Guardian Angel

Two times in less than 72 hours, I have narrowly escaped nasty accidents. Both times, if I were alone in the car, I probably would have been dead or in a hospital. But I wasn't alone, I'm sure of it.

The first time was Friday evening after I got off work. I needed to fill my car up with gas before going to Jonesboro the following morning. The best way for me to get gas is taking exit 7 for Pratt Road off of I-530. It had rained some that day and the road was damp and oily. The exit is short and involves a very sharp turn. Of course, I was going 70 when I hit the off ramp. I tried to slow down but began to hydroplane. "I'm about to crash and it is going to be ugly," I thought to myself as I let off the break and tried to gently turn into the curve so that I would be on the inside. I felt the back end sliding. I made it around the curve and stopped by he end of the ramp. But I knew that I was about to go flying off the road at 50+ miles per hour and into a tree.

The next one happened this evening. I didn't have any problems going to Jonesboro, but the trouble was on the way home. For some reason, there always seems to be a wreck around the I-40/I-30 interchange. Tonight was no difference. I had to speed up to 70 to get into the lane I needed, as a car was letting me in, even though they were speeding. Probably 20 seconds later, everyone was slamming on their breaks, including me. I wasn't slamming hard enough and swerved into the far left lane, narrowly missing the car in front of my by mere inches. That would have probably been at 50+ mph as well and been a multiple car pile up.

Those stories said, I am very thankful to have avoided both accidents and firmly believe I was not alone in the car.

A visit to Madrid

Madrid is not my favorite Spanish city. I think that comes from having spent so much time there in the past. In 2006 I was there for about four days. Then I went for a day in December after my trip to Barcelona and didn't really enjoy myself. And then I had one final trip to Madrid this weekend which left me, still not as a huge Madrid fan, but a better experience at least. This time the trip had a purpose. After spending a year in Spain as a graduate of Arkansas State University, I had the opportunity to meet a professor I had several classes with during my time as a student. It is amazing how much the place and situation can change things. Not having to work for a grade, speaking came much easier. It was a very enjoyable night.

But the next day was more of the same. After only sleeping for four hours, walking all day wasn't on my list of fun things to do. And the planned trip to Segovia fell through when there were long lines at the train station and it was impossible to buy a ticket and catch the train. I wasn't going to buy a ticket to just turn around and come back an hour later, nor was I going to spend an hour and a half on a train when the normal journey lasts 30 minutes. So it was a day in Madrid. On the bright side I saw a park which I hadn't seen before and I was able to see Guernica again. I could probably stand in front of that painting for an hour, but standing wasn't something I wanted to do much of. The longer I stood, the more tired I became. So it was off to the bus station, in hopes of finding there was a 6 p.m. bus to Huelva. Unfortunately, there wasn't one until 10 p.m. So four hours in the area of the bus station seemed like it would take forever.

I'd never explored the surrounding area before. So I only knew about the Corte Ingles that was nearby. Saturday I found there was a planetarium and Imax within walking distance as well. Unfortunately I missed the only movie I would be able to watch and still catch the bus by 15 minutes. And when I arrived to the planetarium they closed in 15 minutes. So it was back to the bus station with another hour before the bus left. Then came a surprise.

As I mentioned in previous blogs, people seem surprised when someone shows some simple kindnesses such as letting them out of their seat on the bus. But in Madrid, while I was waiting on the bus, an older lady, probably in her 70's, asked for help getting her bags out of the elevator because the doors would end up closing before she could get it all off. She had five or six bags and was unable to find a cart. She was trying to figure out what to do and I volunteered to help her take the bags to the taxi. Between three of us, we easily made it in one trip. And in that I also found that although I don't understand a lot of words in Spanish still, sometimes from pronunciation other times simply vocabulary, I can pick up key phrases and guess what people are asking.

I have one more week to practice Spanish before taking the bus from Huelva to the Madrid-Barajas airport, one last time. Only one more eight-hour bus ride. It is bittersweet. I am ready to see my family and friends back home, but I have made friends here that I am leaving behind. 

Better Late than Never

The title has two meanings. First, I understand this blog is a few days late. Second, the travel plans didn't work exactly how I had hoped but at least I got there and back safely. Now here is the story.

I waited to long to start planning the trip to Segovia, Salamanca and Santiago. I was hoping to have someone to travel with but that did not work out. It was Thursday before I finally made my way to the train station after work to buy three tickets, Huelva - Sevilla - Madrid - Salamanca. If it had worked out, I would have arrived to Salamanca about 8 p.m. on Friday. However, the agent informed me there were no available trains for Madrid at the times allowing me to connect to Salamanca. They were all full. Thats where the headache began.

I decided to go to the bus station again to try and find an alternate route. I printed out a sheet with the timetable of a bus that would go directly from Sevilla to Salamanca and take about seven hours. I brought the sheet home with me so I could buy the ticket online since the company is in Sevilla and not Huelva. Upon closer look at the timetable, I found that I probably could not catch the bus, expecting to arrive at Huelva close to 1 p.m. and the bus leaving Sevilla at 2 p.m. So I had to find a different option.

I found where if I went to Madrid from Huelva, I could connect on another bus there to Salamanca. So, lessons learned from Ryanair for this same trip, I tried to book Socibus before the bus from Madrid. I could not get my card to go through. It was routing me to Verify by Visa which is really a horrible system. It almost never works for me. This time was no different. So, I called my bank and complained. They told me they couldn't see any attempted transactions. Knowing that it wouldn't work for the bus company in Madrid either I began thinking about canceling the trip all together. But that would mean a 50 euro ticket, and a 5 euro hostal deposit would be wasted.

The charge from Ryanair did not show up on my bank account so I decided to talk to the company and maybe they could cancel my reservation and not make the charge. (I know, I must have been dreaming.) I tried about five different phone numbers listed on the airport websites, their website and my ticket. None of those numbers would work. So I decided to call my bank and ask if it would be legal for them to block the transaction. They said it had been verified and therefore they could not do anything. After several more attempts at contacting the airline, I filled out a complaint form. A little while later, I finally got a Spanish number (in the United Kingdom) to work. Of course, they didn't tell me what I wanted to hear. There would be no cancelling. "As it clearly states in our policies and during the booking procedure..." blah blah blah. My point was that it hadn't shown up on the bank yet so what if we just don't go through with it. But anyway, this blog isn't to complain about Ryanair, otherwise it would be much longer than I want to write tonight.

I finally realized Paypal was an option for the bus in Madrid so I bought the ticket and then raced to the local bus station to buy my seat for Madrid. I arrived to Salamanca about five hours later than intended, but better late than never.

I have learned a few things from this experience. The most important lesson was to always book the departing trip before the returning  trip. And the second was that I really am learning to understand and speak Spanish better. After the four to five hours talking to all of these different companies, I realized I was complaining and speaking in Spanish better under the stress than on a good day. I can't imagine what I would have done in that scenario if it were my first week in Spain.

Over the next day or two I intend to write a little about each of the cities I was in during the holiday weekend: Salamanca, Santiago and Sevilla.

Flying By

New year resolution for 2012: Write no more than one blog per week. With that out of the way hopefully I will be better about blogging now that Christmas break is over. For those who don’t know I said I would make my resolutions this year the opposite of what I really meant since I never seem to follow through with them. 

Christmas break flew by. I made it back to Arkansas around 11 p.m. Christmas eve after almost 40 hours without sleep. And I pretty much stayed busy since. At least two days I spent geocaching. I managed to beat my daily record and found 10 one day. With the help of family I also hid my second geocache.

I was able to meet up with one of my friends during the break and of course see my family. I am sitting in the Memphis airport waiting for my flight to New York La Guardia now. I arrive around 12 p.m. to New York and have an eight hour layover during which I intend to visit the ground zero memorial before going to the airport to sit for three to four hours.  Then it will be off to Madrid and the journey back to Huelva. I just hope two weeks of no Spanish doesn’t hurt too bad. (They didn’t want to speak Spanish with a gringo in the restaurante mexicano…)

Paying Cash

I had a nice scare this morning which has lead to a change in plans, but at least this one was nothing compared to my experience in London.

Tomorrow I will go to Madrid to visit a friend. I am taking the train to get there. I was trying to buy my ticket online because it is between two busy cities and I expected it to fill up pretty fast. But three times it wouldn't allow me. So I wrote down all the information: the train number, time, departure, number, seat number, ID number, etc. Then I went to the Sants station to try and pay in person, thinking it was just the online bank verification failing.

After I finally found the ticket window, grabbed a number and waited ten minutes it was my turn. My card was declined twice more. The ticket counter didn't know why it was being declined. So I crossed my fingers and went to an ATM. My card worked in the ATM so I took out enough cash to pay for the ticket and once again crossed my fingers that they would accept cash. I was able to get my ticket.

By the time it was all taken care of (20 minutes of waiting, 20 minutes of trying to to figure out how to get there through all of the tunnels), I had already missed the start time of my next adventure which was at 2 p.m. So now I am going to get on the Metro and go to some random stops just to see where they take me and if there is anything interesting. Being a Sunday a lot of stuff may be closed. At 8 p.m. I will see a diferent film, "Castillos Encantados," or Enchanted Castles, in 3D at the Imax.

On the way back to the hotel I stopped for lunch. Once again I had paella (my third time having Paella in the last two months), and I ordered "Pan con tomate" which is literally bread with tomato but it said it was typical of this region, and it was the cheapest tapa.

Metro Music

I love traveling to the cities, even if I am more of a country person myself. I easily get lost in the cities; buildings block the sun and it is very easy to get turned around, especially when the streets are not numbers. I think I walked in three big circles today because one of the roads, properly named "Diagonal," goes diagonally through the area. Well, they may have been more like triangles than squares, but still.

I paid about 12 dollars in metro fares so far today getting around town. I bought the all-day card, but for some reason it malfunctioned at one of the smaller stations so I had to buy a single pass back to the hotel area where I was able to talk to an agent and, although I didn't get a refund, I was able to get a new day-pass.

The metro is much easier than the "tube" in London was. It is much more like the metro in Washington D.C. I still got lost at first. No matter what direction I think I am going, I am always wrong. But something else metro stations have in common, no matter what city you are in, seems to be musicians. Some people probably are annoyed by them. But I realy enjoy their presence. Yes, they have a cup and asking for money, but they are actually working for the money rather than simply begging. And the music is enjoyable.

I actually saw one person being different today. Rather than simply playing in the tunnels, he was actually on one of the metro trains playing. His cup was at least three-quarters full with a more enclosed audience, and it was nice entertainment.

Another type of 'backpacking'

I remember my first backpacking trip. I was about ten or eleven years old and it was with my boyscout troup. I don't remember where we went or four how long; I just remember being in pain from a cheap backpack that was overloaded.

But now, it could be said I am backpacking in Europe, although I am not camping this time (not that I don't like the idea). Instead it has to do with luggage fees. As much as we complain in the United States about airline fees it seems to be a little worse here in Europe.

Most flights I have found only allow one carry on item, unlike the two allowed on airlines in the United States. And after they checked each passenger's bag before the last flight I made, I don't dare risk taking anything larger than a backpack. The flight I am taking this Friday charges 10 euros per kilogram for those checked bags not pre-checked online. The weight limit is around 23 kilograms.

I read an article today where a Senator from Louisiana has proposed a bill to either tax airlines who charge a fee for the first checked bag, or require them to allow one free checked bag. I like the second idea somewhat. The first however would off course be passed on to the consumer with higher costs, although I am not quite sure the latter wouldn't be made up with ticket costs either.

The flights are generally cheaper which is nice. I don't know what jet fuel prices are like but I know regular gas for cars is about double the price here in Huelva as it is in Little Rock, Arkansas.

Pay-Per-Mile Tax

New York City. Washington D.C. Chicago. And other large cities... what do they have in common? Infrastructure. Metros, sidewalks, functioning bus systems. Public transportation. But large cities with this type of infrastructure are a very small percentage of the area in the United States.

Living in a city  is usually much more expensive than living in the suburbs. And most small cities, such as where I am from have little functioning public transportation. There are no trains. The busses within the city of Little Rock don't have the best hours or routes compared to larger cities. And city to city transportation is almost impossible within any reason. (A three hour drive turns into about 24 hours of busses.) On top of the poor routes, they aren't usually economical.

I had to commute about 32 miles each way, five days a week for wok during the summer. I couldn't afford to live in the city. I couldn't take a bus from my town into the city. And today I read that the U.S. government is considering, once again, telling Americans how to spend their money. Without public transportation, most Americans have no choice but to drive in order to even go to work. The government wants to charge a per-mile tax.

Not only will that affect everyone who has to drive, personally, it is going to mean higher prices pretty much everywhere else. As gas prices went up, so did the price of products at the grocery store. And of course, most of that is transported over the highway systems. That cost will be passed on.

It seems to me like "toll roads," as annoying as they are would be a better idea. At least each driver could choose whether it was worth the fee or not.

Exercise

One thing is for sure, I have not suffered any lack of exercise while being in Spain. Today I forced myself to go walking. I had to get myself out of the appartment; staying in the entire weekend last week had me pretty down. So I went to some stores on the edge of town that we pass each day going to and from work. I made it in the sports store, the other store was closed. I didn't look around because they had one of the stupid bag policies and I wasn't about to pay money just to look around a store. My biggest reason for walking though was to see how to walk back from work.

There is bridge from Huelva to Corrales that has a sidewalk and bike path. I knew it was there and knew how to access it from Huelva but not from Corrales. I tried getting there on Thursday but ran out of sidewalk. So I knew I needed to walk it from the other side in order to figure out how to access it from the other side. It is about a three mile walk from one side of the bridge to the school. The good thing is, the bike path leads to a dirt road that ends up right behind the school.

This bridge has a divided section for bikes and pedestrians. It also provided an interesting walk through history with the graffiti.

I walked up the road a little to what I think may be a museum; it is the old Estacion de Ferrocaril. Then I made the journey back to Huelva. When I had first gotten on the bridge I began timing myself; I stopped the timer when I arrived at the school. And when I got to the end of the bridge I started the timer again and headed back to the appartment. In total the walk will take about an hour. The hour it took me this afternoon including stopping for photos a few times. And for the journey back to the apartment I was more tired than I will be on the first trip. The weather was nice and it was a good walk.

A few hours later, after taking a break I went out again. It was about 8:15 or so which is when the city really comes to life. I haven't spent a lot of time out at night yet. I set off toward La Plaza de Monjas, which is one of my favorite areas here in Huelva just because of the atmosphere. The streets aren't made of asphault, there are a lot of stores (even if they don't interest me), a fountain and restaurants. On the way it was dusk and I happend to notice a great photo opportunity.

Iglesia de San Pedro / St. Peter Church

 Before continuing to the Plaza I stopped to take some photos. Once I got into the plaza area I ended up walking around the block. It worked, I ended up at the other side of the plaza at a restaurant I would have otherwise missed. I had fish, fries, salad and bread for dinner. (I have been here a month and not had hard bread yet.) The cost was under 10 euros including my drink (Cola).

Fish, fries and salad

 After dinner I headed back toward the apartment, but not before stopping at the nearby bar about a block and a half away from the apartment, for a beer. I tried the local beer that everyone talks about, CruzCampo. To me, beer is beer is beer. It all tastes the same to me and it isn't good. But that being said, I can go in to a bar, order a beer and sit there for an hour drinking it.

For a beer, a cola and dinner I paid about 8 euros.

Exito - Success

Por fin, he completado algo importante. Solo tome dos dias, pero ahora tengo un telefono. Muchas gracias a Sra. G. Varela-Sanchez quien me recomiendo una compania. Si he hizo corecto, solo pagare para las llamada que yo hace sino las llamada recibire.

Parece que las tardes son mejores que la manana! En un viaje no me gusta la ciudad, en un otro la me gusta. Antes de salir del hotel, pregunte a la trabajadora del hotel si hay un mapa de los autobuses. Parece que autobus son los que salen de la ciudad y no son locales. Hay un mapa en cada parada pero no lo entiendo porque norte no es a la cabeza del mapa.

Voy a comer comida chino a la cena. Debe estar manana que transfiero al piso.

---

Finally, I have succesfully completed something important. It only took two days, but now I have a pay as you go cell phone here in Spain. Many thanks to Sra. G. Varela-Sanchez who recommended a company to me. If I have done everything right I will only pay for the calls I make and not the calls I receive.

It seems like the evenings are much better than the mornings! In one trip I don't like the city, in another I like it. Before I left the hotel, I asked the desk attendant if there was a map of the bus routes. It seems that "autobus" is the bus that goes outside of the city, not the local bus. There are maps at the stops but North is in the east instead of the top of the map. I haven't been able to orient myself yet, nor do I know where to buy a bus trip card. (Buying a phone was an interesting experience in itself.)

I should be moving in to the piso tomorrow. Tonight I plan to take another walk and maybe walk a litle further than last night. I need to find some way to talk to people so I can practice more.

Nightmare

As I posted a few days ago, I don't usually remember most of my dreams. But lately I have been remembering more and they seem to have to do with going to Spain in September.

The first dream was a good one. The second one, however, was very strange and not so great. Last night I had a dream about having a bad dream.

I was in the airport, waiting on my first flight. The timetables said the flight would be boarding at 7:15a.m. It was 7a.m. and the airline still hadn't checked our bags or printed tickets for any of my group. We finally went to them at about 7:10 and asked. They apologized and opened the line. But it was too late. There was no airplane.

For some reason we began walking down some railroad tracks in the dark, in the woods toward the destination of the flight we had missed. After a few hours we ran into a train. It stopped and we were asked some questions. It turns out there was some pandemic disease and they had to test us for it. We all had to get on the train-- one section of quarantine and the other section of healthy people. The way they could tell was our speech. If it was normal we were fine. If it was gibberish the person had the disease. One person in our group failed and was separated.

The train dropped those of us who were healthy back at the airport. At this point we became annoyed. We got in a car and sped to a gas station. I tore open a map inside and started pointing and asked the gas station attendant where the closest airport was other than the one in the city. I noted we had tickets for a certain flight and had to get there before it left.

At this point I woke up. I have heard that the crazier a dream is, the deeper the sleep a person is in. If that is true I must have been sleeping really well last night and I woke up this morning surprisingly well rested! But why all these weird dreams lately? 

Public Transportation in Arkansas

Big cities have something in common. Something good. Something helpful. Something places like Arkansas don't see much of. They call it something like public transportation. Strange right?

I know that to have a metro system in Jonesboro or any other Arkansas city for that matter isn't a great idea. But an inter-city train isn't such a bad idea. Decent bus systems are not a bad idea. Sidewalks and bike lanes might be the cheapest and simplest idea of all and they are not a bad idea.

Buses: Arkansas has inter-city buses like Greyhound. They take forever to get to their destination. But those buses are not the ones I am talking about. The ones I am talking about are the ones like JETS (Jonesboro Economic Transport System) that take people in the city from one bus-stop to another. It is great that Jonesboro has a service at all; some cities in Arkansas do not have a bus system. However, Jonesboro needs more buses and more bus routes. I remember riding the bus one afternoon from my dorm to the mall. If I drove, it would take about 10 minutes. By bus it took around half an hour or more. The bus comes to each stop every hour or every other hour, depending on the day of the week. 

The timing is because there are so few buses and routes. If they had more buses, more routes make since. With more routes, the current routes could be shortened to have one overlapping point for transfers. Shorter routes would allow the bus on a given route to run more frequently, maybe every half hour. Also with more buses, there could be more than one bus on each route in each direction.  In addition to new routes, a transfer system would be needed.

I learned about transfers quickly in Washington this summer. They had a card with a magnetic chip. Passengers load money on the card and swiped it on the bus. It recorded information about when they got on. If it was swiped again within the next two hours on another bus, it was a free transfer and the time was reset.

Trains: There are plenty of trains in Arkansas. One of the largest companies I know of is Union Pacific. What we do not have a lot of is travel by rail. There are a few AMTRAK stations in the state. Tickets are generally expensive and it is not typically used for traveling in the state. We do not need subways, but a decent rail system would be nice. It wouldn't have to stop everywhere, just major cities. Cities such as Pine Bluff, Little Rock, Texarkana, Fayetteville, West Memphis, Jonesboro, Search, Conway, Russellville, and Fort Smith could be connected by rail.

Rails can run a straight line and require less space than roads. Math tells us the shortest distance between two points is a straight line. Yes there may be slight curves in the rail line but, it is still shorter than using multiple roads that go different directions. There would be fewer curves, and less traffic on the rail allowing travel at higher speeds. Between the distance and higher speed it should cut off some time on the trips, although some routes might require a transfer in Little Rock or other "hub."

As long as the benefits outweigh the costs it should be a good idea. I use a full tank of gas when I make a round-trip to Little Rock and back. With rising gas prices the short trip can take a toll on my wallet and bank account. The train-system could be a part of the state government. If there were a charge of maybe $10 for a one way trip from Jonesboro to Little Rock, I think it would be worth it. The trip would be faster and cheaper than driving, not to mention less tiring. And even at that cost, the government should have money to put back into the system, if not even having some left over to use in other areas of the budget.

I honestly feel like the biggest hurdle for this might be getting it started (as with city buses). It would require tax dollars. However, to ease the situation a little, it could be a gradual project. There might even be agreements with railroad companies already in the state to use their tracks temporarily until the state can fund projects to have their own tracks with better routes. In the long run, I think it would help a lot, at least in the future. It would help cut down on traffic on the roads, fuel consumption, and maybe even be a step towards being greener.

Sidewalks/Bike Lanes: Jonesboro is a little behind in this area. Although I think they are a lot better than Conway in many aspects (bus system, parks, etc.), they don't have many sidewalks. I don't think I have even seen a bike lane in the county. 

A friend and I walked from the Arkansas State campus, down Stadium Boulevard to South Caraway Rd. Then we took South Caraway back to campus. It was about a 10-mile hike through Jonesboro. Most of that hike did not include sidewalks. During the journey we saw several problems. If we were lucky enough to have a pedestrian light, as soon as it would turn to walk, it would begin flashing red don't walk signs again almost immediately. Without sidewalks, we were often very close to the side of the road. We walked through people's yards many times to avoid being hit by an oncoming car, especially on the busy roads.

ASU has a high international population. Most of those students cannot drive. There are many students from the United States that cannot drive either. Whether it be because they do not have a license or a car, they sometimes have to walk to places they need to go such as Wal-Mart or the Mall at Turtle Creek.

Bikes are another option for transportation but it is dangerous. There are no sidewalks to ride on. There are no bike lanes on the roads to help keep cyclists out of the way of traffic. If the city, county, or state built bike lanes they could even temporarily help pedestrians. 

Other statements:

I have picked on Jonesboro in most of these statements. That is because it is where I spend most of my time. But it is inclusive of many places in the state, especially the larger cities. The projects would cost money which might mean increases in state and local taxes, but they would be worth it.

In the long run people can save time, money, the environment and lives with public transportation. It also provides a service to many people who don't have other means of transportation. The creation of the public transportation does not mean people have to use it, but there are a lot of people, myself included, who would use it, especially if it made more sense. I would love to walk more often on nice days, but without sidewalks I am hesitant. With sidewalks I would be a lot more likely to walk, not only saving money, and the environment, but living a healthier life and exercising.

Pedestrians in Jonesboro, AR

I had an interesting yet fun hours tonight. It was not an average night by any means. A friend and I took off about 8:20pm and got back to campus at 12:20am. We took a 9.5 mile hike, but not in the mountains or hills or even in the woods. This was a far more dangerous hike. This was a hike across busy roads, down dark roads, and roads without sidewalks. This was a hike from Arkansas State University, down Matthews to Stadium to Harrisburg Road to S. Caraway Road and back to ASU.


View Larger Map

Once we got to Stadium Blvd., the fun began. Many areas don't have crosswalks. Some have crosswalks but no signal lights. Where there are signal lights, as soon as they tel you to walk, they start flashing the red hand to stop. They don't give enough time to cross a road. Of course, in Washington, D.C. we just ignore the signs all together. If there was no car coming we went. I'm not sure how Jonesboro Police would feel about that around here.

I don't even know how many ridiculous things people were doing. Countless cars blew their horns for no reason. Even more had their windows rolled down and started to yell at us. I don't know what they said. It was annoying is all I know. The weirdest was when we were almost back to campus, someone yelled my name.

There were a few times I was walking on the shoulder of the road-- NOT a turn lane-- and a car tried to run me over. Of course, there are almost no sidewalks in Jonesboro so we had to walk through ditches, yards, in the road, and on the shoulder of the road. Jonesboro needs more public transportation but I think they need to work on some major sidewalk and pedestrian improvements first. Even if we had the transportation, there is nowhere safe to walk. Yet there are students and other people around here that have to do it almost every day.

Jam-Packed

This post is not going to be exactly like all the others. In the past I have tried to pick one thing to focus on. That won't be the case in this blog entry. There is too much to say.

To begin, it has been a long week. Here in IPJ we just started a new class: Economics. Here are a few quotes and paraphrases from what was said the first day of class.

"Physics is bad, Economics is worse." - Professor Rose said this saying that Economics is much harder than physics. Bad sign. I was bad at physics when I had it in high school, not even a university level. University level, I refused to take it.

Then he talked about how if you didn't know (or weren't good) at certain things, "you're screwed."

The first day of class wasn't a confidence booster, going into a class I already felt like I was doomed to fail. I've read the professor's ratings on "Rate My Professor," a website where students can go on and post comments about how their professors did. It wasn't good. And he lived up to a lot of the bad things that were written. But, I do agree to some extent with him.

He said "I'm not hard, economics is hard." He said he is probably one of the easiest economics teachers. Well, I will definitely agree that Economics is hard. There are too many formulas and mathematical equations and graphs. They confuse me. Then there are questions people ask which have nothing to do with what we are talking about...Just let the man teach already. Ask those questions after class or something. Now I understand why some of the bad comments were on the RMP page, and don't think they're fair. He shouldn't have to answer some of those questions. They are simply distractions.

I'm not saying its an easy class, or that the teacher is necessarily that easy. Which, Economics is hard in the first place. This is Georgetown, its got to be even harder. I've read comments on some of the teachers at ASU. "This professor ruined my life." It isn't just this one professor.

Tuesday I got very friendly with public transportation. I spent half of my work day commuting on Wednesday. I had an interview close to Fort Belvoir in Virginia with a veteran named Jack Doody. He participated in the beginning of the Korean War in the 1950's. The thing is, no trains run that far. I got off the train at Crystal City, the normal stop. Then I walked a block to a bus. I spent about 45 minutes on the bus before arriving at a transfer point where I caught another bus. The Fairfax Connector bus took me the rest of the way, in another 45 minutes or so.

I did the interview. It was great, not much of an interview at all really. It was more like sitting down with a grandpa and listening to his war stories. Mr. Doody showed me maps of the area and told me background on the war. He was very helpful. I asked a few questions as we walked back toward the office, but the majority was just him talking about his experiences. Then it was another long bus commute back to the office. At least on the way back I had something to do. I took out my laptop on the bus and began writing. I was just that into writing the story. It was a really fun one to write, not like work at all.

I enjoyed listening to his story, and another veteran's story, Phil Burke's. Burke was a medic during the war. The story ran on the website today: Task Force Smith members reflect on war experiences.

Also Thursday, we had a study group after Economics. I think it helped a lot, but I still don't feel very confident in my Economic analysis abilities. The test ended up being moved to next Friday.

Now we get to the real fun stuff. After returning from work today, Devon, one of my roommates, Jacob, another TFAS student, and I went Kayaking. Two of us had been before, the other hadn't. But it was a blast. Jacob and I went to Roosevelt Island. We were determined to see the monument so we went all the way to the pedestrian bridge. There we pulled our kayaks up on shore and hiked in a short distance to the monument.

Después, Danny y yo fuimos al restaurante mexicano. ¡Hablé en español con el camisero! Pide dos enchiladas, un con queso y el otro con pollo. Comí  un flan después de la cena.

(Afterward, Danny and I went to a Mexican restaurant. I spoke in Spanish with the waiter(s)! I ordered two enchiladas, one with cheese and the other with chicken. I ate a flan after dinner.)

After leaving the restaurant we walked outside and it was poring rain. We ran to a bus stop and I realized I had plastic shopping bags in my backpack. I took one and put my phone in it and tied it. Then the rain pretty much stopped. It hasn't rained here in a while. Its nice we finally got some and it was at night instead of in the day. We walked to the grocery store after giving up on the bus ever coming.

It was a fun night and a nice break from studying Economics which I will have to do tomorrow.

Taxi!

Taxi! How can taxi companies justify such steep fares? I went to the Air and Space museum at Dulles today for a trip total of 46 dollars!

That is 12 dollars in bus fees, 31 dollars in taxi charges and three dollars in ATM charges. The bus cost six dollars each way which is reasonable for the distance, time and use of toll roads. The ATM charge is even fair. But 31 dollars in taxi fares, for about 10 miles round trip.

 That would make it three dollars and ten cents per mile! Now lets say that a typical taxi will hold 10 gallons of gas. Lets say a typical taxi (car) will get at least 20 miles per gallon. For a ten mile trip the taxi will burn half a gallon. Lets say gas prices are three dollars (which is a high estimate). Ok, three dollars for a gallon would mean $1.50 for half a gallon. Keep in mind that this 10 mile trip is round-trip. That means the gas for the entire trip would cost a $1.50.

Lets take 31 dollars now and subtract two dollars for gas. That leaves a profit of 29 dollars! So subtract another 10 dollars for maintenance, just to be generous. That leaves 19 dollars for profit. The trip averages 15 minutes. So $19 times 15 is a total of $285 per hour if the car were in service one after the other. Yet they aren't paid that much. Where is all of that money going?

Transfer Please

I have had some issues with Metro Bus when I need to get somewhere by a certain time, or I am in a rush. But when there is something that I don't have to be at by a certain time and can move at a slower pace Metro Bus is amazing!

Yesterday I spent three dollars in transportation. I got on the wrong bus and ended up close to Woodley Park and the Zoo. I got off, found another bus and took it to about a mile from my destination (Fords Theatre) and then walked the rest of the way. I went in the theatre got my ticket and did not even have to wait in a line because it was just me.

Then I walked to the National Archives where I was able to see the constitution, the bill of rights, the Magna carta, and the declaration of independence to name a few of the documents on display. Of course, all of that walking and standing in line meant I lost my transfer.

But I waited on a friend to metro down and then we met up and took a Circulator Bus (which ended up being free because the machine was broken) in the direction of the Library of Congress. Unfortunately the bus randomly terminated or we took it in the wrong direction or we just missed our stop. I still don't know. But we ended up at the water front and decided to stay in that area and just walk because we did not know when the LOC closed.

I felt like I should have heard seagulls around the marina. There were a ton of Yachts. Then we came to an area where there was a lot of fresh seafood restaurants. It smelled good. It was tempting but we kept walking. We walked all the way to the Washington Monument and then waited on a bus. The bus, costing $1.50 took us to Columbia Heights where we went to Target.

After Target we caught two Circulators and walked back to Georgetown. I put my milk up, found a restaurant and made reservations for 9:30. So the two of us catch another bus back toward Dupont where we catch another friend on the way. We pass the metro transfer stop by one. We got off the bus, crossed the street, waited on the next bus to come through and then got on. We went one stop to the other side of Dupont.

Then we walked north and caught the L4 bus and went a stop or two to the north. We exited the bus and then sat at the bus stop hoping another would come around. It didn't. So we walked to the restaurant. We got there 15 minutes early and they were able to seat us.

After dinner we caught two more buses to Wisconsin Avenue where we had desert. After that we caught a bus to downtown DC. We walked for awhile then transferred to another bus. We got off a few stops later and walked to Union Station where we dropped one person off. Then the two of us caught the D6 bus from Union Station all the way back to Georgetown.

That is a total of about 14 buses I rode for a total of three dollars. It was about 12 hours of fun in DC. Riders can transfer up to 2 hours for free. If that were not the case all of that riding would have cost more than 20 dollars! Next time, maybe I will take the Circulator first which would cost a dollar to get on, saving an extra 50 cents.

Kindness of a Stranger

In today's world, it seems one persons loss is another person's gain. This morning (around 1 a.m. Saturday) I lost my cell phone on a metro bus heading toward Georgetown from Union Station (the D6 bus).

We were out late, just hanging out and walking around. We walked Sarah back to Union Station and then almost immediately got on the bus. We only stopped once to pick up another passenger and that was pretty close to the end of our journey for the night.

Ashley and I got off the bus and it drives off down the road. I look at my watch and see that it is 1:30ish in the morning so I go for my phone to see if my roommates have called. To my horror, there was nothing in my pockets. The knowledge slowly sank in that I had just left my phone on the bus.

It isn't the most advanced phone, but it isn't plain and simple either. After I realized this I had Ashley call me a few times and then text me with my contact information in hopes it would be turned in to Metro's Lost and Found. We walked back toward the apartments and I decided to wait for 10 minutes at a bus stop in hopes that he would circle around on the route back and I could check the bus.

Before the scheduled arrival, her phone rings and it is the driver calling from my phone. I don't know how this worked out exactly but he ended up meeting us  at a bus stop and he gave me my phone back. I asked if WMATA had any compliment forms as I am sure they have complaint forms. He said no, "I'm just trying to be a good Samaritan."

I don't know his name, but I am very thankful for his honesty. WMATA has some amazing people working for them and I hope they realize their worth.