so, i've been sick. other than that nothing too interesting has happened. i finally started my internship for real....yesterday was my first day of actual work. i'm excited and nervous. i'm not sure what i'm really supposed to be doing....but i'll figure it out.
today i will have to take the city bus from school to work. i'm nervous. i've ridden the public transportation here, but only the "nice" buses. the nice busses cost 8 pesos (roughly 75 cents USD), are air conditioned and a good majority of riders are american/canadian/white tourists. the other busses cost 4 pesos (roughly 40 cents USD) and are very shabby looking.
the bus that i have to take doesn't really go by my workplace, but it gets me close enough. i'm nervous about how to get off. because everytime i have gotten off a bus it's been very awkward. i usually just get up when i get an inkling that the bus is going to stop or when someone else has pressed the button.
the buttons don't always work either. so then i'm afraid that i'll actually have to say something in order to get off! that would be terrible! jajaja....
i'm sure i'll be fine. but i tend to freak out.....
Showing posts with label bus. Show all posts
Showing posts with label bus. Show all posts
Tuesday, February 10, 2009
Thursday, January 22, 2009
What really happened
alright, i lied. my life doesn't suck. after all i am in mexico people! now i'll tell you what really went down...excluding the 3 incidents that made me go into self destruct mode.
my advanced spanish class started like it does every other day. about 3/4 of the way through this huge flying bug appeared out of thin air! no joke. the french girls were freakin' out. it was great! then one of the french girls got up from her chair to escape the wrath of this creature. as she neared the door, so did the bug. she then tried going to back to her seat only to have the bug practically stick to her back! finally she escaped and ran out the door! one of the guys also went out the classroom and "hid" behind the the door.
two guys, both hailing from southern states, were trying to catch it. one was using his hat and the other was using his folder. it was a spectacle. they were really close to getting the bug when it got a little too close for comfort and the guy with the folder flinched and the folder flew through the air!
finally the two managed to get it into the hat and released it into the wild by means of the open window. the two students who were hiding out of the room came back in. we were giving the guy a hard time....he said he had gone out of the room because it was too hot. plus he was a man, so he couldn't have possible been scared.
that was awesome.
the next epic moment in my day was riding the bus. i hate riding the bus home because there are no markings on the bus to tell you which one goes where. usually there are 3 buses. today there were 4. the 3rd bus is usually mine. but alas, the 4th was mine today. i always ask the bus driver if it's the right bus. i'm sure he thinks i'm the most retarded person on the planet, but it's better to be safe than sorry, right? i also dislike the bus on the way home because it's the oldest of all the buses. it's really small and my knees are always bumping into the sheet of metal in front of me. i've never trusted this bus and now i have reason to.
about 5 minutes into the ride we stopped at one of the very few stoplights in mazatlan. the light turned green, the driver had some problem with shifting gears. once we finally starting going, we didn't go anywhere very fast. i think we maybe glided through the intersection at a whopping 3 mph. needless to say everyone was honking at us. all of the high school girls started giggling, they're so annoying!
the bus driver got out of the bus and climbed into the engine! when i say climb, i mean it! he was crawling around and hanging over the entire front of the bus. it was very entertaining. then the bus driver asked if anyone had a phone he could use to call the school. after waiting for about 15 minutes or so, a van arrived. there were just enough seats for everyone. it was awkward.
i sat next to a girl who had eyed me on the bus. you know those looks that you share with someone and you know what their saying without anybody having said anything? well, that's what we had shared and she had "told" me that she knew it must be weird for me to be the white kid on a broken down mexican school bus......well, that's what i would like to think she wanted to say, but who knows. the girl saw my ipod and showed me hers. it was the new nano ipod just like mine, except it was purple. i turned mine over to show her it was a 16GB, she only had 8 GB. after that, we sat in silence. well, not really. the driver had some really bad romantic station on. it was so loud that i couldn't even hear my ipod, so i stopped trying to listen to my ipod.
after everyone got out, except for another boy and me, the driver asked if i lived in playa sur. i said yes. he then said he would just drive us there instead of taking the "official" route, that always seems to be changing.....the boy and i live on the same street, so i didn't have to say anything to get the bus driver to stop. crisis averted!
after i got home, i struggled to read a 3 page story about a retarded boy who had to sit near the sewers to kill the frogs, who were making too much noise, so that his god mother could sleep. he also happened to like the breast milk of felipa, a servant girl. the boy was also struggling with demons and darkness and thought he was going to hell..... and i thought all the stories i had to read in my english classes were strange!
well, thanks for all the kind words. it definitely turned my day around and inspired me to write a more enthralling post!
my advanced spanish class started like it does every other day. about 3/4 of the way through this huge flying bug appeared out of thin air! no joke. the french girls were freakin' out. it was great! then one of the french girls got up from her chair to escape the wrath of this creature. as she neared the door, so did the bug. she then tried going to back to her seat only to have the bug practically stick to her back! finally she escaped and ran out the door! one of the guys also went out the classroom and "hid" behind the the door.
two guys, both hailing from southern states, were trying to catch it. one was using his hat and the other was using his folder. it was a spectacle. they were really close to getting the bug when it got a little too close for comfort and the guy with the folder flinched and the folder flew through the air!
finally the two managed to get it into the hat and released it into the wild by means of the open window. the two students who were hiding out of the room came back in. we were giving the guy a hard time....he said he had gone out of the room because it was too hot. plus he was a man, so he couldn't have possible been scared.
that was awesome.
the next epic moment in my day was riding the bus. i hate riding the bus home because there are no markings on the bus to tell you which one goes where. usually there are 3 buses. today there were 4. the 3rd bus is usually mine. but alas, the 4th was mine today. i always ask the bus driver if it's the right bus. i'm sure he thinks i'm the most retarded person on the planet, but it's better to be safe than sorry, right? i also dislike the bus on the way home because it's the oldest of all the buses. it's really small and my knees are always bumping into the sheet of metal in front of me. i've never trusted this bus and now i have reason to.
about 5 minutes into the ride we stopped at one of the very few stoplights in mazatlan. the light turned green, the driver had some problem with shifting gears. once we finally starting going, we didn't go anywhere very fast. i think we maybe glided through the intersection at a whopping 3 mph. needless to say everyone was honking at us. all of the high school girls started giggling, they're so annoying!
the bus driver got out of the bus and climbed into the engine! when i say climb, i mean it! he was crawling around and hanging over the entire front of the bus. it was very entertaining. then the bus driver asked if anyone had a phone he could use to call the school. after waiting for about 15 minutes or so, a van arrived. there were just enough seats for everyone. it was awkward.
i sat next to a girl who had eyed me on the bus. you know those looks that you share with someone and you know what their saying without anybody having said anything? well, that's what we had shared and she had "told" me that she knew it must be weird for me to be the white kid on a broken down mexican school bus......well, that's what i would like to think she wanted to say, but who knows. the girl saw my ipod and showed me hers. it was the new nano ipod just like mine, except it was purple. i turned mine over to show her it was a 16GB, she only had 8 GB. after that, we sat in silence. well, not really. the driver had some really bad romantic station on. it was so loud that i couldn't even hear my ipod, so i stopped trying to listen to my ipod.
after everyone got out, except for another boy and me, the driver asked if i lived in playa sur. i said yes. he then said he would just drive us there instead of taking the "official" route, that always seems to be changing.....the boy and i live on the same street, so i didn't have to say anything to get the bus driver to stop. crisis averted!
after i got home, i struggled to read a 3 page story about a retarded boy who had to sit near the sewers to kill the frogs, who were making too much noise, so that his god mother could sleep. he also happened to like the breast milk of felipa, a servant girl. the boy was also struggling with demons and darkness and thought he was going to hell..... and i thought all the stories i had to read in my english classes were strange!
well, thanks for all the kind words. it definitely turned my day around and inspired me to write a more enthralling post!
Friday, January 16, 2009
the joys of returning to school...
so, the first week of school is over with! i have a total of 3 classes, but it's 12 credits. i am also doing an internship but i haven't gotten any information on that yet. i am taking a business spanish class, advanced spanish 1, and introduction to mexican culture (in english). i only have class with international students, so i don't feel stupid if i make a mistake, because they are learning too! the campus has wireless internet, which took a while for the computer "helpers" to figure out. they had to do something extra special to get my computer to work. it was a hassle, but at least i can use the internet now!
homework isn't too intense now, but i have a feeling it will get a little more hairy in the future. i have a one page summary of a story (in spanish, both to read and to write!) due on monday. i'm not looking forward to writing that.
the buses to and from school are tricky to figure out. it turns out the bus passes right by my street so i don't have to search for it, but others aren't so lucky. apparently they changed the bus routes and didn't tell us exchange students.....nice! besides the school symbol, there are no markings on the bus, so when you want to go home, you have to ask the bus driver which route it is. i think they line up the same way after school so i don't think it will be a problem anymore. i bought the bus pass, it was $2700 pesos!!!!! that's roughly $200 USD. the only "problem" is that i need to put a sticker on the back of my school i.d., but i won't get that until i get to school on monday, but i need to take the bus to school! (it's only free for the first week and next monday is in the 2nd week......obviously) i have the receipt, so hopefully all will work out ok.
on the way home, one of the mexican students tapped me on my shoulder. we ended up chatting the whole way home. i got his number and stuff. he told me that he would show me the ropes and help get me acquainted with mazatlan. he doesn't live too far away from me, so i won't have to pay a million dollars to go hang out with someone for once!
i told him i didn't know how to get off the bus because they don't really have specific stops. so when he got off the bus, he told the bus driver where to stop for me! that was really nice of him!
on saturday, i'm planning on going to rock island and go horseback riding and kayaking! i'm so excited! i've always wanted to go horseback riding on the beach, it's so romantic!
p.s. i heard about the plane "crashing" into the hudson. it was a u.s. airways plane. guess what plane i used to get here and am going to use when i go back?......u.s. airways. wish me luck everyone!
homework isn't too intense now, but i have a feeling it will get a little more hairy in the future. i have a one page summary of a story (in spanish, both to read and to write!) due on monday. i'm not looking forward to writing that.
the buses to and from school are tricky to figure out. it turns out the bus passes right by my street so i don't have to search for it, but others aren't so lucky. apparently they changed the bus routes and didn't tell us exchange students.....nice! besides the school symbol, there are no markings on the bus, so when you want to go home, you have to ask the bus driver which route it is. i think they line up the same way after school so i don't think it will be a problem anymore. i bought the bus pass, it was $2700 pesos!!!!! that's roughly $200 USD. the only "problem" is that i need to put a sticker on the back of my school i.d., but i won't get that until i get to school on monday, but i need to take the bus to school! (it's only free for the first week and next monday is in the 2nd week......obviously) i have the receipt, so hopefully all will work out ok.
on the way home, one of the mexican students tapped me on my shoulder. we ended up chatting the whole way home. i got his number and stuff. he told me that he would show me the ropes and help get me acquainted with mazatlan. he doesn't live too far away from me, so i won't have to pay a million dollars to go hang out with someone for once!
i told him i didn't know how to get off the bus because they don't really have specific stops. so when he got off the bus, he told the bus driver where to stop for me! that was really nice of him!
on saturday, i'm planning on going to rock island and go horseback riding and kayaking! i'm so excited! i've always wanted to go horseback riding on the beach, it's so romantic!
p.s. i heard about the plane "crashing" into the hudson. it was a u.s. airways plane. guess what plane i used to get here and am going to use when i go back?......u.s. airways. wish me luck everyone!
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