That all being said, when plans or schedules change, I can handle it… if I have enough notice. Ie: time to research and schedule the new plan. If things change last minute, and I have no idea what is going on… I get agitated. I get especially irritated when other people are in charge of finding out the details, and making the plan, and they don’t. I am better now at not having to know the plan, I just want to know that someone has one!
But last week, we had a travel day that was unplanned… unscheduled… with no guarantees. We needed to buy train tickets to go from Chisnou (Keeshnow), Moldova to Bucharest, Romania. What we didn’t find out (because the internet isn’t as comprehensive in other countries as we Americans would like, and because our contact in the city didn’t know for sure) was that in order to purchase those tickets, we needed to show our passports. Suddenly, Olga, couldn’t buy our tickets for us. And in the same breath, she told us that train only left every other day. We wanted to be on a train on Thursday night. But if it didn’t leave until Friday… Eeek! Because of Easter, we got all of this information two days before we were supposed to leave Moldova. We quickly made plans and sent Cara and Laura to the Chisnou a day early with our passports to buy our tickets. And we prayed. God heard us, because somehow, even though it was the day before, we got seven beds on the train, all in the same car, and we were in two cabins close to each other. Whew! That part was a huge relief.
Then came the tough part. The other five of us were still in Soldernesti, and we needed to get to Chisnou via marshutka (big van) or bus, and then to the train station to catch our 5pm train. The biggest issue was that the only posted schedule indicated only two marshutkas, the last leaving at 12:30pm. Our translator in Soldernesti, Sergio, swore that there was a 9:20 coach bus that came through town and would take us the 3 hours to Chisnou. We could find NO evidence or information of said bus anywhere. As far as I was concerned, that bus was fictitious. What it came down to was that if the 12:30 marshutka couldn’t fit all of us, some of us were missing the train to Bucharesti. It was the Perfect Storm for me to be stressed and freaking out… not only did we not yet have our tickets, we didn’t even know if there was going to be space for all of us and our bags anywhere… if any of these forms of transportation showed up! I should have been irritated and grouchy about the lack of plans and information. But I wasn’t.
My fantastic squadmate, Ian, taught me a new phrase. “So what? What is the worst than can happen?” In this case… I put it to the test. So what? What is the worst possible scenario if there are no buses or marshutkas out of Soldernesti? If we miss the (fictitious) bus, and the marshutka is full, we take a taxi. But what if we still miss the train? The next one doesn’t leave for two days. So what? Really. So what? So I don’t get to go to Brasov and wander around in the Carpathian mountains this weekend. So what? So I have to spend two nights in Chisnou before heading straight to ministry in Romania. So what? So I don’t get the couple of days ‘off’ in the way I had planned. That is the worst that can happen? That I don’t get to spend my time the way I had wanted, and I have to spend a few extra dollars. Hmm. First, there are an awful lot of ‘I’s in there. And second of all… nothing in that scenario is really all that terrible.?
I like plans. I like details. I like to know who, what, where, when, why and how. What it all really comes down to is that I like to have things scheduled, and guaranteed. Mostly because I like to be prepared. When traveling, I don’t like taking chances. If I need a train ticket, I will pay a little extra money to get a guaranteed seat vs. a ‘maybe you’ll make it.’ I don’t like hours or days or weeks of empty space. Even on a day off, I prefer to at least have a mental checklist of things I am going to do.
