As our admissions team has moved to remote working, our students have moved to remote learning—to their campus-adjacent apartments in Medford and Somerville, and their homes around the world. Last week, you may have read some of our office’s recommendations on how we’re keeping busy in the age of physical distancing. In this blog, you can hear from some of our favorite students on campus—our tour guides—on how they’ve been spending their spring semester from home. Though they’re not on the Hill to show you around campus, you can also preview their tours from your own home.
Alekya Menta ’21, Biopsychology
- Watching: (Rewatching) Sherlock
- Reading: Life as we Know It by Michael Bérubé
- Laughing at: Myself trying (and failing!) to exercise with my athlete sister during quarantine
- Listening to: the podcast “Dr. Death”
- Eating/drinking: LOTS of Utz Red Hot Potato Chips
- Learning: How to use R for my research project through the Laidlaw Scholars program!
- Enjoying: Spending time with my family and going on walks with my dad
Amy Kaplan ‘21, Community Health and Economics
- Watching: Little Fires Everywhere on Hulu with my mom (we both read the book first)
- Reading: The Round House by Louise Erdrich
- Laughing at: “Saturday Night Live at Home” and “Last Week Tonight with John Oliver”
- Listening to: The podcast, “What the Health?”, which one of my favorite professors assigned as homework 2 years ago...I’ve been a weekly listener ever since
- Eating/drinking: Shakshuka brunches, inspired by my trip to Israel with Tufts Hillel
- Learning: How hospital infrastructure is changing during coronavirus for my Hospital Systems class
- Enjoying: Playing board games with my family! Killer Bunnies, Settlers of Catan, and Ticket to Ride are our current favorites.
Brigitte Wilson ‘22, Clinical Psychology and French
- Watching: New Girl with my dogs
- Reading: Lady in the Lake by Laura Lippman
- Laughing at: My dogs fighting over bones every day out of extreme boredom
- Listening to: Luke Combs!
- Eating/drinking: Nachos with avocado
- Learning: About the improved executive functioning skills in bilingual individuals for my Origins of Cognition class
- Enjoying: Time with extended family!
Emily Lazorchak ‘21, Biology and Spanish, German minor
- Watching: Introducing my family to “Glee”
- Reading: Me by Elton John
- Laughing at: Zoom Memes for Self Quaranteens
- Listening to: The Jonas Brothers (who knew they had so much music??)
- Eating/drinking: Working on trying out more plant-based recipes – a goal I’ve had for a while, and now I have some time to experiment!
- Learning: Adobe InDesign, with the help of LinkedIn Learning from Tufts
- Enjoying: Morning runs and improvised home workouts!
Hana Tzou ’23, English and Film and Media Studies
- Watching: too much fashion reality TV (Next in Fashion, Making the Cut, Project Runway)
- Reading: lots of guilty pleasure young adult romance novels (my best friend and I started a book club!)
- Laughing at: my Tufts friends on our weekly zoom calls
- Listening to: the podcast My Favorite Murder
- Eating/drinking: so many eggs, so much coffee
- Learning: from my Dance and the Hollywood Musical classmates as they (and I) give our final presentations
- Enjoying: art journaling, spring sunshine, National Poetry Writing Month, hikes in the hills
Kingsley Udoyi ’20, Computer Science
- Watching: Insecure (HBO), WestWorld (HBO – Just started)
- Laughing at: Conversations that I have with my family everyday
- Listening to: “Sky Walker” by Miguel
- Eating/drinking: Curry that my housemate made for me
- Learning: How to maintain mental health while online learning
- Enjoying: De-stressing each day with housemate and watching movies
Luke Isayiw ‘23, Biomedical Engineering, Math minor
- Watching: The Magicians on a Netflix binge
- Laughing at: Weekly Zoom calls with the swim and dive team (@tuftsswimdive)
- Listening to: Neotheater AJR album
- Eating/drinking: My mom's best home cooked meals
- Learning: Some python coding with my raspberry pi
- Enjoying: Watching movies with my family every night
Maddie Stewart ‘20, International Relations and Spanish
- Watching: Homeland by myself, Brooklyn 99 with my housemates for our weekly catch-ups and Zoey's Extraordinary Playlist with my mom.
- Reading: Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman and The Alice Network by Kate Quinn (Thank you Boston Public Library E-Card!)
- Laughing at: the banter between my three younger brothers. They crack me up!
- Listening to: The Greatest Showman movie soundtrack. Hugh Jackman can do it all!
- Eating/drinking: chocolate chip banana bread and passionfruit La Croix
- Learning: outside of my academic classes, I'm learning calligraphy
- Enjoying: Hunger Games simulations done over zoom from my couch
Meredith Long ‘22, International Relations
- Watching: All American
- Reading: Little Women by Louisa May Alcott
- Laughing at: Too many TikToks
- Listening to: From Michigan with Love by Quinn XCII
- Eating/drinking: Iced Coffee to stay awake and focused
- Learning: How to bake and cook for off-campus living next year
- Enjoying: Spending time with my dog :)
Neha Ratnapuri ‘23, Psychology and Civic Studies
- (Re)Watching: Parks and Rec
- Reading: Daughters of Shame by Jasvinder Sanghera
- Laughing at: Episodes of The Office (which I am watching for the one hundredth time)
- Listening to: SiR's album "Chasing Summer"
- Eating/drinking: My mom's delicious cooking :))
- Learning: How to stay fit by attempting keep up with my sister during our daily workouts
- Enjoying: Dancing with my mom <3 and the many group FaceTime calls with my friends :)
Nina Pittas ’21, Biomedical Engineering
- Watching: “Schitt’s Creek” -- have the final episode left to watch!
- Reading: Da Vinci Code, by Dan Brown
- Laughing at: family zoom calls
- Listening to: lots of John Mayer for chill vibes
- Eating/drinking: lots of vegetarian recipes with my sister!
- Learning: how to survive as an extrovert in an introvert’s world
- Enjoying: daily runs with my dad
Olivia Ng ‘20, Community Health and Computer Science
- Watching: Parasite, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel
- Reading: Normal People by Sally Rooney, Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
- Laughing at: Trevor Noah’s Daily Social Distancing Show and John Krasinski’s Some Good News
- Listening to: NYTimes The Daily podcast, Oh Wonder
- Eating/drinking: Focaccia bread, my own french press coffee, Dewick takeout because I’m still around campus!
- Learning: about menstrual hygiene management in Nepal for my Water Sanitation and Hygiene senior seminar! Also learning how to spend more time with myself.
- Enjoying: drawing (shameless plug check out @_notably), lying on the Prez Lawn 6 ft. away from people when it’s sunny out, reading because I never have the time to do that during the normal school year, and weekly zoom meetings with SYNS, a club where we talk about random things we’re interested in.
Ria Lalwani '22, Economics, Finance minor
- Watching: Next in Fashion with my parents and sister! We're obsessed
- (Re)Reading: the Harry Potter series
- Laughing at: My friends over Zoom <3
- Listening to: Heartbreak Weather by Niall Horan! (Yes, I'm still obsessed with One Direction)
- Eating/drinking: Lots of fun new recipes! Recent favorites have been homemade hummus and vanilla-pumpkin cupcakes
- Learning: New dance routines by taking virtual classes
- Enjoying: Spending time with my family and dog