Janeth Carolina, an international student from Colombia who studies foundation program with the Grant holder of Azerbaijan Government Scholarship at Azerbaijan University of Languages, shares her main challenges about the COVID-19 and describes how quarantine period affects his student life. 1.  When and how did you receive the news about coronavirus? What was your first reaction? I heard about it on the news. In the beginning, I didn't think it would get so out of hand. I thought it would be more manageable than it has proven to be.   2. Was it your decision to stay in Azerbaijan during the pandemic time or it was too late you leave the country? (if yes, why?) I decided to stay in Azerbaijan. I thought there was no escaping this virus and it would probably be worse back home since the population is way bigger. I was also confident that the government here would aid us if needed (since we are on a state-funded scholarship program).   3. Your life in Azerbaijan during the pandemic. My life has been pretty much staying at home, attending online classes and going out only to get groceries.   4. Does your university supply you with online classes? Do you attend the online classes? What are the advantages and disadvantages of online classes? Yes, the university has provided online classes throughout the quarantine. They are quite easy to manage, I think since we are a small group.   The obvious advantage would be the time saved from not having to go to university. However, thinking about it in the case of this quarantine, online classes have proven to be a breath of fresh air for many students. Since it has given us a daily purpose when there is literally no escape from home. It has enabled us to keep in touch with classmates and teachers, which in turn provides us with a certain type of comfort that we are not alone and that things will go back to normal at some point. I am a firm believer in face to face education. I think that online classes are not for everybody and that most students cannot get any meaningful learning from them. Since now all of us take the lessons from our homes, it is easier to find distractions, to feel less energy and to not focus very well during lessons. We need to be disciplined and focused when we are taking these online classes. Unfortunately, this is not easy to do. In this type of education, it is also hard to carry out debates and discussions (especially when you have a large group). Another issue is that we are totally dependent on the internet connection, which is not always good.   5. Coronavirus: the pros and cons of keeping universities closed. The pros of keeping universities closed. As I stated in my previous answer, I do not think most people get meaningful learning from online classes, since the environment does not cooperate to keep the mind focused on studying. Students would benefit from the opening of the universities. They will be able to cramp up some review time and finish their exams.   However, the current situation will not allow us to do this in the near future. If we take the example of France, which opened their schools last week, we can see that this will inevitably lead to new cases of the virus. It would be practically impossible for the social distance in the universities and even in the metro and buses. I think a lot of the progress we see with the virus now, which was gained with the quarantine, could be undone if the government opens the schools too soon.   6. How do you spend your time now? Has anything changed in your daily routine? Hobbies before and during COVID-19 I mostly spend my time attending the online classes, reading, watching movies and talking to my family and friends on the phone. The most significant change in my routine is that I am not walking or exercising too much and that I am talking to my friends more.   7. Did you try to learn something new or discover your new skills during a lockdown? (yoga, studying new languages...) Not necessarily new hobbies, but I have returned to meditating almost daily (which I hadn’t done for quite a while), and I have tried to practice my Portuguese more.   8. What lesson have you learned from this pandemic? Please express the advantages and disadvantages of this situation The only advantage I can think of is that we have more time for self-reflection now, which is not necessarily good for everyone. We have more time to invest in our hobbies too.   However, I do not think this compensates for all the issues that have come from this pandemic. Just to give a few examples: all the livelihoods that have been utterly destroyed, all the countries which economies have fallen drastically, all the people that got stuck in some foreign country and unable to get home. Not to mention all the distrust and fear this virus has caused. All the mental health issues that will be derived from all of the above. I mean, I am also quite worried about the repercussions it will have for many years to come.   9. Comparison of the lockdown in home and host countries. I am from Colombia, in South America. The population in Colombia is five times the population in Azerbaijan, so obviously we have more cases of the virus. However, I think both governments have taken very similar precautions to try to slow the spread of the virus. I would say currently, the situation is quite similar in both places.   10. Your communication circle during the quarantine. I talk to my classmates and teachers every day, as well as my mother. And I keep in touch frequently with friends and my sister and father.   

Musa K Ceesay, an international student from the Republic of Gambia who is Grant holder of Azerbaijan Government Scholarship and studies bachelor at Baku Slavic University with the major of international relations shares his main challenges about the coronavirus and describes his student life in quarantine days. 1.  When and how did you receive the news about coronavirus? What was your first reaction? I first received the Coronavirus news in late February 2020. I got the information from our University class WhatsApp platform. My first reaction to the news wasn’t distressed because I wasn’t panic. 2. Was it your decision to stay in Azerbaijan during the pandemic time or it was too late you leave the country? (if yes, why?) It wasn’t my decision to neither stay in Azerbaijan nor should I leave for my country because the signed agreement was to visit my country once, every year. However, no one had ever thought of such pandemic would have emerged; therefore, my stay in Azerbaijan in this period is unconditional. 3. Your life in Azerbaijan during the pandemic. To be frank enough, my life in Azerbaijan during the pandemic wasn’t bad because I am not a good fan of going out regularly even back home. I like staying indoors when I have nothing important to do outside. 4. Does your university supply you with online classes? Do you attend the online classes? What are the advantages and disadvantages of online classes? Yes, my university was and still providing me with very active online classes. Yes, I attended almost every class provided for us. The advantages of online classes are as follows; 1. Accessibility to make research on a particular topic or assignment at any given time. 2. It’s easy for me to make an omission and addition to my research work whenever presentations are ongoing. 3. It saves my energy to and from the University. 4. I do have an absolute relaxation before and after the lessons. The disadvantages of online classes are as follows; 1. The number of network problems. 2. My inability to understand the complete explanations of Russian language to the expectation. 3. Unarranged time schedules for classes. 5. Coronavirus: the pros and cons of keeping universities closed. The pros of keeping universities closed. 1. It makes me start and finish whatever University works is given to me and on time. I go to bed anytime I’m exhausted. 2. Not bothering about waking up early. The cons of keeping universities closed. 1. University closure creates a little bit bored with me. 2. It keeps me in my house all day. 3. It distances me away from my friends, classmates and University staff. 6. How do you spend your time now? Has anything changed in your daily routine? Hobbies before and during COVID-19. I spend my time on revising my University materials, researching, cooking, talking with my friends and family members around the World on Social media and following current news around the World. Nothing has changed in my daily activities. My hobbies before and during COVID 19 remained the same. 7. Did you try to learn something new or discover your new skills during a lockdown? (yoga, studying new languages...) I was struggling and still trying so hard to have a complete understanding of my new language (Russian Language), to be comfortable learning with it just like the native speakers. 8. What lesson have you learned from this pandemic? Please express the advantages and disadvantages of this situation Advantage. I learned that no one is an island. Meaning, no country can stand alone without the assistance of other countries. Germany donated China about 130 Billion Euro for Corona Virus damage. Cuba as a country has sent many doctors around the world, including Italy, South Africa and Venezuela among the list to help and fight Coronavirus. Disadvantage. I learned the highest percentage of lives destruction of the twenty-first century, where more than 330,083 people to be exact have lost their lives throughout the world and about 5, 108, 943 have already been confirmed infected in more than 213 countries. 9. Comparison of the lockdown in home and host countries. The home would have been little better, I would have been together with my family, compared to the host country, where there’s no single relative except my very good friends and the entire University management who are like parents and perfect guidance to me. The host country is not bad, but family members back home would always be worried and sceptical about the situation and condition I am living in. 10. Your communication circle during the quarantine. My communication circle during quarantine was superbly good.  

  Mohammadreza Navab Motlagh Amir, an international student from Iran who studies foundation program at Baku Music Academy named after Uzeyir Hajibayli, shares his main challenges about the COVID-19 and describes how quarantine period affects his student life. 1. When and how did you receive the news about coronavirus? What was your first reaction? I learned about the coronavirus from the news, I did not worry so much, and I didn't think that it would be such a big problem. 2. Was it your decision to stay in Azerbaijan during pandemic time or it was too late to leave the country? (If yes, why?) It was my own decision to stay in Azerbaijan to be able to continue my lessons. I even had a chance to go back to my country during a pandemic, but I decided to stay and keep studying. 3. Your life in Azerbaijan during the pandemic. Of course, life got harder everywhere in the world during the pandemic, and there was no difference. But I think the government of Azerbaijan handled the problem well. And the most important thing was that I felt safe because both government and the people of Azerbaijan tried to fight this virus by keeping the streets and public places solitude. I stayed at home most of this time and had my online lessons and once in a while, I went shopping by getting permission. 4. Does your university supply you with online classes? Do you attend the online classes? What are advantages and disadvantages of online classes Yes, I had online classes during this time. Of course, normal classes are much better than online, especially for the fortepiano lessons. But it was really good that I still had the opportunity to work on my lessons with online classes. It's better to have online classes than no classes at all. And the teachers of Academy acted very responsibly at this time and that was a real satisfaction. 5. Coronavirus: the pros and cons of keeping universities closed. I think that whenever the government feels that it is safe to open universities they should be opened because it would help the morale of the students but only in the case of completely safe and under control. 6. How do you spend your time now? Has anything changed in your daily routine? Hobbies before and during COVID-19 Of course, my daily routine changed during the quarantine. I still do my practices and study, but I don't go out as I used to do. I started to read more books and be more active in social media, and my sleep routine also changed in a period, but I fixed it again. 7. Did you try to learn something new or discover your new skills during lockdown? (yoga, studying new languages...) I tried to work on my Russian language, but then I got busy with online classes. 8. What lesson have you learned from this pandemic? Please express Advantages and disadvantages of this situation During this time, I've learned that how social creatures we are and how we are helpless without each other and how we need and affect each other. Besides, we should love and help each other more and be kind to each other and value the moment that we are together. I've learned that it doesn't matter that what is our color or country or anything else, we are all humans and we should act kinder and help each other. 9. Comparison of the lockdown in home and host countries. In a simple comparison between my home and host countries at this time, my home country has much more population than Azerbaijan so it was really harder to control the situation there as Iran is a much bigger and more populated country. The most important thing was that most of the people in both countries tried to stay at home and be careful and I think that's the biggest help. Also, doctors and nurses of both countries risked their lives to fight the virus and it was a very brave and beautiful action of them. 10. Your communication circle during the quarantine. My communication circle during the quarantine was online communication with my teachers here, my friends, and my family in Iran. And 2 or 3 of my friends are here too.  

  Shashwata Roy, an international student from Bangladesh who studies foundation program at Azerbaijan Technology University shares his main challenges about the coronavirus and describes how he spend his student life during quarantine days.   1. When and how did you receive the news about coronavirus? What was your first reaction? The first we learned about Corona virus from online news portals. In the beginning, we thought that about ninety per cent of these fear was just online hoax and it was not going to be as much dangerous as a pandemic. 2. Was it your decision to stay in Azerbaijan during the pandemic time or it was too late to leave the country? (if yes, why?) It was too late to leave Azerbaijan and fly to our homeland. Because when we understood about its outbreak, then all flights had already been cancelled indefinitely. 3. Your life in Azerbaijan during the pandemic. We assumed that our life might be very difficult in Azerbaijan during the pandemic. Because all of our family members became jobless and it was quite impossible to bring our living expenses as well as the tuition fee to Azerbaijan. But our university continuously helped us financially in these cases. 4. Does your university supply you with online classes? Do you attend the online classes? What are the advantages and disadvantages of online classes? Yes, our university supplies us with online classes and every time we attend our lessons attentively. Although online classes are interesting and obviously a new experience for us, this system has some disadvantages. Especially for some foreign students like us. The first one is, we don't have any computer in our dormitory to participate lessons perfectly. We depend on mobile phones and these devices are not enough for understanding the speeches and presentations of our teachers clearly. Sometimes internet speed falls off during the lesson because of bad weather. Then it feels irritating. Secondly, we face some problems in the question-answer part of our classes, it seems like a sound pollution when many students speak together. We strongly believe that we could have learned better if we would have attended classes directly at the university. 5. Coronavirus: the pros and cons of keeping universities closed. Since surviving at any cost is the most significant necessity and right for human being and obviously it is more essential than education and any other thing, keeping universities closed is the best decision from the government. Actually nobody has any other choice. 6. How do you spend your time now? Has anything changed in your daily routine? Hobbies before and during COVID-19. We spend most of our time browsing internet, writing articles in several portals. Besides, we cook foods twice a day and also walk inside our hostel's territory. Before, we used to go jogging everyday all over the city. Sometimes we would go to tea-stalls. But during this lockdown period these habits of ours have changed. 7.  Did you try to learn something new or discover your new skills during a lockdown (yoga, studying new languages, etc.)? I have improved my skill of essay writing regarding various topics and sometimes we try to practice singing together. Of course we aren't professional. But it mitigates our stress. Also this lockdown is a good opportunity to improve our thinking capability. 8. What lesson have you learned from this pandemic? Please express the advantages and disadvantages of this situation. Although in reality, every relationship looks like a business transaction, but from this pandemic we have to learn that the world must emerge humanity and start to love and help each other unconditionally. Enhancement of domestic violence during the lockdown indicates that we are not really so tolerant, patient and gentle as we pretend to be. It is the time to measure the quantity of atrocity that we contain in our subconscious mind. In my opinion, nationalism is a misconception created from imagined reality. So both of Nationalism and Capitalism must be collapsed. We should learn the real definition of happiness as I can feel now what Alanis Obomsawin said. Humans can't survive eating money. 9. Comparison of the lockdown in home and host countries. Since we are Bangladeshi, our home country is Bangladesh. Our government has also locked down the whole land like Azerbaijan. It's still going on in Bangladesh. Nevertheless, people are getting infected and dying. Because there are about 180 million people live in a very small territory. So Resisting the spread is a tough job there. The government is also helpless. Because it's almost impossible to provide all the people with foodstuffs, when the farms, offices and transportation systems are closed. 10. Your communication circle during the quarantine. We always communicate with our family and friends via social media and phone. The rest time we keep connection with our teachers here. Besides, a security personnel is 24/7 there for us.