Prospective WUR student – September 2020
By Ester
My name is Ferran Melero, last year student in the BSc in Food Science & Technology at Universitat de Barcelona and future MSc student at Wageningen University.
Given the tough situation that we are living worldwide, preparing a great adventure such as studying abroad gets a bit more difficult, but I am really excited about starting a new chapter in my life. Luckily, I made the decision to apply to WUR before the outbreak. I was determined to keep it, although I don’t know if I am going to be able to start my studies this September 2020.
I live in Tiana, a little town on the outskirts of Barcelona. As you may know, my country is currently in lockdown, which means people are not supposed to leave their homes unless it is for groceries or walking their dogs (not going further than 400m from your place). All the shops and factories are closed except for the considered essential needs, which are food, medicine… Most people follow these restrictions but many other decides to go for a walk or do their groceries several times a day. Therefore, if you do not obey government guidelines, you will be fined (600 eu to 30.000 eu ) by the police if I get caught, or even sent to prison.
Nowadays, we are the second most affected European country by the COVID-19 right after Italy. The situation is quite critical. Spain National Healthcare System is overcrowded and they don’t have enough resources to solve the situation. Personally, I don’t think that the Spanish Government made the right choices to control the outbreak, especially after seeing other’s countries situations.
Panic buying results at supermarkets because of the global coronavirus pandemic (Barcelona)
Life now is way different as it used to be, given that nearly everybody stays at home. The streets are empty and quiet, and the pollution levels dropped drastically. However, this situation has spread a feeling of solidarity between most people, organizing sport events via social media or playing music in their balconies.
Lots of people are volunteering and they take care of old people, and some landlords aren’t demanding the rents this months. We are conscious that everybody is going through the same tough situation and we are only going to overcome it by working all together.
my family (aunt, uncle and mum) working for the medical assistance (Barcelona)
Personally, adapting to this new situation has been quite a challenge. I had just started my internship and now I am working from home and attending meetings online, and it’s a really different way of working. Both my parents are pharmacists and they are considered essential needs, so they keep working but adopting extreme safety measures, which is mentally exhausting.
In my opinion we should respect the preventive measures and the lockdown as it is the only way to solve this problem and help everyone who is working to keep us all safe.