Chinese Student experienced the entire COVID-19 in the United States

When Kecheng Liang decided to not return to China last April, “he had no idea he would be alone for so long and needed to move to the University Park campus all by himself. He was just thinking that everything will be fine and everyone will go back to school in the 2020 fall semester.

Today, Liang has been staying at University Park all by himself for the whole semester. “Today, Liang has been staying at the University Park campus all by himself since the fall semester, and he is getting to used to this new normal. He will stay until next year and hopes things get better next semester.”

“Before the epidemic, everyone drove to class. After class, I went to Philadelphia to have dinner with my friends,” he said. “Now I can only order takeaways at home, and there is no joy of gathering. The gym is not open anymore; it is easy to get fat by staying at home. Before the epidemic, I could party every week, and now most of my friends have returned to China, and the friends who stayed do not want to party anymore. Before the epidemic, I went to New York once a month and now I cannot go anymore. But I’m getting used to it already. Hope next semester can be better.”

Liang is a junior student at Penn State majoring in marketing. The first two years of his Penn State experience were at Abington campus.

Last year, at the beginning of the pandemic, He decided to stay at Abington when every international student was planning to leave the country.

“I thought this epidemic would only last one summer vacation, I didn’t expect it would take such a long time,.“ said Liang.

During last August he moved to the University Park campus. He asked his friend to help him pack up, and he sold all of his things that he could not take with him. They spent almost 3 days finishing all the packaging, selling and cleaning.

Finally, on Aug.4 about 2 A.M. ,they started the journey to the University Park campus, and they took two vehicles.

“At that time, the rental fee for the Towers was going to be very expensive, so I went to the main campus since the rent was cheaper,” he said. “The driving process is also very difficult. Due to too much luggage in my car, my right mirror was completely blocked. We went back and forth twice before we finished all our luggage, “said Liang.

At University Park, he went to take some of his courses in-person at the beginning of last semester. After a few days though, he thought it’s better to just take Zoom courses at home.

“I have taken a few in person courses at the beginning of last semester. Everyone is required to take face masks. However, I am still not too comfortable with staying in person. Therefore, I went back on Zoom.” said Liang.

“In fact, there is no particular big impact. The biggest impact should be that I cannot go out at will, I need to wear a mask wherever I go or just try not to go out. I only go out to Walmart or Chinese supermarket once a week.” said Liang.

“Even Though we are roommate but actually we rarely see each other” said Liang’s roommate Chenxing Luo. Luo is a junior student at Penn State majoring in computer science. “We have a different class schedule, we only have a dinner together once a week,” said Luo. She also said that she is planning to go back China after this semester. She is so tired of being alone at Park campus. Therefore, after this semester, Liang will be still stay at Park campus by himself until the next semester.