To start off I didn’t know that understanding the bus schedule would be so complicated! My younger brother takes the city bus to and from school every day in Jacksonville, Florida and has no problem doing it. I actually called him yesterday and told him that he’s pretty smart to be able to understand what bus takes you where, and at what times and so on. Once I found a bus route that was near campus and that I was familiar with we set out on our adventure! So me, Robert, Kevin and Lauren decided that route 9 would pick us up at Aycock and Walker, take us to the depot downtown and we could catch another bus back to our starting point. Honestly, we had no idea what we were doing and we stood at the corner of Aycock and Walker for about 30 minutes in the blistering sun. After we realized that the bus we wanted to take didn’t come thankfully a girl told us which bus we could take and we waited some more. Finally, we saw the bus! We all approached the bus not knowing what to expect. At first I felt like an idiot because I got on the bus and asked the driver if students ride free and he said yes and to swipe my card. Easier said than done! It took me a minute to realize where to swipe and I could literally feel everyone staring at me thinking, why the hell is this girl holding us up? Then it was time to sit down, and to my surprise the bus was full of people, thankfully Jayson just happened to be on the same bus and gave me his seat, which was so sweet of him! It took me a minute to take it all in, the height at which we were off the ground, the rumbling of the bus, all the different people and sights to look at. For some reason in America we have this misinterpretation that only poor people or homeless ride the city buses, and I’m here to say, they are wrong. There’s was all kind of people on the bus. Nurses, students, men with suits on who looked like they meant business, and of course you do have some people that looked a little less fortunate than others, but they were still friendly. I was surprised at how people talked to us and how I didn’t feel as uncomfortable as I did when I first boarded. I felt weird at first about taking pictures and what all of them would think of me, and then I realized, who cares! They can think I’m weird if they want to. I took a few photographs along the way that helped me to record where we had started from and where we were headed. I have to admit, it was nice to be able to ride and look at everything, I’m normally the one to do the driving. We finally arrived out our destination, the depot downtown Greensboro. We thought for a few minutes on which bus we were supposed to take and then decided, what the hell, we can just take the same bus back to where we started. I was being to understand that the buses go in a big circle around the city, I thought to myself, “I wonder if the bus drivers get sick of seeing the same old things everyday”. Upon our arrival back to Aycock and Walker we talked about how the bus ride wasn’t too bad, and I’m actually considering taking the bus to and from school on Tuesdays and Thursdays now, why not-it’s free, from what I saw safe and it will save on money, and help the environment.
So I realize looking back that we set out on a quest to learn more about our surroundings, people and more about Greensboro as a whole. Not only that but it was a completely different experience to be able to ride and take pictures rather than try to drive by myself and take them! Overall I liked the assignment and was glad to take part in the department of transportation.
