ahostel environment Overseas restroom causes trouble for traveler Harding University in Florence (HUF) provided a chance for students to live in a 16th century villa on the hillsides of Tuscany about 20 minutes from Florence, a city known for its art. Twice during the semester, students had “free travel,” an opportunity to plan trips to other countries or even other continents. Students generally returned with great memories and stories; however, this was not the most accurate description for the experience of senior Deedra Adkisson, who attended HUF in the spring of 2007. While free traveling, many students stayed in hostels, which provided supervised, inexpensive lodging for travelers. Often, the bathrooms, along with bedrooms, were meant for anywhere from four to 15 people. It was always an interesting experience to stay in a hostel. There were new and exciting people to meet around every corner! During Adkisson’s second free travel, she and her group, which included senior Andrew Caldwell and junior Scott Foster, stayed in a hostel in Berlin, Germany. “Scott had just come out from the showering room, and I was supposed to go after him, but I made sure and told them not to go to sleep until I came back to my room,” Adkisson said. Once she went into the bathroom, she discovered that it was a massive room with random stalls for showers. There was a big, wooden door with no doorknob before another door that led into the shower room. Adkisson noticed that it did not close properly but went in anyway. Once she had showered and dressed, she tried to make her way back to her room but the wooden door would not open. Adkisson found herself locked in the bathroom of a hostel in a foreign country. “I tried everything,” Adkisson said. “I pushed, pulled, ran and slammed my body into it, and it never budged.” After banging on the door for almost two hours, Adkisson eventually realized that nobody was coming to find her, and she was going to have to wait. So, she found a chair and started to cry. Meanwhile, Caldwell found himself wrapped up in a book. Three hours had gone by but to him, it had only felt like one. Once he realized how long Adkisson had been missing, he woke up Foster, and they went looking for her. “The boys searched the entire hostel, all five floors, and, since the bathroom I was stuck in had no sign on the front that said it was a bathroom, they never thought to look there,” Adkisson said. “Finally, after all this time, they heard my screaming and pounding on the door and came to my rescue!” It was Foster that body slammed the door and got Adkisson out. “I have never in my life been so excited to see two people than when I saw them!” Adkisson said. [Leigh Hutchinson] 44 [student life]
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