Sin título 1
MY WORST FIRST DAY
I have been a very shy person for as long as I remember and my toughest moments are when I am surrounded by people I do not know. It is not until some time has passed by and I get to know the other people a bit more that I can really be myself. Moments like these were when I started an activity in a group I did not know, such as French classes at high-school and sports. However, never will I forget my first day of college.
I was going to begin a course of studies because I wanted to become an engineer. The first day, I realized that there were about fifty people that were going to attend the lessons with me and there was not a single person I knew. Although I was daunted by the number of students in that room, I was relieved that we were not yet asked to talk to anybody else, as teachers usually ask you to do on the first day of class so as to know a little about the rest. Anyway, I knew it was going to happen, sooner or later.
After two hours listening to a professor explaining what the subjects of the course were like, students self-introduction time began. When it was my turn to speak I started to feel sick and all I could do was say my name before dashing out of the class in great embarrassment. I was not used to speaking to strangers just for the sake of socializing. So embarrassed I was that I immediately left the building and did not come back until after the break. I considered it better to be alone in another place than in the break room with my new classmates.
I was still feeling terrible when I returned after the recess. I thought everybody would be waiting for me to laugh, but it was all the opposite. A group of people that were chatting invited me to join the conversation they were into and a guy offered me mate later in the class so my uneasiness quickly disappeared and I started feeling better. Looking back at that time and having made a lot of great friends in college, I admit that it never was such a terrible situation as I thought at that time.
OUR TRIP TO LAS VEGAS
I spent last summer living in the United States since I was offered a temporary winter job. It was an exciting experience because I got to know a lot of new people and places. Whenever I could, I would ask for a couple of days off with some friends and go on a road trip. Although these trips were very fun, I will probably never forget what happened to us on our coming back from Las Vegas.
We decided to visit Las Vegas because of all the movies that are set there and because of all the people that recommended visiting it. Since there were seven of us, we rented a mini-van and headed off to the city, which was about five hours from where we lived. Our staying in Las Vegas was incredible. We were overjoyed by it; it looked like a massive amusement park with all its fluorescent lights, the flamboyant casinos and hotels and, we even saw a couple of roller coasters that passed above the streets. On our last day, we checked out from our hotel, went to a gas station to fill up with fuel and hit the road back home.
After three hours, we started running out of fuel, so we looked online for cheap service stations nearby. The closest one was about 50 km from where we were and we decided to go there. Although we had to go through a deserted road in a snowy mountain, it was our only chance of not running out of gas, so we bit the bullet and headed there. The path was starting to become snowy and at one moment, we could no longer pass because there were no other car tracks for us to follow and the van was not powerful enough for the snow.
The problem was that if we came back from where we were coming we would not get anywhere before running out of gas, so our options were limited. We could either try to keep going, or call the police for help. Being there was even dangerous because the temperatures were frigid cold and it was very unlikely we could spend the night without suffering from hypothermia, so we were terrified. Our solution came as a miracle from heaven when an SUV suddenly appeared behind us and the driver kindly offered to wait for and accompany us, so at least we were not alone. Since the SUV was capable of moving forward in the snow, we could follow its tracks and get to the service station safe and sound. Looking back at that situation, I am glad it went well, especially because we were in the middle of nowhere and we could have died.
THE WORST EXCURSION
Last year, my friends, Bautista, Lorenzo, and I travelled to Bariloche, where there are many breathtaking landscapes with snowy mountains. My buddies had taken the initiative of climbing mountains, since we had never done that before. I am not really into excursions or any kind of trips to natural places and I was unsure if I was going to like it, but I gave it a shot. The first trek we made, named “Angels Landing”, was the worst experience ever.
We had been climbing for a couple of hours, and we still had around three hours left. The views were stunning, but after a while, I got bored, because it was always the same landscape. The hill was all rocky, except for some vegetation and some snow. In addition to this, I was in a terrible shape so I was really exhausted. In one moment, I could barely breathe. I was not feeling well at all, so I sat for two minutes until I recovered. I did not tell anybody about it, so my friends continued their way up. After a moment, I decided it was time to go on. When I stood up, I realized I had no idea where I was and I was alone.
I had lost track of everybody, so I started to walk in every direction. The more I walked, the less I knew where I was. I started calling my friends, worried that I might not see them again, but nobody answered. I stepped on the highest rocks I found to try to find any of them. So desperate I was that I started to imagine the chances of surviving I had. Suddenly, I heard Bautista and sighed with relief. All my friends came running towards me; they all seemed to have been really terrified by what had happened. They started biting my head off, warning me of the dangers of the place.
When we were going down the mountain, they kept advising me not to get distracted, to remember the way in my mind, and to tell them if I ever decided to stay behind again. They told me that they did not want me to get lost again if we ever did another excursion. “That will be the day”, I thought to myself. I was moody, exhausted, I had had a terrifying experience and the landscape had long ago bored me. I knew that I would never do this kind of excursion again.
THE FUNNIEST JOB
Last winter season, I started working in a very prestigious hotel in Bariloche. Although it was a seasonal job, it was great and I really enjoyed it, mainly because it was very relaxing at noon. Our job was to take the guests’ skis and snowboards from the place where we would store them to one of the main lifts in Cerro Catedral. However, between eleven p.m. and two p.m., we rarely had much to do, so we would spend that time getting to know each other. Without a doubt, the person with whom I liked to spend most of my time with was my boss, Leticia.
My first impression when I met her was that she was a very unhappy person; in my first month working there, I had never seen her smile. I guessed that she wanted to look more serious or respectable in front of us, the employees. With the passing of time, she became a more relaxed person, which was a little awkward at first because I was already used to her seriousness. That was the moment I knew I could joke with her and decided that I had to make her laugh at least once before coming back home after the end of the winter season.
I started off by telling her bad jokes because these are the ones I usually enjoy the most and I did not really know what could make her laugh, probably thinking that she might be into this kind of jokes. I even tried “knock-knock” jokes, but all my efforts were futile. When she knew what I was trying to do, she started looking at me with her best poker face. I even tried learning cleverer jokes, but then the problem was that I am terrible at telling them and I ended up looking very dumb. The season was coming to an end and after my failed attempts to make my boss laugh, I gave up.
However, on my last week working in the hotel, something unexpected happened. I entered the hotel, carrying three pairs of skis, when I stepped onto a puddle of water and slipped, throwing everything and making a terrible noise. I was very surprised when I heard a great laughter behind me and realized that it was Leticia. I can now say that was the first time I had seen my boss laughing.