Exchange Student Inés Ayrault Montero Recounts Journey Home to Spain in Time of Pandemic

EL TECOLOTE (SAN FRANCISCO) -- Editor’s note: Inés Ayrault Montero is an exchange student from Madrid, Spain, who is in SF State’s Journalism 575 Community Media this spring. Taught by Professor Jon Funabiki, the class is a collaboration with El Tecolote. “I remember that everything started changing here on March 9. Every day of that week, I woke up with some news about the COVID-19 crisis. First, they canceled classes. I attended my last face-to-face class at SF State on March 9, but classes weren’t officially suspended until March 11,” Montero wrote. “From that day, me and my Spanish roommates decided to do a voluntary quarantine. We knew how the situation might evolve due to our connection with Spain, so we knew that the most responsible thing was staying home. At the time, some might have thought that we were overeating, and that those precautions weren’t necessary yet in the United States. But we knew that the U.S. would eventually be in the same situation as Spain, and things were getting ugly. ... “COVID-19 ruined what it was supposed to be one of the most amazing semesters of my life. But, honestly, I’m glad that my family, friends and I are healthy and safe.”