College during the COVID19 Pandemic.
by Caitlin Epstein. Currently in Concord, North Carolina. I started the semester in Taiwan and was previously in Byron Bay, Australia.
The pandemic has become serious for people at different stages, but for me it became serious early on, way back in January when I was in Taiwan and still planning on living and studying in China from February to May. I started my 2020 off with a solo trip to Vietnam, blissfully unaware of a virus moving swiftly through central China. By the time I made it to Taiwan for a two-week intensive trip with LIU Global, the situation became pressing, and we began to doubt our ability to go to China as the infected and death rates went up by the day.
The virus dominated every conversation, and panic grew with the number of people out and about in Taipei wearing face masks.
On February 2nd, I got off of a plane in Gold Coast, Australia, upset that my semester in China had been derailed but happy in my naive belief that I had left the virus behind in Asia. I spent several weeks in Australia blissfully and blindly believing that I was untouchable in Byron Bay — I spent my days in class, at the beach, and in a yoga studio, taking life at a nice pace and embracing life in a country I never expected to live in. Then, in mid-March, everything caught up with us, and the group once again spiraled into panic over potentially having to leave Australia, not because the situation there was bad, but because our own country was on a dangerous path, and due to fears that because of further restrictions from the United States, airlines would be cutting their routes between Australia and the U.S. Cue us all rushing home on the soonest flights we could find that were somehow still within our budgets.
That mad rush home was nearly 10 days ago for me, and I have been taking it upon myself to quarantine in my house for a 14-day period despite a lack of direction from the U.S. government and its institutions. The panic surrounding the virus has followed me from Asia to Oceania and now back home to North America, and now it is a part of our daily lives.
However, I am pushing through the unease and doing my best to settle into a routine that includes my Zoom classes. It is a tough pill to swallow to have to go from incredible, experiential learning in Australia to Zoom classes from my dining room table in North Carolina, but fortunately, I have outstanding professors and staff from the Australia program that are making the transition easier. Our classes are typically 3 hours, once a week, but we have all agreed to cut down the classes from 3 hours at a time to 2 hours and to simply add on a class meeting for each class to make up for some lost time. This allowance definitely helps, as it can be hard to focus in front of a screen for hours on end, especially when our classes are in the evening to accommodate for wide-ranging time zones. Assignments have also been adjusted to ensure that everything can be done from home, as many assignments were originally supposed to be done in the Outback of Australia or Bali, Indonesia. Through all of the adjustments and technical difficulties, I am always excited to see my classmates’ faces, even if it is just through a screen. We have been through so much together, and have grown super close over these three years, so the time lost with them has been one of the most difficult parts of this disjointed semester.
Another challenge we face is simply adjusting back to being in the United States, which is made more difficult without being able to do the things here that we typically enjoy. For example, on breaks from school I typically fill my time with work, going to my kickboxing gym, watching sports, hanging out with friends, and eating out at restaurants that I missed while I was abroad. Now, I am back in the United States in the Spring for the first time in three years, and I am unable to do any of these things. As such, I am pushing myself to find creative outlets like painting or sewing, and do other daily activities like complete an online workout video, read a good book (I am currently reading Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie), go for a walk (while being sure that I stay far away from others), and enjoy time with my family and my classmate, Kendall, who is staying with us. I am trying to use these activities as a distraction from the madness, and from the way the U.S. government is handling the virus.
From Asia to Australia, I was able to see first-hand as well as read extensively about how governments were addressing the virus and doing everything they could to prevent its spread. Countries have instituted widespread and strict lockdowns, constructed hospitals nearly overnight, banned travel and entry into the country, and so much more to keep their citizens safe. Here, in the U.S., President Trump ignored the virus for weeks, and is now buried in projections that say that upwards of 200,000 people could die from the virus and that we could be facing an unemployment rate of over 30%, which would be higher than the unemployment rate during the Great Depression. It frustrates me that measures that have worked in other countries, especially widespread testing, have not been implemented here, and that many decisions are being left up to individual states. Due to a lack of a nationwide shutdown, many people are still out and about, endangering others with their refusal to social distance and self-isolate. I have not been more panicked this semester than I am in my own country, and I can only hope that stricter measures are implemented soon so this crisis does not stretch well into the Summer and beyond.
I am undoubtedly afraid, but I am trying to remain hopeful by reading stories of the good people are doing and by searching for ways that I can help others in this trying time. I am still within my 14 day quarantine period, so the best I have been able to do so far is pick up a couple of bags worth of trash in my neighborhood, but I have plans for when my quarantine period ends this coming Saturday — making an appointment to donate blood, offering my time to run errands for those that need it, and potentially making some headbands with buttons on them for healthcare workers that have sore and blistered ears from wearing masks day in and day out. Even if we can’t help out in larger ways, we can all do our part by staying in our homes and working to flatten that curve. This will not be forever — one day I will hug all of my classmates again, and the virus will hopefully be just a lesson and a memory.
