I had my first panic today of being very lost. Well, in reality, I wasn't very lost at all--it was just getting later in the evening, so my feeling of being lost was heightened. As I continued to walk in the wrong direction, I kept looking for somewhere that was still open that might be a good place to ask for help. I would pass people and places and think, "No, she looks angry... No, that's weird... No, not talking to a man... Man, I'm never going to see somewhere to stop."
Finally, there I saw this cute pastry shop with a young lady and young man getting everything ready to close. I decided stopping there would be okay because, 1) Who could be unhappy and work in a cute pastry shop? and 2) They were getting ready to go home, so that's another possible plus on the happiness scale. I walked in and very simply stated, "Estoy perdida;" in English, "I'm lost."
They both stopped immediately to help me, and worked really hard to give me the best directions they could collectively come up with. I understood nearly nothing. And, even though they also wrote everything down, I still had no idea what they were telling me. I was too grateful for their obvious sympathy to tell them that they were talking way too fast for me. So, I walked out of the shop in the one direction I understood--because it was the only one they could point toward from their location at that moment--went two more blocks in the right direction, broke down and took a cab for 22 pesos** back to my apartment.
When I left the little pastry shop with the nice pastry sellers, it was so cool to realize that even in a big city there are people who want to help those in need. And, if you're losing your way and all else fails, cabbies can take you where you need to be and get paid for it; and, that's what you would call a win/win situation.
**22 pesos ends up being about $5 USD--not too shabby.
No comments:
Post a Comment