by Emily Rotthaler–As the semester is comes to an end, Morningside’s international students are preparing for traveling back to their home countries. Countries that may be fighting their battles against COVID-19 with various different approaches.
Efforts to regulate the pandemic are all across the board in Europe. Germany is entering another hard lockdown while countries like Austria and Denmark are slowly opening back up.
Morningside freshman Freja Brix Rasmussen is from Denmark. She is planning to fly back home after the final exam week ends. She said at the moment her home country is doing well and that she has high hopes for a relatively normal summer.
“We can see up to fifty people at a time, bars and restaurants are open, schools are almost back to normal, and people are even being let back into stadiums for soccer games” Rasmussen said, adding she will not even have to go into quarantine upon returning from the US.
For German freshman Sina Feeser, returning home will look a little different. Germany just entered another lockdown that will last until June.
Feeser does not know what she will do over summer as she will return home with the lockdown still active. She said, “I hope that I can find a job to work back home but I’m not sure if I get one because of Covid.”
Similar to Germany, the Netherlands also still has strict COVID-19 regulations in place. Sophomore Merel Kooij said she will need a negative test to enter the Netherlands, and on top of that will have to quarantine for 8 to 10 days.
For the sake of her summer plans Kooij added, “I also hope that the lock down in the Netherlands will get better, so that we can leave the house a little bit more often.”
As the international students are preparing to fly home, they receive support from the College’s international student advisers. According to Associate Dean of Advising Beth Boettcher, the most important task for international students this summer will be to keep an eye on travel restrictions of the US and the home countries.
These travel restrictions cannot be predicted at the moment, which is why Boettcher advises international students to talk to their parents about what is the best option for each of them.
Leave a Reply