A Day in the Life: Gamma Xi's Fall Quarter Across the World
Written by: Ursula Roscigno
The historically odd nature of SCU’s fall quarter online has the brothers of Gamma Xi spread across lots of different places and lots of different timezones. However, despite these differing timezones, we still all operate on the same PST based class schedules. Here are the daily routines of some of our bros and how they make the most of the time table they’re given.
Sophia Lapus: Manila, Philippines (15 hours ahead of PST)
My mornings start with a 4:45 AM alarm. The hardest thing about doing school online is the 15 hour time difference between the Philippines and California, but I am really happy to be home. The first thing I do is put my workout clothes on and drink warm water to slowly wake myself up. My first class is at 5 AM, the sun isn’t even up.
After class, I make myself a nice iced latte and sit in my living room as the sun rises while playing my “soft morning” playlist to set the tone for the day. At around 7:30 AM I head to the gym and either do a spin class or HIIT workout, I’ll sometimes do a zoom workout with my friends! After that it’s more zoom meetings and class.
The good thing about having class so early in the morning is that by noon I am usually done with most of my zoom commitments and I have the rest of my day to enjoy things like painting, taking walks around my neighborhood, and catching up with friends. I’ll usually try to take a nap in the late afternoon before getting the rest of my work done. Then I go to bed and do it all over again.
Ursula Roscigno: Rome, Italy (9 hours ahead of PST)
My day usually starts at 10:00am with two espressos and an absurd amount of TikTok. At around 11:00am, I get ready and leave the house to run any errands or just head to the center to go for a walk. I try not to spend too much time outside because of COVID, but I do love getting out during the fall season because the weather is PERFECT (always with my mask of course). I also take this time to take pictures of my incredibly beautiful and photogenic city while it’s not flooded with tourists.
At around 1:30pm I’ll get home and make lunch for my Mom while we jam out to some tunes. Then, depending on how much of a mess we’ve made, we’ll either spend the next hour after lunch cleaning or watching a murder mystery case on Netflix.
At around 3:00pm I finally manage to get myself to do some homework for school and some work for my remote job which also operates in PST. My first class starts at 6:00pm and my last class ends at 11:00pm, so I usually try to squeeze some more homework time as well as dinner time within that range. Once my classes are finished, I’ll either grind out some last minute work, watch a TV show, or catch up with my friends who are in PST. Unless it’s a day where I have to either wake up or stay up for a 4:00am meeting, I’ll end my day at around 1 to 2 in the morning before starting all over again!
Easton Holland: Santa Clara, California (PST)
I have 8:00am classes MWF, so I find that it’s easiest to just stick to getting up at the same time all week. For me, that time is 7:30am. After my first class from 8:00-9:05am I will make a quick breakfast of scrambled eggs and toast, and then return to studying before my next class at 10:30am. Once that ends at 11:35, I hit the books once again until 1:00pm. I like to give myself a full hour to make/eat lunch, and will usually listen to a podcast as I eat.
From 2:00-6:00pm, every day varies but I will often fill the first part of this time with batched administrative tasks like checking my email, skimming the news, doing some laundry--essentially any tasks that are non urgent but important for the gears of life to continue running smoothly. Other non-academic to-do’s are also thrown in here. Sometimes I’ll go hit some balls at the driving range, go for a run, or just hang out. After dinner with my housemates, I will study some more and do my best to get to bed by a reasonable hour.
I’m not sure that the perfect day exists, but I try to appreciate the small things that make every day unique. Being on a rigid routine can speed up time and blend the days and weeks. Small wins, refreshing conversations, and funny moments seem to slow the time warp for me, but as Mark Manson bluntly states, “the vast majority of your life will be boring and not noteworthy, and that’s okay.”
Keli Santos: Honolulu, Hawaii (3 hours behind PST)
On an average day of zoom classes I set three alarms the night before, one at 6:50, 6:55 then 7:00, to ensure I wake up on time to make some breakfast, brush my teeth and get a few tiktoks in before my first class at 7:30 am. Being home in Hawaii the time difference, being 3 hours behind PST, isn’t that bad but, when it comes to scheduling meetings
I have made the mistake countless times of calculating the times wrong and showing up an hour late. After my first class I have a 3 hour break before my next set of classes so I do as much homework as I can or take a nap depending on my morning. I then continue through the rest of my classes with French and math in the afternoon. It is a pretty ideal schedule because I have the rest of the day free for getting lunch and hanging out with friends.
When the weather and waves are nice or I just need an escape from school my friends and I grab our surfboards and head to the beach for a 3 hour sunset surf session. It is the best time of day as the sun meets the horizon and the sky bursts with different colors. After, I grab dinner before grinding out all my homework. I usually finish my day with a nice shower and a late night snack, which I accompany with a few episodes of New Girl or browsing the never ending content on tik tok before I go to sleep around 12 am and do it all again
