The Greatest Danger I Have Faced So Far

When one travels abroad he tends to let worst case scenarios inundate his thinking, at least that is the case with this international traveler. Events such as airport difficulties (anything from missed flights to setting off the metal detector and having to become too acquainted with a security guard, to the difficulties of navigating an airport with little to no English signage) criminals, internationals with bad intentions, problems getting paperwork through the proper governmental processes, not to mention language barriers and starvation for lack of being able to purchase food.

It has been a week now since I left home. The traveling could not have been easier. Crime here appears to be non-existent (you see tiny children walking to school on their own without a care in the world), I have yet to encounter anyone I would think had bad intentions, my paperwork is already processed and I have all the documents I need to continue to be a student here for the next year, and I think I may have gained a pound or so already from being overfed by new friends and restaurants that want repeat customers.

I submit to you my greatest threat so far. The threshold to the building I live in. It is a piece of angle iron that sticks up just over an inch. I tripped over it every time I entered my building for the first 3 days. I am now very conscious of it as I enter, but I know that one day soon I will be carrying something and forget to pay attention and the ever present danger of the threshold will once again rear its ugly head and I will catch a toe on it. Whatever I am carrying will break into thousands of pieces on the concrete floor and I will lie motionless on top of the carnage and think how silly it was to worry about ridiculous scenarios when it is so obvious that I am being taken care of in a way that is …(as my national friend who helped me with the paperwork put it in describing the ease of getting my paperwork processed) “very unusual”.