Hello all,
As I am sure you have all heard, I am back home in Iowa. This blog will be all about the recap of March 9 through March 15. The week was a whirlwind of events and literally felt like it was changing constantly. The emotions from this week were all over the place and reflecting on them brings me this overwhelming sense of numbness.
On the morning of Monday, March 9th, my mom, sister, and I left our Paris Airbnb bright and early to take public transport to the train station where we then took our train from Paris to Brussels. When we arrived in Brussels we decided to take another train about 30 minutes outside of Brussels to see the Atomium. The Atomium was built for the World Fair in 1958 and it represents an iron crystal magnified 165 billion times. At the Atomium, some of the crystal balls are open for viewing and can be visited. In each crystal ball, there are different exhibits and in the top one, there is a 360-degree view of Brussels. After visiting the Atomium, we got three street waffles for lunch and headed to the airport. After flying back to Thessaloniki, we had to go retrieve my mom and sister’s bags from my dorm room and then travel to our Airbnb in the city. When arriving at our Airbnb it was the nicest one we had stayed at throughout the whole trip and it was luckily placed right across from one of my favorite dessert places in Thessaloniki. We took a quick trip there for a snack before bed.
(Atomium pictures; Street Waffles; Desserts from Thessaloniki)
On Tuesday, March 10th we decided to go to the acropolis of Thessaloniki to see the amazing views. Here we were able to see the monastery, visit the old city walls, drink some coffee at a restaurant that has a 360-degree view of Thessaloniki, and visit a church dedicated to Apostle Paul. After visiting the top of the city, we did some souvenir shopping, rode electric scooters, and got traditional Turkish massages. This was beyond my favorite part of the day, as I received one another time and it is extremely relaxing. After our Turkish massages, I got a message saying that there was a required dormitory meeting that night, leaving us just enough time to get some ice cream before heading back to campus. This is the night when Covid-19 started to make an impact on my study abroad career and education. At this meeting, it was announced that the Greek Health Organization was shutting down all Greek Educational Systems for two weeks to slow the spread of Covid-19. This meant that all of the Greek students had to leave the dorms that day or the next, which made for some sad “see you laters” which ended up being our goodbyes. After this meeting, we went to Thermi where we enjoyed our last Greek meal together before heading back to Thessaloniki.
(Monastery Pictures; St. Paul's Church; Castra Coffee)
On Wednesday morning, we got up super early and headed to the airport, where we said our goodbyes and I sent mom and Cortlyn back to the states. For me, Wednesday was a relaxing day, where I spent time washing my clothes, organizing my room, and just relaxing after a week of travel. A couple girls and I decided to go visit the local mall, which is the largest Mediterranean mall. It was very large with different stores and a large food court. It was a good way to relax and get our minds off of everything happening. We were then invited to supper at the American Farm School President’s house where we enjoyed what ended up being our last group dinner.
(Saying goodbyes)
Thursday morning at 4:00 a.m Greek time was a huge turning point for us American students. This is the time when President Trump announced that he was closing the borders for all European travel. I received a phone call from my mom and sister, where I went into panic along with other study abroad students and our study abroad coordinators. This is the point, where my feelings went numb because I came to the realization that my study abroad experience was coming to an end. After communicating with our study abroad coordinators and reading all of Trump’s speech we knew we had some time as we are American citizens. At 9 am our study abroad coordinators called a meeting where they informed us that we had to leave Greece and return to the United States by Sunday morning. This was pure chaos and panic as 25 study abroad students called home, which was about 1 am US time and informed their parents and bought tickets to return home. Some departed that day leaving no time for goodbyes. The rest of Thursday was filled with packing, doing last-minute shopping and eating at some of our favorite restaurants together. With what students were left we were able to go to a taverna and enjoy a traditional Greek meal together and talk with those who we may have not had the chance to bond with on the trip.
Friday morning, I woke up early and said some goodbyes to those whom I became very close with. We hugged, cried, and took some final pictures before sending them off to the airport. After taking some time to rest before restarting the day, we then headed to the city so we didn’t just sit and cry all day. We shopped a little, admired the sea and the view of Mt. Olympus, ate some yummy food, and just enjoyed each other's company. Afterward, we headed back to campus where we continued to finalize packing, talking, enjoying some final wine and beer we had leftover, and ordered some supper. On this night I struggled to sleep because I didn’t want my time in Greece to end. I didn’t want to leave this place. It just began to feel like home, I didn’t want to leave my new friendships, and more importantly, I wanted to finish out the experience like I was supposed to.
(Last sunset in Greece)
Saturday morning came way too fast, and I got up and got ready for a day full of travel. I drug my suitcases down the stairs, gave some last-minute hugs and headed for the airport. The Thessaloniki airport is very small and on an average day you could arrive less than an hour before your flight and make it on time, but not this morning. It took us, myself and two other girls, over an hour waiting in lines to check our bags and get our boarding passes before we could get to our gate. This was the very beginning of our very long and tedious day of travel. Once boarded on our flight to Munich, it was a quick and smooth flight. Once arriving in Munich it was simple to follow our signs and find our next gate, but due to the travel ban being in effect, to get to the United Airlines international gates, we had to go through an additional passport and boarding pass check and one individual in each group of travelers had to be searched again. It was just my luck that I was chosen to be checked. This check was very in-depth and took extra long as I had two carryon backpacks. After getting through security again, we found some comfy seats in a restaurant and grabbed something to snack on before our flight. We then boarded and started the 10-hour flight back to the United States. This flight had lots of turbulence especially right before landing due to the winter storm. After landing, I knew we had immigrations and a new CDC check but I was not expecting what we encountered.
Getting off the plane we got put into a large group of people, where we ended up waiting for 5 hours, weaving through lines of people as we waited to go through two passport checks and a CDC check. During this time, I decided to start a conversation with those around me. There were many study abroad students in the same boat as I was who were being sent home early, couples that were traveling, and others that were coming back from work opportunities. Everyone was exhausted and quite frankly by the end we all looked like walking zombies. Within the five hours of waiting, I was pleasantly surprised that there was no yelling at those working. Many had a sense of forgiveness for those working knowing they were doing everything they could to make this as smooth as possible. Talking to one of the workers, Saturday was their first day doing this and unfortunately, they had no idea how it would all work and the CDC was changing requirements hourly on what needed to be done creating more of a backup. I quickly learned that my flight was a combination of four flights crammed into one which caused a big chunk of the backup because all these people were supposed to come in 30-60 minutes apart instead of all at once. When talking to the immigration workers, one was on his 18th hour of work and was just asked to work another 8. He said that he occasionally got thirty-minute breaks for either food or a nap before returning. Another said that half of the night staff called in leaving them short-staffed. This situation was very stressful for them. Before leaving the group that I had talked to and created a bond with for five hours, I was told to tell my parents that they did a great job of raising me. An older couple that I was waiting with was surprised that not only myself but all the study abroad students stayed positive during this whole experience. We continued to try and put smiles on our faces and others even though we were dead tired, physically and mentally. We were upset, mad, and frustrated that we got our semester abroad torn from us but we pushed through. We knew that we are not the only ones struggling with that.
(Saying goodbye to my room; The line we waited in)
But with that being said, no we are not happy to be home. We are glad we are safe, but trust me we would rather be enjoying our once-in-a-lifetime experience with our new friends. We would rather be completing all of our travel plans we had set and our goals that we didn’t get to reach. We had so much time left, but yet we didn’t get to complete it. Something I have lived by going through this Covid-19 pandemic is that we all need to be compassionate. Everyone is being impacted and everyone’s feelings towards it are valid.
After five hours waiting in line, I was reunited with my family and we began our three-hour drive home. Initially, I was hyper and was not tired at all, but that quickly changed. We started our drive but pulled off to get food because we were all very hungry. After stopping at Wendy’s, because it was that or McDonalds, we got sandwiches and fries to which I ate my fries and crashed for all three hours home. I didn’t even eat my sandwich, which my dad found funny because I told him I was super hungry after traveling. Which I was, but I guess my need for sleep was stronger.
Sunday morning came and I was completely numb when waking up. I was in shock that I couldn’t look out of my beautiful balcony dorm to the amazing view and that it was cold and not nearly as warm as it was in Greece. Being at home is odd for me, and quite frankly I still have not become accustomed to it. A week in and I still cry some nights reflecting on my experience; I will catch myself deep into looking at pictures and craving to be back. I am sure this won’t end anytime soon, but for now, I will continue to look at the positives of being back in the states and continue to work towards my education online.
(Home with my cows)
If you haven’t been able to tell, my mind is in shock still writing this over a week later, and quite frankly I’m not sure if it even makes complete sense. Everything happened so fast and processing it will take me a while. Writing this post, I have broken down many times and adding pictures to it will be even harder. I hate how this ended, but it will get better.
Stay strong out there, wash your hands, and do your best to keep others safe.
- With love, Cambrie
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