Locked Out and Other Embarrassing Study Abroad Mishaps

My study abroad experience is just past its halfway point, and one thing I can wholeheartedly assure you is that while so many things will be wonderful and go right, there will be many challenges and things that go wrong. For your entertainment, and my pure displeasure, here is a silly list of the silly mishaps I have encountered, and my thoughts on building resilience skills within the study abroad experience.  

That Starbucks menu? C’est confusing.

My flight from the states to France was very annoyingly time, leaving at 5 P.M. Eastern and landing six hours later…and I could not sleep.

Once I landed in Rossy, and I cleaned the maze of immigration and security checks, I wanted to try and jolt myself awake. After all, I had to move in, buy groceries, to a walking tour, and also hope it all goes to plan! To do so, I found every American’s most prize possession: Starbucks. Surely I can manage this, right?

So I wait in line for around five minutes, go up, and attempt my gosh darn best to order in French, "un “Chai Tea Latte” si vous plaît". In response, the barista stares at me, notices me sweating from my head, and just hands me a wad of napkins to dry off! He then proceeds to make me a large iced americano coffee. Three sips of that I was awake for the rest of the day. 

Suffice to say, I am not a fan of this «jus de chaussette» or sock juice as the French call an American style of coffee. 

As long as you have your passport, you are fine. That time I forgot most of my clothes

Since I was young, I had this mantra when traveling: that its OK if I forget everything, as long as I have my phone, chargers, and passport. Now let’s put this to the test, on a recent trip, I totally forgot about half of the clothes in my apartment. Why did I do such a thing? Errrrrr….I wish I had a good reason besides, “I just forgot”. But let’s just say I forgot, and blame an early travel day. 

Thankfully, this trip was close enough around my birthday where I could use it as an excuse to buy some cheap clothes in Italy. On countless recommendations from professors and staff at my IES Abroad center, everything is just cheaper across the Alps. But still, this will go down in history as not my finest moment. 

Time is a social construct: booked a flight for the wrong month

The title is relatively easy to understand the mistake I made, I booked an eight euro flight on a low cost airline for the wrong month! In my head, I consider it to be a small donation for all the times I snuck on a bag that was way too big as a personal item. The actual flight was 14 euro!

Even if the opportunity cost of this tale is low, this experience still pains me. I grew up with the values of frugalness and fiscal responsibility ingrained in me, so even if its no more than a cup of coffee from the above Starbucks incident, it still gives me pain in embarrassment. 

I did the thing: I need to call a locksmith

Through my semester, IES Abroad has provided a whole host of excursions (think field trips that come with a delicious lunch). On a recent excursion through the lovely French Riviera, I left my keys on a bus. I noticed this shortly after getting off the bus, but not enough to run back and get to the bus with the keys. Oh darn. 

I called my landlord, but he was on vacation, so I was left with the daunting prospect. I had to call a locksmith, get cash to pay them, and somehow get my way inside of the building so I could get to the door that needed to be unlocked. All while being unable to get into my apartment. 

Thankfully through the processes I had support from our center’s director and a newly minted French phone number, so at least I was not paying an outrageous amount in roaming charges, and friends from the program who looked at me with slight pity, but lots of empathy!

I should say, the situation restored itself melodramatically. When I played buzzer roulette I was let in within 30 seconds by a neighbor, who could understand my French, and the locksmith arrived within 20 minutes and took maybe less time at my door. 

Resilience Factors

For those of you reading that headline, it might make sense to note that I am doing a lot of environmental studies courses here, so we are talking about this subject a lot. But, instead of focusing on some academic concept I get 85% of the time, I want to talk about what these mean to me within the paradigm of studying abroad.

In my opinion and my experience, dealing with these unexpected issues, and thus being resilient to them, is all in the name of quick and informer decision making. Not only is it a question of what decision you want to make, but also based on what information you have and what action steps you can come up with at that moment. But also, action steps can include doing nothing, feeling the feelings that come about from an embarrassing mishap, and move on.

The skills of making quick decisions, or quickly deciding to not make a decision, arent skills and abilities that I was born with, but instead have practiced for years and years. Studying abroad just means I need to use them in earnest while continually refining them. 

Am I happy that I had these experiences? Most likely not. But they are building some incredible skills and an aptitude for independent living that should set me up for success once I graduate from college.