Well I have returned in one piece from my little foray to Madrid, Espana, however not all of my stuff has. As some of you have heard, I, SAT (stupid american tourist) as I shall henceforth be known, had my purse, containing everything I had with me of any importance, excluding my passport, stolen from a coffee shop. Luckily, since I had my passport I was able to return to the land of croissants, steak frîtes, coffee, and vin--are you noticing a trend here? Sidenote:I was not terribly enamored of the food in Spain, where your bacon comes complete with bones still attached. I believe if the dead animal on your plate can be identified as anything but breast, leg, rib, steak or thigh, this excludes seafood, then it should probably be avoided. The words eye, snout, tongue, ear, and hoof are definitely to be scorned at all costs. I am very happy to be back safe and sound, with, thanks to insurance, a new camera and ipod to arrive, along with my parents in a few short weeks.
After several hours of alternate anger and blubbering following this unfortunate incident, we are talking major I want my mommy moments here, I started to, very gradually, accept what had happened. What I was unable to accept however, was the loss of my pride. I felt I had lost my status as a "smart traveler." I am always careful on the metro, keep my key in my pocket when in Paris, make sure my bag is zipped, somehow it never occurred to me that my entire bag could be taken! Inconceivable! As inconceivable as a boat following in the night through eel-infested waters if you will (that's how you know I've lost it, I start making obscure Princess Bride references in my blog postings). So when someone slipped in, and quite easily I would imagine, made off with my bag, I thought someone was playing a joke on me for about thirty seconds.
I felt as though every person relayed this story to, my friend Natasha would be the other half of this we, while feeling awful for me, secretly felt as though this was completely my fault. And while part of me agrees, I should have paid more attention, my bag should never have left my line of vision, I also feel as though this could happen to anyone. I was not Ricky waving Lucy's fur coat at what I believed to be my friend dressed as a burglar, only to find out the next morning it was not, in fact, Fred Mertz. I did not hold my bag high and and yell "take this! Make my day!" We all have moments where we let our guard down. And while there are plenty of people this would not have happened to, I'm willing to bet there are more to whom it would have.
I had mostly gotten over this feeling of self hatred until a friend told me as I was of course not mugged, and clearly not pick-pocketed, I was just owned,
pwned as he put it (link courtesy Matt Milner, and wikipedia). Most of us are not used to being that careful. In the States we all go into restaurants, cafes, etc, leave our stuff at a table to go order, go to the bathroom, etc, thinking nothing could happen. Especially for those of us that live on college campuses, we rarely worry about our stuff unless a visible computer, ipod or something else electronic is on the line. So that is why I say, all of you: watch out, you never know when the gypsies are coming to get you!
And to the woman at bank of america who told me to have a great valentines day after she cancelled my stolen bank card, I say this: you with your little southern accent and naivté, you're next.
