It's a Love/Hate Relationship

 Its true, I have a love/hate relationship with the bus.

While we are here in New Zealand the bus is our main form of transportation. We aren’t aloud to drive (thank goodness) so the bus is the next best thing. We take the bus to and from school everyday and then other places we want to discover. Kirsten and I have become very acquainted with many bus drivers. They seem to really love the silly American girls that have no idea where they are going. Honestly, I would probably like it too if I was in their shoes. Talk about a comedy show everyday!

Our bus comes to our lovely bus stop every morning at 7:03am. It’s slightly unfortunate seeing as our bus ride is only about 10-15 minutes to the church and class starts at 8am.  That just means that we have almost an entire hour to do last minute reading.

Because our bus leaves so early that means we have to wake up even earlier. I feel as if it is getting progressively harder to wake up in the morning. It takes us a while to finally get out of bed and everyday we push the time we leave a little later then a little later. Today we pushed it a little too late. We left our house at 7:00am and rushed up the hill towards our bus stop. As soon as we reached the top of the hill we have to turn down a street maybe 100 feet to the stop.  We reached the top of the hill and we saw our bus drive pass us. We both had a mini heart attack and then booked it up another hill to the next stop. We have come to find out that running up hill, in flip-flops, with a heavy backpack is very difficult to do. We made it with time to catch our breath before the bus came to the next stop. When the bus came we hopped on and our usual bus driver had the biggest goofy grin on his face with a slight chuckle sneaked in there too.  He told us he asked the gentlemen that we usually see and chat with at our usual bus stop if “the girls” were there and obviously we weren’t. He then asked us to explain what had happened and it just made him laugh even harder. He’s funny fellow.

The world is such a small place. Kirsten and I stopped off at a shopping place instead of going straight home after school. As we were done and ready to head home a bus driver waved us down whom we had had the pleasure of riding with before. He told us exactly which bus routes he drives and what times he is at each so we could be on his bus again. He’s such a friendly guy.

We then got on the bus we were supposed to and when we got on, the bus driver immediately asked us if we were Mormon. We were both shocked that he could tell just from walking on the bus. He told us that he was too. Then he just talked and talked about the people he knows, the schools we will be teaching and the other BYU girls that were here last year. He’s such a chatty man.

Maybe riding the bus isn't so bad after all.