On the way to and from school, I take a small bus that's maybe the size of 2 full-size vans put together, called a meshrutka. These babies are very rickety and you definitely need your sea-legs about you to survive on it. You also need someone to tell you which bus is an acceptable bus to get onto, unless you know Russian (see previous post). I have a few bus numbers memorized to get me to and from school, and then I usually use the metro on the weekends to go other places.
Today I left the school area 2 hours later then normal, because I joined a gym near the school and so I worked out after school. As usual, I hopped on the first bus that I saw an acceptable number on. (Usually, that means 416 or 444, but this morning I spied a bunch of fellow teachers on bus 548, which means I now know 3 buses to take. Hooray!) Anyway, I hopped on a bus 444 and put on my public transportation pout while listening to my ipod. I usually watch landmarks when I can just so that I don't get lost, because getting lost in foreign countries seems to be one of my hobbies. Everything was going smoothly, and I saw us pass a library and the normal points of reference. All until the bus took a random turn down a side street that I did not recognize! I did, however, recognize a sky scraper near that street, so I assumed that we would eventually go back to the place I wanted to stop. Well, we didn't. Finally I went up to the bus driver and I was like "Drugbi Narodiv?" And, of course, because I didn't say it with the right accent, he didn't understand me at all. This kind of made me mad because everyone else who had gotten on the bus understood me, even laughed at the situation since we were VERY far from Drugbi Narodiv, but the driver claimed he couldn't understand. Finally, one of the guys took pity on me and told the bus driver where I needed to go. So then, he repeated "Drugbi Narodiv" with only one syllabic accent difference and all of a sudden, he figured out where I needed to go! Wow. How are these people ever going to host the 2012 Olympics?!?!?!
So, I got off the bus dejected because I got on the right place, and I even did the right thing by telling the driver where to go, but I still can't communicate with people and it's starting to drive me insane. I am proud that I held my composure until I reached my apartment, where I had a good 5 minute cry, Kraft macaroni and cheese, and watched the end of Star Trek Voyager. Now I am feeling nominally better and I have vowed that I will only stick to bus 444 if it is not the red one I see coming down the street!
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