Talkeetna resident, Amaryah Robinson, has spent the last eight months in quarantine at her college campus in Changchun China. Most of her Chinese friends had traveled home in mid-January to celebrate the New Year Holiday, and then the coronavius hit. She and a small group of international students have remained on campus ever since.
The 200 acre facility is fenced in with two gates. It’s a beautiful campus, with a lake and large trees. But when the quarantine started, it was winter. I spoke with Amaryah via China’s social media app WeChat. She describes what it was like in the beginning, with all the facilities on campus being closed.
“It gets really cold here. It’s a lot like Alaska weather wise. And so not being able to have any form of exercise was really hard for the winter months. Summer months have been way easier because I play volleyball two to four hours a week, things like that. I really miss being able to just go out and buy canvas so I can paint. I missed some of the simple things. I missed tea with friends. I have a lot of friends who are not students. They work, and so, of course, they’re on the other side of the quarantine.”
The school cafeterias were also shut down, and the students had to figure out how to order and receive food on a closed campus. But some of students had dietary restrictions, and many of the international students didn’t speak Chinese. Amaryah’s undergraduate degree is in Chinese Studies and she speaks fluent Chinese. She began coordinating food orders and working with the University to distribute food and necessary supplies to her peers. And in June, she was honored with the University’s “Outstanding Volunteer” award for the year 2020. Amaryah feels like, despite the quarantine, she’s been one of the lucky ones.
“I feel really fortunate to be in China, stuck on a University getting a free education. I feel very fortunate because I know a lot of people back home are losing their jobs. They have no income, much less going to get an education at the end of it, a degree and stuff like that.”
This week, the University began welcoming students back onto campus. The students must take daily temperature checks and they aren’t allowed to leave the campus once they arrive. But the University has announced that it will soon be issuing day passes into the city, something Amaryah is looking forward to. She needs to update her Student Visa information and she’d like to visit the dentist. If her pass is granted, it will be her first time outside the campus walls in eight months. She’s hoping to get back to some of her extracurricular activities soon too.
“I work also with an organization that arranges different musical events and things like that for the big parties. I think it was last year or the year before I sang for the Mayor of Changchun with an African student, We did a Chinese duet. So I do a lot of Chinese opera here, which is, it’s fun. My University really likes it and so I do a lot of different events. Last year I sang for one of the local TV stations. They did a huge event, that was just “Voices of Changchun” and so I worked with some Russian students and we did a big show. And then, I also work for the US Consulate as a volunteer liaison, so any problems that US citizens are having, I relate to them and any new news I can relate to US Citizens. So those are the little things that I tend to do on an everyday basis.”
Amaryah feels her University has been incredibly supportive and has worked tirelessly to keep the students safe during the pandemic. And despite the challenges of such a long isolation from family and close friends, she has found an upside to her experience.
“Even thought it’s been a really difficult time, I’ve found that the time that I have for self reflection and being with myself has been really helpful.”
Athough the students are returning to reside on campus, classes will still be held online. But Amarayah is hoping that, despite the ongoing pandemic, life will be a little closer to normal than it was last winter.
