Uncertain Times and Online Classes — Experiencing a Global Issue First Hand

by Guinevere Caswell.

I am currently in Massachusetts but started my spring semester in Heredia, Costa Rica as a Freshman student.

I arrived in Costa Rica back in January expecting a normal semester and knowing nothing about COVID-19. As the weeks went on, I began hearing more about it on the Spanish news channels my host family always watched, and then we began to talk about the virus in our classes too. As we were one of the last centers to be affected and sent home, we first experienced the fallout of the virus when two other centers, first China and then Italy, were evacuated. We grieved with the students from those centers and even welcomed one student who had been in Taiwan to our center in Heredia. However, in Costa Rica there was still little worry or cases, and in a way, we still felt like it would never affect us. As the weeks went on, COVID-19 started getting worse across the world, and worry slowly started to creep in. This eventually culminated in the middle of March, when Costa Rica decided to close its borders to tourists. At this point, many students decided it would be safer to head home and weather through the pandemic with their families. Unfortunately, this event happened to be in the middle of our two-week research projects, which were a big important part of our semester, and which many of us were really enjoying. This was definitely disheartening for us all, and it caused a lot of stress. I stayed in Costa Rica for as long as possible, but considering we live with host families, we wanted to make sure they were as safe as possible. In the end, it was better for everyone to head home and continue the semester with online classes. Thankfully, I had a lot of warning for this, so I had a week in our home-base of Heredia to say goodbye to the city, visit my favourite restaurants, spend time with friends and classmates before we were separated, and to also spend a lot of time with my host family. I am very grateful to have had that week, as many departures due to the virus were a lot more sudden. When I left Costa Rica everything had still been open, but I arrived home to Massachusetts in the middle of a lock-down. It was almost surreal driving home from the airport, and seeing barely anyone on the streets. I did a self-imposed quarantine for two weeks, but thankfully, living in a rural area, I was able to go outside as well. I had never taken live online classes before, so they were a bit strange getting used to, but they were also a welcome distraction from being stuck inside with nothing to do. Our professors were amazing and accommodating and made sure to check in on us, and that was wonderful after having gone through a very stressful few weeks. Online classes definitely made me appreciate more how much I enjoy a class in person, and also the experiential learning aspect of LIU Global, which I think I will never take for granted after this experience. Online classes were very difficult at times, but it also felt nice to have a community I could see every day (even if only virtually) in the middle of these uncertain times. Although being sent home due to COVID-19 and missing out on many opportunities was definitely upsetting and disappointing, we have to remember that this pandemic is affecting everyone in the world right now. I am personally grateful to be healthy, and hopeful that conditions will improve across the world soon so that everything can go back to normal. Although it was cut short, I had a wonderful second semester in Costa Rica, and I am grateful for every second of it. As a program that majors in Global Studies, we got to experience first-hand how globalization and a global pandemic affect all aspects of the world.