I started my classes in French this week, and I think that I'm going to like them.The first day started out rough, and is a fun little side story: I didn't know what time my classes started because the school was closed when I went to find out, so I got up at 6 so I could make it to the school by 7:30, just in case I had a class at 8. It was raining that day, so I decided to take the bus. Thinking that the line 2 bus was the only one that stopped at the stop by our house, I got on the first bus that came by without checking. Never do that. I quickly figured out that I was not on the correct bus, and that the bus I was on was quickly leaving Aix. Yay intercity buses. So at the next stop I sucked it up and asked the conductor the best way to get back to Place de la Rotunde. He told me that if I stayed on his bus I wouldn't make it there until 8:15, but if I got off here and went across the street then a bus would come that would take me back, so I head on across the street.
In the meantime, it's still dark outside because the sun hasn't yet risen, it's raining a consistent heavy drizzle, and I don't see the shelter by the stop for a very long time. After much effort, several sleepy and disgruntled friends, and a broken pen leading to ink all over my hands/ phone/ face, I manage to get in touch with someone who was at the school, and confirm that my classes start at 9 am.
After half an hour of waiting at that stop, A bus finally comes by. Lo and behold, it's the driver from the first bus that I mistakenly got on. After confirming that this bus would get me back to Aix, I settle down and make it to the school in plenty of time for my first class.
What a fun, pointless, could have been easily avoided misadventure. It made me feel rather paranoid, off balance, and homesick for most of the rest of the day, but when I got out of class I found my first bookstore here and proceeded to spend a week's budget in about 20 minutes. Some girls buy clothes to cheer themselves up; evidently for me it's books. Especially when I suddenly have thousands of options that weren't previously available, because they don't sell books in French in the US.
Don't get the wrong idea, that's the only bad day that I've had thus far, and it wasn't even entirely bad. It just made for a relatively interesting tale to relate :).
Moral of the story: never get on a bus without verifying that it's the right one.
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2 comments:
Are the bus schedules at the stop easy to navigate/decipher over there? I'm assuming they have them posted up in hopefully convenient spots :D .
Well, they actually don't have schedules at every stop. They have them at most of the main ones (by which I mean ones with an actual shelter, and not just a bus stop sign), but there isn't one at the stop by where I live. I think it got taken down and no one bothered to put up a new one... But yes, when they're there they're very straightforward.
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