Traveling is awesome but you should always be careful. I was debating on sharing my story to everyone because I felt pretty stupid and very worthless but after today's sermon, I felt like I should share it because Jesus really got us through that day:
On my final day in Paris with my wife after a 10-day vacation (Rome to Venice to Paris), we checked out at 11am. I was pretty much set on eating lunch and then getting to the airport despite our flight being at 7:50pm. Eunhee (my wife) didn't want to be bored so we explored one last area. We ate lunch near our apartment and I'm pretty sure I had my small carry-on bag (with my passport inside). We both had a suitcase and a carry-on bag each by the way. Then we took the bus to "Hotel De Ville" which was a popular area in Paris.
Three possible situations happened. 1) Either I left my carry-on bag with my passport on the bus 2) I sat down to wait for Eunhee to look around the clothing store and I left it there or 3) Someone snagged it after I put it down while I was looking at my phone. I honestly have no idea what happened to my bag. After Eunhee looked around the store, we went to a cafe so I could wait for here there while she did more shopping. Then as soon as we walked into the cafe, I noticed that I didn't have my bag and I started to freak out inside.
A very nice woman at the cafe called three places (a restaurant and two stores) that we were at previously and they didn't see it which leads me to believe that I left it on the bus. By this time it was 2:30pm. We went to the police station to file the report. Then we had to take a taxi to get to the US Embassy (3:15). We arrived at the Embassy at 3:45pm and it looked as if it was closing. I called from outside the Embassy and the lady told me that I needed 122 euros to pay for the passport and 4 euros for the photo and of course I didn't have that much. She told me to find an ATM and come back ASAP. Me getting my passport depended on how long it took me to get the money. I got back at 3:50pm and the whole process took an hour. We left close to 5:00pm and we tried to find a taxi while it was raining. Impossible. We finally decided to take the underground which was the best idea with bad weather and a Friday night. Thankfully we got to the airport by 6:00pm, checked in and it was now 6:30pm. We were hungry and our boarding time was 7:20pm. We finished dinner at 7:10, bought some macarons for my coworkers and Eunhee's friends and then had to go through security right by the gate. We boarded at 7:40. PHEW.
God is good and my wife wasn't angry at me. I felt pretty depressed until hearing a guest speaker at church go through some major hardships in his life but got through them because of the Lord.
Scott Worden (The L.A./Seoul Guy)
Instagram: l.a.seoulguy
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