Well, I have made it safely in Rome. Although, my arrival at the Leonardo Da Vinci airport was nothing short if a nightmare. I had arrived exhausted and unfocused at the airport around 9:30 a.m. Italy time. I remembered that the meeting place for everyone else was to be outside of baggage claim starting at 11:30. So I sat down at a spot where I thought was our meeting point and waited. 11:30 came and went. I never saw anyone else who looked like a Saint Mary’s student arriving at the airport. Nor was there a representative anywhere with a “clearly marked sign” declaring that they were waiting for Saint Mary’s Rome Program participants.
I started walking up and down the airport with my entire luggage looking for any sign of the group. Feeling extremely panicky, I tried to use a pay phone to call Dr. Prebys. She did not answer the phone, at close examination of the number, I found that the only two numbers I have for her were for her Home, and Office, both, which I was sure, would not work in my situation. As I walked away close to tears, I noticed out of the corner of my eye a short man watching me closely. I tried to ignore him. I looked through my purse for my wallet so that I may try to call Professor Checca, when I realized that my wallet was missing. I kept rummaging desperately hoping that I had just missed it in my purse.
I noticed the guy who was watching me earlier walk slowly up to me and was still staring at me. I looked up and saw that he was peering very closely at me. I flashed him a weak sort of smile and kept searching for my wallet. “What color is it?” He asked me in an accent I did not recognize. “Umm…uh” I stuttered not knowing what to say. “Your wallet,” He said, “what color?” I started bumbling to describe my wallet to him. He nodded and handed me my wallet and explained how he saw me place the wallet on top of the phone while I made my call. Then, he asked if I needed help and I explained my situation to him. “Ok, first thing you need to do is to calm down. You can’t solve anything by freaking out.” He told me his name was Hassan and He was going home to Cairo after a five-hour layover in Rome. He told me that he would stay with me until I was safe. He found me a trolley and load my bags up on and insisted on pushing it for me. Together we searched for my group all the while he was telling me to stay calm and not to worry. At one point, he was talking to me and handed me a cigarette and I, who was still dazed and panicky, took it before realizing what it was. I quickly told him that I do not smoke.
Do not worry; I did not have my first cigarette. I almost gagged on the smoke from his cigarette. After about an hour, Hassan and I were becoming friends, and I found myself feeling calmer and I was able to make jokes. At this time, it was about 2:30 p.m., which was the time half an hour after the bus was suppose to leave for Assisi. Hassam offered to buy me a cappuccino, for which I gladly accepted having not slept a wink on the flight over. He asked me whether I felt better and I told him I did, and then he asked me what I should do. After thinking for a bit, I decided that the best thing to do would be to take a taxi to the Hotel Tiziano and see if the head of the hotel had the number to Dr. Prebys’ cell phone. He patted my shoulder and said that I was finally thinking straight and escorted me to the taxi stop.
After arranging a taxi to drive me to the hotel Tiziano Hassan handed me a 20 Euro bill. I started to protest saying that I had enough money for the taxi, but he told me, “Don’t worry! I am an engineer! I’m rich!” I was so grateful for all of his help that I gave him a hug and he kissed my cheek. I did not want to forget him so I took a picture with him and he wrote down his e-mail because he wanted me to write him to let him know if I made it to my group safely. After one last goodbye hug, I climbed into the taxi, which drove away towards Rome.
No comments:
Post a Comment