In March 2020, one of my best friends arrived from the US and we planned a trip to Spain and Germany for several days. We were able to book a multi-city trip, which was really fun. We went to Seville for a few days, then took a bus to Malaga for a day or two as well.

The weather was beautiful and the sites were amazing, I loved seeing everything and we had such a good time. We left for Berlin the next day and it was the complete opposite: rain everywhere and cloudy weather. We got to see some cool sites but I admitted that I was ready to get home.

We decided to book an early flight home and we arrived pretty fast. That week, things escalated in France and we already had news that a lot of people were sick with COVID, but we didn’t anticipate that the borders would close. I think a day or two after arriving, President Trump (at the time) announced that he was closing the US borders and it caused a global panic. I remember that we ended up meeting a friend for lunch on Thursday or Friday afternoon in the 6th. We were all discussing the news and the friend mentioned that some people were rushing to the airport to fly home and were almost paying $20,000 for a plane ticket home. My friend was really freaked out, but she was heading home the next day and we decided to take the earliest RER train to the airport. When we got there, she left some of her hair products with me and decided to take her suitcase as a carry-on to avoid the VERY long luggage lines at the airport.

I learned later that day that her flight was delayed, and so she stayed at a hotel with some family friends who happened to be in town. Eventually she made it home, but it was the start of the pandemic. My boyfriend let me stay at his parents’ house for a few weeks (2 weeks). We thought it was only going to be a short period, but then President Macron announced that he was shutting down the country from March-May. President Trump also closed the US borders for several months.

So I ended up staying in France, with a French family, from March 2020 until May-June, which then extended in July since all the students in my building went back to England or Ireland. We did have great weather in April and May – I spent a lot of time on a patio under the sun, which was nice. I ended staying in different Airbnbs – from July to August, then September to October and October to November, until I left for the US in December when they lifted the borders and I saw my family again. The French government instated a curfew in September, and they progressively lowered the curfew hour earlier and earlier, until it was about 18h00. They finally lifted the curfew in early June – freedom !