Sydney Staton, a mathematics major, was planning to spend the semester in Amsterdam. However, Staton, along with all of her American friends who were part of an International Student Program, was told she had to return home. After talking to her family, Staton returned to the United States on March 14.
“I’m really sad. I had so many adventures left,” Staton said. “I had made a lot of really great friends, and I was really getting the hang of day-to-day life there. I had to leave my great uncle in a hurry, not knowing when I’d get to see him again. I had been planning this semester for almost a year, and all of a sudden it was gone.”
Staton describes her trip home as “pretty intense.” The airline company had canceled her original return ticket, forcing her to buy an expensive ticket home. She then had to pack all of her belongings and say her goodbyes in just two days.
Her experience at the airport was stressful as well, she said. Her first flight left an hour late, meaning she missed her second flight. As soon as she got off her first plane in Chicago, she had to wait in line for almost four hours to be checked in to the country and have her temperature taken.
“There were probably 1,000 people in that line, crammed into a space no bigger than the Commons,” Staton said.
Staton was able to reschedule her flight from Chicago, eventually making it to her home in Bluffton, Ohio safely.
Rae and Sydney Staton. Photo courtesy of Sydney Staton.
Upon returning home, Staton had to be quarantined, along with her mom and brother, for fourteen days. She had to take her temperature twice a day and report it to the Allen County Health department daily. While at home, Staton is able to continue taking her classes.
“I’m taking them online like everyone else except there is a six hour time difference, meaning I will be getting up at five in the morning four times a week for my classes,” Staton said.
Now that she’s back in Bluffton, Staton said she misses “everything” about her cross-cultural experience that ended up lasting almost two months.
“I loved public transportation, and I was really good at navigating it,” Staton said. “I loved the architecture, and I loved doing something so out of my comfort zone that it made me grow. I miss my great uncle and my friends. I miss walking five miles every day just to get to school and back.”
