Another Keigo-hating Dilemma

Keigo, the ultra formal Japanese that people here tend to use with customers and the like, is still mostly incomprehensible to me. Even after 17 years in the country, I don't know what they're trying to say most of the time. 

If I am very lucky, my accent and limited vocabulary in Japanese will make it very clear to them that I am not sure what they're trying to say when I say that I am not sure what they're trying to say, and remind them that I'm not fluent, and then they will rephrase and something more colloquial. 

This did not happen today. 

I went as I usually do on Mondays to a nearby culture center where I happen to have a private lesson. The elevator would not go up to the floor on which the lesson would take place so I went to the library/ office area instead to wait for my student to show up and get the key so that we could go up together. 

As I'm standing there, one woman comes out of the back room to get something from the library area and gives me such a look as she walks back that I don't know if she's ever seen a white person before and seems surprised that I'm allowed in the building. 

The one behind the desk then comes out and starts talking to me, of course, in keigo.

I respond as I frequently do to such language by explaining that I'm not fluent and that I did not understand anything she just said. 

She responded by repeating herself exactly as she had. 

I responded in English that I would wait downstairs for my student since I have no idea what she was talking about. Literally the only word I understood was something like okurimashita, meaning sent.

Class? No class? Death? Accident? No idea. Just waiting to understand.

I spent 15 minutes waiting downstairs to see if my student would show up. Waiting downstairs to see if my student would show up. When she didn't I sent her a message explaining that I wasn't sure what the staff said but I hope she's okay.

I then got to spend about an hour letting my brain run through the scenarios while I walked around my town, wondering if they'd said that her family members had contacted them to cancel the lesson because she was dead, or if she had had to cancel because she was in an accident, or if she was in the hospital, or what exactly had happened because of course when I say, "I don't understand you...", all they hear is: "Say it again, exactly the same way, for the stupid Foreigner."

My student later did message and has confirmed that she is okay. There was some sort of accident that included police intervention and she will fill me in more later.