Greetings from

GREETINGS FROM MACAU

My name is Tiffany and I was a Bachelor’s student of Architecture, Urbanism and Building science in TU/e. From September 2017 to July 2020 I studied and lived in the Netherlands. I would like to share my experiences under coronavirus measures in Eindhoven.

Avian influenza or swine flu was not new to me. In Macau where I live, warnings and measures are taken almost every year; Influenza viruses are almost as seasonal as typhoons. Therefore, measures and protection to contagious flus are a part of the basic knowledge. From the first SARS virus crisis in 2003, we learned to keep our practices in order to prevent any unnecessary consequences.

At the beginning of the year, Covid-19 appeared but nobody seemed to pay much attention because we wouldn’t expect it to spread all the way from the other side of the globe. In early March, the virus was no longer a story but a fact alerting the whole of Europe. My instinct kicked in immediately and I prepared a lot of masks in order to ease my worries. I might be considered as too sensitive, but as an international student in an unfamiliar environment it is necessary to be cautious and adaptive to different situations, especially when knowing the worst scenarios might be one of the biggest potential threats to individual and public health. I personally struggled when in public because we cannot fully see each other’s face and read each other’s expressions. Therefore I sometimes felt that I needed to be a bit more expressive with my eyes and voice tone in order to convey a clearer message. The biggest challenge for me as a student was the online transition of all educational activities. Even more so because of the short time in which it happened. Although there were usually some supplemental resources provided by the courses, it was still uneasy to adapt. I was uneasy with applying this new style of learning and preparing. Studying from home became compulsory and the livestream format was not fully developed. Both academics and students may have felt the lack of training needed for quality online education. In team projects, a lot of students encountered difficulties with studying online, considering many students might be experiencing feelings of isolation caused by a lack of face-to-face interaction and social experience. However, I would still like to thank the university for their best efforts to guide teachers and provide students with detailed and updated information to help tackle the current situation from time to time.

A problem that concerned me was the local public response to the pandemic. I noticed that the majority of people in Eindhoven were reluctant to wear face coverings. At first, social distancing was not mandatory. Therefore I felt rather awkward and frustrated when trying to follow the safety guidelines in public. In general I perceive people here as less willing to comply with guidelines than the people in Macau, but I hope that everyone can realize that their decision can cause a very striking influence to the Netherlands on recovering and returning to prosperity.