On March 16th, women's basketball redshirt junior Laia Solé was living in Brottier Hall when she received an email that Duquesne's campus would be closing - like many universities around the nation - due to COVID-19. After a phone call with her parents on March 19th, the native of Spain was faced with a tough decision: stay in the Steel City, or attempt to fly back to Spain.

"I didn't know what I was going to do," said Solé of the ultimatum. "I thought I might move somewhere temporarily, until I knew what to do next. My parents called and told me if I wanted to go home for summer, that it was now or never. That was an eye-opener, because I didn't expect to go home that early."

Later that day, flights from Pittsburgh to Boston and Boston to Barcelona were booked. The following day on March 20^th, just hours after deciding to head back home, Solé quickly packed her belongings and began to make the trek home to Spain.

There was no guarantee the flights would go on as scheduled.

"I was scared that I would get stuck on my layover in Boston with no place to go," continued Solé. "But luckily, they didn't. Nearly every single flight was canceled, except mine. I saw the screen and only my flight said 'on time'".

Dodging that bullet was just the beginning of the adventure.

As the height of the coronavirus was just beginning to penetrate the United States at that point in mid-March, Spain was among the hardest-hit countries in the world. 

Solé was picked up from Josep Tarradellas Barcelona-El Prat Airport by her aunt as the two headed 40 miles to her hometown of Igualada. Heading into the homestretch, the tiresome journey had one more checkpoint to cross. 

Igualada was "under a lockdown within a lockdown", after a lunch held on February 28 with health officials spread the outbreak to a "very serious" situation according to the mayor of Igualada.   

The 'lockdown within a lockdown' consisted of police being stationed at every entrance of the city, allowing only essential workers to enter and leave, many traveling to nearby Barcelona.

Solé entered the trading place at the entrance of the city. Only allowed to enter Igualada since her passport stated she was born there, the officers took her passport and told to her she could enter, but was not allowed to leave. She met her father after passing through the security checkpoint and followed the safety procedures of showering immediately.  

The 4,000-plus mile journey to a COVID-19 hotspot was over.

"The first week, especially was crazy," Solé said of the transition to Spain. "I kept getting notifications from Snapchat saying that 'last week you were at the mall' and similar alerts. How did everything change so fast? I didn't want to think too far into it. I took it day-by-day. It made it easier that I was with my parents and we made the most of it."

While the journey home was abnormal, life in Igualada for the next few weeks was anything but status quo.

While many college students may dread coming home and living under their parents' roof once again, it marked the first time since Laia was 13-years old that she had stayed with her parents for an extended period of time. She attended boarding school when she became a teenager, before enrolling at the University of Maine for her freshman season. The America East Sixth Player of the Year transferred to Duquesne the following season and has been on The Bluff ever since. Solé would spend long weekends in Igualada and a month each summer, but COVID-19 has brought a unique circumstance for an extended stay in Catalonia.

"It was definitely different, but I love it," Solé said of living with her parents again. "I didn't think it was even a big adjustment. We know that we don't get to see each other much - so when we do - we all enjoy each other's company. We try to spend time together and have family moments. We make sure to enjoy every single moment. Every single summer is so short, so it's just nice to be back and that they welcome me."

While the city was locked down from visitors and those trying to leave the city, citizens were only allowed to leave their homes for trips to the grocery store and for essential business. Police monitored streets regularly and could issue costly fines for those not following the social guidelines issued, which included exercising outside.

With her father going to the grocery store solo, Laia had only left the confines of her home a few times over several weeks to take out the trash.

To stay sane, Solé has established and maintained a daily routine which consists of eating fruit for breakfast and then exercising. After her workout, she starts her schoolwork before eating lunch with her parents. Due to time-zone differences, Solé's classes that were in the afternoon in the Eastern Standard Time are in the late evening in the Central European Summer Time (CEST) – a six-hour difference. On Monday's and Wednesday's, she had a class that began at 11:00 p.m. and ends at 12:15 a.m. Another adjustment to an already unprecedented time had to be factored in.

Some distractions to life on the outside include watching The Simpsons and The Mentalist, talking to friends and her teammates on the phone. She has picked up cooking as a hobby, specializing in making healthy meals of fish, chicken and vegetables. She gets her basketball fix by watching replays of the top men's and women's Spanish National Team games, which are broadcasted on local TV channels. She is waiting until all 10 episodes of the nationally-acclaimed documentary series The Last Dance are released so that she can binge-watch them all.  

While locked down in quarantine, she celebrated her 22^nd birthday on April 18^th with her parents in Igualada, along with her virtual graduation from Duquesne on May 8^th.

The commencement celebration would not last long. She began online classes at Duquesne toward a professional master's of business administration after the weekend on Monday, May 11^th.

Life still isn't normal and won't be for some time, but the tightened lockdown in Igualada is now over. Social distancing is still prevalent, but encouraging statistics have half of the country entering the first phase of a reopening. Solé and citizens of Igualada are now allowed to exercise outside from 6:00 a.m. to 10:00 a.m. and 8:00 p.m. to 11:00 p.m. Other time slots throughout the day are reserved for children and the elderly, to help control crowds.

After responding to adjustments of moving across the world on hours of notice, taking classes after midnight on her local time, being entrapped in her home with the only opportunity to breathe the outside air was to take out the trash, Solé says that patience and her parents have made the transition a successful one.

"I would say I'm doing well," she said of the whole experience. "I'm just trying to see the positive side of everything and trying to hang out with my family, which I don't get to do a lot during the season. It was challenging, but with my parents, it made everything so much easier."