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Mentor Advice

Question

What can you do to prepare for an emergency, especially if you do not know the language?

1 Replies from Mentors

  • mentor picture Ana Campos
     
    Ana Campos
    Associate Director, Office of Undergraduate Student Housing
    University of Chicago
    I think the most important thing to do is to try to find someone in authority who can assist you –...
    I think the most important thing to do is to try to find someone in authority who can assist you – e.g. a police officer or someone who has some ability to assist you in your specific situation. For example, I was in a train station, and a man kept aggressively giving me unwanted attention. I had to be in that train station for something like 12 hours waiting for my next train. I had tried to find the station police, but could not. I could see that the ticket agent was noticing my situation, and after several times of my rebuking this man, he called me to him and offered that I could sit in the area behind the ticket window with him, waiting for my train so that the man could no longer approach me. He then also called the station police to have them tell the man to leave me alone. That ticket agent was an angel! I spent the next 12 hours waiting for my train behind the ticket window in peace.