Kamaron Hillman is pictured in Valtournenche, Italy. Submitted Photo.

It has been quite a trip and experience for Dunkirk resident and student Kamaron Hillman. In August, she was featured in an OBSERVER article before her trip as an exchange student to Italy.

She arrived to the country in early September and sent updates on her trip to this newspaper, which have been published in our Weekend Life section. Her last article, however, documented the serious nature of the coronavirus.

“This article was originally supposed to entail all the festivities that I attended during the vacation of Carnevale, and although I was able to attend the first — and now last — parade in Novara, all other activities were cut short by the Italian government in Northern Italy due to the coronavirus,” Hillman wrote in the article on March 8.

Those events tied to the Italian festival took place in mid February. Today, the country is at a standstill.

In an e-mail to the OBSERVER this week, Hillman reported she is back in the United States and is self quarantining. Here is her final article, which details the devastation, in Italy:

By KAMARON HILLMAN

On Saturday at 10:30 a.m., I said goodbye to Novara, Italy, thus ending my exchange program. Unfortunately, with the coronavirus spreading so quickly throughout the region, my program deemed it necessary to send all exchange students in Europe back home.

I had four days warning and thankfully was able to buy gifts for my host family and family back home before the Italian government closed all the stores and shops. I also was able to eat quite a few gelatos before the gelaterias closed as well!

I wasn’t able to say goodbye to my friends in Italy or take a class photo or have a final pizza with my exchange student friends. The gym was closed, all the shops, restaurants, and stores were closed, excluding the supermarkets and pharmacies. To go out on the street you needed to fill out a form justifying your reason to be outside in case the officers patrolling the sidewalks stopped you.

Piedmonte, the region I lived in, had 840 coronavirus cases, 48 being in Novara when the decision to leave was made. Now, there are 1,516 cases in Piedmonte, 109 in Novara. Everything is closed until April 3, including school. Students hadn’t been to school since Feb. 22, and with exams to do, online schooling using Google Classroom was utilized by all the shut down schools.

Many people on the streets were wearing masks, but all the pharmacies were sold out, so I had to acquire one (for when I was to be at the airport) from my host dad, who is a doctor. Many exchange students, from varying programs, also had to return home early as well and my friend Haruyo from Japan had to be tested for the coronavirus in the airport when she returned (it took 10 hours after she got off the plane to finally reunite with her family). Thankfully she tested negative and is in fine health.

My own adventure to get back home included a canceled flight, a hotel stay, multiple forms to fill out, and a very long customs line.

In case anyone was wondering about the mysterious new measures America is taking to screen their returning citizens from Europe, it’s pretty simple. Before boarding the flight to America they check your passport and give it a sticker on the back, but only if you are an American citizen or green card holder.

Then when you arrive in America, you fill out a form, take a shuttle, exit, and wait in line to be screened. Then you answer a few questions including, “Where are you coming from? Do you have any fever, coughing, etc.?” If you say no, they give you a stamp on your paper and you proceed to another shuttle and wait until it fills up. After this, you go to customs where they ask you the usual customs questions and check all your documents. And that’s it! No temperature taking, virus testing, or mandatory quarantining (unless you actually display symptoms). They do recommend self quarantining for two weeks, which is why I am self quarantining in a cabin in the woods in Virginia with my mother.

This experience in Italy, six months in a different country learning the language and culture, has been the most interesting six months of my life and I feel like I’ve learned so much about the world and even about myself. A huge thank you to my host family, literally I couldn’t ask for more, you were awesome and whenever you want, come on over to the states! Thank you to my Italian friends and my exchange student friends! I got to meet a little bit of Japan, Estonia, Australia, and Mexico! Even though I am leaving earlier than expected, this has not taken anything away from the experience!

Thank you so much to Italy, my school, my classmates, ASSE program and scholarship, the OBSERVER for letting me write these articles, and most of all to God for giving me all these opportunities!

Arrivederci!

Kamaron Hillman is a Dunkirk resident.