Semester Abroad, Global Correspondents Living Abroad During a Pandemic

April 16, 2020
By Julia Mitchell, Huntsman '22

Julia Mitchell is one of the Semester Abroad Global Correspondents writing and sharing her experience abroad during the Spring 2020 semester. Follow along with the group of correspondents on our blog and look out for their images on the @pennabroad Instagram feed. 

Semester Abroad
Institute of Political Studies in Paris (Sciences Po)

The day that President Macron announced a nationwide confinement, my French host mother shook me out of bed. She warned me that the borders would likely close the next day, so I should decide right away whether to leave the country that had been my home for two months. The rest of the day was spent sorting through fear and confusion. I called my parents at 3 am on the East Coast in tears. I rushed to the grocery store, because I finally understood the panic-buying mentality and figured that stocking up on bags of walnuts and dried apricots would keep me from having to flee the country. I ran to the Eiffel Tower to kiss freedom of movement goodbye. I concocted scenarios of streets patrolled by armed policemen and mobs storming pharmacies to claim the last facemask. Still, I was determined to stay.

That evening at 8 pm sharp, the French president Emanuel Macron addressed the nation. I pulled my knees to my chest and listened wide-eyed. Out of a population of 66 million, 35 million sets of wide eyes tuned into that speech. “Until now, COVID-19 was perhaps something distant,” but not anymore. “We are at war,” he declared. Since I realized that I couldn’t escape this war just by escaping the country, I decided to finish the semester in France – even as walls kept popping up.

Some claimed that my decision to stay was “brave.” The reality is that I live in safety and comfort while most study abroad students still living in Paris (or in other locations) are stuck under much different conditions. La Cité internationale universitaire de Paris normally houses more than 12,000 students studying and researching at universities throughout the city. For the roughly 4,000 of its residents who chose or were forced to stay during the pandemic, space and movement is extremely restricted. As with other student housing, many live in small single or double bedrooms with a kitchen for each floor. They take turns using common spaces and are discouraged from leaving their rooms except to buy essential groceries or to do a bit of solo exercise.

In this confinement with a family that isn’t my own, there are unexpected moments of joy. I taught myself new recipes to impress the amateur food critics. I celebrated my twentieth birthday in a day of video calls and cake baking. I observed Passover by reading from the story of liberation in the Haggadah. I listened to the memories of a family with roots as Jews from Poland, similar to my own. I printed sheet music to host an ad-hoc concert with my host father, sharing songs from my childhood and his. Right now, I am watching the orange tulips bloom in the garden as springtime sets in.

Image of yard with tulips


Still, there is a feeling of helplessness that is inevitable. In the two weeks before confinement started, I watched most exchange students at Sciences Po return home with desperately bought plane tickets. I watched the city shut down – first the large gatherings, then the schools, then the restaurants and other non-essential businesses, and finally the parks and public spaces. I frantically read the news on my smartphone while my French host father, a neurosurgeon over 60 years old, examines COVID-19 patients in hospital beds. Each day, I search for a string of strength, meaning, and structure to tie my time together. Some days, I work hard and live purposefully. Other days are spent buried in novels or movies for hours, overcome by a heavy cloud of melancholy. In my neighborhood, I stare at shuttered cafés and old women pulling carts heavy with groceries, marveling that the city is still breathing.

I want to help somehow, so at least I try to bring joy to the people around me. As a guest, I do my part to reduce the tension and anxiety of this new reality. If all that means is washing dishes, brewing coffee, or sharing a song, that’s what I’ll do.

Especially now, the stubbornness of hope is infectious. Every night at 8 pm, faces pop out of windows. Dozens of neighbors that I will never know erupt in gratitude for medical workers. They clap, cheer, and bang on pots and pans. It’s a tradition that has spread around the world through social media, from Wuhan to Milan to Paris to New York. Everywhere, this is the same war.

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The Semester Abroad (SA) program offers undergraduate students the opportunity to study in a new global community through extended study for a semester or year. Penn Abroad partners with top institutions around the globe and collaborates with Penn’s undergraduate schools to offer programs for students across academic disciplines.