Interview by Cheyenne Boone

Photos by Will Sokol

Will Sokol is a Junior majoring in civil engineering technology and Spanish and was studying abroad in Madrid, Spain during the pandemic outbreak.

When did you first hear about COVID-19?

I don’t know exactly. It was around the December, January point where people were hearing about it becoming a rising problem over in China, and, like in the US similar with Europe, no one really was paying much attention to it. 

The real-time where I knew, I was like alright this is something that is really real and might come over here was when I was supposed to go to Milan. I had reached out to one of my friends who was studying abroad in Milan and I was like, “Hey, what’s the deal? What’s going on?” She was like, “Oh yeah we don’t have classes right now, but they think it’s going to be taken care of in about a week or so, just check in again and see what’s the deal.”  By the time I was even supposed to be over there, she was already back in the US and obviously things did not get better.

Did you have any fears going into studying abroad or was COVID-19 just something that you weren’t even thinking about or considering?

I was probably one of the last people to be convinced that this was a real issue. I’m not saying I was one of the people like you see on TV and in Miami partying for spring break, but it took me a very long time and probably even after I was sent home to really understand how big it was. If the US didn’t lock down the EU I probably wouldn’t have come home.

Were you seeing any changes in the community or in your daily life in Spain?

The last two or three days while I was there, that’s when you really saw things starting to happen because the Spanish government got involved…. the Spanish government closed all schools in Madrid. They started closing parks, they started closing gyms, movie theaters, things like that. So that’s when people started kind of trying to realize that like this is big… when I went to supermarkets there was like nothing, I was just scavenging for any kind of protein I could find.

On the Wednesday night before I left was the kind of time where everyone really started to realize that this is the beginning of the end. So, we all went out at night, me and probably five other guys… it was around two in the morning when Trump got on to announce that he was closing the borders. We could see people around us between 2 and 3 getting calls and then the place just completely filtered out.

At the time, we didn’t necessarily have all the details about what officially was said. And people didn’t know because it wasn’t made very clear, either by the President or by the press release that US citizens were exempt from the order. So when they said that they’re closing the borders on Friday, and it was before dawn on Thursday, it was kind of a surreal situation where I got home to my apartment at 3 am and I had six hours to pack because I had a flight at 9 am the next morning, and so I packed up my whole apartment in like two and a half hours and left my keys with my roommates.

I was able to get out on a direct flight to New York which was huge. We’re still fighting with American Airlines because the flight was $2,000, they gouged the prices once the travel ban was announced. The last time we heard from them, they might give us a partial refund, because that’s ridiculous.

How did RIT contact you concerning the coronavirus?

They reached out via email, I don’t know the exact wording that they used, but they basically said they weren’t forcing me to come back. Basically, what they said is we strongly recommend that you return home.

How did you feel after returning home and leaving Spain so quickly?

It was just kind of a surreal experience. I just kind of felt like I was constantly dreaming for like, a few days afterwards because it didn’t feel like something was actually happening.

Did you quarantine, if so where? What was that experience like and how did you cope?

So, I live in New Jersey and I quarantined at my house… I didn’t think I had any symptoms, so I was good. I hit the 14 days and was good. I just think that even though it was a huge adaptation I had to make from living in Spain one day to being home the next… it was something that I was able to accept fairly quickly, and like there’s nothing I could do about it.

Did you ever have any symptoms or concern that you had COVID-19?

So, in January when I was in Spain, I didn’t get a test or anything so there’s no way of like proving or disproving, I was super sick, like sicker than I ever been in my life. I had a fever and a cough… so I don’t know if it was ever a bad flu or what it was, but it could’ve been COVID.

One time when I was in class in Spain… I left the classroom and sneezed outside because I didn’t want to get like death stares from people.

How did your family feel throughout all of this?

My mom is a super huge crybaby… like I don’t go anywhere, if I randomly have a cough because I have something in my throat, she’ll take my temperature.

Do you plan to visit Spain in the foreseeable future?

So, I’m staying put in New Jersey in my house, but once they say I can go out I will be traveling again. No questions asked.