In a Glass Case of Emotion

On our last Friday night in Florence, my Italian family and I wanted to have a nice Italian meal all together. We went to a very good restaurant across the river, where I had amazing red pepper soup. The night and dinner was perfect until we got back to the apartment.

We all decided it would be a fun idea to pile eight of us into the elevator that takes us up to the third floor of the girls and guys apartment. When the last few guys jumped into the small elevator the girls shouted for them to get out but it was too late. They had already hopped in and hit the button to the third floor. Everyone was laughing and squeezed together so uncomfortably.

Soon enough the elevator started to slow down and came to a complete stop in between the second and third floor. Our laughs and smiles were wiped from our faces. We all started to get panicked. The elevator had an emergency alarm button so we kept pressing it, hoping one of the neighbors would hear and come out to help us. No luck. I found this quite ironic because we always got noise complaints by the other tenants, cause we would leave the door to the guys and girls apartments open at the top and walk back/forth constantly. But when this on time we are being very loud and setting off a really annoying alarm to get some attention, we were all ignored.

After that failure, Ricky called our schools emergency contact phone and it was turned off. We then tried calling all of our other friends, who were not stuck with us in the tiny elevator, to come help us. Jodie came and tried to ring all the bells of the neighbors, within the building, to get inside the apartment but she was unsuccessful. Giancarlo, Liz, and Steph were out to dinner with their parents and came as soon at they could. But even they couldn’t do anything but keep us company outside the elevator. Although they laughed, pointed, and took several photos of us stuck, it was still a comfort to have someone in the outside world know our little problem. When we finally did get a hold of CEA, they sent one of the staff to come and try to help us. When they arrived, they contacted the closest repair man and got him to come get us out. When he got to the apartment, all eight of us were freed from the small suspended glass box. Apparently, when Ricky went to thank the technician he found out he was drunk and invited us all out to a local bar where he was previously. Thank God I didn’t know that fact when the elevator man came. I am just glad he was sober enough to get us out!

Being stuck in an elevator for over an hour with eight people was definitely an interesting experience. A couple of the girls were freaking out, angry, or on the verge of tears. The guys were trying to stay logical but clearly they were still worried. I on the other hand, thought it was kind of funny.  Marissa and I tried to stay positive and tried to distract the others. We decided to play twenty questions, which was quite entertaining, at least it was for me. But after that whole ordeal, I learned to never again try to squeeze eight people into a four person small Italian elevator.

8 people in a 4 person elevator!