Clown Bus

Today was one of those days when the city bus felt more like a clown car.

Let me start from the beginning.

This morning my friend Andrea and I left home to go to the orphanage.  We ran to catch the bus, only to find about a million people had gotten there first.  We had a little time to spare, so we waited for the next bus.  Again, we couldn't bring ourselves to hurl our bodies into the sea of passengers, so we decided to take a taxi.  We waited...and waited...and waited.  Finally we decided that every taxi driver in the city was either on strike or has the flu, so we took a different, less crowded bus. An hour later, we arrived at the orphanage.

Fast forward several hours...

I had done some Christmas shopping and I was exhausted.  I waited for the bus, and once again it was super crowded. I was ready to be home, so I took a deep breath and got on.  If you've never experienced the super awkward feeling of having your backside smooshed up against some stranger's, be thankful.  I shifted around the aisle trying to free my body from all of the awkward touching until the guy sitting in front of me got up and I nabbed his seat. Interestingly, a ton of people got on at every stop, but no one ever seemed to get off. A lady started to puke somewhere in the back, but I couldn't drown out the sound because I lost my headphones earlier this week.   More people squeezed on.  No one got off.  The bus driver started yelling at people, "Go to the back door!" and they would run to the exit door and wedge themselves into the group of people already spilling out of the bus.  More stops...more yelling...more squeezing.  At one point I thought about getting off early and walking home, but as I looked at the distance between myself and the exit door, I decided it wasn't worth the risk.  When it was finally my turn to get off the bus, I couldn't get through the crowd.  I kept yelling "xia che!  xia che!" but people were trying to get on as I was trying to get off, and I barely pushed my way through these old ladies who were firmly standing their ground just as the bus was closing its doors to pull away.

I will say that despite all the craziness, I really appreciate the determination of Chinese people who, no matter how many people are in a bus, subway, or elevator, always insist that there's room for one more.