This article is a log of my experiences for the past 6 months and the last 3 months of total quarantine.
When I first reached Bulgaria, after my stay in China was cancelled because of the COVID-19 pandemic, I had lots of hopes and was ready to take the best out of my new destination.
But it turned out that rapidly I was deceived. After a week of classes, a sort of lockdown was decided by the Bulgarian authorities because of the flu. The government decided to close all schools as the flu epidemics was out of control, and hospitals couldn’t deal with it.
Our group tried to get organized. We decided to visit the country, waiting for schools to reopen. We rented a car and booked an apartment by the Black Sea, in a very charming city called Varna.
It was surprising to see that Varna reminded me of my home Island, with its way of life and especially when I found out in a restaurant on the beach, souvenirs of Saint Martin, postcards and more.
We have really appreciated that stay but at a point COVID-19 caught me again. Without a notice the Bulgarian authorities declared a state of emergency with a locking down of every bars and restaurants on the territory. In the morning, everything was opened and a minute later everything closed. It was a shock for us. So before getting into problems we decided to go back to Veliko-Tarnovo as the measures were very drastic and the fines outrageous.
The state of emergency evolved fast into a semi-lockdown, and the interdiction of being more than two persons at a time. But, we didn’t want to leave Bulgaria, not to jeopardize our Erasmus stay. All the Resaurant / Bars / Fastfood distribution closed because of the state of emergency so we went on a local home appliance store to buy some furniture to make a little kitchen in our dorm, we also bought some furniture to store our food.
We gave all of our kitchen furniture and food to a group of polish students when we had to quit Bulgaria in a hurry because of the COVID-19.
So we were waiting for official instructions from our school, ESAIP. I didn’t want to leave, also because I had nowhere to go, airports in Saint Martin were closed, I couldn’t go back home. My only other option was to ask my grandmother, who is 82 years old, but I didn’t want to be a danger for her.
After having been in contact with the French Embassy, the Consul for France advised us to leave as soon as possible as he knew that universities wouldn’t reopen before September and that we might be in danger, staying there. So, we did a sort of meeting to get organized and we decided to book one of the last flight back to France, as the Consul said. But all the cities were under lockdown with no possibilities of leaving them by public transportation, we also needed to ask the university for a permit to leave Veliko, and book a taxi to cross Bulgaria to Sofia airport which is about 3 hours away. We found out a private taxi for the eight of us. Later, a Turkish student was trying to reach Sofia, too, so we invited her to join our group. We also booked a hotel room by the airport, way out of budget but safer for us. Our trip back was just like hell as we needed to respect both Bulgarian and French one’s rules. We were almost arrested in Sofia as we walked all together to get some money to pay the hotel.
Back to France, I walked so much from one station to another as I didn’t want to take buses in Paris. I took a train to Orleans, that I had reserved in advance as I knew no one could enter the station without a ticket and a travel waiver. When I reached my final destination, I was aware that I had to be extra-cautious in order to protect my grandmother. So I respected a strict quarantine for 2 weeks, trying not to meet her. I think that it was more difficult for her to respect social distancing and to wear a mask. Well, when quarantine was over, we felt relieved but we still kept a certain distance.
I took contact with friends of mine in Orleans who are involved in student associations and we decided to put up plans to help students in need. We made up an action to collect and distribute food for foreign students who couldn’t leave dorms to go back home. I was very busy with that until lockdown was over.
I ‘ve also for fun taken 3D modeling on-line classes that interested me and done my work for the University of Veliko Tarnovo. I’ve also reviewed my maths lessons for the July session, which is not what I have preferred, but well, we have to do what we have to do.
To be honest, my Erasmus stay was not what I expected at all… I haven’t taken the most benefit out of it. I think that I wasn’t lucky at all, as everyone due to the pandemic. When I had registered for China, I had so many dreams and expectations, I was really disappointed not to go, but I was pleased with my new group in Bulgaria, we went through really nice experiences.
Thomas MAAROUFI
Bulgaria tourism 