Matilde Sardi, from Italy - at left and Lucia Serrano, from Spain, have experienced a very unique time at Lakeland High during this past year's pandemic.

Matilde Sardi was in a café in Italy on Aug. 17 when the simply call arrived.

Could she be all set to appear to the United States the next week and continue to be for the university calendar year?

The 17-year-previous burst into tears.

“It was a single of the greatest moments of my lifetime,” Sardi recollects. “Seriously. I couldn’t have been extra delighted, I  had my visa and placement, and on the 24th of August, I experienced the flight and was here.”

“Right here” is Lakeland Superior University in the Huron Valley Faculty District, exactly where she is dealing with a year that would have been exclusive as a foreign exchange university student, but in a pandemic, has grow to be even extra surreal.

Sardi is not the only foreign exchange university student at Lakeland this calendar year. Lucia Serrano, a 16-calendar year-aged from Madrid, Spain, also scored a spot.