I walked into the study room. On the whiteboard, someone has written “Expectations.”
CMU defied my expectations. In the good way. Mostly.
The first thing everyone’s gonna see when they get on FB in the morning of 8/21 is all the ranting I’ve done throughout the night about Greyhound.
Being the cheap asian my parents and I are, we decide to take the cheapest method (that does not have a 50% mortality rate) of transportation to get to Pittsburgh in time for my CMU orientation. Greyhound is pretty cheap, and well, the bus is actually pretty nice. Outlets, free wireless, etc.
But, everything went wrong from the start.
So, I was scheduled to be on a 11:30PM NONSTOP bus to Pittsburgh. I was supposed to get there at 6:50AM if all went well.
Well, I’m typing this up at 5:45AM. I’m in Philadelphia.
What the fuck happened?
Well, so we get to Port Authority at 10:30PM, because on the ticket, they said YOU MUST GET THERE AN HOUR EARLY BLAHBLAHBLAH. So we were there.
I asked the worker for directions to the Pittsburgh bound Greyhound. He told me to go to gate 69. We go there. There is a bus all ready to go, and we asked if this was the bus to Pittsburgh, and the driver looked at my ticket, and told us to get on.
The bus leaves at 10:40PM.
We found that kind of odd. The schedule said it leaves at 11:30PM. So I ask the driver if this bus actually goes to Pittsburgh, and he says: “If I took your ticket, that means you’re on the right bus.”
Yeah fucking right.
Nonstop to Pittsburgh? Well, I guess that’s supposed to mean stop at Newark, pick up a billion people, and then drive to Philadelphia.
Approximately 1:40AM, we reach Philly. We were alright with taking the wrong bus that has a bit of detours, because we were going to get to Pittsburgh too early anyway.
But then, the driver leaves.
It seems that all Greyhound drivers have a specific amount of hours that he can drive a day. And this guy already drove to his limit. But guess what, no one knew.
The manager at the Philly station calls two drivers to see if anyone can substitute for him.
…2 hours later…
Everyone was sitting on the bus, doing jackshit, when one of the security guards tells us to leave the bus because they’re having trouble getting a driver and we were wasting gas by leaving the bus turned on.
He explains that one of the drivers the manager contacted did not respond, and (oh it gets better) the other one literally ragequitted his job. Over the phone.
lolwut. The fuck?
So we sat there, getting kind of impatient because we were stuck at a shithole bus station for hours waiting for a driver which they can’t find.
…2 more hours later…
A bus driver finally appears. Everyone cheered.
At 5:48AM, the bus pulled out of the Philly Greyhound station.
I was supposed to get there at 6:50 AM.
I have 5 hours to go from Philly to Pittsburgh.
Good f-ing Game Greyhound. You suck.
41. McDonalds in China tastes AWESOME. Like, seriously. It’s like 7729183x better than American McDonalds. They actually take some time and effort to make these MSG and fat filled goodies. Oh, and did I mention how much more variety they have? Oh, and how a whole meal with medium fries and medium drink (same size as in America) is 23 yuan?
fuckyeahhhh Chinese McDonalds are the best
A few years back, I vowed not to kill any living thing intentionally.
But these mosquitoes are just asking to die.
26. One badly cooked dish can ruin your stomach for weeks.
27. Environment? Is that a specialty dish?
28. All the litter on the streets other than bottles and cans remain on the streets.
29. Cheap souvenirs be cheap.
30. Car honks are its own language
31. Professional drivers can drive 100km/h allday and not die.
32. Never use a public bathroom stall at night.
33. Mosquitoes are ninjas.
34.You’re somehow related to everyone.
35. Oh, I hope I mentioned how China is DIRTY AS HELL.
36. 50% customer satisfaction guaranteed.
37. All street vendors are out to jip you.
38. Everything without a price tag is initially 10 yuan more than it actually costs.
39. Chinese instruments are cool.
40. The poor are poor forever. The rich are getting richer.
Too jetlagged and tired in the past week almost to post anything substantial..
let’s see, i left beijing after 3 days. we saw the museum, a boardwalk type area around a lake surrounded by bars called the Lotus Lane, and the olympic village… for 20 minutes ._.
and then on an overnight train to changsha!
A really spoiled kid and his grandparents shared a compartment with us. It was noisy. that grandpa was pissed lol.
now i finally got to meet my grandparents (dad’s side) after 4 years. They haven’t changed too much hm.
I just lolled around, suffering from allergies and jetlag and shits. Took very slow walks with my grandparents, got fed to death, got bitten to death, watched fireworks (so much better than july 4th), etc.
yesterday we left changsha for xiangxi. The skies are better, and it’s much nicer over here : D
oh, and uh, my dad owns mad shares to some factory over there that makes vinegar drinks ._.
Not going to talk about how the vinegar’s made. It’s not pretty.
Anyway! I’m again typing this on a phone (getting better at this)
to be continued!
