Fire on the 4th floor

5/15/10

I have been looking forward to "sleeping in" all week. Finally in a new hotel, they turned the air conditioning on, things were looking up...until of course 2:30 this morning.

What I didn't know was that my room has a speaker/intercom system in it, but I became well aware of this "feature" due to the morning announcements.

I was dead asleep and startled awake by the voice of a Japanese woman speaking through my room, had I had more Chu Hi or perhaps some psychedelics I might have believed it was God. I digress. So this woman very loudly starts speaking in Japanese, great. Then the English translation comes across, "Warning, there might be a fire on the 4th floor". Oh did I forget to mention that I stay on the 4th floor. At this point fight or flight should kick in right, I mean, I did just hear that there could be a fire on my floor. Oh no, I discovered a new response, "goodnight". I just stayed in my bed, confused, with little or no thought going through my head (to my credit it was 2:30 in the morning and I did have a couple of beverages the night before (thank you wine in a can and Chu hi)). So these announcements continued on, warning there might be a fire, another one saying that there is a fire, followed by a string of about 5-10 indicating that "you may have just heard an announcement that there was a fire, this was a false alarm". May have just heard an announcement? Those announcements could have risen the dead, there is no way that someone "missed" those!

After my brain re calibrated and realized that a fire on the 4th floor (where i reside) is something I need to get away from, I quickly scurried to find some clothing that would acceptable for said escape. I opted not for the hotel provided house shoes/slippers. I just don't think they have the traction to go the distance for a serious fire escape. By the time I was appropriately dressed in my escape gear, I opened the door to see a hotel staff telling me it was "no fire" and then I heard the "false alarm announcement" for the next 20 minutes.

I have learned from this experience that I should have an "in case of emergency" outfit easily accessible, and that perhaps I need to work on my reaction time!