whatever. I don't really talk to people as much as I used to. I think that's okay because I wouldn't say I'm an introvert but I'm pretty okay with just spending time by myself.

CP: I saw a few nods that suggest maybe that's the case for others as well?

NE: Yeah. It's, sorry, hold on-

CP: Luna?

LW: Yeah?

CP: Do you concur with that? A little less contact?

LW: It cut out for me.

CP: Oh, we're just talking about the levels of contact that people are having socially at this point. You've had a lot of contact with at least one person, but-

LW: Yeah. I feel like my situation's a little unique there. Beyond me and my roommate I don't talk to other people that often. We've met a couple people on campus, my roommate's met people and I've started talking to them. We mostly 01:18:00text. I feel like I do tend to interact with people the most before Covid, so it's a little weird to try to compare. I'd say I definitely talk to people less, even just in daily life, because I don't leave my dorm that much and it's kind of hard to start texting people. I kind of wait for them.

CP: Sydney I was going to ask you about the band. I'm glad you brought that up. There was this virtual band camp. Did you hear anything about how that went?

SK: I did hear bits and pieces from a couple of my friends who are still in the band. It's difficult because we are somewhat of a pessimistic group, so we tend to like to point out the flaws in everything. Yeah, I heard that they even did like little marching things. They would have their computer or whatever set up 01:19:00in their living room or even in their backyard and then stand there in front of it and march back and forth in their living room and their backyard. I know that that was pretty awkward because they didn't do any shows. They didn't do any marching as a group. I know they ended up having, they had planned three in-person events that were just them all standing social distanced and then they were going to play. I believe they only got to do one of them and then the other two got canceled because they were concurrent with outbreaks in Oregon so they had to cancel it. Yeah, I know that for most of them that one performance was the highlight and I think it's because we aren't a music school. I would say most of the people in that band are not music majors. They're not there for the 01:20:00music. They're there for the social outlet. When you remove that even just being able to chit chat during rehearsal, when you remove that piece of it because you're all over Zoom it's a little bit kind of like what are we doing?

CP: I'm particularly interested to hear from the three of you about last summer. You're all Portland metro people and it was a notable summer for Portland metro. What are your memories of the big to-do or not in a couple blocks of downtown Portland and just your experience of summer in general. You've gone through this strange conclusion of the previous academic year in a summer that's probably less exciting than you would have hoped and you're also thinking about what awaits in the fall. Take us through the experience of Summer 2020.

NE: Summer 2020 early on, like right after school, probably maybe a month was a lot of nothing. I think I have two friends who we like to watch marathons together. I call it marathons but that's a very loose term. That implies one sitting and it's more like 24 very spread out sittings. In fact, I think it's been three months and we're in the middle of watching Avatar: the Last Airbender. But we are because there's something going on at any given point. We 01:22:00were doing a lot early on. Then I started working at Safeway, so I was an essential worker working from 2:30 a.m. to 11:00 filling out online orders, which there was a lot because of Covid. A lot of people didn't want to be coming in and they just wanted to be picking up stuff. The online department at Safeway just picked up a lot. I was there eight hours a day, five days a week. Obviously I was really tired because those were strange hours. I think that took up a lot of my time.

SK: That summer I was working for the archives a couple hours a week remotely, 01:23:00which was a total godsend. That summer I took the LSAT, the Law School Admissions Test. So, that test you have to study pretty hard for. I was working ten hours a week and then I was studying probably 20 to 30 hours a week for that test. Then I have a friend from high school who in high school we were inseparable and she lives down the street. After a while when we both realized that we weren't going out and seeing other people, we both got tested and so then when were both confirmed negative we started seeing only each other and we would go to the park and have a little picnic. We would get food and that was 01:24:00really, really nice because that was the first time I'd seen someone who wasn't my parents or my brother since I left New Zealand and so that was really nice.

I took the LSAT online which was, I had a really easy time with it. I'm a little bit convinced that my proctor, like the proctor, online proctor left at some point. I've heard nightmare stories about it where they shut down the test and the timer keeps going and that test is a quick, like it's 35 minutes for 40 questions or something per section. So, I've heard nightmares about that. There were a few times where I went downtown with my parents to get cocktails or something at an outside bar. One time it was during a Trump rally and so there 01:25:00were all these trucks driving past with these big Trump flags and they were yelling at people on the street and just harassing people. I'd say I was actually pretty busy that summer. I was also taking a couple classes online. I really tried to take it very seriously so that during the school year when I knew I wouldn't have much motivation I'd be able to take it easy.

LW: I think my summer was notably not interesting. My friend and I, the one I'm roommates with, we'd been planning on this forever and ended up living with them at their parents' house over the summer. It was pretty nice. Other than that, I did all the like registration stuff and registering for classes and preparing to 01:26:00go to OSU but I didn't really do a ton other than that. I wish I had more interesting things to say.

CP: It sounds like the political tumult didn't make much of an impact on this group here other than some people yelling at Sydney while she's having cocktails with her parents.

SK: [Smiles].

CP: Did that change at all over the fall with the election and into the early January with the Capital invasion? What are your reflections on that period of time? When you're in college you're so busy and so focused on what you're doing that the outside stuff maybe doesn't sink in quite as much. Is that a fair assessment?

LW: I mean, I was definitely trying to keep up with it. I was definitely stressed about it. It's like a pretty privileged point of view to say this but 01:27:00in my life it wasn't affecting me a lot at the time. I was mostly just doing my classes. I was distracted by the upcoming election. I remember being on a group chat of people from one of my fall term classes but the group chat was still going and all of us waiting for the election results. That's the only thing I remember.

NE: I am a pretty practical person, so I kept up with it. I kept myself informed. I voted and I did all that, but I wasn't hanging on to every twist and change in the thing. I don't think I watched any of the presidential debates because this year, or I guess, last year I knew that watching them wouldn't 01:28:00change my opinion and I'd probably just get really, really frustrated. I had too much schoolwork to be getting so wound up by stuff going on. I personally wasn't super involved in all of the drama that surrounded the thing. There was some internal extended family drama that went on. It's certainly probably going to continue, unfortunately. It's definitely going to change the family dynamic a little bit just because every Christmas, except for last Christmas, every Christmas we all are under the same roof for ten days, from Christmas until 01:29:00through New Years and then we go back to our separate places. I don't know how that's going to change because of what went on politically this year. I do know some friends who watched all of the debates and college friends who are living in apartments in Corvallis and who are really involved in it. I personally didn't want to be so angry and I knew it really wouldn't change anything personally or in my personal life.

SK: I would say probably out of the three of us I maybe was the most involved in it. I'm going to law school next fall and so that's kind of a big piece of my future and my path and so I wanted to stay up to date with it. Through all of 01:30:00it, I learned that a few of my uncles were Trump supporters and that was difficult because one of them in particular I really look up to. I think he's a really smart guy and so having these types of conversations with him was really difficult because I felt that we were at an impasse. That and then I think, too, when Ruth Bader Ginsberg passed away and they rushed through a Supreme Court nominee process that was also a pretty disheartening thing. I understand that Supreme Court is kind of a different animal than the rest of politics and I do have faith and belief in the Supreme Court and that those justices have devoted their lives to the law and that they will make decisions with the law's interest 01:31:00in mind, but it was really disheartening to see politics be so injected into that when that's an institution that I value as a legal institution that is unaffected by politics.

CP: Just a few minutes left here. We have vaccines now and they're making lots of them and eventually many of us will get them. The hope is that a year from now we will not have to be sitting in our bedrooms and staring at each other over Zoom. Life will hopefully get back to what it used to be in some respect. I'm curious to hear what you're going to take from this experience. When you reflect on this in the next few years or maybe 30 years from now, what do you 01:32:00think is going to stick with you from the pandemic experience?

NE: Well, in a joking, like a less serious, not quite joking, but certainly I've seen videos of telling your kids about oh you think you have it bad I lived through 2020 [laughs]. That's pretty funny and I think I'll probably keep that with me, but on a more serious note I think this might be one of the last times I'm living with my parents and living in such close quarters with my brother, because my brother's graduating this term. Soon he's going to be going off and 01:33:00finding his own place. I'm a third year and most of the time I'm living in Corvallis, so I'm planning to live in Corvallis next year. This is probably the last long stretch of time that I'm going to be living with my parents, which is a little bit sobering but also made this time special because it probably wouldn't have existed without Covid.

SK: I think throughout all of this kind of two different very cliché sayings keep running through my head. That's that anything can happen and this too shall pass. Because I think at the beginning there were so many times where I said, well, there's no way that that's going to happen, though, right? And then it happened. It was like, oh we'll be back by fall. There's no way it's going to go 01:34:00on for a whole year. And then that happened. Just being aware that anything can happen and to be prepared for that is really important and something I'll take forward. Then just that now we have vaccines. We're starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel. This too shall pass. You can get through anything if you can get through that year.

LW: I got to say I do definitely feel what Sydney's saying. I don't think anyone was expecting to get this for this to go on so long but also the absurdity of it when you think about it. We're doing remote classes with not leaving our houses and we're wearing masks everywhere. It's kind of funny to think about just how 01:35:00different it is. My main experience with it is probably other than like the stress of it, it kind of feels like a weird, kind of a gap year, but like I feel like and this fall if we are on campus that it'll be first year 2.0 because this is kind of a like a weird half first year. Yes, I'm living away from home and I'm officially in college but I'm doing it all virtually. I'm staying in this little room not really going anywhere, not really doing all the things that I was planning on doing when I got to college. I don't know, I feel like I'm going to remember it as chaotic but as this weird semi-gap year.

CP: Well, as they say, this is an experience that will not last forever, and I'm very glad that we've been able to share in this way and document a piece of it from your point of view. This is a really useful, potentially important couple of hours that we've spent together. I thank you, all three of you, for sharing your experience and allowing us to archive it. I think this is something that down the line other people are going to benefit from. Thank you very much.