Day 4 and I Get Locked in CEA

One of the many benefits of traveling outside of your own country is experiencing that sense of confusion about how "things" work. For example, in the US, electricity just happens when you plug something in--you don't have to switch on the plug at the outlet.

(That red button is how you turn on the stove). You can also find plugs in the bathroom.

You don't have to think about turning on the water heater before you take a shower.

(Above: Monster immersion heater, makes weird noises, must be turned on about 20 minutes before you take a shower, looks like a missile.)

The doors to rooms like living rooms don't have locks on them (if you have a door at all).

This is all a long build up to me getting trapped in the CEA offices yesterday. I got to work early, as I'm wont to do. It's still hard for me to wrap my brain around the fact that, as far as I can tell, many offices don't open in Dublin until after 8:30 a.m. During the school year, I typically arrive to the office around 7:30 a.m. My class starts at 9:00 a.m., so arriving a half an hour early is really not arriving early at all, but when I arrived at the CEA office, there was nobody around. I had only been shown where our classroom was once, but I thought I could find it. As with so many things, I was wrong.

At the end of one hallway is a door. It does say that it's a fire door, but you can see that there are other doors on the other side of this door, but I didn't really think that an alarm would go off. And, it didn't.

But, when the door closed behind me, I heard it lock. Then, I discovered that the doors directly in front of me were locked as well. The only doors that were unlocked, were the doors leading to the stairs. I reasoned that I would just take the stairs down, and try coming up the elevator again.

But, when I got to bottom of the stairs, I found the doors there locked as well. So, I was trapped. I hoped that because it was around 8:40 a.m. now, someone might be in the office. I walked back up the five flights and peered through the narrow window in the door towards the CEA offices. Nobody. No one. For about 10 minutes I just stood in that vestibule--craning my neck to see if I could see anyone. Finally, I caught a glimpse of Damien (our CEA go-to human). I had his phone number, so I texted him this: "I'm in the hallway locked between the two doors by the men's toilet on the 5th floor. Could you please rescue me?" Suddenly, I see a head pop out of the CEA office. Damien squints at my face in the door window. I give a weak wave. He rushes down the hallway and liberates me from the vestibule. As there is no air conditioning and we're on the top floor, it was hot. And, I had climbed a bunch of stairs. And, I had been vacillating between anger, irritation, and anxiety for the last 15 minutes. So, I emerged sweaty and shamed and then I had to teach.

For those of you keeping count, all of us have now been stuck at least once. Tim in the Spar bathroom, Peyton in the apartment, me in CEA. Peyton is the only innocent among us.

On the bright side, I did take this picture while I was trapped. The CEA office is in a beautiful and vibrant neighborhood.

All of this is to say, one of the joys and frustrations of being new to a space and to a country is figuring out all the stuff you don't know, and then feeling pretty good that you're still able to learn a thing or two. For example, I walked to work today with out using my map--and it felt good. I also didn't lock myself in a vestibule, and that felt good too. But, then I segued into something that always feels good, which is working with students. We had a wonderful conversation about Angela's Ashes and I'm getting the sense that students are beginning to understand that studying what we're studying in this space makes a difference.

After teaching and resting for a bit, we headed out to Teeling's Whiskey for a tour and a special tasting with the Master Distiller. We toured, we sipped, we chatted, and a great time was had by all.