“I Did Not Realize How Doomsday It Was Until I Came Home”: Study Abroad Students Recount Their Homecoming Experiences
Abby Hauer ’21 spent some of her last few days abroad trekking through the Himalayas. Photo courtesy of Abby Hauer
By Gauri Mangala, Managing Editor
Stuck on a three-day trek through the Himalayas, Abby Hauer ‘21 was on a bus, stopped on the side of the road due to a landslide, as she organized plans to return home from her study abroad program in Nepal. Hauer’s mother had called her before the trip asking for her to come home as the situation was only getting worse and flights out of Nepal were beginning to be cancelled.
Soon after Hauer made the decision to book a flight back to Kathmandu and find a way home from there, her program was cancelled, and Hauer scrambled to find enough service to book a flight home. Everything that was available would suddenly disappear when she attempted to book a seat and more and more airports were cancelling flights.
“So the last flight that was available on the 20th, the day that they said to leave because we may not be able to get out, was a flight through Qatar Airways, a business class seat for 6,000 dollars,” she said.
Hauer begrudgingly booked the flight. She said goodbye to her host family and embarked on a 30-hour journey to return home. While traveling, Hauer was contacted by CGE about her travel plans and to make sure she was okay.
“CGE has been great and they’ve helped me a ton and they may even try to help me get a little more funding,” said Hauer, noting that, all told, her study abroad experience is going to cost almost $10,000.
Not every study abroad student feels this way about communication with CGE. It was 12:30 in the morning on Thursday, March 12 when Rachel Wert ‘21 received word from her study abroad program in Denmark that she would be sent home. The Danish Prime Minister had announced only hours prior that all schools and non-essential businesses would be closing for at least two weeks.
“I feel as though the College and CGE were slow to respond to this situation,” said Wert. “Having my program canceled and having to leave my host family within a week was stressful enough. When the travel ban with Europe was announced, why did the college wait almost two days to send students home?”
Wert spent three hours on the phone with an airline company to find a flight home. She found that her original ticket was nontransferable and had to purchase a new ticket. With so many people in Europe attempting to fly home after President Trump announced a ban on European travelers entering the United States European travel ban announcement (which ended up exempting U.S. citizens), the cost of plane tickets had skyrocketed, Wert said.
With the ever-changing news, students have had to prematurely say goodbye to the friends, professors, host families, and communities that they have called home for the past couple of months.
Kevin Isky ‘21, who was studying abroad in Aix-en-Provence, France, was shaken by the abrupt end to his experience.
“I pack[ed] up the dozens of drawings and paintings I made at the Marschutz School of Art. That was a very sobering moment. Putting away all the supplies, emptying my locker, waving goodbye to the few remaining students and professors was heart wrenching. I became so close with all of them and knowing I’ll never see any of them again tore at my heart,” remarked Isky.
Isky heard from CGE soon after French President Emmanuel Macron announced that all schools, colleges, and universities would be closing. He is disappointed that his time abroad was cut short. For many studying abroad, this presented a unique opportunity for students, one that they are unsure when they could have again.
“As of now, studying abroad in Aix en Provence has exceeded my highest preconceptions. My time here was incredible and I achieved more than I thought was possible. That being said, I do want more time,” Isky said, still abroad at the time. “As a junior I am robbed of a better time to study abroad. I may have fall semester of senior year available to go abroad but I believe that time is better spent at Gettysburg with my professors, friends, and brothers at Sigma Chi.”
Students are now experiencing a form of reverse culture shock. While they embarked on a journey to new cultures, experiences, and adventures, they now have returned to a home that is very different from the one they left.
“I did not realize how Doomsday it was until I came home,” said Maci Mark ‘21, who had been studying abroad in Cairo. “In Egypt we didn’t really get the news of how bad coronavirus was – that it was spreading in other places. I didn’t even realize how bad it was until like, middle of February. My dad’s like, ‘you know, your spring break camp plans might be canceled … you might have to come home soon.’ And that’s when people started being recalled. But coming here, it’s very Doomsday in California.”
The chaos of Mark’s departure was compounded by wild weather conditions on the ground in Cairo unrelated to the coronavirus.
“It was pretty surreal because that weekend we also had a sandstorm and rainstorm at the same time. So we actually lost power for two days,” they said. “So, it was really apocalyptic just in general. And so then you don’t see anyone for two days you’re just stuck in your room because you can’t go out, there’s no water or power or anything. But then all of a sudden, there were announcements in a international student group chat, like ‘oh, I’m going home’ and in the span of one day students were recalled by the university.”
Like many homecomers, Mark is currently on a fourteen day quarantine.
Meanwhile, students that have returned home — like their peers who planned to be on campus for the entirety of the semester — are adapting to remote learning. Many Gettysburg students will have to maintain their language studies with having anyone around to speak with. Similar to Gettysburg students that were on-campus this semester, abroad students will learn with combinations of recorded lectures and video calls.
“I honestly am excited to start classes again as a way to stay engaged with those I met abroad,” said Wert. “With that being said however, most of my classes will be pre-recorded due to the time difference. I have two classes that I feel will be particularly difficult to participate in remotely. My Danish class is centered around speaking Danish with other class members. It is also going to be very hard to learn the language when I do not have a native speaker to ask my questions to and hear the language spoken every day around me.”
Features Editor Jane Fitzpatrick contributed to this report.
