Writing topics: WEEK 143 - Weekend-Engagement initiative: Have you ever been lost in a foreign country?

A wig and the night conspired to make me get lost

Hello friends of the world, receive my greetings and hugs.

Last week was my first entry and I had fun participating in the initiative, I was attentive and waiting for initiative #143.

I would like to share one of the many anecdotes where I got lost, coincidentally the next one was in a foreign country.

this is what I get for being absent-minded

Last year I spent 6 months living in Kendall, Miami. One of the fears that had been with me since I left my country was how I would learn to get around the city on my own, without having to rely on my friend who lives there. I am absent-minded.

Our restricted free schedules most of the time did not coincide. So I would either die of boredom stuck at home, waiting to go for a walk when she was available, or I would venture out on my own. *Guess what I chose? Of course I chose to venture out and enjoy the beautiful green city that was there for me.

Rather dead than cooped up within four walls.

In May 2022 I left home around 3pm, caught a bus at one of the bus stops near my friend's house, the same place where I was living for 5 months.

That day I went to 2 malls where I did some shopping, sat down to eat one delicious ice cream, then went to the movies, I had a great time.

I did not notice the time, because unlike my country Venezuela, where at 7:00 pm everything is already dark, there at that time at 8:45 pm there was still a beautiful sun. The brightness of the day gave me the confidence to keep on walking.

🍨When we have fun, time flies by.🍨

Do you know what time I took the bus back home? At 23:45. I was super confident, I knew where I was going to get off, I would get off after the tennis court, then I would walk down a few blocks as I got off the bus and in about 11 minutes I would arrive at the housing development. I had it all figured out. Buses on that route work until 1 am. I think that by taking public transportation and walking you really get to know a city.

The impossible can happen.

It was about 3 minutes to my stop, and a man in the back seat of the bus tapped me on my right shoulder and said "you are Venezuelan right?".

I turned around and when I saw him I was happy to hear and see a Venezuelan even if he was unknown to me. We started talking.

In a few minutes he told me about his life and I paid attention to everything he said.

He also had a wig that was coming off the side of his head, the breeze coming through the window was blowing it off, so I was making friends and taking care that the wig didn't fall off, and then I realized that I had missed my stop and got lost.

I said goodbye quickly and asked the driver for directions, but the language issue was not in my favor. I got off at a totally unfamiliar stop, everything was dark and I had left my glasses behind.

I panicked, it was very dark, I got off about 6 stops away from the stop where I was supposed to get off.

By the way, my phone ran out of battery and I had to forget about the app that told me where my home was. My treacherous mind was telling me to be careful not to get caught by a serial killer.

I'm not ashamed to say it and it makes me laugh today. I sat crying on a wooden bench, I asked my sixth sense to find my way, I plucked up my courage and started walking where I thought was the right path. I looked like a ghost crying because I could not reach its dimension.

The blocks there are long and they seemed endless to me, I don't know how much time I spent but I arrived at the stop I recognized. From there to the house I covered the distance in 11 minutes.

And the icing on the cake, you know where I slept that night, in the garden, because when I got home, the key was stuck inside and I didn't want to wake up my friend by knocking on the door.

The next day at 6 am when my friend went out to walk the dog and saw me in the garden, he woke me up and we laughed about the situation.

Thank you for reading and appreciating my writting