These things only happen to me! (before 9:00a) Harbin, China
Harbin, China- March 15, 2013
Well, Of course! The one day that my roommates have a day off from work–I have to go into work by myself. That’s all fine and good except the bus ride went all but smoothly! I left my apartment at 7:30a to be at Xin Yang Lu Xue Xiao for an 8:55a class which leaves me with more than enough time to get there and still do some last minute lesson planning. I get to the bus stop and the 22 Bus has just pulled off! Grr! That’s okay..usually where there’s one 22 Bus, there’s another one not
too far behind…Especially because it’s still work time rush hour. The next bus arrives not to shortly after and the ride isn’t too bad– It’t just as crowded as every other day in Harbin during rush hour however half way to the school the bus begins to stall…and then the bus driver is able to start it back up again. This happens one other time before the bus comes to a complete halt and doesn’t budge. The people in the front say something in Chinese and so does the bus driver. The people in the back (including me but I was somewhere in the middle) still have no idea what is going on until people start emptying out of the bus in the middle of the highway on top of a bridge?! REALLY? Today?!!? I’m still not 100% sure what was happening because people do random things here anyways like get off a bus on the highway? I wouldn’t be totally flabbergasted if this was a new bus stop? So I wait about 15 seconds before I venture my mouth to ask someone what is going on? -_- I find this younger looking girl (because usually there English is better than the older folks) and I ask/mimed to her “what’s happening?” and “Do I have to get off the bus?” I got off the bus at this time and the traffic behind us was ridiculous because of the stopped bus and in front of me was bridge and people. It didn’t look that familiar but I know kind of where the school is. So i just double checked with someone (this time i asked in China) “Where is An Fa Qiao?” and I point and she says yes straight ahead. I still look weary because it still doesn’t look like the area where the school is. I look at the time and its now 8:20am. Hmm? I have to be at the school by 8:50am THE LATEST to be on time for my first class!. So I decided to walk towards the main road off of the bridge to the next bus stop. Everyone from the bus that I was just was waiting here and still no bus. I waiting about 3 minutes and decided to take a cab. So I flagged down a cab and had to now tell the bus driver where I was going in Chinese lol. I looked in and there was 2 other guys in the cab–so I had an audience! (During rush hour cabs going in the same direction usually carpool with people and if you aren’t going in that direction they just pull off!) -_- I took a deep breath and told them to take me to the school and not only were they going in the same direction, he understood me! YIPEE! lol GOAL! hahaha…I was psyched! Thankfully, i was the first stop because I was about 10 minutes away so I paid the cheap fare and hopped out the cab still with 10 minutes to spare! Thank God I didn’t panic.I did not want to be lost, nor be late for work! hehe [He doesn’t give us anything we can’t handle] #ChineseSuccessStory1 lol