We asked for Lancs students’ lockdown habits

With graduation postponed and exams being cancelled, it’s safe to say that university has basically finished for the year. So, students suddenly have a lot more free time on their hands. So what have Lancaster University students been up to for the last two months?

Baking

You would think that if students returned home, mummy would be doing all of the cooking for them, right?

Although that may be true, lockdown has actually made students more productive (if they can find flour).

Here are some creations that students have been making:

Dalgona coffee, which has taken TikTok by storm.

@leslita92After seeing so many on my ##fyp I decided to try it 🙃 ##foryoupage ##coffeechallenge ##cloudcoffee ##instantcoffee ##icedcoffee♬ Coffee – BTS

Dalgona coffee, also known as ‘cloud coffee’ and ‘TikTok coffee’, is a kind of deconstructed coffee-based beverage. All you need to make it is four ingredients: instant coffee, sugar, water and milk.

Place 1 tablespoon each of instant coffee, sugar and boiling water into a bowl and whisk until it becomes fluffy, like a cloud. Pour milk into a cup and spoon the coffee froth onto the top.

Banana bread – everyone’s favourite comfort food.

It’s even better when you add chocolate chips to them, and bake them in cupcake cases (no, it isn’t so I feel less guilty about eating them!).

Yes, I realise that my presentation won’t get me onto Bake Off, but they taste so amazing and they’re healthier than normal cupcakes/muffins because mine have bananas in them!

Daily exercise

Does your family tune in to Joe Wicks’ PE Lessons every morning? Is your gym doing virtual fitness classes? Or maybe you have your own personal fitness equipment at home?

Many people are taking advantage of the outdoors, participating in the “Run 5, Donate 5, Nominate 5” Challenge, which consists of a 5km run, donating £5 to NHS Charities and then nominating 5 of their friends to do the same.

Or maybe you’re like me, who hasn’t run since high school.

Please don’t nominate me, I’d rather donate £10 to not have to do the run.

With a very reduced bus service in operation, some Lancaster students have resorted to buying a bicycle.

A second-year student told The Tab, “I bought a second-hand bike for about £80, I bought the bike for a number of reasons – with campus being deserted and with gyms being shut, buying a bike means that I’m still able to exercise. I also feel safer cycling into town as there are less cars on the road, rather than relying on public transport and potentially endangering myself and others.”

Gardens and green spaces

Remember when we were at uni and it used to rain every day?

Did you book some spontaneous trips with Ryanair, only for them to offer you a ‘refund’ in a form of a voucher?

Are you upsetti that you can’t eat some spaghetti in Italy? (or even buy some from the supermarket #pastagate)

Well now that we’re all stuck inside, the sun has finally decided to come out. And for the lucky ones who have access to a garden, the possibilities are (almost) endless.

The most obvious thing to do would be to sunbathe (since the sun has finally decided to come out!), but some students have even made a start on re-landscaping the garden after watching too many episodes of Garden Rescue.

Next time you go out on your essential trip to the shops, why not spruce up your garden with some more plants and flowers? Just don’t let Ellen know that the garden centres are supposed to be reopening this week, because she’ll buy another camellia tree.

An unofficial Animal Crossing society

With Nintendo Switches being snapped up left, right and centre, a group of Lancaster University students have launched their own Animal Crossing society.

One of the features in Animal Crossing New Horizons is the ability to create your own personalised clothes, so a Lancaster student had the idea of recreating the Sport Lancaster hoodie, as you do.

Quarantine Quizzes

During lockdown, County College live streamed their first ever quarantine quiz.

After its success, they’ve continued to entertain us week after week, giving us an excuse to grab a drink and hang out (virtually) with our pals. They’ve recently started doing “Pointless”-style game nights, and they are offering a cash prize too!

Quarantine has also driven people to host their own quarantine quiz nights.

Laura, a second-year French student told The Tab: “I normally do a flat quiz with my housemates because I live in a townhouse.  We take turns setting the quiz depending on who loses but sometimes someone volunteers to do it! I’ve done quizzes via zoom the majority of the time.”

Online courses

A degree, but make it free.

Who knew that another form of procrastination is… doing part of a degree which isn’t related to your degree?

Harvard University has released a bunch of (free!!) online courses through the online learning platform edX. Currently, I’m doing Harvard’s CS50, which is an introductory Computer Science course. EdX encourages you to pay for a validated and verified certificate for each course you take, but some universities like Harvard actually give you a free certificate of completion at the end, so you don’t have to fork out £90 on a piece of paper to just so you can add it to your LinkedIn.

We’d really recommend taking a course that isn’t related to your degree! Yes, I didn’t take the easy way out, and yes, it’s more difficult than I thought it would be, but I’m really enjoying it and it’s forced me to take a few steps back to reconsider different career paths for after I (eventually) graduate.

So, whether you’re topping up your tan or participating in quarantine quizzes, make the most of the time you have – it’ll be October before we know it.