PHIL'S EXCELLENT BUS ADVENTURES

Please keep in mind that I tell this story with a smile on my face.

Two weeks ago (Aug. 31-Sept. 4), my first week of school, the buses traveling from Douliu and Huwei went a little haywire. On Tuesday my bus to Huwei did not take its normal route. I could tell because where it usually turns right it turned left. I had asked two different people if the bus was going to Huwei so I wasn’t nervous about getting to Huwei, but I was nervous about finding a place to get off the bus. As we got into Huwei I had caught a glimpse of a street sign that went near my school. I got off on the next stop and followed the road to my school. I was pretty proud that I got off at the right stop on the first try and I felt like I just dodged a major catastrophe. Wednesday would be a different story.

My bus had taken the same route as it did on Tuesday, but I wasn’t worried at all because I had made getting off on the right stop seem so easy. When we reached Huwei I started looking for that same road sign I saw on Monday, only I did not see it anywhere. I did not recognize any landmarks because well, on Monday I got lucky and didn’t pay attention to anything other than the fact that I did such a great job getting off on the right stop. As the bus continued to make stops I tried my hardest to find my road sign without looking super nervous. At one point I had two ladies standing up in the middle of the aisle talking and blocking my view to the other side of the road while I was desperately looking for my road sign. I never saw my road sign in Huwei and after 4 or 5 stops the bus driver pulled off the road, stopped the bus and started yelled something. After a few clueless moments of wondering why he stopped I had some nice passengers come a talk to me. I had four people trying to tell me something, none of them used English. My only guess was that we were leaving Huwei and everyone had known I missed my bus. I can’t imagine how dumb I looked when I just smiled and shrugged my shoulders at them. I was not about to get off the bus when I had no clue where I was. So after they figured out they couldn’t communicate with me the bus driver continued on his way. I had no idea what I was going to do. I pulled out my phone to call Annalicia and it died on the third ring.

As we entered the next city a woman who had tried to talk to me back in Huwei came up to me, said something in Chinese, grabbed me out of my chair, and led me off the bus. I felt like a child. We waited at the bus stop for about ten minutes and then hopped on a bus headed back to Huwei. We go into Huwei and the lady told me that my school was three blocks straight. I had told her that I was a teacher at Dongren Junior High, who knows if she actually knew what I was saying. I glanced at my watch, 8:37, I was supposed to be at school 7 minutes ago.

I walked three blocks straight in the direction she pointed me and wouldn’t you know it, there was not a school in sight. I felt like I was in a reality T.V. show where you get dropped off in an unknown location and had to find your way out. Only I had no one to come and get me when I wanted to quit. I wandered around taking random turns hoping I would see something I recognized.

After about 45 minutes I noticed an English school. Perfect. I walked over, reached to open the door when I noticed they were closed. Why wouldn’t they be in this situation? I put my head against the glass door and covered the glare with my hands to see if anyone was in there. There was a lady at the desk. I waved at her. She didn’t respond. I waved her to the door. She didn’t respond. She had to have noticed me, sweaty white guy waving at her. I finally got her to come to the door and I asked her where Dongren Junior High was. She told me to go straight and when I see a stoplight take a left and then keep going straight after you see another stoplight. That didn’t make much sense to me, but I assumed that she meant take a left at the first stoplight and go straight, but I didn’t feel like testing her English to clarify. So I took a left at the first stoplight and after about ten minutes I saw a taxi sitting on the side of the road. Awesome. I pulled out my notebook (a teacher we met wrote down some phrases for me in English and Chinese) and pointed at the phrase that said “do you go to Dongren Junior High”. The cab driver shook his head and said no. I was in shock. Aren’t taxis supposed to take you where you want to go?

I kept walking straight and I ended up reaching a T. How was I supposed to go straight at a T? I went back to the English school, went past the first stoplight and took a random left which brought me to a park I recognized and finally to the street where I was supposed to get off the bus an hour ago. I got to my school at 10:00 and to my amazement no one had known I was an hour and a half late.

I thought my day was long and then on the way home I waited another hour and a half for my bus home. The other days I only waited 10-15 minutes for a bus. I thought that was a long wait. The next day, Thursday, my bus never came. Some high school students brought me to the bus station in Huwei, but the buses weren’t stopping at the bus station either. I thought that was the point of a bus station. We ended up waiting at the bus garage and finally caught a bus headed for Douliu at 8:00. While we were waiting for our bus one of the high school students told me that the bus system here isn’t very good and that sometimes bus drivers will skip stops. I guess I had to find out the hard way. A teacher at Annalicia’s school said that maybe the bus drivers were drunk and forgot to make some stops. I can’t wait to get on the bus again.


Time spent looking for school after completely missing stop: 1.5 hours

Time spent standing and waiting for a bus at usual stop where it normally takes ten minutes for a bus: 1.5 hours

Time spent tracking down a place to catch a bus because bus never showed: 3 hours

Using the bus system to get to and from school in order to save money: Worthless