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“I’m sorry, I can’t help you. I have a line of customers waiting outside,” the man at the phone store told me.
I clutched my head in my hands.
“Muchos problemos. Muy complicado,” I said in desperation in my broken Spanish. I was honestly at my wit’s end.
The kind man smiled and gently nodded for me to leave his store. He had obviously had enough of this American woman with “fatal” (disastrous) Spanish and phone problems.
The microphone on my phone had stopped working. It didn’t sound like a big deal until I realized that I couldn’t make or receive calls on my phone or social media. I couldn’t leave voice messages, record videos, or get help from Siri. I was quite limited. And, my GPS didn’t work.
That morning, I went to the shop to drop off my phone. The technician was reputable and trustworthy, according to my friend.
In preparation for being without my phone for at least three days, I had borrowed one of my son’s old phones. The man helped me pop my SIM card into my “new” phone. The problem was . . . it didn’t work. After putting in the correct SIM card, it was not connecting to the cellular world in Spain. I couldn’t make calls and couldn’t connect to the internet.
I’m Sorry
For more than 10 minutes, the man did everything he could to get it to connect.
“Lo siento,” he told me several times. “I’m sorry.”
I wasn’t too concerned about being without my phone for awhile. I would figure it out when I got home.
“Get home!?” I thought to myself. “I have no idea where I am and how to get back to my house—in another town.”
I explained to the man that I relied heavily on my GPS for directions. I asked him if he knew which way to my town.
“No, no sé,” he said. “I don’t know.”
That was not reassuring.
I thanked him and walked out of his store, back to my car. The entire way, I talked to myself, trying to muster up enough courage to tackle this new challenge.
I Can Do It!
“Yes, I can be in Spain WITHOUT a phone—WITHOUT internet. Yes, I can get around this foreign country, this city, and find my way back home WITHOUT a phone and WITHOUT a GPS. Yes, I can do this! Remember how I did it all those years traveling in foreign countries without a mobile phone? Of course, I did it and survived. I can do it again!”
I felt anxious and a bit panicked as I recalled all those years of traveling as a single, young woman—before “cellular” days.
No Phone
My mother put me on an airplane in Missouri to cross the Atlantic to France when I was 19-years-old. I had no phone in hand.
I had plans to meet my French teacher at the Charles de Gaulle Airport. If she hadn’t shown up at our designated meeting place, I have no idea how we would have found each other. We didn’t have cell phones back then, and we didn’t have email and internet. I don’t even recall having a phone number for her, but I’m sure I did. I guess I would have converted some American dollars into French franks and found a pay phone booth.
I can remember backpacking across Europe on the Eurorail when I was 20-years-old. I had a paper map and a Let’s Go Europe travel guidebook. That was it! I didn’t have a phone with me as I boarded trains, buses, and boats. I didn’t have a GPS with me as I wandered winding, cobblestone roads in the mountain villages trying to find the youth hostel where I would stay for the night.
“If I could do that then, I can do this now!” I told myself.
I can remember hiking in one of my favorite places in the world, Cinque Terre in Italy. I was by myself on those mountainous cliffs, trekking among the five picturesque, seaside villages. I didn’t have a phone. If I had fallen off one of those cliffs into the crystal-clear, blue Mediterranean Sea below, no one would have known. Occasionally, on those all-day, solo hikes, I would cross paths with another solo hiker—usually male. Talk about being isolated and vulnerable in the wilderness. If something had happened to me up there, no one would have known. No one would have seen.
I didn’t have a phone with me to call for help.
“If I could do that then, I can do this now!” I told myself.
By the time I reached my car, I was a bit more relaxed. The self-talk had helped a lot to calm my nerves and anxiety. I was up for the challenge.
Which Direction?
“Which direction to home?” I asked myself.
I honestly had no clue, so I went the way my car was angled to pull out of the parking space.
“I can do this,” I said to myself, over and over. “I can find my way back home.”
After a few minutes of driving aimlessly, I suddenly noticed something in my car. It had a built-in GPS!!! I had completely forgotten.
Woohoo! I plugged in the name of my town and hit, “Go!” Guess what? I was already heading in the right direction!
As far as not having a phone for the next few days. Well, I’d been considering doing a 3-day “tech detox.” It was the perfect time to try that!
—THE CULTURAL STORY-WEAVER
MY GIFT TO YOU—GET YOUR FREE EBOOK—”THE 5-DAY JOURNEY TO CULTURAL AWARENESS”!
LET’S WEAVE CULTURES!
Did you travel in a foreign country before “cellular days”? What was that like? How did you survive?
We invite you to tell us your own cultural stories and global adventures . . . as you engage with the world, breaking down barriers, building bridges, and “weaving cultures”! Write about them in the comment box below.
