Mark Tolson
Special Assignment
Comm 409
3/24/20
Coronavirus Send Spring Breakers Into A Frenzy:
As spring break was approaching, I was excited to go visit my friends studying abroad in Barcelona, Spain. Like most of the country at the time, I wasn’t too worried about the coronavirus affecting me, even as I was leaving the country. I thought I would take some precautions while I was there. The basic stuff like washing my hands thoroughly, staying away from people who looked sick, etc. I was ready to have a good week experiencing Europe for the first time and finally seeing my friends since last semester. Little did I know, my trip would get cut early and I’d have to get a connecting flight to Moscow, Russia just to get home. This is my coronavirus experience.
My week in Barcelona started off amazing. My flight to Spain was the easiest traveling I’ve ever experienced. I arrived at 9:00 AM on Friday morning and was ready to get the week started. My first two days there I went to two concerts and enjoyed being around my best friends that I have not seen in over three months. During the days we would go walk on the beach and enjoy some of the local food vendors that were lined up along the streets. At night we would go out to some of the best clubs Barcelona had to offer. I was having one of the best times of my life. It was nice to be able to experience and enjoy another culture and still go out and have a great time. I even got to see the biggest yacht in the world while I was there. If the week continued at all how it started, I would be very pleased with my trip. However, quite the opposite happened.
Mid week of spring break I started hearing news of events being cancelled. Conference tournaments, the NBA season, and many other events were all being postponed or canceled. I was shocked at how fast the coronavirus was becoming a worldwide issue. Wednesday night my friends were going to take me out to the nicest restaurant in Barcelona and a club called Razzmatazz, which was supposed to be one of the most famous clubs in the world. About halfway through the day we heard that we’d have to figure out other plans because everything was beginning to close. Morale at the time was very low as we still had half of our week left to experience Barcelona. Later that night, we figured we might as well still try to have some fun. Even with everything getting shut down and canceled, we still weren’t that concerned about the spread of the coronavirus. We decided we’d still try to have a good time that night, so we went out to one of the few clubs that was still open. This is when things took a turn for the worse.
It was around 2:00 AM in Barcelona when President Trump announced that all travel would be shut down (he forgot to mention that US citizens could still get back in the United States). All the college students on spring break were shocked. Concerned parents started frantically calling their children and booking them fights home immediately. It was a giant group of drunk college students trying to process what exactly was going on. Not very ideal. While all this was happening, I had no service on my phone, and my parents were on vacation in another country so I could not get in touch with them. I was up until 5:00 AM trying to figure out how I was going to get back home. Eventually, I found a flight that wasn’t crazy expensive. The kicker however was that I had to travel to Moscow first where I’d have a 9-hour layover. My total travel time to get back to the US would be 24 hours. I was ready to experience another country during spring break, but never once could I even imagine that I would have to make a pit stop in Russia.
Eventually I made back home safe after all the traveling. My body was confused on what time it was after being in three different time zones in one day. I was very upset with how my trip ended, but I took away a valuable lesson from all the craziness that occurred. Don’t take anything for granted. At first I was very naive about the coronavirus. I never would have thought that it would turn into a worldwide pandemic. You never know when a tragedy like this can occur. You can’t have the mindset “oh I’ll be fine, it won’t affect me” because it can and it will. All in all, I wish I could have enjoyed my entire week in Spain, but I will never forget this experience and I have learned a lot because of it.
From left, Penn State students Daniel Kelly, Dillon Bugni, John Selis, Logan Pratt, Mark Tolson, and Jack Brown pose for a picture at the Bunker del Carmel in Barcelona, Spain.
(Photo by: Shamus Shields)
Penn State student Daniel Kelly tries on a Russian style hat in the Moscow airport during his layover
(Photo by: Mark Tolson)