I get off at the wrong university. Big problem!
When I started working at Coursi, the language school where I taught, in order to return home I had to take a trolleybus about half way and then get off and take an autobus the rest of the way to my street. Then walk about 10 minutes to my apartment block. Not easy, and not pleasant in the winter.
Marina, a fellow teacher, told me about Marshrutka 32. I could get it at the stop right across from Coursi. It would take me right to my street. A great improvement. It became my standard way home.
Then I wondered where I could pick up No. 32 to get to the school. I asked a couple of drivers on my rides home but they didn’t understand me. Then I wrote the question in Russian for them but couldn’t understand what they told me.
At home I asked Ira and her son, Slava. They didn’t know but would find out. The next morning I had to go not to Coursi but downtown. So I walked to the stop where I could pick up No. 8 trolleybus to do that. A marshrutka 32 stopped by! So this was the stop! I made a note for the next time I went to Coursi.
That moment came the next day. I got aboard No. 32. A mile farther, I expected it to take a left. But it took a right. Surprise. We traveled through foreign country for me. We crossed a lake, drove by an army camp, and went on and on to the edge of the city. I saw some of the tiniest houses I have ever seen. This was all new to me.
Now only two of us were still aboard. Now we came to the end of the line. The woman got off but I stayed in my seat. I knew that eventually No. 32 would go back and eventually I would get to my school. I was willing to pay another fare.
Noticing me, the driver told me to get off. I tried to explain. Futile. He pointed firmly to the door. I did not want to get off. I stayed put. How in the world would I get to the school if I were left here? He muttered and pointed again. He was angry. I picked up my bag and got off. There was another No. 32 parked there! Its driver was at the wheel, waiting to start the route. I had not realized there was another.
I got on, paid my fare. We started out. We retraced a good part of the route, then proceeded right across the city. This was better. I recognized this area. I kept looking out. My school was right next to the Technological University. I knew that.
The Technological University was a major landmark. I spotted it and got off at the next stop. But it was not the Technological University! It was another university, unfamiliar to me. It had a similar big blue sign above its door. That’s what had confused me.
What to do? I wrote the name of the Technological University in Russian on a slip of paper and showed it to this person and that one coming by. The first ignored me. Another looked but did not know. I showed it to an old lady. She’s as old as I, I thought. She was carrying a big bag of groceries. Heavy. She read my note, said “Da,” and motioned to follow her. How nice.
We walked and walked and walked. There was snow and ice. Difficult. I seemed always three paces behind her. Her body tilted right because of her heavy bag. I stopped a couple of times, hoping for a taxi. She waved for me to keep up. No taxi. We trudged on. Cutting through a big housing development.
Where was she taking me? I was limping now. We walked another block and went around a corner. Straight ahead was the Technological University! Hurray! What a relief! She pointed to it and I gave her thumbs up. Then I worried. Maybe she wouldn’t understand what that meant…or maybe it meant something different here…maybe naughty. No, she understood. She smiled and gave me a thumb up! Then she turned and began walking away in the direction we had come from. She was still tilting to starboard, poor lady.
It’s then that I realized that she had gone out of her way…maybe way, way out of her way…to get me here. Gosh!
That ride and walk had taken me more than two hours. What had happened is that I had started out by taking No. 32 on the wrong side of the street! I should have taken it on the other side.
I tried that the next time. I got to my school in just 10 minutes.
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