Learning to Deal with Disaster

Posted on 26. Jun, 2010 by Steph in Destinations, Europe, Stories

(This is the last post in a series where I’ve recounted the ways that travel has helped me to learn about myself. For reference check out: How Travel makes us Smarter, Wiser and All-Around More Awesome, Learning to Love Being Alone, and Learning From Our Travel Mistakes )

There’s a particular mental moment that every frequent traveler is familiar with. It’s an overwhelming feeling of sheer panic and fear. I like to call it the Oh Shit moment.

If you have traveled for any length of time you’ve had these moments. And if you haven’t yet, trust me you will. No matter how thoroughly you plan and prepare it’s inevitable that some unexpected wrench is going to appear in your plans and throw you for a loop. At that moment you will inhale really quickly and think “ohhh shit.”

I remember one of my first OS moment. It involved a weekend trip to Amsterdam (practically a requirement for all study abroad students in Europe), a friend’s overindulgence in the local “specialties” and the strange bathroom of a tourist Mexican restaurant.

It’s strange the way fear imprints on your memory: I can picture that dingy bathroom so vividly. The white tiles up the walls, even the ceiling was tiled, the avocado green stall and my pasty white friend puking her guts out in the toilet. I didn’t even know that marijuana could make you ill like that. It was my first time in a foreign country (outside of England), I’d lost my voice due to a bad sore throat (a whisper was all I could manage) and I was absolutely frozen with fear.

I sat there in stunned silence, trying to decide the best course of action (call an ambulance? Did hospitals in Holland even speak English? Would we go to jail?). It was just the two of us, in a foreign country- what on earth had made me think I could handle something like this?

I was shocked out of my indecision by the angry manager bursting in to tell us to get out of her restaurant. No amount of whispered pleadings on my part could gather any empathy. I could see exactly how we looked to her: dumb American college kids who didn’t know how to behave. Not really that far off to be fair.

It dawned on me that nobody was going to swoop in and solve this one so I better figure it out. I hauled my friend out onto the street and sat her up on a bench. At this point a random Dutch teenager sauntered by, surmised our predicament and offered to help. He ducked into the restaurant and came out with a glass of sugar water. I’m not sure if it was the glucose or the fresh air but within about 45 seconds my friend was completely coherent.

Then we went and got ice cream.

So what’s the lesson here? Well one, don’t act like a big dumb study-abroad cool guy in Amsterdam. More relevantly though; no matter how bad things seem at a given moment, if you can keep your wits about you then you will probably be okay.

Since then I’ve had plenty of even more dramatic OS moments:

The time I got a nasty staph infection and needed surgery 1000’s of miles from home

The time Croatian border guards all but strip-searched my friend and I for still unexplained reasons

The time I was stranded at a closed train station in the middle of rural Scotland.

That’s the thing about oh shit moments. You will inevitable have them and you will inevitably get through them. And though it will suck at the time, in the end you will be left with the confidence that you can tackle anything. And probably a hilarious story for cocktail parties.

This is the last of my posts in this series, which I’ve really enjoyed writing. All of the stories I’ve related over the past couple weeks deal with experiences I had while studying abroad in London. This is not a coincidence. What I consider my first big solo trip abroad was a life and personality altering experience for me. I went into it a shy and nervous kid who had just gotten out of a five-year relationship and generally lost. It wasn’t an easy trip and there was a lost of trial by fire but it was the beginning of a period of change and learning that continues to this day. I think that these articles help to illustrate how travel really has helped me to become a little bit smarter, wise and hopefully, more awesome.

What was your Oh Shit moment?

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Tags: Holland

38 Responses to “Learning to Deal with Disaster”

Erin
15. Jun, 2010
I had an “oh shit” moment of my own, when I found myself stuck in Liverpool in the middle of the night with nowhere to go. I learned so much on that trip. Your first solo (well, I had my husband with me) trip can be a HUGE learning experience, and ours definitely was. I really enjoyed reading this!
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- Steph
  15. Jun, 2010
  these moments almost always seem to happen at night! Or maybe things just seem worse then.
  Thanks for reading!
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Jen
15. Jun, 2010
My job requires that I be trained to handle OS moments and I like to pride myself in having nerves like a rock. However, that was proved to be false in March when I missed a connecting flight to TX and was possibly going to miss my BFFs daughter’s christening. I hadn’t slept in over 36 hours (since I had to do a whole bunch of shifts just before my departure date so I wouldn’t mess up at work) and I was so dead set on getting to TX that I almost rented a car and drove the “way too many hours to drive without sleep” distance. The universe was like, “whoa. No driving.” and the next flight to TX had a seat for me.
2 lessons learned: 1. Make sure you can hear the overhead at all times. 2 thinking fast does not equal thinking smart always. What you do or think of doing on the fly as a solution to a problem may not be your brightest idea.
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- Steph
  15. Jun, 2010
  It’s true that thinking fast is not always thinking smart. Good thing the universe was watching out for you!
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ayngelina
15. Jun, 2010
Then we went and got ice cream.
So funny.
My OS moment was in Hong Kong, after drinking free champagne all night at ladies night at an expat bar I realized I had forgotten the name of my hotel and all I could remember was that it had a Panda on it.
Drunk as a skunk I got on a bus at 3am and whipped out a pen and paper and drew a panda. Somehow the kind bus driver, who spoke no English, knew where I was staying.
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- Steph
  15. Jun, 2010
  That’s horrible and a little bit hilarious. Thank goodness you managed to get through!
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- aelle
  15. Jun, 2010
  That made me laugh out loud. I hope you tipped that bus driver really well. I have the worst sense of direction and I can totally see something like that happening to me! Trick: most hotels have business cards at the front desk. Put one in your pocket when you sign in.
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- Candice
  16. Jun, 2010
  This story calls for applause.
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Alouise
15. Jun, 2010
I haven’t had any big OS moments yet. I did get lost trying to find my way back to my hostel in Paris. Two other girls I’d met were with me and figured I knew where I was going cause I’d been out the night before. But the night before was hazy, so we just wandered around until we found some people for help. Somehow using my grade school French I was able to get us back.
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ecko
15. Jun, 2010
i love your post ,and i’ll happy to come again on your site
thanks for your share
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Jessica Skelton
15. Jun, 2010
I once got mild hypothermia on a 2-week camping/canoeing/rafting trip along some rivers in Utah and Colorado.It also happened to be in the middle of a terrible lightening/rain/thunderstorm, where me and my follow travelers had to squat on the edge of our life vests for insulation. For sure an OS moment! Great post! These instances make for great stories later (to look at the silver lining).
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- Steph
  16. Jun, 2010
  Wow hypothermia is a serious Oh Shit!
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aelle
15. Jun, 2010
The worst (as far as I’m concerned) OS moment involved waking up in a small japanese city at 4 in the morning with a killer urinary tract infection, and spending every moment between then and the time the closest clinic opened crying in pain, downing insane amounts of water and trying to figure out how to say in Japanese “I’m pissing razor blades” and “I think my kidneys are shutting down”. Also (don’t do this in my situation!!) reading up on other expats’ experiences with gynecological visits in Japan, which appear to be hilarious stories to be told later on (“woah, blond pubes!? freak show! let’s ask the whole hospital to come and check out this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity!”) but which ultimately was the tipping point that convinced me to stay home when the pain started dulling after 4 hours of massive hydration.
Luckily I didn’t die. But deciding not to see a doctor wasn’t the smart thing to do, coochie on display or not.
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- Steph
  15. Jun, 2010
  Wow! that is pretty freaking hilarious! And painful sounding. Glad you were okay. I had to seek medical attention for an embarrasing problem once but luckily it was in the UK, not small town Japan.
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The Jetpacker
15. Jun, 2010
We’ve only had one OH SHIT! moment so far:
It was in Buenos Aires. We told the cabbie where to go and he tried to drop us off in a dark street in the middle of the night on the WRONG side of town.
We spent a good ten minutes arguing with him, pointing to where we needed to go on a map. He either didn’t understand, or was trying to run up the meter. At one point I think he was ready to kick us out of the cab, but I started talking calmly to him and tried out my best Spanish directions, finally guiding him back to our hotel.
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- Steph
  16. Jun, 2010
  Stories like these make me afraid to take cabs. If you read the Lost Girl’s book they had a serious OS moment in one too.
  Reply to this comment
megan
16. Jun, 2010
Loving these comments!
To be honest, I’ve been quite lucky (touch wood) in my travels so far. No real OS moments, but I’m sure there’s plenty to come…
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- Steph
  16. Jun, 2010
  I hope you avoid them but they do seem to be inevitable…
  Reply to this comment
Christine
16. Jun, 2010
My biggest OS moment so far was in Tenerife, Spain. My husband and I were about to drive off to the airport to fly back home when we realized that we had lost the keys to our rental car. After an eternal hour of sheer panic, running around to look for the keys and many desperate phone calls to the car rental agency, it turned out that someone had found the keys and dropped them off at a nearby shop who contacted the car rental agency (whose phone number was luckily on the keychain) who then phoned us. We made it to the airport just in time.
As unpleasant as those OS moments are, they do make for some great travel stories in retrospect!
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- Steph
  16. Jun, 2010
  The worse it seems at the time the better story it’s going to make some day. At least that’s my philosophy!
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Candice
16. Jun, 2010
Eeek! Sounds a little like my Amsterdam experience, haha. Thank god for kind people though, right? You’re a good friend!
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- Steph
  16. Jun, 2010
  I think it’s probably more like your Amsterdam experience than I elaborated on here… I’ll tell you more at TBEX.
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Courtney
16. Jun, 2010
I guess this explains those little cards all around Amsterdam talking about the available drugs which all carry the same disclaimer “If you get sick or scared while taking (insert drug her) go to a quiet place and have some sugar”
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- Steph
  16. Jun, 2010
  Yeah! who knew there was a real medical basis for that.
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Caz Makepeace
16. Jun, 2010
Plenty of OS moments!! One was when Craig and I left the Sailing club in Nha Trang, Vietnam to go home at about 1am after far too many vodka buckets. We were staying only a block away but for some reason thought it would be fun to get a cyclo home instead of walk. We later woke up in the middle of a bustling market preparing for sun up which was not too far away. We had absolutely no idea where we where and we were in the worst vodka haze, where thinking was just not possible. No one around us spoke english, I could not put together a plan of action. A small boy came up to me and handed me my credit card which must have fell out on the floor of the market somehow. The cyclo driver couldn’t tell us a thing. Eventually a man on a motorbike said he could drive us back to our guesthouse except we could not remember the name of it. After some time we managed to get it together and communicated to him to take us back to the scene of the crime and we’d work it out from there. The motorbike ride took us about 30 minutes to get back!!! Oh shit- needless to say we don’t drink vodka anymore. Thankfully we still have our kidneys
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John
16. Jun, 2010
My first real “Oh Shit!” moment occurred in Ghana. I was showing symptoms of Malaria for about a week… Blacking out, throwing up, cold sweats, etc.
A friend of the orphanage that I was staying at helped me get to the closest hospital. I sat in the waiting room (a long wooden bench, outside in the blistering hot sun) for about 2 hours with many others, mostly older Ghanaians.
When my turn came and I explained my predicament, the doctor walked to the corner of the room and returned with the biggest needle I had ever seen. I didn’t see him unwrap it or clean it or anything… I hate needles as is. It was at that moment that I asked myself what the hell I was doing in Ghana.
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- Steph
  16. Jun, 2010
  Wow, I think all of these OS moments involving medical problems are the worst- so scary!
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Dave
16. Jun, 2010
Crossing snow on a steep pitch at 4,000 meters while on a trek in northern India. Both me and my French companion were clearly having an “oh shit” moment when we realized there were no ropes, crampons, or ice axes for us to use. The way down was harder, and at the highest section, I held the guide’s hand to steady myself.
It still scares me to think about it!
Here’s a quick video clip: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WfZUnUIOgP0
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- Steph
  16. Jun, 2010
  That is pretty intense. I hate that moment when I realize I’ve bitten off more than I can handle.
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Lauren Quinn
17. Jun, 2010
Another great post on life lessons via travel. And super well-written too. I love how travel intensifies those kinds of life experiences. And you’re right: things usually do turn out okay.
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- Steph
  17. Jun, 2010
  Thanks Lauren! “Everything will be okay” is pretty much my mantra in life.
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Christine
17. Jun, 2010
Oh, you know, just losing my passport the day before I was supposed to fly home after six weeks in Paris. Decided to be responsible and start packing the day before, but couldn’t find my passport. Finally had to call my parents, wake them up in the middle of the night (they were thrilled with me) and figure out where the nearest Embassy was. Thank God that I had a photocopy of my passport in my suitcase (now I keep a photo on my iPhone/computer as well) and that I can speak French. It was relatively easy to get an emergency passport since I was in a city with an embassy where I spoke the language, but still. Oh Shit was definitely the first thing that crossed my mind!
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- Steph
  17. Jun, 2010
  Wow, that IS a good one! I am so paranoid about my passport, I just KNOW it will take off one day.
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kumiko m
18. Jun, 2010
One OS moment was when I broke a surfboard while surfing in Bali. I thought I was going to have to pay $400 like in the states, but thankfully it was only $60 for repairs. But it was definitely embarrassing to walk down the beach the two pieces of the surfboard under both my arms.
Another time was when a scammer in a Paris train station scammed me for a “3 day ticket” when it was only a one time use one. I totally saw it coming, but innocent 17 year old me thought more highly of the person somehow.
And the last one was driving from South Africa to Swaziland with a group of friends through the mountains. Just as our van was having trouble going up a hilly road, I looked across the valley and saw an old rusted car that had fallen down halfway into the valley, and thought of myself being in that position! scary!
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- Steph
  19. Jun, 2010
  Haha I’ve had a couple bus rides like that- full of OS moments!
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peach
22. Feb, 2011
really bad food poisoning in albania with absolutely no one who spoke english and no bus system to get out.
cornered by three guys in old Nice (got away unscathed, luckily!).
motorbike accident in greek countryside…
well the list could go on, luckily OS moments make the best stories
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Dave
09. Feb, 2012
Biggest OS moment was definitely having all my stuff (including passport) stolen about 48 hours before flying back home. Emergency passport took 24 hours to be processed and involved flying from Auckland to Wellington to get to the Embassy, then back to Sydney to catch my flight home. As if that’s not OS enough, I was flying through Christchurch on my way back to Sydney and the airport was evacuated due to a bomb threat.
Good times I tell you!
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