Monday, February 24, 2014

Day 181 – Shuttle Bus to West Campus… Or NOT!! An Angel to the Rescue!


We were up bright and early so that I could be in the place that I needed to be to catch the shuttle bus that was supposed to take me to the Baotuquan (aka the West) Campus.  I made it to the spot that I had seen teachers waiting at last term.  I decided to try and ask some of the people waiting there, but the question was, who to ask?  The two men who look like teachers that would be more likely to know but may not speak English, or the students who might speak English but may not know about the shuttle bus?

I opted for the male teachers and showed them my trusty card with the Chinese characters on it.  They were indicating that I would have to take the city bus #75.  I was confused, so I asked a girl student next to me and she asked the men.  She said there was no bus to the West Campus and that they said to take bus 75.  Now what do I do?  Bus 75 is about a twelve minute walk from the campus.  I know that bus #K55 will also take me to that campus and is a three minute walk from the campus.  I still don’t know why there isn’t a shuttle bus from this campus to the West campus.  I start to walk out the gate and try to talk to the guard, again showing my card and indicating  a bus and he points that it should be where the others were standing to catch the shuttle bus to the far away “Software” Campus. 

I start to walk back to where all the people are standing and there was a gray-haired woman standing there and looks at me and asks if she can help me.  She spoke very good English!  I know my confusion is showing all over my face, so I tell her.  She then explains that the administration decided to stop the shuttle buses to the campuses that were in the city and just run shuttle buses to the out-lying campuses.  I thank her and hurry on to try and catch bus K55 and hope that I can make it to the West campus somewhere in the first hour of my class.  Where this woman came from and why she was just standing on that corner, I don’t know, but I get a very strong feeling that she was sent there for my benefit this morning. 

I had to wait for about fifteen minutes before a K55 bus came and then it had so go through some very heavy traffic.  I don’t know if the bus 75 would have gotten me there any faster, but I will try them next Monday.  Eva had called me because I was supposed to text her when I got on the bus (she is a mother hen to us!), and when I hadn’t texted her yet, she called.  I told her what had happened, so she called to the other campus and they sent someone into my class to tell them that I was coming.

I like both of these classes that I met today.  The two new classes that I have are sophomores and they still have this strong desire to learn.  We had a fun time in the activities we did and I think we are going to have a great time!

I took bus #75 home because of two reasons.  One, I only had one Yuan left, the rest were all larger bills and the buses don’t give change, and, two, I wanted to see if it might really be quicker on Monday morning.  It might…


David met me at the bus stop and we walked home, had lunch and then took naps.  We worked on stuff for classes this afternoon.  David had met two of his new classes this morning, also, so we had lots to do.  I was too tired still to make dinner, so we went to Yon Ho for a quick supper and then came back to finish up for tomorrow.  Long day!

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