The Story of an International Student Escaping London's Lockdown

International travel, something that was once so desired by all is now received with anxiousness, concern and scepticism.

Like almost everything in our life, the pandemic has also greatly impacted our travel, whether it’s an exotic getaway, business trip or simply a holiday break, one can confidently say that international travel is now seen as a daring task.

In March of this year, I had to embark on this “daring task” too but not for any of the reasons mentioned above but rather in order to escape from months of being stuck in a foreign city with minimal to no support, in case a full lockdown was announced (which it later was!). I was definitely not the only one, several international students were in the exact same position, some being repatriated on government planes back to their homeland while others rushed to find tickets before borders closed.

It was the 16th of March, I was in the beautiful Barts Library at the Whitechapel campus, worrying about the upcoming assessment and how I was so behind on lectures when I saw 9 missed calls from my dad, I knew something was wrong. When I did finally manage to reach him, I was told there were rumors that Abu Dhabi was soon closing its borders and so if I wanted to go back home I had to make a decision now. I failed to appreciate the urgency of the situation, I couldn’t understand why everyone around was being so dramatic and rushing to travel back home. To me, Covid-19 was something that was another continent’s problems and was unlikely to affect us (I was clearly wrong and ignorant!). However, a delayed decision meant I would be stuck alone, for the next God knows how many months, in a foreign country with no friends or family to support me and that was something I was definitely not prepared for. Hence, I decided to take the next available flight back home, which was the next morning, this meant I had to pull up my socks and arrange tickets, taxi, pack etc.

There was an added challenge to the situation this time, the challenge of figuring out where to get a mask and a pair of gloves. At this stage, it seemed as if London was uncertain about its stance on the pandemic, while the hoarding of gloves, masks and sanitisers had begun, very few were actually wearing them. The streets were hustling and bustling, Londoners getting on with their busy lives.

With much difficulty, I managed to get a mask from the waitress at my local cafe. I was slowly beginning to realise that my journey to Abu Dhabi was going to be very different.

Arriving at Heathrow Airport, it hit me that this pandemic was not something that only affected people in a far, distant land but rather one that was soon going to hit us all soon, that too quite hard. The airport was busier than usual but this time not with Brits travelling for an exotic weekend getaway but rather with tourists rushing back to their countries, students eagerly waiting to see their families and men and women being summoned from their work and business trips back to their headquarters. The laughs, smiles and cheeriness of passengers was now replaced with fear, uncertainty and concern. There were all types of people, from those that weren’t even wearing masks to those in full hazmat suits. The atmosphere was anything but normal and it was clear that people were not comfortable with it.

Getting on a plane had become the equivalent of going into an infectious diseases ward, one didn’t know if they were going to come out Covid positive or not.

Sadly or gladly, I don’t know, but it didn’t end at Heathrow airport. We were welcomed into the plane by air hostesses that now looked like ICU nurses with their PPE. Masks were secured on faces, gloves pulled up and anti-bacterial wipes being distributed as the new “Flight EY20 Welcome Packages”, I just wanted to get home. Abu Dhabi Airport was no different, robotic temperature sensors, staff in PPE and social distancing were now the first things I saw upon arriving in the “not-so-desert” country I called home.

After 11+ hours of experiencing a rollercoaster of new, unfamiliar and uncomfortable events, I was looking forward to seeing my parents, the one constant amongst this tornado of uncertainties. However, I was wrong! The hugs and kisses were now replaced with sanitisers, masks and a sheet to cover the car seats. The pandemic had now made it a safety hazard for me to kiss my mom who I hadn’t seen for months or to hug my dad who I had missed so greatly.

The pandemic that I had thought was a problem of a distant land was now impacting each and every part of my daily life and like all the rest of us, I was not prepared for a change of this scale in my life. Things needed to slow down but unfortunately that was not under anyone’s control. I felt helpless, anxious and annoyed.

My decision to escape London before it went into full lockdown and hence my travel meant I had to quarantine for 14 days, this was another experience I was unfamiliar with but an essential part of the “Travelling During a Pandemic Package”. Who could have predicted that words such as quarantine, pandemic and R0 would become part of our daily dictionary but the fact that they had was the cold reality. Travelling was no longer being something we looked forward to but rather a task people started dreading. Little did we know that things were going to get worse in the next few months.

It became clear that travel of all forms, whether it was in a plane, in a bus or in the tube, was going to change.

Travel, such an essential part of our daily lives, was now dreaded by people all around the world.

However, my last minute flight back home was a decision I’m still proud of. Abu Dhabi soon closed its borders after. This decision was also made by several other countries, leaving hundreds if not thousands of students that had not embarked on the “great escape” as I had, stranded and stuck with very little support in a foreign city, thousands of miles away from their family, friends and loved ones.

Interestingly, as I write this piece, London goes into its second lockdown from Thursday, 4 days from now. This means traveling to and from the UK will be suspended. Do I “escape” again or not? I’ll probably stay and experience what it's like to live in a city that is famous for hoarding toilet paper during its lockdown, hoping and praying the situation gets better. There is no doubt that we can only hope things go back to the way they were before 2020 but that seems unlikely and until then it seems that the only other option is to learn to live with the “new normal”.