Text by KYLIE MIES and JAY RENAKER Art by XIAOHAN LI
RETURNING HARROWING END TO YEAR ABROAD
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ED-EYE FLIGHTS and globs of hand sanitizer, sleep deprivation and globetrotting travel plans. These have been the experiences of exchange students trying to make their way home when their study abroad programs were cut short as a result of the novel coronavirus. After Palo Alto High School closed its doors, seniors Vanessa Zenelhoxa and Marco Simeone were informed that they would be returning home two months early. Verde reached out to these seniors and documented their travel experiences from Palo Alto to Italy.
ed Zenelhoxa’s study abroad experience, coordinated the travel plans of hundreds of students from around the country. Zenelhoxa and others from her area would meet in San Francisco and fly to Chicago to meet up with the larger AFS group before departing for their respective countries. “I was very worried about it [flying],” Zenelhoxa said. “I was worried about getting corona — which I didn’t.” Due to mounting travel reVanessa Zenelhoxa strictions, the airport terminal For Vanessa Zenelhoxa, along with hundreds of oth- in San Francisco was practically er Palo Alto High School students, her time at Paly end- empty. Clutching masks and ed abruptly with the announcement of campus closure on hand sanitizer, the AFS stuMarch 13. In anticipation of Paly soon being shut down, dents felt the giddy rush that Zenelhoxa, an Italian exchange student who has been at- burgeons in large groups of tending Paly for her senior year, skipped the second half of teens with minimal supervithe day to visit San Francisco. She consequently missed the sion. frenetic buzz that went around campus when the decision “In the airport, we were was officially made. singing the Italian “Everything happened national anthem so fast that I didn’t even real- I really felt free, I felt and a lot of people ize it,” Zenelhoxa said. were just standing no one was judging She was at home and looking at us with her host family when me. It’s something that like, ‘Oh, they’re she heard that Paly had I really appreciate, beItalian, maybe closed down for the foreseethey have corona,’” able future. Four days later, cause here [Italy] it’s so Zenelhoxa said. she received an email from different. I’ll miss that Once the stuher exchange program saying dents landed in Rome, that she was going back to It- a lot.” the increase in protocols — VANESSA ZENELHOXA, senior aly. surrounding virus safety The moment Zenelhoxa was immediately apparent told her host mom Amy Hald that she had to leave was an to Zenelhoxa. While she was traveling emotional one. in the U.S., she frequently saw people “She was like, you know, that bedroom will always be who were being cavalier about social disyour bedroom in our house and you always be like a daugh- tancing. In Italy, she noticed that everyone ter for us,” Zenelhoxa said. wore masks and were much more serious about On March 26, Zenelhoxa left for the airport. adhering to health guidelines. The United States branch of the American Field Service, When she arrived at her home in Reggio Emilia, the international youth exchange program that had facilitat- Zenelhoxa self-quarantined for two weeks in her bedroom.
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18 JUNE 2020
