5 minute read
Returning home
Text by KYLIE MIES and JAY RENAKER Art by XIAOHAN LI RETURNING HARROWING END TO YEAR ABROAD R ED-EYE FLIGHTS and globs of hand sanitizer, ed Zenelhoxa’s study abroad experience, coordinated the travel
sleep deprivation and globetrotting travel plans. plans of hundreds of students from around the country. These have been the experiences of exchange stuZenelhoxa and others from her area would meet in dents trying to make their way home when their San Francisco and fly to Chicago to meet up study abroad programs were cut short as a result of the with the larger AFS group before departing novel coronavirus. After Palo Alto High School closed its for their respective countries. doors, seniors Vanessa Zenelhoxa and Marco Simeone were “I was very worried about it [flyinformed that they would be returning home two months ing],” Zenelhoxa said. “I was worried early. Verde reached out to these seniors and documented about getting corona — which I their travel experiences from Palo Alto to Italy. didn’t.” Due to mounting travel reVanessa Zenelhoxa strictions, the airport terminal
For Vanessa Zenelhoxa, along with hundreds of othin San Francisco was practically er Palo Alto High School students, her time at Paly endempty. 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 atburgeons 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.
“Everything happened so fast that I didn’t even realize it,” Zenelhoxa said. She was at home with her host family when
“I really felt free, I felt no one was judging me. It’s something that
she heard that Paly had I really appreciate, beItalian, maybe
closed down for the foresee
able future. Four days later, cause here [Italy] it’s so they have corona,’”
singing the Italian national anthem and a lot of people were just standing and looking at us like, ‘Oh, they’re
she received an email from different. I’ll miss that Once the stu
her exchange program saying that she was going back to Italy.
a lot.” — VANESSA ZENELHOXA, senior
Zenelhoxa said.
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 daughtancing. 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 facilitatZenelhoxa self-quarantined for two weeks in her bedroom.
dents landed in Rome, the increase in protocols surrounding virus safety
HOME
She used that time to study for exams she will have to take Despite a check in with airport safety control, Simeone to resume her education in Italy — – her fifth and final finally reunited with his family after eight months. year of upper secondary education, roughly equiva“I couldn’t hug them as soon as I saw them because of lent to the last year of high school in the United the necessary precautions we had to respect especially at
States. the airport,” Simeone said. “But once at home, after a long
When not cramming for tests, Zenelshower, I could hug them. It was certainly an emotional mohoxa has taken the time to reflect on her ment.” experiences in Palo Alto. After having his education at Paly cut short, Simeone
“I really felt free, I felt no one was subject to the uncertainties of online school in Italy. was judging me,” Zenelhoxa said. “In Italy, I was reinstated with my classmates in my
“It’s something that I really aporiginal class,” Simeone said. “There’s no difference between preciate, because here [Italy] it’s so different. I’ll miss that a lot.” Marco Simeone
Although the
the regular learning at school and the learning from home. Teachers have been assigning and making us take the same number of tests they’re used to, so it doesn’t change much news of school shutting down was an unusual experience
and even if it lasted two months less than but the location.”
Simeone says that living in America was the greatest for every Paly student, it was especially strange for senior Marco Simeone,
what was planned, I couldn’t be happier. ” — MARCO SIMEONE, senior
County were announced, SimeSimeone learned many life long lessons from his exone traveled from San Jose to New change program at Paly, and the reality of attending school
York City for a layover, then took anin America far exceeded his expectations at the beginning of other flight to Rome, and from there the year. returned to his hometown by bus. The “Experiencing a different lifestyle makes you underentire trip was a two-day event and along stand how other people live, makes you clear your mind of the way he was met with various precautions all the prejudices you might have concerning something or instilled by the coronavirus outbreak. someone and makes you think twice before acting in a cer“At the airport in Italy, our temperature was tain way,” Simeone said. “I’m really grateful about the way checked and we were asked by a policeman about our this journey developed, and even if it lasted two months less plans once we would have gotten home,” Simeone said. than what was planned, I couldn’t be happier.” v
experience of his life. He is now able to point out the comparisons between the American and Italian school who was completsystems. ing his senior year of “I think that the eduhigh school in Palo Alto, over cation system in the U.S. helps the students a bit more in 6,000 miles away from his order to help them achieve whatever they want to do by hometown of Martina Frannot rushing their process,” Simeone said. “In Italy, we are ca, Italy. Two weeks after the more helped by our parents and our connections than by the school closures in Santa Clara school system.”
