Hellen Keller couldn’t have put it in better terms–this is exactly my mentality when it comes to traveling. As many of you know, I can be a painfully cautious person in virtually all aspects of life, but this doesn’t apply to my travel philosophy. I would have never gone to Poland had I not made the decision out of spontaneity. Truth be told, I probably didn’t do enough research in terms of what the teaching position and living situation would entail. The past few years I have been working against my inherent nature to over-analyze and worry about my future plans, so I think that teaching in Poland was my way of breaking free from those tendencies.
Now, let’s get down to the reason why I’m currently typing this blog post in our empty house in San Jose, California. Some of you reading this may know the story already, as I’ve told some close friends and family a fully-detailed version, but frankly I’ve repeated it more times than I care to, so I figured I should write a post about it!
On the 29th of November, I was jumped by three hooded young men around my age at about 7:45/8:00pm in my neighborhood in Krakow. I had just gotten back from work, and decided to take out some cash from the ATM machine right next to the bus stop. In fact, this was only the second time that I needed to take out cash in Poland. After, I embarked on my usual 15-minute walk to my apartment. After I had passed the same familiar butcher and liquor shop, I suddenly had a strange feeling someone was following me. I could feel footsteps following me unusually close, so I decided to be safe, and quickly veered off to take a different route home. This way was more well-lit and didn’t go through the usual sketchy forest-y area. It didn’t help. The guy still followed me. Just as I was just about to turn around and confront him/yell an expletive in Polish, he was literally on my heels and pushed me down to the ground. Then out of nowhere, two other guys emerged from the bushes, and they demanded my iPhone from me. I had my purse securely across my shoulders, and thought I’d be able to run away with it. But they pushed my down again, and pulled the purse off me as I was screaming for help. In the end, they scored an iPhone, Macbook, Polish mobile phone, wallet with ID, credit cards, cash, an English book from the school, my reading glasses, and my house keys.
No one came to my aid, even though my neighborhood has a fair amount of foot traffic and there are always university students walking around at that hour. Perhaps someone did see, but didn’t want to get involved. I was left crying and frantic, and ran into the street to stop one of the cars that was looking for parking. The first woman looked at me but kept driving. The second person was an older man, who rolled down his window as I explained to him the story in as simple English I could manage. He called the police, as well as his 15 year old daughter who spoke English fluently. She translated for me, although one of the policemen did speak English quite well. The conversation was frustrating and rather pointless, as the officers acted like newbie cops who didn’t know the protocol for this type of situation. They asked me for basic contact information, and despite having a lead on where the thieves ran off to (two male neighbors said they saw them run into a parking garage in near my building), they were indifferent. They didn’t try to pursue the thieves, and instead stood around shaking their heads at the situation. In fact, the English-speaking officer admitted, “this is a shitty situation…I don’t really know what to tell you. We can’t really do anything more.” At that point, my jaw dropped. It was painfully clear that Polish law enforcement was totally useless, and more inefficient that I could have imagined. Perhaps they did not want to help me because I was foreign. I have no idea. All I know was that if it weren’t for the man and his daughter, I would be in deep trouble–literally homeless since the guys stole my keys as well. The family took me to their house, and let me use their computer, at which point I pulled up a list of contacts to my work, host family, friends, etc. They offered to drive me to Michał and Magda’s place on the other side of town. From there I used Skype to notify my boss of the incident, my parents, host, and others.
That night, I was restless–I was too upset to sleep. Moreover, I had to make a decision whether or not to stay in Poland. The incident replayed in my mind like a scene from a bad movie. I thought to myself, maybe I could have put up more of a fight, maybe I’m overreacting about this whole situation. However, in the end, I realized there was nothing more that I could have done (aside from keeping extra cash or the house keys my pocket instead of in my purse). I didn’t know if the guys had a weapon, or if they would have beat me up, nor did I want to find out. The bottom line is, I didn’t want them to physically harm me, I would rather them take all those material items rather than have permanent damage done.
The next day, after some convincing, Michał accompanied with me to Wolbrom so I could get the spare house keys from Basia’s brother-in-law (the same one that deadbolt locked me in the house) and some emergency cash (deducted from my salary). Finally I was able to get into the apartment. I stayed there for the next six days, but didn’t go out at night because I was still too paranoid…not that there was anything more for thieves to steal from me. I didn’t go to work that week because I had to arrange some things about my flight home, deal with all the logistics of the theft, etc. Not to mention, I was still too shaken up to walk that path by myself.
After much deliberation, tears, and sleepless nights, I made the decision to leave Poland and return to California on December 8th. While I feel that I still have unfinished business in Krakow, as I didn’t get to see a lot of tourist sites or say bye to quite a few people whom I’d met, I knew it would be the best decision. I also had booked flights to the Netherlands, Sweden, and Denmark, and now won’t be able to go on those trips in January 😦 Sorry to my peeps up in Northern Europe!
My flight yesterday was in the morning, and Michał and Magda accompanied me. It was really sad to say goodbye to them…they are such a wonderful and generous family and we got along so well. I know we will definitely see each other in the near future! Anyway, my flight to Warsaw was a bit late–no big deal. Then from Warsaw to Chicago, I ran into a problem. The passport control line was so incredibly long, and everyone was frustrated because many had connecting flights that they would miss. I myself had a flight that I knew I would for sure miss, so I was pretty angry because I just wanted to be home already! In the customs line, I was speaking with woman around my age, and my story about getting robbed came up. She felt so sorry for me, that she was adamant about giving me some cash just in case I needed any if I couldn’t catch a flight home that night. I told her there was no way I could accept that from her, but she insisted. In the end, I took the cash ($60). Turns out that cash SAVED ME. I ended up getting a flight to San Fran an hour and a half later than my original flight, so no big deal. However, once I landed, I called the shuttle service that my mother had pre-arranged for me. It was a private car, and the whole thing had been paid for in advance. Apparently the driver waited for 2 hours, since he thought I was arriving at 8pm, and because I missed that flight, I came in at 10:15pm. She told me there was nothing she could do, I should have called (even though I didn’t have a phone or have time to call with a pay phone because I literally had to run to catch the flight). I thought I was in deep trouble. Fortunately, the Super Shuttle cost $40 to San Jose, but I would have to share it with other people. That didn’t matter to me anymore, as long as I could get home! I used the money that kind woman gave me to pay for the shuttle ride, I honestly would have been in a horrible situation if it weren’t for her. I’m now convinced I have an angel looking out for me! I had to share the van with four other people and I got home around midnight. Since my parents are currently in Shanghai, they hid the key under a clay thing alongside my house. I couldn’t see very well because it was so dark, so I was fumbling around for a good 3-4 minutes before I found it. I’ve never felt so happy to open the front door to my house. While I may have found myself in unfortunate circumstances in Poland and during my travels, I feel truly blessed to have made it home safely and in one piece!
P.S. This is the last blog post for Blackboards & Borscht. 😦 Thanks for reading!
I missed Mochi! Greetings from Cali to my friends in Europe! I will miss you guys and hope to be reunited soon.
Blackboards and Borscht 