The Stairwell Fiasco

So if you have me as a friend on Facebook, you may have seen my post from a few days ago about getting stuck in the stairwell of the building where I'm living. I've had quite a few people ask about the whole story so I thought I'd share it here.

So to start it off, I had a fantastic day beforehand and was really tired by the time I returned back home. I intended on doing my laundry and getting dinner but I ended up falling asleep instead. When I woke up it was dark outside, probably around 11 o'clock. I was hungry and exhausted but I didn't want to walk to Tesco, the grocery store that's right down the street without someone to go with me. It just so happened that no one else was home yet so I decided instead to just get a sandwich from the vending machine.

When I got down to the machine, there were only three sandwiches left. My options were Egg or Ham. Well I'm allergic to egg so that's a no. I also don't eat pork products but I was hungry enough that had there not been a Chicken one behind it I would have eaten it. I decided to just buy the ham and the chicken sandwich, eat the chicken for dinner and if I was still super hungry, I'd eat the ham one later. I paid and got my sandwiches and started to walk back up the stairs.

All of a sudden, the guy mopping starts yelling "No no no! Lift lift lift!" and before I knew what was happening he unlocked the elevator and rushed me into it. I pushed the button for the first floor as I assumed it would take me up to the level I lived on. Instead, it took me to a part of the building that I am completely unfamiliar with. I walked to the end of the stairwell where there was a staircase to make my way back down to the lobby area where I knew I could get back to my room. When I got all the way down, I realized that the only door was an emergency fire exit. I assumed I was in the wrong stairwell so I walked back up to the floor I had been on to look for another set of stairs. However, when I pulled on the door, I discovered it was locked. I ran up to the next level and that was locked too. I ran up and down the stairs pulling on every door and every single one was locked. I started to have a panic attack, I felt like the walls of the dimly lit stairwell were closing in on me. In my panic I rushed to the bottom floor and pushed my way through the emergency exit setting the alarms off behind me. As soon as I reached the entrance to get back into the building, the housing manager met me to ask what happened and why I exited through the fire door. Suddenly my panic attack reached its peak. I started to bawl. There I am crying, trying to explain myself through my tears, fire alarm blaring behind me as I awkwardly hold two vending machine sandwiches, all the while a crowd is forming (mostly of my classmates who had just returned for the night, wanting to make sure I was ok) wondering what in the world was going on. The housing manager understood completely and I returned to my room where I cried in the bathroom for a half an hour and then called my mom.

It was a rough night, but I can laugh about it now as I think it's quite funny. I'm no longer embarrassed or afraid, and I thoroughly enjoyed my vending machine sandwich.

Xoxo,

Jackey