Roads Lead To Rome, But None Lead Home

When in Rome, do as the Romans do.

When stranded in Rome, shop!

That’s the lesson that W. Chloe Kim ’08, a Leverett House resident and South Korean citizen, learned when she lost her passport and student visa in the Italian capital—and was stuck in the city for four days.

All roads led to Rome for Kim, who said she “went with a couple of my friends just for fun over intersession.”

But none of them led out.

Kim’s fun in the Italian sun ended on Jan. 31, when, she said, her passport and visa were stolen.

“We were going to the Vatican, and we were going during rush hour in the metro, and someone grabbed my bag,” she said.

At first, Kim said, “I didn’t really even know it.” But within an hour, Kim realized that her bag, which contained her traveling papers, had been swiped.

And thus began a four-day ordeal, as Kim tried to replace the documents that she needed to leave Italy.

By the time she got out, spring semester at Harvard already was underway.

ROMAN HOLIDAY

Luckily, Kim had left photocopies of her travel documents back in the United States, and the Harvard International Office faxed the copies to her in Rome. That made her extra time in Italy seem like an extended vacation.

“I talked to my advisers at Harvard, and they faxed letters of urgency to the U.S. Embassy because it usually takes about a month to get a visa,” she said. “They kind of made a special case for me.”

When Kim was not busy making phone calls and writing and receiving e-mails from Harvard correspondents, she enjoyed a relatively low-stress stay in Italy. “I just walked around and did things that I didn’t have time to do,” she said.

According to Kim, these activities included visiting the Pantheon, soaking up the gorgeous Roman scenery, and taking advantage of seasonal shopping sales.

After obtaining a copy of her passport, visa, and I-20 form—which is a document that identifies Kim as a student at Harvard University, and is necessary to validate her student visa—Kim returned to Harvard on Saturday night.

Kim’s academic adviser, Leverett House residential tutor Karthik Muralidharan ’98, said that everyone could learn a few things from Kim’s ordeal.

“I think, particularly for international students, given the tougher visa regimes...the first thing is to be extra careful with your documents and things when you travel,” said Muralidharan, who is a doctoral candidate in economics. “And also be aware of country reputations,” he said, referring to Italy’s notoriety for passport theft.

Muralidharan also noted that students should keep photocopies of their travel documents, like Kim did, and should take full advantage of the tutor system.

“What makes the resident tutor system so powerful is if I don’t know something there are plenty of other people that I can get in touch with,” he said. “If something goes wrong, I instantly know that there are other people who can help.”

An adviser for undergraduates at the Harvard International Office, HuQing Piemonte, noted that while Kim’s situation is not the norm, advisors at the office are trained for situations such as these.

“This is exactly what we would do,” Piemonte said. “When I heard from Chloe through e-mail, I right away issued a new I-20 and wrote a letter to the U.S Embassy explaining the situation, requesting them to expedite the visa issue and replace them so that she could come back to class on time.”

Piemonte said that the embassy’s effective response in this instance was not necessarily the norm. When a traveler loses re-entry documents, Piemonte said, “the U.S. consulate has very little control over it.”

“I feel that we were very fortunate this time that the U.S. Embassy in Rome was very responsive to Chloe and to us,” Piemonte said.

Kim’s passport mishap does not deter her from traveling in the future.

“It kind of sucked,” she said, “but it ended up pleasantly.”

—Staff writer Laura A. Moore can be reached at lamoore@fas.harvard.edu.<\i>