There was oxygen in the ambulance, but no EpiPen. Only because another traveler had one in their bag did we stabilize him. Precision was the issue, not language.
Along with twelve other people, I went on a guided desert tour in Morocco. I took a four-minute bathroom break behind a dune. The caravan was gone when I returned.
No tire tracks, no guide. In an effort to save water, I waited in the sun for an hour. I was finally located and given a ride to the closest outpost by a local herder.
It turns out that the guide miscounted and didn’t even notice my absence until dinner. A small boat off the coast of Italy was rented by us. After a brief demonstration, the rental guy assured us that we could use the vehicle for four hours.
We ran out of fuel when the engine sputtered and died about ninety minutes in. We had no radio, no paddles, and a spotty cell signal two miles from the coast. It turns out that the man didn’t refill and instead used leftover fuel from previous trips.
We were towed in by a passing fisherman who saw us. Instead of apologizing, the rental company offered us a “discount.”
The crew of a Greek ferry declared a “safety exercise.” At first, everyone was quiet, but as life jackets were distributed, the crew began yelling instructions. “Go to the upper deck, now,” a crew member whispered to me.
I did as I was told. I later learned that it wasn’t a drill because they didn’t want to startle anyone because the ship had momentarily lost steering. We arrived at the port without any problems.
For fifteen minutes, however, only the crew was aware of our impending catastrophe. I arrived incredibly late for a company-wide meeting at a very nice resort hotel. I ended up walking into my hotel at 4 AM after my flight from the East Coast to the West Coast was delayed, rerouted, and so on.
I was greeted by the most terrifying-looking man I have ever seen behind a hotel desk. He appeared instantly agitated and began phoning rooms when I mentioned that I was checking in. If someone answered, he apologized.
It took me a few seconds to realize that he was calling rooms at four in the morning to see which ones were empty and that he had no idea who was in which room. At last, he found a room that was empty and handed me the key. Before my morning meeting, I went to the room, shut the door, and hoped to sleep for two hours or so.
I decided to be smart and remove my phone from the hook before bed after realizing what he had done. Someone was attempting to enter my room at five in the morning. Evidently, he was still unable to determine who was busy and who wasn’t responding.
The following morning, I learned that the individual who attempted to enter my room returned to the front desk and was informed that there were no more rooms available. If he wanted to sleep, the desk clerk offered him the lobby sofa for an hour or two. Along with twelve other people, I went on a guided desert tour in Morocco.
I took a four-minute bathroom break behind a dune. The caravan was gone when I returned. No tire tracks, no guide.
In an effort to save water, I waited in the sun for an hour. I was finally located and given a ride to the closest outpost by a local herder. It turns out that the guide miscounted and didn’t even notice my absence until dinner.
A small boat off the coast of Italy was rented by us. After a brief demonstration, the rental guy assured us that we could use the vehicle for four hours. We ran out of fuel when the engine sputtered and died about ninety minutes in.
We had no radio, no paddles, and a spotty cell signal two miles from the coast. It turns out that the man didn’t refill and instead used leftover fuel from previous trips. We were towed in by a passing fisherman who saw us.
Instead of apologizing, the rental company offered us a “discount.”
