Have you ever missed class because there was a danger alert on your campus? For most people here, I know the answer will be yes. But for a simple guy from Barcelona or any Spaniard, the answer will be different. Well, since last week, my answer will be yes for the rest of my life.
That Wednesday seemed like a normal weekday when I woke up in the morning. I went to my 8:30 English class, and when we finished, I followed my usual weekly steps to Mrs. McVey’s classroom. There were still seven minutes before class started, so I left my things there and decided to treat myself a hot coffee with a scoop of ice from Billy’s Brewhouse, as usual.
With my daily dose of caffeine, I re-entered the ACAD prison, the only problem being that something had changed. There was no one in the hallway and the only people there were running from the other side of the building. The only person standing was a teacher waving her hands and pointing to her classroom. I was still in my own world, with my music, when I decided to take the right headphone out of my ear. That’s when I heard, “RUN! RUN! GET INTO CLASS!”
My classroom was the first one on the left but it was locked. Still trying to figure out what was going on, I knocked on the door and waited. Before anyone could open the door, Mr. Gigot called me from his classroom across the hall and only because he yelled at me from five feet away did I go in.
Once seated, I started paying more attention to his words than to my music and then I understood: there was an alert on campus, or so we knew at the time. He seemed overwhelmed, unlike the rest of my new classmates, who were relaxed. Honestly, the situation was more funny than scary. I still don’t know why, but Mr. G kept opening the door every 30 seconds, even though he swore we were safe with him.
So, there I was, confused about this new experience with my coffee. After the first police check, I got my things back and we were sent to the central classroom in the building, where the teachers realized that I was one of the few international students in the building at the time. Overall, I did learn a lot from this experience.
