It was the half of a school semester in my first year in Albania. There was a virus that slowly started spreading in China. At first, I didn't think that this would reach every country or be a big deal, but as more people got infected the virus started spreading to other countries. Soon, it was in Albania as well. We were told to stay home for 3 weeks, but sooner or later everyone knew that it would be more than that. We ended up staying home for the rest of the year, which was around 3-4 months. Summer was approaching and near the end of the year, the situation got better. People took it seriously at the beginning and the cases went down a lot by summer. We usually went home to Hungary for all summer every year. The reason that we could go back to Hungary this year as well is because the cases went down. We went home as usual and nothing more happened.  

We were planning on coming back to Albania to start another year, but there was a problem. Even though the Virus wasn’t active all summer, near the end they were starting to add up. This means that many countries weren't sure that school could even start. Then the idea came. My parents thought that it would be better if we stayed in Hungary for 1 year. This idea came because in Hungary they weren't thinking about the fact the school should start, it would start with Covid procedures. I really didn’t want this to happen because if I went there, I would have to reconnect with my old friends. This alone is good, but the fact you must switch school systems as well and adapt to that learning type was a lot for me. Especially the fact that not long ago we got: Biology, Chemistry, Physics. This meant that I would have to study a lot harder to catch up. The way we did it before in Albania and before that Montenegro, was that every time that I went home from the international school, I would have to study Hungarian as well, and at the end of a school year, I would do exams. This way I got grades as well in Hungary. This is the only factor that allowed me to stay in the same class I was in the old times when I was there. That made it easier because I already knew a few people there that could help.  

I knew even if I didn’t want to stay in Hungary it was going to have to happen. A few days later, the decision was made as well. There was one thing that really disturbed me though, I might be leaving and adapting, which is hard, but thinking of others I remembered that I didn’t even tell any of my friends.  I felt like I sort of abandoned them and just disappeared. It made me feel bad because I wanted to be there with them with the new class. Also moving on from leaving I also had a lot of fear that I wouldn’t do well in fitting in with that school, both ways: school grades, friends. I thought about this a lot for the rest of my summer, but in the end just decided not to fear something I don’t know about. So, I tried not to think about any of it and just walked right in. When I was coming to the school two or three of my friends came up to me and I already knew that I had nothing to be afraid of. They were curious about my experiences in Montenegro and Albania, and they would always help me with the Hungarian school. This worked out well for me.  I taught them a lot about some ways that they haven’t learned yet. School was hard even for them, but this help made it easier for all of us. 

It was coming close to the end of the year and another problem came. I had to leave at the end of the summer again to go to Albania. That means that I would have to leave these helpful and kind people again. We spent most of the summer together talking and doing other things and discussed that I would try to come home for all the breaks, and we would meet again. This seemed fair but also sad. 

 I moved back to Albania, and I found my old friends that stayed and fitted back in quite fast. This fast 1-year trip did teach and help with a lot of things, and after, all by changing some things, I wouldn’t be mad if it happened again. It was just so interesting to see how many different people learn things differently. And even coming back was good because the methods I learned in Hungary are way faster than a few methods in other schools.