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They're tired, a bit jet-lagged and more than overwhelmed by the sudden media attention, but the 21 students and three teachers from The Barrie School who spent most of their trip to China quarantined in a hotel room because of fears of swine flu are back in the United States safe and sound.

"It was disappointing but it was still an amazing experience and a once-in-a-lifetime chance for most people," said Salima Seale, a junior at the private Montessori school in Silver Spring.

The group traveled to China for a weeklong trip to follow the trail that Communist leader Mao Zedong traversed in the early 20th century. Their trip was part of an extended study week in which students travel to parts of the nation and world to study specific topics.

This group of students, who had been planning their trip since January, arranged to spend much of their time in Guizhou province in southwestern China to familiarize themselves with the more rural parts of the country.

To prepare, they studied Mandarin, read books about Zedong and followed current Chinese events.

But despite the frenzy of international news about swine flu before they left in May, no one was prepared for what was going to happen to them, said freshman Erica Peterson.

"We were aware of precautions we should take, but it was still a surprise it happened to us," she said.

Unbeknownst to the group, a passenger on their flight from San Francisco to Hong Kong had a high fever. Chinese government officials feared it was swine flu.

The passenger was immediately quarantined May 22 upon the flight's arrival, and the rest of the passengers were set free.

But on May 25, as the group was hiking to a Buddhist temple and visiting local rice paddies, Chinese officials contacted them and asked everyone to return to their hotel.

Teacher Paul Leistra, who had previously spent a year in China, said he had "an inkling" of what was going to happen next.

Sure enough, Chinese health officials met the group at their four-star hotel and took their temperatures. Although no one in the group had a fever, officials quarantined the group to one-and-two-person rooms for the next several days.

"It was disappointing because there were so many things we could have done," Peterson said of the moment when the group realized they wouldn't be allowed to finish their trip as planned.

But optimism soon took over when students were reminded that they were actually ahead of schedule and could fit the whole trip into three days.

"We had managed to get out into the rural villages," he said. "We got to see everything we would have seen. We just didn't get to spend as much time as we wanted to there."

The students weren't allowed to leave their rooms for four days. They could communicate through open doors or windows and had access to television, the Internet and phones. Hotel staff brought them three meals a day, even surprising the students with snacks such as french fries.

"They were rooting for us," Leistra said of the relationship between the quarantined group and the hotel staff.

The teachers were allowed to leave their rooms, and Leistra said he spent much of those four days trekking back and forth among the students on the 10th and 11th floors of the hotel to make sure everyone was healthy, happy and entertained.

Entertainment wasn't a problem for one group of students who played a "fruit bowling" game, using the fruit from sympathy baskets Chinese officials sent the students. One group would lean out of their doorway to bowl fruit down the hallway into a stack of empty water bottles that roommates down the hall had set up, said student Chase Appleby, who invented the game.

Leistra came up with some ingenious games of his own. He'd stand outside the students' doorways and lead them in push-ups, sit-ups and sprints across the room to help them release energy, Seale said.

And after realizing all of the students had a different view of the courtyard below, Leistra asked everyone to draw what they could see from their window to make a panoramic view of their trip to China.

By Friday at 6 p.m., Chinese officials made good on their promise to release the students and confirmed that the passenger on the plane did not have swine flu. The students drove to the capital city of Guiyang, where they feasted on traditional Chinese food. The next day, their last in China, provincial officials at a local pavilion showered them with gifts including tiny dolls in traditional dress and picture books of the countryside they missed. They also received festive snacks from the annual dragon races they had planned to witness but ended up seeing on television instead.

The group said the Chinese treated them with nothing but respect and almost all the students plan to travel back to the country as soon as possible.

"I'd do it again in a heartbeat," Leistra said. "It's a great place to visit, especially with students."

Overnight media stars

But no one on the trip could believe the national media attention their quarantine created.

"It was like an uproar," Seale said.

The students said they were oblivious to the news until friends started messaging them on the social networking Web site Facebook.

"People were like, ‘We saw you on CNN,'" Peterson said. "I didn't think it was that big of a deal."

Many in the group think the media devoted too much time to their story.

Leistra noted if the students had been quarantined for any other reason their story probably would not have made headlines.

Peterson even used the word "sensationalized."

"I think it got blown out of proportion," she said.

But Appleby said he'll risk another media frenzy to travel to outside U.S. boarders again.

"This [experience] won't inhibit me to travel abroad at all," he said.