NYC Part 1: The Drive Up

At 4:30 in the afternoon, our vagabond shoes were ready to stray…right through the very heart of it. New York, New York. However, our transportation had different ideas. As my group of students (TMD = too many dudes) sat and waited anxiously, we received word that our original bus had broken down; the original “luxury” bus that had 30 seats for 30 people and no bathroom. That would have been extra special for our 6 hour ride through rush hour traffic.

So while our other classmates remained in class learning, we sat just a floor below them twiddling our thumbs (and wondering why more girls didn’t go). The bus finally arrived, an hour late, and luckily they sent us a bigger bus (with a bathroom). We were off



The bus was on the road, however the temperature inside the bus was slowly climbing. Soon it became unbearable and the lack of air conditioning was beginning to be quite annoying. People were struggling, and as the bus pulled off the highway I realized we were not heading towards New York City. The bus was driving through a wonderful neighborhood, lined with porn shops and “repair shops” aka chop shops. The drug deal going down on the corner was an added touch, and a foreshadowing of NYC.

The bus pulled into an old abandoned warehouse, which apparently was the transportation company offices. Looking out the window you could see our original bus. A tiny antiquated charter bus that was spray painted black, most likely to hide the original paint job of the company which the bus was stolen from.

Students purchased “bottled water” aka gross city waters for a buck on the corner from some bums (just so you know the water was probably taken from a disgusting tap and the seal of the bottle was melted back to the top using a lighter…what…that is possible? Yep) Meanwhile the bus company worked on fixing the air conditioning. We sat the depot for 45 minutes, and waited as our chances to arrive in the city with time to have fun dissappeared.

That’s when the president of our group decided to take matters into her own hands. With no regard for her fellow students she took the wheel of the bus and slammed her foot on the gas pedal. She was out of control and drove straight into a group of students, splattering them against the windshield. As their bodies were dragged under the wheel wells of the bus … wait… this didn’t really happen…

Back in real life, the bus finally back on the road, now a deathly 60 degrees, and everyone was happy/freezing to death. We stopped for “half an hour” to eat, and we found out the initial sign that our bus driver was not going to make this trip any easier.

After everyone finished eating, they went back to get on the bus. However the driver informed us that he had not gotten gas, and would be doing that now. Also, in order to get gas he had to borrow someone’s cell phone and make 10 long distance calls. Fifteen minutes of waiting on the curb and the bus was back, as we all filed on the bus driver filed off. Apparently he decided that now was a good time for him to eat at Burger King. What the hell was he doing the 30 minutes we were eating!?!

So once again late we were on the road and eventually taking a ridiculous shortcut through a back alley in Chinatown. But finally we arrived in the NYC and it was only 1am. Plenty of time to do stuff before waking up at 8am in the morning…

To be continued…

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