California Licensing in the Age of COVID

Brand new student (finally) and enrolled at Monterey Bay Institute of Electrology. For those of you who have graduated in California in the last year can you tell me what it was like right after you graduated?

I live in WA and will be living temporarily with a wonderful family (complete strangers though… I might be nuts… I did stay a trial weekend and everything went very well) and I am wondering what it looks like after I technically graduate.

Will I schedule my testing written and practical well before I go back home, do the testing and then return home or will I go home and have to likely fly back down to complete those portions weeks or months down the road.

I’m just try to nail down some sort of rough timeline.
I will likely be in Monterey Feb 1st and assume I will be done by middle of March and no later than April 1st. Wondering when I will actually be able to add this to my practice realistically.

TIA