Travel

As students head into another semester which will have an all-virtual component,  many are again faced with the question of where to spend it. Time zones, convenience, community, and finances all factor into the decision. For some students in the fall, neither staying at home nor living near campus was ideal, so instead, they chose to live in new areas. A few gave insight into how their semesters went.

My suitcase has seen better days. Its wheels are stiff and coarse; the handle pulls out only with considerable effort. There’s a large dent on its bottom, from the time when a Transportation Security Administration officer tossed it ungraciously off an airport conveyor belt. Stickers in varying states of disrepair adorn it: there’s a cat I found at a Bangkok night market; a torn orange doodle I bought from a thrift store in Rome; and a logo sticker from my old school that reads, a little too patriotically for my taste, “GO CHOATE!”

Barnard students from hot spot U.S. states and territories must make their own arrangements to quarantine for two weeks before arriving on campus, according to an Aug. 3 email sent by Provost Linda Bell and Dean of the College Leslie Grinage. This leaves students from 34 states and Puerto Rico with two weeks to find alternative housing options to abide by the New York travel advisory.

As the threat of the COVID-19 outbreak grows, the University has requested that all students in high-risk locations attempt to return either to their permanent residence or a safer location. The statement, which was sent in an email from Interim Provost Ira Katznelson to the University community, follows a line of updates that have altered Columbia operations in light of the COVID-19 outbreak.

Columbia suspended all its upcoming affiliated or sponsored travel plans to foreign countries until further notice, notifying students in numerous abroad programs to determine options for their return back to the United States, according to emails by interim provost Ira Katznelson.

February 2020

As I walked down the steps in the subway station, I heard the downtown 1train approaching the platform. I raced to the turnstile and swiped my MetroCard furiously, only to see the dreaded “insufficient fare” message flash back at me. I sighed as I headed over to a kiosk, frustrated not only because I had to wait for another eight minutes, but because this was the second time in less than a week that I had to refill my MetroCard in order to commute to my classes at Juilliard.

I used to love going to the airport. It used to be the prelude to an adventure novel. I was embarking on the Airbus A380 to a pirate’s island; readying myself for a scavenger hunt in the dreamy Abomey, Benin; preparing for a historical trip to see the wonders of Turkey; or flying across the Atlantic to the city that never sleeps.

I don’t remember much about the movie Sully, in which Tom Hanks plays the heroic pilot who crash-landed a plane on the Hudson River in 2009, but I do recall the thrill of watching the flight attendants do their jobs so well. As the plane nosedives, they leap into action in unison. They issue impossibly calm instructions and usher the passengers onto the wings while the cabin fills with ice-cold water. Everyone survives.

The weather’s been getting warmer and the days longer, and we all know what that means—summer is just around the corner. Though it may not feel like it, we’re officially halfway through the spring semester, and therefore, it’s time to plan for summer. If that thought sends you into a tailspin, take a second to relax—from internships to jobs to relaxing itself, Spectrum’s got you covered with some options on what you should do this summer.