A Random Act of Kindness – Austrian Edition

I want to tell this story because I still feel guilty about how my random act of kindness actually turned out.

I was on my way into the Innsbruck, Austria Airport for my journey over to London, England. My cousins dropped me off and I made my way to the check-in line up.

Suddenly, I heard a voice behind me say, “excuse me,” and I turned around to see a woman with her elderly mother who was holding a suitcase. The woman said “my mother is travelling to London, but she can’t speak English, would you be able to help her through the airport and get her on a Taxi once you land in London?”

Without hesitation, I said yes. Her mother and I exchanged smiles and awkwardly made our way through the check-in line. She spoke the language at this point so she ended up helping me out too. We sat together in the waiting area with nothing to talk about, but we did play a bit of charades. She went to the bathroom and waved for me to look after her bag, so I did.

When she got back, she opened up her suitcase and took out a monstrous chocolate bar. It was huge, I have no idea where she got it from. She then handed it over to me and said “danke” which happened to be one of the words I understood. I assumed she was thanking me for helping her, even though I hadn’t yet got her in a taxi in London as requested by her daughter. I took the chocolate bar, with a bit of hesitation, then we continued to sit in silence.

We ended up being on opposite ends of the plane so I didn’t see where she was sitting, but it wasn’t anywhere near my seat. I decided that I would wait for everyone to get off the plane once we landed to be able to find her, assuming that she would also wait since she was an older lady.

We landed in London, and I waited… and waited… for everyone to get off of the plane. I finally stood up, and found absolutely no one left on the plane. I looked up and down the aisles and couldn’t find anyone. I assumed she decided to wait in the hallway for me so she could get out of the way of everyone. I hustled over to the hallway and started walking towards customs. She was nowhere to be found.

I started worrying a little bit, thinking she got lost and was unable to communicate with anyone. I couldn’t find her anywhere. I was going through the customs line up along with everyone else on the flight, and was still looking around frantically like a crazy person.

As I was deep into the middle of the line and contained by the retractable belt barriers, I glanced through the crowd and saw my old lady friend. I could barely see her through hundreds of people, but I saw her standing with her suitcase and talking to one of the security staff. I kept watching to try and read her body language if she was trying to find me. Then I saw another staff member come with a wheelchair and a trolley for her suitcase and they started making their way to the exit.

I wasn’t able to go help her because I was trapped in the line up, and was too far away for her to see me wave. I felt as though I failed my mission, but I was relieved to see that it was staff that was helping her out and not some other stranger. Even though I only spent a short amount of time in silence with her, I still became attached after being responsible for her. I could tell she was a very happy little lady, and I was sad that I couldn’t say goodbye.

A while later as I was on the train to my destination, I realized I still had the giant chocolate bar. I received a reward for something I didn’t actually do. I got her on the plane, in her own country, and then lost her in the English-speaking country where she needed me the most. Oops.

…It was a delicious chocolate bar though.

Travel Like a Child

Growing up, my parents took us on a trip out of the country about once a year. For this post, I want to compare a trip to Mexico as a child to my most recent trip to Mexico only a few months ago. It wasn’t until this past trip that I started thinking deeply about how different my mind worked as a child, and how annoying it is to be an adult!

When I think back to what I paid attention to as a child, it was so positive and innocent. I remember being so excited to wake up early in the morning to go to the airport, and how cool it was to have a surprise meal on the plane. When I got off the plane, there was a gust of humid, tropical smelling air and that’s when I knew I was officially in Mexico.

It didn’t matter what the resort looked like, as long as there was a beach and a pool to play in. My brother and I would have so much fun in the pool, I don’t even remember what exactly we would be doing – I just remember it being fun. We would play in the waves in the ocean, and help my dad build some sort of sand castle. My mom and I would have fun looking at different souvenirs and jewelry and would try to leave Mexico with something matching.

The food was delicious and I liked saying “Hola!” to every staff member in the resort. I remember being fascinated with the entertainment staff, and loved watching the evening shows. I had no sense of time, didn’t know where I was in the world, and didn’t seem to have negative thoughts about anything.

There are certain things in adulthood that are beneficial to have during travel such as knowledge of the destination and the safety required during the trip, but a lot of things are unnecessary. What I noticed on this past trip is that I was aware of the money I spent and the value of what we were paying for. I struggled to wake up early and immediately felt more nervous than excited for the airport because I was thinking about all of the things that could go wrong. We didn’t get a complimentary meal on the flight and we didn’t want to spend the money to purchase a meal.

The airport in Mexico was chaos and filled with people trying to rip you off, or say that their shuttle was cheaper than the company we were supposed to go with. On the way to the resort I noticed labour workers walking down the highway and wondered how they make a living and what they might be struggling with. I was still excited to see the resort, but immediately started planning and organizing.

I was thinking about when we should eat, finding out when the evening shows were, what excursions to do and when, and was just overall concerned about making the most out of our trip. When we went into town, I noticed people trying to sell drugs and wondered how the economy worked (since every store sells basically the same thing) and I was overwhelmed about what I wanted to buy and where. I was thinking about applying sunscreen enough and making sure we wouldn’t miss the bus back to the resort. At the resort I had a hard time relaxing and wanted to make sure I did everything that I remember being fun as a child. There were still lots of laughs and fun times on this trip, but I just wanted to point out how different it was compared to when I was a child.

Now that I have been stuck at home in quarantine, I’m starting to realize how unimportant most things I worry about are. I can’t believe how uptight I was on my trip to Mexico, perhaps it was because I only had one week and I hadn’t been out of the country in four years… but it’s also because I didn’t take a step back to appreciate where I was and to just enjoy the moment.

I remember learning at a mindfulness seminar that one method to live in the present was to think like a child. In this case once I entered my room in the resort, rather than thinking about what we need to accomplish during the trip, I could have switched over to noticing the cute little shampoos at the sink and the balcony overlooking the palm trees. Of course this is easier said than done, but I think with some practice travelling could be a lot more enjoyable. Notice the things you are stressing about, take a deep breathe, and find your inner child.

How a Dog Became My Best Friend

Image may contain: 1 person, smiling — Simon 2011-2019

Growing up I had always wanted a golden retriever. They are big lovable beautiful dogs, but I had never known that one day a golden retriever would be my best friend – it sounded a bit cliché.

We got Simon when I was in high school and he was the sweetest most adorable fluffy puppy. Despite all of the mischief he got himself into, it was really hard to get mad at him. I had so much fun training him and looked forward to spending our time together each training session. He was smart and picked things up quickly. Not to mention, he loved attention and you could scratch his head for hours on end and he wouldn’t leave.

Simon loved food of all varieties and sometimes it got him into trouble. I remember one day I slaved away making homemade pear and asiago ravioli. I even made the pasta from scratch – little squares cut to perfection. They needed to be carefully laid out onto cookie sheets, with a dollop of mix to fill the middle section of the pasta. Then, I had dabbed water around the outside edge to stick the pasta squares together. One by one. Once I was finished I needed to sit down since I had just spent 7 hours on my feet in the kitchen. It had only made enough to fill two cookie sheets after all that effort. All of a sudden, I heard a loud bang coming from the kitchen – it startled me as I had no idea what it could be. Ten seconds later, my mom and I ran over to check what had happened. Simon had somehow eaten a whole cookie sheet of uncooked hand crafted pear and asiago ravioli in TEN SECONDS. I don’t even think he took a breath in the time it took him to demolish about 30 raviolis. At the time, I was sooooooooo mad, but now, it’s kind of funny.

Simon turned out to be a bit stubborn, especially when he didn’t want to go back into the car after a walk. He would just lay on the pavement when we tried to guide him in with the leash. Also, for everyone except my mom, he would only come if he felt like it. Most of the time he just continued to enjoy the outdoors until he was ready to obey. He also somehow got full control over when he wanted to get pet. You would be enjoying a nice beverage with friends and family until all of a sudden a big wet nose would sneak under your arm, begin to push its way all the way under as you spill your drink, until you give in to head scratches.

Simon gave a nice balance of stubbornness and sweetness. As soon as you were annoyed with his attitude he would walk over and sit right beside you, or put his head in your lap. Anger was never a result of his presence. It always ended in love, and all he wanted was to love his humans. You could tell that despite his strong head, he was very happy with the people around him. Whenever you walked by him laying on his side on the floor, you would just hear the “thump, thump, thump” of his waging tail. He would give a bit of a side glance expecting you to give in and pet his soft, glorious fur.

Unfortunately, Simon had to stay behind with my parents while I went to university. I would always look forward to seeing him on holidays… oh and my parents of course… because he would give the biggest most enthusiastic welcome. His entire body would wiggle when he saw me – he would do this to anyone he hadn’t seen for a while, even to my parents after they got home from work. But not seeing him for months at a time gave him an even bigger more extreme body wiggle. No matter how stressed out I was about school or anything at all, just having him sit with me would calm me down. In return, I had a certain position I could put him in to relax him when he was feeling agitated. Please see below.

Simon gave a large dose of joy to whoever he met and I’m happy that he became my best friend during the time he was on this earth. He also filled in as my parents’ child while they had to experience the “empty nest” syndrome. Although I don’t think another dog could compare to Simon, I think we all need a fluffy goofball in our lives. I look forward to finding myself another best friend that I can share a whole new set of memories with.