Disaster preparedness

Whenever I travel, I try to leave time, money, and mental fortitude to allow for things to go wrong. It's an inevitable part of trying to pull so many logistical details together: there will be annoyances, minor hiccups, and occasionally a disaster with the potential to derail your plans in a major way.

So, with my flight leaving at 9 tonight, here you have it: Things That Have Gone Wrong in the Final 48 Hours.

Missing gear. I ordered a piece of scuba equipment that I need to bring with me, and it was supposed to arrive yesterday. It didn't, and as we speak, I'm waiting for a phone call from the scuba shop to see whether it comes today. This may or may not culminate in a mad dash to the shop at the absolute last minute. Lesson learned: order or buy anything you need to bring with you WAY ahead of time.

Technology is not my friend. Seriously--my younger sister has had to show me how to use the remote more times than I'll admit. So with so much of travel logistics happening online, there were bound to be some frustrations. The highlights have been an airline check-in system that I couldn't for the life of me figure out, and a malfunctioning printer. Lesson learned: getting angry at inanimate objects is less helpful than phoning someone from a younger generation.

The big thing that goes wrong at the last minute. Seven hours before I was supposed to leave, an ATM ate my debit card while I was trying to withdraw cash to exchange for Euros at the airport. Cue panic, horror, and tears. Did I mention my phone was dead? One borrowed phone and a literal sprint to the bank later, things are just fine, although I'm a bit traumatized. Lesson learned: I was probably right not to trust technology in the first place.

So why am I sharing all this, if I'm trying to make the case that international co-ops are a great opportunity that you should absolutely go for if you get the chance? Well, because this was what I fretted about for months: all of the things that can go wrong. And it turns out I was right. Not everything went according to plan. There were annoyances, technical hiccups, and some moments of genuine panic. But here I am, sitting in the middle of a pile of luggage, eating the last of the snacks left in my apartment and waiting for my friend to come pick me and my overwhelmingly heavy bags up. It all works out.