Bubble camp ahoy

I've been tootling around Gallente space for the last couple of nights, but without much to show for it (without anything to show for it actually). After exploring the Placid region for a while and getting bored I decided to poke my nose into nullsec and explore the Syndicate region. The first jump into PF-346 was uneventful; the system was empty but for a lone newbie, so I set up a couple of safes before scanning the gate to FD-MLJ (clear) and jumping through - straight into a bubble camp.

This wasn't my first experience of a bubble camp, but it's been a while since I encountered one (I'm lazy and I've been ratting mainly in Providence recently, and bubbles are a rarity there) so I was a little rusty. I did remember to zoom out and have a look at the lay of the land, and figured my best bet was to head back to the gate and hope not too sizable a force had or would jump through before I was able to get safe. I had fit a cloak for traveling but the camp obviously practiced uncloaking and I'd reached 50% armour by the time I made the jump - straight into another bubble (of course they'd bubbled the other side - I was expecting that. I was hoping to avoid landing in one though). They were good enough at uncloaking to uncloak me again, and this time there was no escape. Another Wolf down (the faction gear on that was all from a DED 1 static plex I ran, hoping to annoy some guy camping it into shooting at me - he didn't).

Looking back on the event, I think I held things together much better on the initial jump than on the subsequent jump. After making it back to the gate with some armour remaining, I think the adrenalin may have affected me. I forgot to properly assess the positioning of the enemy and other structures before selecting a place to escape to. After aligning, cloaking, and cycling the MWD I made no attempts to change direction (although to be fair I don't think changing direction after cloaking would have helped; as I remember it I was decloaked very quickly indeed). On the other hand, attempting to return to the gate after landing in the first camp is a pretty obvious thing to be trying. Maybe my biggest error was even attempting it instead of slow-boating out of the first camp and just getting safe.

Life in Eve is full of ifs and buts. Perhaps I shouldn't be second-guessing myself so much, but how can I learn otherwise? Whatever, the next time I encounter a bubble camp I'll avoid trying to return to the gate I just came through to see if that works better.