Great Stories, an must read Monday 3/12/07

Well, today was a fun day! Last night I stayed up late against better judgement to watch Godzilla for the first time. Then my alarm on my cell phone screamed: it’s time to wake up! At 6:30. so, I walked to the bathroom bleary-eyed, my host brother saw me and laughed, and I got myself ready. I left for my internship at 7:30 with the intention of getting there at 8:30. This trip entails a few blocks walk to a public car and then waiting for a bus that I usually have to shove into because it’s so full at that point. So, I had my nice morning walk, got in the public car, arrived at the place to catch the bus and waited. And waited. And waited! I waited until I decided that there was a strike of public transportation.

Indicators of a strike (which are unannounced, only happen in the morning, and shut down the whole city):
-too many people waiting at the same place you are
-no buses
-you start to notice pick-up trucks hauling people
-taxis either disappear (you can’t call one by phone) or double as a public car to help people get to work
-random guys decide to make some money (and maybe want to help people get to work out of the goodness of their hearts) and turn their car into public transportation.
-people just start walking.

The final one was me after all my observations. The line to take the car that got me to that point in my trip was way over 30 people long, so I walked home. It took my like a half an hour.

Got home. Then my doña looked at me like, WHY are you home?? I just said, “Strike.” She rolled her eyes and said, “yeah, it said something about that in the newspaper.” WELL WHY DIDN’T YOU TELL ME??

See my host dad a few minutes later. He didn’t even realize that I shouldn’t have been home, I should have been having a battle with the rugrats at that point. So I told him I couldn’t get to work because there’s a strike. Again, I thought I had breaking news, and that it wasn’t announced in the paper. NO. He said, “But I thought the strike was only for the buses.” Stop, and think about that statement. Again, that means he knew. And, yes the BUSES are exactly what I take to work.

So, I ask myself, isn’t the fact that there is a strike information that should be shared in the morning before I leave? I think so! But, all is well, I got homework done and took some pictures with my new macro lens. I just got a little angry while I was writing when I realized how ridiculous this was.

Ok, but the story gets better. So, my internship is normally from 8:30-2:30 and then class from 3-5. I took a public car to class. On the way there (well, here) the driver just stopped on the side of the road with a full car load of passengers and said, I’ll be right back. He ran across the street to drop his phone off at a cell phone store! I just burst out laughing. There were 5 women including me just sitting in a public car on the side of the road with no driver. It really cracked me up.

So, after his crazy driving all over the place (and you know it’s bad when it scares the Dominicans) I got out and started to walk to class. I walked real fast! Because I was late. But, it turns out, I arrived and wasn’t late because class was cancelled. Just like the strike, why didn’t anyone tell me? They called my house right after I left! Lol, all I can do is laugh! I had a free day! Just had to do some travelling to find out that I didn’t really need to go anywhere.

So, tonight, I’m supposed to go to a music festival. JEESSH, LAST night I was supposed to go to a play for class, got all dressed up, called a taxi, got there, found out I was an hour early bc my teacher told us the wrong time, waited a long time for people to arrive, and found out that there were only two people in the play and one was sick. So, the play was cancelled too!! Wow. DR madness. So, maybe fourth time’s a charm in this country, and my scheduled event for tonight will actually take place!!

Oh, and ps: I can’t post this because the internet’s not working, but are you really surprised?

End note: I’m not mad or even frustrated, the sad part is this is all kind of normal and doesn’t even surprise me. I’m going to be in for it when I get back to America and things actually run on time and I really have to be somewhere when they tell me to be there.