Today began quite as calmly as it could have, being a Saturday morning and having absolutely no responsibilities or plans of any kind. After I woke up, had breakfast, and bought some very delicious food, which I directly after prepared for lunch, I decided to take a walk around my neighborhood to a) get a bit lost, b) to find my way to the Grüneburgpark, which is very, very delightful and calm, and c) to walk to the main campus of my university, Campus Westend.
Walking through the neighborhood and the park was nice, for I had gotten lost and found my direction again quite easily. The park was nice, and I plan on spending many a morning/afternoon running through it for my exercise in the coming months. While wandering my campus also, I was amazed at how large many of the buildings are, many twice the size of Hyland Hall (for you Whitewater people), but all of them at least the same size as Hyland.
One of the buildings I decided to go into was one I had visited the other day to attempt to turn in some paperwork. While I was looking around, checking out the different areas, I walked to the end of the hallway and through a door, which proceeded to lock behind me. At first I thought it was no problem, for I was then in a stairwell, and I presumed their may be a door leading out of the building or to one of the ground floors. And there were, except that the doors to every other floor were locked, and the door to the outside was a Notfall Tür (emergency door).
After trying every single door on every single floor (seven floors total), I decided that my only option was to call the only emergency number I knew, 112, which gets one to the Feuerwerk (fire department). I explained to the operator on the phone that I was an exchange student who had been in Frankfurt for a few days now and had been exploring the campus and one of the buildings, the name of which the operator did not know, but I was able to explain where it was on the campus, and he explained to me that I was to use the Notfall Tür, pressing the emergency button to open the door, and he would take care of everything else. He was very helpful, even though I had lost service and had to call back, possibly blocking up their emergency lines, but what was I to do!? I was quite literally trapped! I asked him if he needed my name or information to inform anyone from the building, and he told me that every was good, and I need not worry about any consequences. He also was surprised when I told him that I was from the USA because I had conducted the entire 10 minute, mildly scared and a bit exasperated, good, understandable German.
Moral of the story, for those of you possibly studying abroad: though it may not be vital to know the host language of the country, it can prove to be EXCRUCIATINGLY helpful in emergency situations; wandering is good, but make sure you do not get yourself in a tight situation; KNOW THE EMERGENCY NUMBERS!! without prior knowledge of the emergency numbers in Germany (110 and 112), I would have been stuck in that building, or I would have had to use the emergency exit without an emergency, and I could have gotten in trouble; minor tip: have a map or know building names, landmarks, street names, bus stops, bus route number, train numbers, et cetera.
BEST STORY EVER
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