On the East Coast it is mandatory to do a two-week quarantine when travelling between provinces. This meant despite only living two hours away, my roommates and I were forced to stay in our apartment for two weeks straight, uninterrupted. It is so strict you are not allowed to even go for walks. In total we were in our apartment for 336 hours. Although our apartment isn’t tiny, it is not the best suited for two weeks of group activities.
We moved back on the 11th of January. We really started off strong because we were excited to be reunited, but also, The Bachelor was on that night which gave us something to watch. The next couple days we were finding it hard to fill the time, so we started getting out of bed at noon, doing some form of exercise and then moving to the couch for the remainder of the day. Our couch is amazing, but towards the end of the two weeks it began to feel a little uncomfortable. Almost too worn in. Also, there was absolutely no reason for us to go to bed at 2am every night, but we did. We plowed through the Pirates of the Caribbean series in a few days. The good thing about those movies is that they don’t make me want to watch them all at once, so they were much easier to spread out over a few nights.
Laura and I forced Madeleine to watch Bridgerton. She ended up watching it all in one sitting. After that we were scavenging Crave for some shitty reality TV, and let me tell you, we made the best discovery ever. Temptation Island is a reality show where couples facing relationship issues separated and are faced with the temptation of hot singles. Then they are shown footage of their partners experience. Some remain loyal, but many don’t. I cannot recommend Temptation Island enough. Picture it as a mash up between Love Island, Survivor and The Bachelor. When you watch it, those references will all make sense. It brought light to our dark isolation. Something about Temptation Island I could not shake was how much the host looked like Chris Harrison. I caught myself constantly doing double-takes.
By the fifth day we were itching for fresh air. To counteract our angst, we took the screen off our living room windows and implemented a 10-minute fresh air break. We would stick our heads out the window and stare off into the abyss. The first time doing this was spiritual. Madeleine was on the verge of tears and I was also overwhelmed by emotion. You don’t realize what you have until it’s gone…
On the second Tuesday of our quarantine, we got news from the government we were going back into Red Phase. Although we weren’t able to leave our apartment or interact with anyone it made us all extremely upset. To cope, we got drunk. We didn’t drink too much at all during isolation, so it seemed fitting to drink our Red Phase sorrows away. It resulted in all of us getting too drunk, putting on full glam makeup, hair and outfits while we stood in our kitchen blasting music. It was a depressing sight but raised morale because we were all in the sadness together. No one cried though, so that’s cool.
On our tenth day of quarantine, we were required to get a COVID test. This was mine and Laura’s second COVID test and Madeleine’s first. We were all really excited to get some fresh air even though it was only a two-minute walk to the Student Centre. Madeleine woke up early and put on a cute outfit for the occasion. Although we didn’t get to see anyone, it was refreshing to interact with people. People being the health workers. I think this really shows how desperate we were getting.
To end off our quarantine right we definitely went out with a bang. We ordered take-out I think five nights in a row. We were determined to try every dinner restaurant in Sackville. We started off by attacking our Wednesday night hangovers with Joey’s and ended with noodles from Song’s. I definitely had enough food to make myself dinner for those nights but after approximately a week or so all the food in the cupboard begins to look gross, so take-out was the only viable option. We also had the mentality that we are never going to be in this situation again; coming back to Mount A for the last time and stuck together for two weeks straight.
Moral of the story, I love my roommates. I think I would have murdered almost anyone else. I also feel a weird sense of accomplishment because I managed to survive this quarantine without crying. Also, I did my part in ending the spread of COVID-19. Please isolate when you need to and don’t ruin this for us all.
My Twenty Somethings 