Should I Stay… or Should I Go?
By Jacob Schubbe
Written on May 22, 2020
Published on June 22, 2020
The notion that Fulbright Grantees would have to return home early was a concept no one could have even imagined when starting their grant period. I had this perfect plan worked out in my head for how my time studying mechanical engineering at Lappeenranta University of Technology would proceed—a plan that was foiled by the virus. I first heard of the virus back in January when it started picking up more news coverage. At that time, I was planning a trip to Thailand for February. Of course, friends and family were concerned because the virus was present in Asia and I was voluntarily heading there. In the end, the trip went on without a hitch and I returned to Finland safe and sound.
From what I recall, near the beginning of March European countries started shutting down. Then, Fulbright and the U.S. State Department announced the possibility of requiring grantees to return home to the U.S. I was perplexed by this—being told to return home when we were also told that it was unsafe to travel. At the time, I had to start seriously considering my options: staying in Finland for an unknown amount of time or leaving to the U.S. and not knowing when I could return to Finland. I wrote down the pros and cons of each option. Scenarios flew through my mind of what could happen for each decision. I knew that my classes were being taught online for the rest of the semester so that was not the biggest concern for me. Once it was declared a pandemic, I knew my health insurance in Finland no longer covered the virus. This was a concern but knowing that I would have to start paying for health insurance in the U.S. again was also a problem, as it was much more expensive. The biggest unknown was when travel would open again. If I stayed in Finland, I was not sure if I could see my family if something happened to one of them, or when I could see them next as I had plans to return for a wedding in the summer.
Friends kept asking me “Why are you going home? Isn’t it safer to simply stay here in Finland?” I was asking myself the same questions, but deep down, something was telling me that it would be simpler and better for myself to go to the U.S. for some time. I decided to trust my gut and I booked a ticket about two days out from the flight. This gave me enough time to pack up what I wanted to bring back with me in case I was in the U.S. for quite a while. I kept my apartment in Lappeenranta, for which I still continue to pay, but my overall expenses in Finland are about the same as my expenses for being in the U.S., so in this regard, it was an acceptable result. My courses are online which allowed me to study from the U.S. with some time differences but nothing unbearable.
My flights home to the U.S. were nothing out of the ordinary. Because I was leaving after the U.S. had closed its border to the EU and the UK, there were not as many people at the airport, nor on the plane, as I had expected. The only flight that I could book in time was a flight with a layover in London. Another Fulbright Grantee and I both had the same flight to London, with different flights after, but it seemed that both the Helsinki airport and the London Airport were fairly empty. The first flight to London was incredibly empty with the back half of the plane being at less than 30% capacity by the looks of it. My second flight from London to the U.S. was also lacking flyers. I had the emergency exit row, so I did not have a problem in regard to social distancing and interacting with others, as there was no one in front of me, no one behind me, and no one to the side of me. The only problems encountered during this time was when I arrived in the U.S. Other grantees were concerned of the possibility of overcrowded airports when arriving. Although our plane was not too filled, the organization of the health checks at the airport seemed very poor. It was a slow process at the start since we all did not receive the appropriate health forms on the plane. After about 10 minutes of waiting for the health forms in close quarters, it took another 10-20 minutes to pass around the health forms and to fill them out, but once through the very quick health check (simple questions and a forehead temperature), it was a breeze through customs and immigration.
Fast-forward about three months to the present day. My daily routine has changed from when I first arrived in Maryland in the U.S. Homework and coursework used to fill most of my days while self-study, working out, relaxation, and Netflix consumes my days currently. With the U.S. being on lockdown most of the time, I have been unable to visit or see friends in person. Most stores are closed, and for those that are open, there are guidelines from the state to follow. But besides these restrictions, I did enjoy spending time with my family.
There was something missing, though. Again, I could feel it. Maybe it was the social interaction with others that I was craving or maybe it was the fact that I was starting to miss Finland and friends there was well. Whatever it was, I knew I had to change it. I did some research about who could enter Finland currently and with positive results, I started looking into the possibility of returning. From what I heard, Finland was doing quite well, but once again, friends asked me a question: “Why return to Finland now? What will you do there/here?” But I also thought to myself, “Well, what will I do here in the U.S. currently?” At that point, I found out about possible summer classes and I contacted a couple of professors about possible thesis topics for my master’s degree. I knew that if I could complete some work earlier, it would not hurt. It was not long until I found a thesis topic to pursue and enrolled in summer classes, which would be online anyways. With this plan in my head, I followed the prices of flights to Finland and which airlines were operating or had plans to operate when I wanted to leave. After about a week or so of following prices, I decided to pull the trigger and buy my flight back to Finland.
At the time of writing this piece, I am still in the U.S. and will be leaving in just under 3 weeks. I know now that something is missing while sitting at home in the U.S. Some part of me wants to be back in Finland and wants to experience more. I anxiously wait for that day to arrive and I know that it will not be long until then. For now, I simply continue improving myself, both mentally and physically, and continue counting down the days.
Update (June 17, 2020): I wanted to give an update as I have now successfully returned to Finland. After waiting for many days for my flight, my flight was cancelled a few days before it was scheduled to depart. Luckily, I was told about another airline who had a scheduled departure from the U.S. only one day after my original flight was scheduled. I jumped at this opportunity once my original flight was cancelled. It turned out to be cheaper but at the expense of travel time – nearly 30 hours to get to Lappeenranta, Finland. I also am still waiting on my refund from the previous airline but was told it could take up to 12 weeks to get that refund. During my travels to Finland, there was nothing out of the ordinary as most of the planes were quite full as it was one of only a couple flights leaving from the U.S. to Europe. Although I have only been in Finland now for a couple days and have been quarantining since my arrival, in my opinion, it was the correct decision to return when I did.
