Monday, March 23, 2009

Subte Blackout!

This morning Ken & I got up bright and early to start our first day of Spanish class. We'd signed up for classes daily from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m., which meant waking up quite a lot earlier from our new norm of getting up when the lord wakes us, or when one of us flushes the toilet (which makes a very loud groaning noise not unlike a bagpipe). We found the subway ("subte" en español) and boarded at what I assume was the peak of rush hour. It was hot and packed. Having lived in NYC for almost 10 years, I'm no stranger to a full subway car. This morning, however, some combination of heat and crowd and low blood sugar led me to feel dizzy enough to tell Ken that we needed to get off at the next stop.

I started to collapse while we were still on the car and he noticed and immediately wrapped both arms around me so that I didn't fall, and when the train stopped I made it a few steps onto the platform before I went down. I came to with about six people standing over me, fanning me and holding my legs perpendicular to the ground. The were all super nice and besides feeling embarrassed about the whole thing, I felt very safe. Don't freak out, Mom, I'm fine. Really.

We postponed our trip to the Spanish School and joined an afternoon class from 1:30-5:30, which I suspect will be much more compatible with our current sleeping schedule!

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Yes, Gillian--you know food, sugar, heat, fatigue--somehow all come together--. Good plan to join the afternoon class! Thanks, Ken for the rescue!

Adam Wishneusky said...

I'm so glad you got your travel mishaps all out of the way right away. Now the rest of your time will be awesome!!