Quick, what's the # for 911?

So I apologize for falling off the face of the earth. Those of you who were able to get through to me: bravo. Life has been a whirlwind these past couple of days, and today is one of the first times I've gotten to relax and not have to worry about what I have to do in 20 minutes. I promise that the next entries will be more frequent and detailed. I just have to rework my time management again now that I actually have lots of stuff to do. A typical week looks something like this: I work 5 days a week, teach English 2 days a week, swim 1-2 days a week, have movie nights 1 day week, hang out with my friend Jana to help her out with her English, go grocery shopping, try to clean up after myself, and sleep when I can fit it in.

Phew. I got tired reading that.

So, for my latest entry I have to tell you about something that I saw on Saturday night when I was heading out to the Yamato concert (Japanese Drums...AMAZING...details to follow).

Vaida and I were switching buses and had just gotten off at Mlynske nivy. We were waiting for the 50 to take us to Petrzalka, when I heard someone scream. I turned around, not sure where the noise had come from, and I see a man falling down the stairs on the other side of the street. My life-guard instincts tell me to run over there and start the necessary protocol, but those rules don't really apply here. I don't speak the language, I don't know the emergency numbers, I didn't know the condition the guy was in (drunk, high, violent, etc). All I could do was pace around, commenting out loud to myself that someone should check on him. Someone...should have been ME.

We think about these scenarios in our heads all the time. If a certain situation were to happen, how would we react? We plan so as to be prepared, but when the scenario presents itself, we are often left shocked and without a way to proceed. That is exactly what happened to me. As he layed there all I could say was "Someone should help him", "Why does no one care?", "I hope he isn't hurt", "What happened?" I really felt helpless. I feel that if I were in the US when that happened, I would have a better idea of what to do. I could approach the person to ask if they were ok, contact the correct people to help them, and then have the peace of mind knowing that I didn't leave the person to their own disabled devices.

Luckily, someone finally did come to his aid, helped him to sit up, and called an ambulance. I was so distraught until I saw the sirens. Regardless of someone's situation, it's awful to be paralyzed with pain and for no one to take pity on you. I wish I could have played the samaritan role, but I didn't know how. Maybe this is a sign that when you move to a foreign country, they should give you a list of all the important civil service numbers, just in case.