Coronavirus

“One problem at a time.”

Mae
the motto for the entire trip home

Grab your popcorn. I hope you are ready for a story of a lifetime.

The world was aware that coronavirus was spreading rapidly through China. A few USAC students had to cancel trips to Italy, so the 13 of us were aware of the virus, but none of us thought it would be the reason we got sent home early.

After my weekend in Prague, I was receiving at least one email a day about the coronavirus, and it was never positive. On February 26th, our resident advisor asked us to reconsider European travel since Europe had just become level 2. I still went to Prague and I have no regrets.

On March 4th, the first case of coronavirus was confirmed in Poland. It was in the city of Zielona Gora, in the western part of Poland. My university rector decided that any student or faculty member coming from a high risk country (China, Iran, South Korea, Italy, etc.) would be required to self-quarantine for 14 days.

During this week, I was still going to class. I had my first study tour for Jewish studies and it was my favorite one. I saw the actual ghetto wall. I learned about WWII and the ghetto in history classes but to see the content in real life is SO different. One section of the wall had a playground on the other side and it felt cruel. Kids playing on the playground didn’t know what was happening inside the ghetto and kids inside the ghetto could look over the wall and see kids enjoying themselves. My Polish teacher took the class out to breakfast. We all enjoyed a buffet breakfast at a restaurant in Kazimierz. After breakfast, it was the midterm. For the midterm, each of us were expected to order something from the open air market…in Polish! I successfully asked and paid for raspberries all in Polish (maliny)! It was a major win for the week!

On the 9th, there were 16 confirmed cases of coronavirus in Poland and 1 in Krakow. An older man returning from Italy brought the virus to Krakow. Starting at 3pm that day, there were sanitary stations along the Czech and German borders. The sanitary station workers would be stopping trains, buses, cars and everything in between to check temperatures. On the same day, my family decided it was in their best interest to not visit. The fears were that all of the museums and places to visit might be closed, I might get sent home, and if Mom, Aunt Jessie, or Maddie caught the virus they would be out of work/school for 14 days. It was a tough decision to make but ultimately the right one.

On March 10th, the university rector forbade all students and faculty members from leaving Poland. If I left I would be subject to quarantine when I got back. By forbidding travel out of Poland that meant the USAC trip to Vienna and Budapest was cancelled.

The next day, the 11th, the Prime Minister of Poland shut down face to face classes from March 12th through April 14th. That same day, I visited the grocery store for toilet paper (I actually needed it) and it was INSANE! I waited in line for an hour to check out. The same day, Bella threw an American party in the dorms. She and I found the closest thing to red solo cups we could and taught our Turkish, Spanish, and Polish friends how to play beer pong and rage cage. It was like a normal college frat party and I felt at home.

On the 12th, I had emails that my flights to Cyprus and Israel were cancelled because both countries were closing their borders, to everyone but their own citizens, to stop the spread of the virus. Morale was low all day. One by one everyone’s college sent them an email telling them to come back home. Scott was the first to receive an email and I was the last. At the end of the day, 11pm, USAC sent the email officially cancelling the Krakow program. Even though I knew it was coming, I was devastated. A week and a half later I still am. Our program officially ended on March 26th so I had 2 weeks to decide when I wanted to leave. I planned to change my ticket to leave that coming Tuesday so I could have a few more days in Krakow to finish seeing everything, pick up the rest of the tchotchkes I needed, eat all of the food I just bought, and say proper goodbyes to everyone.

But the Prime Minister didn’t like that idea.

On Friday, March 13th (the odds) the Prime Minister announced that Poland would be closing their borders on Sunday, the 15th, at 00:01. My resident director emailed at 4:30pm that I was still “free to leave Poland”. And then at 7pm, my RD emailed that she had just called the emergency US Consulate and that it was “best for you to leave tomorrow”. The next 2 hours were pure chaos and confusion. The Prime Minister’s statement about borders was very vague. He said all international travel was banned but didn’t specify if that was outgoing international travel too. Because there was no clarity, Bree, Brian and I decided it was best to leave ASAP. At least, our big group was able to eat lunch together one last time at Antler.

Bree, Brian and I had about 24 hours until Poland closed their borders, so we BOOKED it. The three of us worked for about 2 hours to buy an airline ticket online but as soon as we would get to the payment part an error would happen. We decided it was our best move to pack all of our stuff, go to the airport, and try to buy a ticket there. At 3am with 3 bags each, we left for the airport. Little did we know, we were in for the LONGEST, most stressful, tiring, and emotional 48 hours of traveling possible.

We got to the airport before any of the help desks were open but we got in line anyway. At 4am, the Lufthansa/United airline representative had 2 tickets to Chicago and 1 to Detroit for $3000 each. Let me tell you, I didn’t spend even HALF of that for a roundtrip ticket so there was no way I was buying a $3000 ticket. While the three of us were trying to buy tickets at the airport, Bree’s mom was trying to buy us all tickets in Wisconsin. But nothing was working for her. My mom tried buying us all tickets in Michigan and the payments went through! I felt relief that we had finally gotten a ticket, but when I checked the confirmation email it said my seat was waitlisted. Because I was waitlisted and my ticket was still processing, I couldn’t check in. The email said tickets are typically processed in an hour, we had an hour and a half until the flight took off. Bree, Brian and I gave it until 5:50am for the tickets to process. They never did; in fact, the purchase is still pending in my bank account.

Since that plan failed, our new goal was to get the hell out of Poland. We were going to try to get to the UK or Germany and go from there. I heard LOT had flights out of Poland throughout the day so we headed over to their help office and bought expensive tickets to Frankfurt. The first step, to get out of Poland, was figured out. I was able to breathe for a minute. So later that morning the three of us flew from Krakow to Warsaw.

Once the plane was in the air, on the way to Warsaw, airline attendants walked up and down taking every passenger’s temperature. On the plane, I had to fill out a health form stating my name, who I was traveling with, where I was staying, and my contact information. When I landed in Warsaw, government officials, wearing gloves and face masks, took every passengers’ temperature again and wrote it on the health form that they collected. When that was over, I could get off the plane. I took a video of the Warsaw temperature screening, I’ll upload it to the YouTube page. 

During the 4 hour layover in Warsaw, I ate and took a nap on the floor. A few days before, my sinuses were congested and I was still getting over it. I had to cough every once in a while and I always made sure to cover my cough fully. The one time I coughed in the Warsaw airport I got the nastiest look from a young man wearing a face mask. Finally, the time came to board the plane for Frankfurt. 90 minutes and another health screening later, the three of us arrived in Frankfurt…we MADE IT OUT OF POLAND.

At the Krakow airport, I only booked a ticket out of Poland and to Germany. I didn’t book a flight to the US. The plan was: get out of Poland and to Germany, stay in a hostel for one night, leave for the US the next day. So that’s what I did. I booked a direct flight from Frankfurt to Chicago for early Sunday morning and a hostel for Saturday night. I don’t live in Chicago but I wanted to stick with Bree and Brian in case anything crazy happened. Thankfully my mom was willing to drive to Chicago to get me.

Before I could get to the hostel, I had to get my bags. That was easy money. The problem came when Bree, Brian and I tried to check into our flight early so we had one less thing to do in the morning. When it was Bree’s turn to use the kiosk to check in she noticed her passport was missing. She went through all of her bags three times and found nothing. She asked the help/information desk and the lady there “called” the plane to ask if they had found anything cleaning. No one did. Bree tried the foreign border police but they “don’t deal with passports” which is a lie. She retraced her steps back to baggage claim, nothing. Our last hope was the American Embassy in Frankfurt. The Embassy doesn’t have weekend hours so we called the emergency line since there were no other options. The Embassy said that Bree’s passport doesn’t count as an emergency since it wasn’t a hospitalization or death. 

I have never felt so helpless in my life. NO ONE at the airport could help us and it felt like they didn’t even try. The Embassy, who is supposed to help with this kind of stuff, didn’t do anything for us. Bree, Brian and I are in a foreign country with a pandemic running wild and only 2 out of 3 of us have passports, how is that NOT an emergency?

For life saving help, I texted my Uncle Chris who works at the American Embassy in Bogota, Colombia. If anyone knows what to do, it’s Uncle Chris. He and my Aunt Jessie were using their connections to find out what Bree could do. And the answer was not good. Uncle Chris told Bree that she was going to have to stay in Germany until Monday (at least) and schedule an urgent appointment with the Consulate to get a new passport. With that news, we left the airport and went to the hostel to set up her meeting.

The earliest appointment Bree could get was at the end of April. But with email pleading an earlier appointment and Uncle Chris’ connections she was hoping to get in on Monday. Bree did the most that she could and we went to sleep. That was the first sleep I had gotten in 40(!!!!) hours. The two nights before, I had gotten 4 hours of sleep. I don’t know how I was functioning. 

After a sad 4 hours of sleep, we all woke up and headed back to the airport, even Bree. The hope was that at some point during the night Bree’s passport showed up at the help desk and she would be able to cancel her consulate appointment and fly home with Brian and I. The passport did not show up, but we all stood in line to check-in anyway.

When Bree got to the front of the line she explained to the check-in lady that she had lost her passport but had a photocopy and was hoping that somehow that would work (even though we knew it wouldn’t). The check-in lady had to stand to the side and called some tall man in a gray suit from immigration over. I don’t know what authority this man had or who he was, but he checked out Bree’s passport copy and cleared her to fly. There were tears, good ones.

Bree got stopped at German immigration and security and every stop that needed your passport but with an explanation, extra questioning, and the guy in the gray suit, she made it to the gate. Bree, Brian and I made it on the plane to Chicago. I never thought that moment would come.

The plane ride to Chicago was rough, I could not fall asleep to save my life. I was hoping that after my sleep deprivation I would pass out for the full 9 hours but that was not the case. Instead, I watched a couple movies. I had my last legal drink on the plane, red wine. And I ate some mediocre food. Brian and I were given the meal that belonged to the couple next to us. The couple was upset with the airline attendants and not us thankfully. After a LONG 9 hour plane ride, we touched down in Chicago. 

BUT we still were not in the clear. The three of us (with only 2 passports) had to get through the CBP officers. I wasn’t nervous for Bree. Uncle Chris said CBP would give Bree difficulty. He said CBP would have to prove that Bree isn’t a citizen to deny her entry, but that’s impossible because Bree IS a US citizen. Bree had extra questions to answer for CBP but they couldn’t disprove her citizenship so she made it through. She said CBP was actually pretty chill about the situation. 

Brian and I got through CBP painlessly. The line was long but moved quickly. I was worried I would be stuck in line for a few hours based on tweets from O’Hare the day before, but that wasn’t the case. The only questions CBP asked were “How are you doing?” and “What countries did you visit?”. Then I was led to another line for a health screening. The people, wearing face masks and face shields, asked what countries I visited in the past 14 days and once I said the Czech Republic the lady took me to another table for further screening. At the second table, a woman took my 3rd health form that I filled out throughout my journey, took my temp and wrote it down. She talked to me about the symptoms, who to call if I get sick, gave me papers about the virus and my health form back. My health form was my ticket out of the baggage claim area. I grabbed my bag and headed for the exit, my last step.

The moment I had been waiting for finally came. Bree, Brian and I pushed the doors and I saw my mom. I would have run to her if I wasn’t carrying all of my bags. I can’t think of a time I was happier to see my mom. She gave me the biggest hug and all I felt was relief. I even cried a little bit. I had FINALLY made it to the United States.

Uncle Chris said it was a miracle that Bree made it back to the US without her passport. It should not have happened but it did. I think it was God giving us a break after the past 24 hours. And shoutout to my tall guy in the gray suit in Frankfurt: whoever you are thank you so, so much. You are a lifesaver. I love you.

Bree’s parents greeted her outside of the baggage claim doors. And Brian had another flight to catch to get to Kansas. But we stood around and talked for a few minutes about getting through CBP and how Bree miraculously made it home. A CNN reporter overheard us and I jokingly said that I would sell him my story for $20. Omar Jiminez interviewed Bree, Brian and I. He asked how it was getting through customs and immigration and about the health screenings. If I can find the video I will attach it to the YouTube page. David said his great aunt saw our interview so I know I was on TV even if I didn’t see it.

On day 2 of quarantine, I interviewed with WTOL 11! Uncle Tim asked me questions about coming home, emotions during the trip and what it’s like to be home and in quarantine. I got up at 5:30am for this interview, so please go check it out! (I did go back to sleep after, obviously.)

Bree, Brian and I said our goodbyes. I was so focused on getting to Chicago I forgot I had to say goodbye. I could not be more thankful for Bree and Brian. There is no way I would have made it home without them. They were both the best support system I could have asked for in those 48 hours. @Bree and Brian: Thank you for laughing and smiling with me and for the comfort when I was crying. I formed such a special bond with them just by studying abroad, but the last 48 hours bonded us in a way that nothing else could. Here’s to trauma bonding!

After our goodbyes, my mom and I washed our hands one last time and got in the car to drive 4 hours back home where it would just be us for the next 14 days.

I cried as soon as I walked into my room. It was 2% because of relief and 98% because it was not my dorm in Krakow. Stepping foot in my room meant I was home for good and my European life was over. That night I slept for 15 hours.

I have been in quarantine for 10 days now and it sucks. BUT, I’m turning it into a joke. I take video of every temperature check and post it on my snapchat bragging that I am getting A’s because my temperatures are in the 97-98 range. I wish I had more to say about quarantine but it’s been extremely boring, I have very little to write about it.

I miss my Poland friends so much. I was doing things with them for the last time and I didn’t know it. I will forever cry that my time with them got cut short. Thankfully most of my friends from Krakow live in the US so I can easily visit them. Visiting my friends in Spain, Turkey, and Poland is a great excuse to go back to Europe.

I am not done in Europe. Poland has not seen the last of me. I will be back.

P.S. Look at my YouTube page for a video titled “Country Roads or Krakow Bus” 🙂