Talking about the "emergency" event in the exigence category today, it made me think of a particular instance that stands out in my life.
I have always been the type of person that is slightly nervous before any travel experience. What if something goes wrong? Well, not anymore.
I studied abroad in Glasgow last semester. During spring break, my friend who was studying in San Sebastien, Spain, met up with me and we traveled to London, Amsterdam, and took a bus from Amsterdam to Spain (24 $#$^&%! hours, but it was the cheapest). Well, that bus ride began the experience that was the second worst day of my life, aka, The Day from Hell (Real original, I know).
We were already tired. We had missed our flight from Glasgow to London, having to pay quite a bit for a new one. Several early mornings, hours of traveling and sightseeing... those will take it out of you. And I have never been one who can really sleep on a bus.
So we finally got to San Sebastien, after an entire day of the least pretty highways in Europe, angry, smelly Spanish busmates, and a several hour long search complete with dogs by the French border patrol. We get there, exhausted, and start walking to Mary's friend's apartment, where I will be staying.
I forgot my purse.
Yes, you say, that stinks. But I don't think you comprehend. My wallet with cards/cash. My PASSPORT. My phone. My camera.
The terror. The bus is long gone by now, I don't speak the language of this country, AND I CAN'T LEAVE. This is sincerely the worst thing that could have happened. If I hadn't had Mary, I would have had a breakdown. I can't even fathom not having her there. She speaks fluent Spanish, so she helped me with contacting the (incompetent) bus service, and we tracked down the purse, which was brought back later that day.
But before then, her card was eaten by the machine. It was a Sunday, so nothing was open. We were stranded, about 10 Euros to our name, tired and incredibly emotional in a foreign land. We both called our parents on her skype and sobbed. I decided that although she is one of my best friends, we should probably end our spring break a little early.
So I got a hotel room in Hendaye, just on the other side of the border in France. I took a train over there with rudimentary directions on how to get to the hotel from the train station. They weren't correct. I like to tell everyone that I WALKED INTO SPAIN looking for my French hotel (even though it was just a mile or so out of my way). But I was at the end of my rope. I got to my hotel, had a confused back and forth with the receptionist, took like 10 tries to call my parents, called them, sobbed again, and slept for a day or so.
As I recount this, it doesn't seem so much to fit into the emergency quadrant. But this is an event that changed my life. I now do not freak out in the face of complications. Anything, I think, is better than that one emotionally charged day. It helps me be calm in the face of catastrophe.
(Also, I had to put it into perspective a few days later: I returned to Glasgow less than one day before the Icelandic volcano erupted, which caused a lot of my friends to be stranded in continental Europe, and they spent much more money than I did trying to get home, missed class, and dealt with a lot more stress. It's funny how nature can humble you sometimes.)
Basically, I'd like to break this down in terms of the hero narrative.
(1) Author: I am the hero. Heroine.
(2) Text: Spring break, Europe. Foreign land. Foreign language.
(3) Exigence: No sleep, lost purse, not speaking language, lost credit card, bad directions.
(4) Audience: Did I have an audience? You are my audience... the audience to my day consisted of Mary, various waiters, bus company people, the hotel concierge, my parents.
(5) Constraints: My limits were language and lack of sleep. My magic tool was Mary and my rudimentary high school French. And the baguette and gummy apple rings that I bought when in France. They all helped me get through those days.
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