When Am I?

by Bonachichi

I am writing this whilst in a strange city, in a strange country. The official language here is Dutch. I don't speak Dutch. I've been here exactly one time before, for a few hours in 2001. This isn't about adventures traipsing round Europe. It's about stripping oneself of everything familiar and the effects this has on your ability to cope.

Our destination was Amsterdam from London and I was truly surprised when it looked as if everyone would arrive when we thought they might. The countries between are a sea of vague memories. I remember eurotunnel because of my apprehension about crossing into Calais. There was some sort of party for the drivers once in Amsterdam, then we were supposed to be off to Copenhagen the next day. Germany was refusing entry to all rally participants. If you look at a map, you'll see Germany, conveniently located smack between Amsterdam and Copenhagen. There's just no reasonable way between the two cities without going through Germany.

The answer to this was to ship all the cars across Germany. The cars themselves were deemed illegal to be driven, but nothing said they couldn't be carried. We thought the cars would be loaded and shipped as soon as they arrived in Amsterdam. The drivers would be at a party, so trying to be sneaky, we decided to get to where we thought the cars would be transported and have them ready to go for the drivers. We were able to arrange a small plane to fly us to a Copenhagen-ish destination.

We landed in the middle of the night. The "airport" was an office-type building in the middle of nowhere. I felt a pit form in my stomach. We'd made a mistake. We had no transportation, we'd left our vehicles in Amsterdam. Our equipment was literally, piled up against a wall. And it was raining. We hadn't had sleep for days. We were running on hunches and didn't know for sure if we'd intercept the actual rally cars at all. I didn't know where I was, I never know where I am so I'm fine with that. But I didn't know what time zone I was in. Knowing "when" I am is important to me.  I cracked and split wide open.

It is a singular sense of desperation you feel, alone in a strange place in the dark of night. There seems to be no hope. All is lost. You feel that you'll never get out of the predicament you're in. This happens each and every time I take this sort of job. I know something will throw our plans into a tailspin. In the back of my mind, I also know that I'll get out of whatever it is. There's a solution, it just hasn't been found yet. Still, I can't roll with it. I don't break down and cry... I get sarcastic whilst trying to hammer out solutions.

"See Europe through my eyes" Tina had told me. At first I thought, "I WISH these were your eyes! You'd be here and I wouldn't!"  "See Europe through my eyes." Tina. Carol, DeeDee, Bebbi, Jodi, Shirley, Whab. Everyone, really. Mostly though, Tina. See Europe through my eyes. Yes. Thinking this, I laid down on my bench, like a homeless person, and fell asleep. A short while later, I woke to the sound of... helicopters. Fellow Gumballers were coming! If others were coming to where we already were, we had to be on to something! When the sun came up, the lonely office building was full of ex-patriots of Amsterdam. We caught a ride to eurocar in a SmartCar that had come off a Chinook helicopter, which had been "borrowed" from the Dutch army. The only thing I thought strange about that was, "There's a Dutch army?"

We had some time before the cars got here, so we took in some sights near Tivoli something-or-other. Square, gardens, I wasn't paying attention. Trying to see Europe through Tina's eyes, I see a need for some Lysol and maybe some Scrubbing Bubbles if they have any. Okay, so maybe I've not mastered it, but thanks to Tina and all my Owl friends, I can come round to it. Our next stop is Stockholm and now I've dealt with the break away from familiarity that comes with each of these events, I'm ready for whatever comes next.

This got me wondering... how do others handle situations when everything has fallen apart? Do you use humor? Tears? I think about when Just_Lin & SacBarb missed their flight to Chicago. The eyes of Lin's avatar. Both surprise and terror at the same time. What do you all do when something goes completely wrong?