My eventful journey back home (Covid-19 edition)
It has been two weeks since I have come back to my home country, India. It feels very good to be back with my family during this crisis. Spring quarter has started and everything is remote. Classes and most other activities are hosted on zoom online. The first week has presented a lot of challenges and to be honest life has been difficult. But, before I discuss about my experience in this first week, I would like to talk about how my journey from the USA to India was filled with nervousness, disappointment, happiness and a rollercoaster of other emotions.
It was the 9th week of winter quarter when my housemates and I were discussing about the global COVID-19 situation. We worried about the state of China and Italy and were hoping these countries would recover soon. We had also heard that there were quite a few cases in the US and we wondered how long life in Santa Barbara would be normal. Come finals weeks, things were getting pretty stressful. On one hand, we would read news about the effects of this deadly virus and on the other we were worried about our final exams. Then came the chancellor’s email that all finals were going to be held online and UCSB was going to go remote for the spring quarter. It was a lot to process at first. I realized that things had become serious and I had to make some important decisions in the next few days. After talking to my parents, I decided to immediately go back to my home country as India was soon going to ban all incoming International flights. I knew that this decision was going to have some consequences but I was up for it. I had to miss one of my optional final exams, and had to be really careful in my journey as travelling was the perfect recipe to contract this virus.
After some last minute packing and bidding goodbye to my friends, I reached the Los Angeles airport only to realize that the struggle was not yet over. I learned that my flight which was via London had been cancelled. I was really disappointed. I immediately booked another flight which left on the next day and was via Newark. Fortunately I had relatives in Los Angeles, and I stayed at their place for the day. My on flight journey was filled with anxiety and I could hardly sleep. I tried to pass my time watching movies and listening to music. Every passenger who landed at Mumbai airport would undergo severe screening, where the officials checked your body temperature and whether you have any symptoms. If you didn’t show any symptoms, you could go to your house. Thankfully, it worked out in my favor. It was a big relief reaching home. Although I couldn’t hug my parents or my sister, I was immensely happy to see them safe. Well, it was a long and eventful journey but I reached home safe and that’s what mattered. Now I was ready to enjoy my spring break by self-isolating myself in a room for 14 days!
It was the 9th week of winter quarter when my housemates and I were discussing about the global COVID-19 situation. We worried about the state of China and Italy and were hoping these countries would recover soon. We had also heard that there were quite a few cases in the US and we wondered how long life in Santa Barbara would be normal. Come finals weeks, things were getting pretty stressful. On one hand, we would read news about the effects of this deadly virus and on the other we were worried about our final exams. Then came the chancellor’s email that all finals were going to be held online and UCSB was going to go remote for the spring quarter. It was a lot to process at first. I realized that things had become serious and I had to make some important decisions in the next few days. After talking to my parents, I decided to immediately go back to my home country as India was soon going to ban all incoming International flights. I knew that this decision was going to have some consequences but I was up for it. I had to miss one of my optional final exams, and had to be really careful in my journey as travelling was the perfect recipe to contract this virus.
After some last minute packing and bidding goodbye to my friends, I reached the Los Angeles airport only to realize that the struggle was not yet over. I learned that my flight which was via London had been cancelled. I was really disappointed. I immediately booked another flight which left on the next day and was via Newark. Fortunately I had relatives in Los Angeles, and I stayed at their place for the day. My on flight journey was filled with anxiety and I could hardly sleep. I tried to pass my time watching movies and listening to music. Every passenger who landed at Mumbai airport would undergo severe screening, where the officials checked your body temperature and whether you have any symptoms. If you didn’t show any symptoms, you could go to your house. Thankfully, it worked out in my favor. It was a big relief reaching home. Although I couldn’t hug my parents or my sister, I was immensely happy to see them safe. Well, it was a long and eventful journey but I reached home safe and that’s what mattered. Now I was ready to enjoy my spring break by self-isolating myself in a room for 14 days!
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