Adventures of an International Student During Covid

Episode 2: My Unexpected Nine Months in France

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This is the second episode of a short series about my experience as an international student in France during COVID.

After the shutdown of the Purdue West Lafayette campus in March 2020, I flew back to France to finish my semester online. At first, I had mixed feelings about going back home. My initial plans were to come back in May to celebrate the end of my first year at Purdue, but instead, I came back with homework to do and quizzes to take, in the middle of the spring semester. When I arrived, there was a national lockdown in France. Only grocery stores were open. Schools, universities, museums, restaurants, monuments, clothing stores, driving schools, everything had stopped. No more honks, no more congestion. My parents, my siblings, and I were all working from home which caused a lot of Wi-Fi troubles. There was almost nobody in the streets and everyone had to fill up an authorization to go out. On this authorization, I would select the reason why I was going out: grocery shopping, 1-hour walk in a 1-km radius from your house or emergency. Wearing a mask was mandatory in public spaces, including in the streets.

All my classes went online, including Band. As a member of the Twirling Team, I would record myself performing our routines and send them to the coaches each week. At that

time, I had been looking for internships in the pharmaceutical industry in the Paris area since January 2020. I was excited about the plethora of opportunities I had seen on LinkedIn since the beginning of the year. However, as the semester progressed, I realized that getting the internship I imagined would be extremely tough in that period. As the semester came to an end in May, I started looking for alternatives to my internship. With the uncertainty about what the summer would be like in France (Would we be able to travel at least within the country? Would restaurants reopen?), I realized how long spending the summer stuck at home would be if I did not find some time-worthy occupation, especially because the academic year in France finishes in June for university students and July for other students. As a result, I was on vacation when everyone around me, including my friends and family, was still busy with school or work. That’s why I started taking online classes to obtain a project management certificate one week after the end of the semester. If I could not get the professional experience I wanted through an internship, I could at least explore new interests and develop new skills online. I tried to keep that mindset the entire summer: being flexible with previously set goals and being open to finding alternatives. I ended up completing two online certificates.

I had planned to fly back to campus in the Fall since early April 2020 and had already bought my flight tickets. Unfortunately, in early June, the Trump administration tried to initiate anti-international student policies that included the deportation of on-campus students who pursued their education online in the fall, even if these students had valid visas. The second major policy was the closure of the borders for students outside the United States, like me, who had not had any other choice but to leave campus when the pandemic hit. Again, no matter if the students subject to these policies had visas valid for 5 years as I do. Several universities (including Purdue) launched or joined a lawsuit against the implementation of these policies. It happened at the time when Purdue international students had to choose between an online or in-person fall semester and I desperately wanted to get back on campus to practice with the marching band. Even though I waited until the day before the deadline, I eventually chose the online option due to the enormous confusion caused by the policies and had to modify my Paris – Chicago plane ticket accordingly.

When the French summer officially started in mid-July, the government eased COVID restrictions. Hotels were welcoming clients after what felt like a never-ending break, restaurants were reopening all around the country as well as some museums and historic places. This allowed me to travel to the French Riviera, a well-known touristic coast in the South also known as La Côte d’Azur. I had the chance to visit cities like St-Tropez, Nice or Monaco. Tourists were mainly coming from other regions since international travelers were less numerous than usual.

In Monaco, August 2020.

In late August, the fall semester started. I would watch my prerecorded lectures, attend some classes on Webex, and would save time to go sightseeing in Paris during the weekend. That easy lifestyle only lasted for 3 weeks before the number of cases spiked and obliged the government to take appropriate measures. Since September, France has alternated between curfews, lockdown, and restrictions loosening. Restaurants, museums, shops besides grocery stores, gymnasiums closed.

Because I did not want to relive the “stuck-at-home-all-day” experience, I applied for online jobs. I started teaching French online to non-native learners and I helped junior high school students with their homework once a week. I used my extra time to take driving lessons too. Despite the physical distance between the campus and me, I tried to keep in touch virtually with friends and organized several virtual events with the Francophone Student Association at Purdue to maintain a sense of community. We had members logging in from Europe and other various locations in the US since the pandemic hit. Continuing our virtual events was a way to strengthen our community before being able to meet in person again.

View from the Eiffel Tower, October 2020.

Being at home for 9 months (which is as long as an academic year), after attending college in another country is a particular experience. On campus, I was used to being constantly stimulated and learning new things both inside and outside the classroom on cultural, scientific, sports topics... Back home, especially with the restrictions and the local lockdowns, it sometimes felt like I was getting back to my “high-school self”. I did not enjoy as much autonomy and independence as I did on campus. Still, in a world of uncertainty, I tried to keep moving forward both academically and personally with a lot of patience and flexibility. Fortunately, as the fall semester was coming to an end, the first vaccines for COVID were being distributed throughout the world which comforted me in my decision to come back on campus for Spring 2021.

To be continued…

How was it to go back to Purdue after 9 months abroad? You’ll learn more in the last episode of this series about my experience as an international student in France during COVID. Stay tuned to read more about it in the next issue!