Escapades on Public Transit

I mentioned in my post about my internship that I'm taking quite a bit of public transit this semester for my internship. As such, I have begun collecting a number of interesting stories and experiences. I thought I'd share them here.

The first morning of my internship went smoothly. I had no trouble finding the right buses or bus stops, but I encountered some interesting people. My first surprise was when I got to the bus stop outside of my condo and discovered a homeless person sleeping on the bench. They were there the second morning as well, but I have not seen them since. I was also delightedly amused when, on the second bus, a high school kid boarded with the hugest afro I have ever seen in my life. He is a regular rider, and I get a little joy every time I see him, lol

A more frustrating day came the first Thursday of the semester. Thursday is the day I have both my internship *and* class. Thanks to the slowness of public transportation I have to leave my internship 45 minutes early to make it to class on time. I take the bus back to Fashion Valley and then catch the trolley from there. There are two bus lines that stop outside of Sharp, both of them go to Fashion Valley. One is a regular city bus, the other is a shorter bus/van thing. The 25 happened to come first, so I got on, and was greeted by another black lab. The other dog's handler was a lady in a wheelchair. Unfortunately for my schedule, she got off before fashion valley. It took quite a bit of extra time to get her AND her dog off the bus.

Even more time was lost when at the next stop a lady got on, who spoke basically no English, and refused to get off or pay, though her 3 bus passes were expired. 5 minutes of arguing later, she pulled out a current bus pass and we were on our way. I had definitely missed my trolley at that point, but did still manage to make it to class just in time.

Somewhat frustrating, and somewhat amusing to me, have been my attempts at meeting Tad at work. To do this, requires 3 bus routes. The first week I tried, I thought I could only take the 25 to transfer to the 41, and the 25 never came. After an hour and a half of waiting, Tad picked me up. I later discovered I could take either th 25 or the 120. So last week I tried again. I caught the 120, and told the driver I wanted to transfer to the 41. He told me which stop and said I needed to cross the street, which I had suspected. I got off, crossed the street, and caught the 41...in the wrong direction. Boo, so I stayed on the bus back to Fashion Valley, and looped around, but by that time Tad was off work. Thus for a second week in a row, I didn't mak it and he picked me up from UTC. However, next week I WILL make it!!! lol

Something fun about taking the same routes a the same times is I've met other people on their way to work. They're friendly now, and know Valencia by name :)