This past week the only topic of conversation has been the coronavirus. It is the talk at your university where students are being put into quarantine, exams are being pushed back, and professors are missing classes. You are getting constant emails from your home university, your university here, and your program director about making sure you wash your hands and don't let anyone cough on you. Your father suggests you start looking for internships within the US for this summer instead of in Europe. Every conversation with fellow study abroad students is about the fear of possibly being sent home. Attitudes range from "no way it will happen" to "we will be back in the states by the end of the month." I am exhausted by the
unsure and the speculating and never want to hear the word coronavirus again yet every morning and evening and multiple times throughout the day I can't stop myself from googling "coronavirus france" and watch as news reports come in with the confirmed cases drastically rising every time.
When the coronavirus epidemic first hit Europe in Italy I was not concerned. I was traveling in Eastern Europe and wasn't keeping up on the news. I figured it couldn't be that bad right? On Monday I had received so many emails that I started looking into it. My university here in France (UGA) told any students who had been in Italy over vacation that they had to self-quarantine for 14 days since leaving Italy. On Monday almost a third of my class was not there. Two of my friends are in quarantine and haven't been in class all week. On Wednesday we got an email saying our midterms are pushed back a week due to the quarantines. On Thursday UGA released a new set of quarantines for if you have visited certain places within France. I am afraid to travel anywhere with the fear I won't be able to go to class the next week. France has been in stage 2 of the epidemic and are preparing to pass into stage 3. The government believes things will get worse before they get better. The question is how much worse?
I received an email from Iowa State saying that if France reaches a level 3 on the CDC travel advisory rating that would be when I would get sent home. Now we wait.
It has been difficult trying to focus on my life here while being so uncertain about what the future holds. I have midterms in two weeks and part of me thinks "why start studying if I won't even be here in two weeks" but the other part of me knows that is not the right attitude to have in this situation. I have been trying to continue on with life as normal but that is difficult when you feel like your life could be upended at any moment. I am getting texts from friends and family on the daily asking if I am still alive. It has been crazy being here living through this and when I left in January something like this happening never crossed my mind. But everything is out of my hands now. I am just going to take in everything here while I can and just wait and see what happens.
Now on to more cheery things:
This week my host family was gone visiting family so I had the apartment to myself for the week. It was nice to have some alone time and getting to cook. I cooked up some American food that I was missing and it really hit the spot. I watched a lot of movies and just chilled and relaxed for most of the week. It was much needed after the chaos of backpacking the week before. My friends and I had a pancake night because we were all missing American pancakes. It was a blast.
The host fam took Sauri with them so I had to go two weeks without seeing him! It was tragic but we are reunited now so no worries
