For some international students in Boston, this holiday season won’t be so jolly. With an alarming spike in COVID cases, some have chosen to stay put and not risk traveling to see friends and family in case new travel restrictions derail their studies next semester.
I am one of those students.
After Boston University’s International Student & Scholars Office sent out an email Dec. 7 stating that international students will have to take a “leave of absence” if they are unable to be back on campus by the beginning of next semester, I rushed to reschedule my flight to Malta for next year — booking dates for spring in anticipation that the omicron variant will be under control by then.
I will be spending Christmas in Boston — my very first Christmas away from family — and with fellow classmates who also chose not to travel this winter break as countries grapple with a global rise in COVID-19 cases. For the first time ever, I will be experiencing a cold, wet Christmas. A stark difference from the usual routine of waking up on Christmas morning to the Mediterranean sun, enjoying seafood platters at lunch and meeting my extended family and grandparents in the evening.
The only solace is knowing that there are other international students — around Boston and the rest of the United States — who also made the hard decision to cancel their winter plans and hunker down for the season, hoping that they will remain safe, and COVID-19 free, until the spring semester.
“I was supposed to fly on Dec. 28, but now I don’t know what my plan is,” said Radja Nasution, a finance undergraduate student at UMass Boston.
“I haven’t been home in a long time,” he said.
Nasution hopes to return to Belfast to reunite with his family for the holidays. However, with countries across Europe imposing further restrictions in recent weeks, including the closure of nightclubs in Northern Ireland and tighter restrictions for all hospitality venues, he’s is also having second thoughts about returning home.
“I’m thinking about postponing until January to see how this will all play out, or maybe until spring break,” Nasution said.
For international student Shruti Rao, a master of international business candidate at The Fletcher School at Tufts University, the situation is more grim.
“I was going to the United Kingdom to meet my boyfriend who I haven’t met in an entire year,” she said. “My flight is on the 24th of December. I don’t have my visa and things are going so badly in the UK that they might stop flights from the U.S.”
Rao booked an appointment to get a travel visa in October, opting for a priority service that offered a five-day turnaround. Instead, her appointment was scheduled for Dec. 13 in Lawrence, Mass., and she had yet to hear back about the status of her visa two days before flying.
When she inquired about the delays in her visa, the immigration office cited “disruptions” caused by the pandemic.
“I’m scared. This is my first time in Boston and I’m not used to the cold. I’ll have to spend an unimaginable amount of time in my room,” she said.
There’s no hope of her boyfriend traveling to the United States over the winter break, either, with his tourist visa appointment scheduled for February 2022.
“I’m still hoping that I can still get my visa, but I think I should start making some New Year’s plans here,” Rao said.
Rao isn’t the only one looking to make last-minute winter plans now that she finds herself stuck in Boston. For me, it will involve doing my best to replicate a traditional Maltese Christmas experience from my kitchen in Brighton: FaceTiming family, making my mother’s hearty pumpkin soup and cooking some homemade seafood to keep me company for the day.
Jean-Paul Azzopardi is a graduate student at Boston University and editor of the Daily Free Press.
