Backstory!
Be warned: this long-ish bit, has nothing to do with the title. If you want to fast-forward my past public transportation misadventures, move on down to the next bit after the bold font!
I don't know about anyone else's experiences with public transportation, but until a month ago I had never set foot on a bus, except for the occasional field trip in grade school. Davis is a lovely little community and is made for the broke college student with bike paths and bike racks galore! This is awesome, unless you don't really know how to ride a bike and the one time you tried you hit a car, and face-planted in the road. More on that later.Anyway, back to buses. UCD is exemplary in going out of the way with the bus system just for students, run by students. Our lovely buses are dubbed the unitrans. Why? I haven't the faintest clue, we just call em the big red buses, because they are big, and well red. Nuff said. My first experience with the big red buses was quite an adventure in of itself. Being a unitrans newbie, I decided to test the system a week before classes actually started for the fall quarter. I managed to get on the right bus, (well any bus is the right bus, they all go to the school eventually, but whatever,) which is luckily located right across the street from my apartment.
However once I got to campus I saw my destination come, and go. Mistake #1, I didn't realize that in order to get the bus driver to stop you had to pull the little yellow cable with big words plastered beside it reading, "Pull Cord to Signal Driver to Stop." I'm book smart ok? I swear. Anyway so for those of you who don't know the UCD Campus is huge! Enormous! Insanely big. And well, what I didn't know was that the bus I was on goes around the campus and then back through it, and stops at the heart of it, where all the classes kind of branch off. Well I got nervous and a little trigger happy once I realized my mistake, and so when a passenger, who actually seemed to know what he was doing, pulled the cord and got off, I followed. Big mistake #2.
UCD has a great Veterinary School of Medicine. and it is in the boonies. There is nothing even remotely close to it except for like the equine center and maybe some sunflowers and some cows. I had to go to the MU(Memorial Union, its a big place to get everything from school supplies to fresh bagels, to a place to bowl now and again) to get my Aggie Card (School ID) and basically not have to pay to ride the bus anymore and get whatever other school benefits and such. But yeah, now I'm stranded in the middle of nowhere, the bus is gone, the guy I followed is fast disappearing away from me, I don't have a map, and my GPS isn't worth anything because according to the blooming thing I have arrived at my destination. Joy.
UCD is supposedly known worldwide for having the greatest diversity of trees on campus. And though I am not a Botanist, I had to walk a good 2 miles through the Arboretum before I saw anything even remotely familar from past campus tours and I can honestly say I did not see the same tree twice. Same kind of tree? probably. Same tree? no. (sorry, my humor can be a little dry and tasteless now and again, but I'm the one laughing over this pun, so who cares?)
Let me just say right now. I am directionally challenged! I fully admit it! I also don't pay attention to roadsigns and stuff, and I'm working on that, kinda. Don;t get me wrong, I am very spatially aware, once I'm in a familiar place I'm in good territory. It's when I've never been somewhere and I'm trying to follow directions that I get in trouble. Which happens...alot. Especially on a gigantic campus like UCD! Plus it doesn't help that the buildings are huge and have very tiny names on signs in obscure places where people like myself, would never think to look. Enough of my squabbles. It took me about 2 hours to find the administration building, get directions and a map, (Which is all but useless to someone like me just saying.) only for the map to be rendered worthless by a big construction block, so I took the detour only to get more lost, get more directions from a friendly face, and finally find my way to the MU, successfully get mu ID card and then proceed to attempt to find the nearest bus. (Little did I know that if I had gone out of the back of the MU there are buses right there, one of which I now use frequently to get home.)
I found the buses! After walking in many a circle, and once I did, the bus I needed to get home was, lo and behold! Not in service. Joy. So I sat there for another hour, (I could have easily walked home in like 20 minutes, I only live a mile and a half away from the school, except for the whole getting lost issue) and waited for some other bus to take over our route. Which eventually happened and then I got home, and stayed there until school started.
Most of these past bus rides have been trips to learn from. I now know that you never wake up late to catch the bus right before 8 am unless you don't mind being smashed into a bus with a ton of other students, (so close that sardines would feel claustrophobic,) for one of the most uncomfortable bus rides ever. One in which a girl half your height has her face smashed into your chest, and the tall guy behind you is breathing into your scalp, and thank goodness you washed your hair that morning.
I also now know that you never make eye contact with the guy sitting next to you, or attempt to make polite conversation, and above all do not smile! I come from a small town where my graduating class was under 100 people and so I'm used to friendly hellos and idle chit-chat with strangers, only to part and never bother to think twice about the occurrence. Here in Davis it is such an overpopulated community, no one knows each other and everyone is starving for attention; which unfortunately, often leads some people to misunderstand a polite, friendly attempt at conversation (to slake boredom) as flirtation. The overbearing way in which I was hit on, after remarking that I liked a guy's shirt, was lesson enough to leave other people alone. Watching the girl across the aisle from me pick her nose repeatedly only to wipe her discoveries on her pants taught me to ignore them entirely. Big mistake #3.
Today
In which another valuable lesson is learned, in the art of taking the bus.
It turns out that when you get on the bus and there is a seat available, but other people are standing, that seat is open for a reason. Most likely a good one, therefore you should not count your lucky stars and jump into the open seat without observing why it is that no one is sitting there. Which is not what I did today.
It's early afternoon, and even though it wass freezing this morning, it is now a lovely 80+ degrees F and everyone is still in their morning sweaters and the bus is starting to overheat, so naturally, eveyone opens up the windows a crack. (Only because they have little things that don;t allow you to open the windows more than a handspan, ever, well unless in case of an emergency but anyway,) And I in my trust that ignoring other passengers, gleefully take my seat and begin to text my best friend about plans for the day. It isn't until we actually begin to move that I realize my mistake.
A breeze blew through the window and brought unwanted gifts with it. I didn't notice the little white things on my phone screen until it faded to black, as I waited for a response, and when I decided to question the source, thinking it was coming from the window, I turned to my left. To my horror, I realized that the man sitting next to me, earbuds blaring some nameless rapper's foul attempt at rhyme, scratching his head, was shedding. His grey hoodie did well to camouflage his problem, but now that I knew what to look for, I realized that his skin flakes were in disgusting piles on his shoulders and were gently floating my way with each passing wind. I wanted to gape. Instead I clamped my mouth firmly shut and fought the urge to squeal as I watched the snowlike stuff settle on my pants. Perhaps the poor guy couldn't help his dandruff, but I still get the heeby jeeby's and feel itchy just thinking about it. Granted it only happened an hour ago but geez! So yeah I rode home in silence, (screaming on the inside) and could not get off that bus fast enough. I know I could have gotten up, but I didn't want to be rude.
So yeah, for whomever shall read this I hope you take the lessons to heart and learn from my mistakes!
Goodluck
Ink_Stained
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