Hella long entry. Part 1
This entry may require you to go get some rations for the trip. Please make sure you do proper stretches before any length of strenuous reading. Thank you. This announcement has been brought to you by the Really long entry that follows...
Wow... There is so much to say... And not just because it's been like more than a month since the last entry. The last week has been either the pinnacle or the third of a set of three insanely stressful weeks. I'll share with you. :)
So three weeks ago was stressful because it was Dead Week (the week before Finals Start), I started working at the Book Exchange, my trip to Brazil was rapidly approaching, and with the school year drawing to a close, I'd need to pack my room up... A task that always takes about 3 times longer than it should. Oh, and I think it was either at the end of this week or sometime around then that my dad called me and told me that he would be unable to go back into NYC to get my visa for me and I needed to come home to do it because NYC are a bunch of rock-chuckers (<-- /sensored) and they need police clearance for me to get the visa, but i'll get into that later... heh heh...
Last week I thought would be the death of me. I was working at the Book Exchange on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. from nine to five on monday, nine to four on tuesday, and eight thirty to two on Wednesday. Then on Wednesday the final exams started... heh heh heh... I had five final exams in three days. One on Wednesday, 1500-1700. THREE, yes three, exams on Thursday, 0900-1000, 1100-1300, 1500-1700. And one on Friday, 1500-1700. Oh, and to top it off, even though I've barely begun to explain, I had two desk shifts that conflicted with my exams. (Thank the gods that people ended up being able to switch with me.) And, if I found a way, my stepsister Lauren's graduation took place on Saturday. yay.
So for my exams (the ones for which I hadn't studied a lick) I thought that would be the peak of stress level. It's the last few days before school gets out, the kiddies will leave, and I'll get to (need to, rather) go home to Jersey to take care of the visa... Oh crap... School gets out and I need to be out of here in 4 days... And my room still needs packing... SHIT. So on top of the five final exams at the end of the week, I had to squeeze in packing time whenever I could... Virtually none. After a long day of exam-taking, packing, though necessary, was among the further of things I wanted to do.
So the weekend rolls around... I need to be out of my room on Sunday. Friday night I forgo clubbing and try to pack. I get some done then someone at the front desk needs an hour of coverage. I say I can do it and take a small break and do that.. then get back and continue working at the snail-ly pace I do.. I meet up with S.e. and we agree to go get my room (I warned her that it was Baad) then in the time remaining go and finish out her room. We go, get Taco Bell (I think) and we head up to my room... S.e. takes one look at it and just says "wow." I'm like "I told you it was bad." And she's like.. "yeah, ya did." So she starts to try to give me some direction to get some packing underway.... I can tell that she wasn't prepared for this kind of commitment and she still had her room to take care of. So I tell her that she can go if she wants, I won't hold her to helping me out. She says that if she had any time she would but she wants to leave by six and.. yeah.. So she goes and i'm back to the room cleaning. I get a hold of B.m. and he agrees to help me move out in the morning before my bus comes. To me it only looks like three car trips and we should be able to do that in the 2-3 hours before the bus is scheduled to leave the Depot 10:06am. So B.m. and Ayaka come over and, to cut out the blow-by-blow, we pack up his car and get my stuff over to the storage shed. Ayaka is an angel because while we were doing that, she took it upon herself to finish packing up my room. Thank the gods she did or we wouldn't have finished by the dot like we did. So ten o'clock, B.m. and I leave the storage shed and head over to the bus depot... We get there at like 10:11. There are no buses to be seen. Well fuck. So I end up needing to wait to leave Mo'town until Monday. In retrospect, it's good that I didn't get onto that bus on Sunday because the next bus from that was a 1300-2100 bus from PGH (Pittsburgh) to Newark... I talked to my dad on Sunday night and he said that he wouldn't have been able to pick me up on Sunday night until like two hours after the bus came. So it was a good intervention by fate for me to miss that bus.
So I spend Sunday chilling w/ S.w. and we watch Memoirs of a Geisha and Sex & The City. MoaG was good. Someone said it was like Moulin Rouge without the music but I found it much more reminiscient of Titanic. But I enjoyed it. Monday, I get to the bus station alright (Thanks, Alli) and have my bags and my bus fare. Usually you just need to give the driver the twenty cash and you hop on no problem.............. Well, because this was the weekend of the Exodus, our bus was just about full... The lady behind the counter at the depot said that there may only be room for one or two of us. I was the first one there after the ticket holders so I didn't have much to worry about, so I thought. An odd looking lady with lots of bags arrives and is all like "I have to catch a plane and blahblahblah..." and she talks to the driver and she gets on before me! I was thinking "You shoulda gotten here earlier if it was that important, Ho." (No, I didn't say that, but I was thinkin' it.) So the driver looks at the four of us remaining and says that there's only room for one more person on the bus. I was there first, so I get to go on. The three Japanese girls behind me say "Why does she get to go on and not us. We have to catch a plane." The driver had already asked for ppl with plane reservations to speak up and they didn't. I alert the driver that they have a plane to catch so the driver looks troubledly (is that a word?) at the bus then at them and he says "We're going to get everyone on here. :) So he rearranges the bags into a small Mount Fuji and pops down three more seats and everyone gets on. Yay.
I end up sitting next to a guy in grey sweat suit with a fluorescent-orange, mesh bag. I don't talk to him too much and have my iPod on most of the time. But he does tell me that he and four or five other people on the bus just got out of a federal prison. Yay... That's calming.
So we get to PGH on time and everything. We arrive at noon and my bus leaves at one. I get the ticket, no problem and wait in line for the bus. I end up chatting a bit with a girl who is Deaf, and I also fall into conversation with three older people who speak Russian. They're from Moscow originally and they immediately say that I have a very good pronunciation and have minimal accent. They tell me "molodec" and ask me about my studies. We get onto the bus and the russian lady (her name is Ella I learn) beckons me over to sit with them. I do and we get moving on the bus-ride.
Those three Russian people were SO nice! They ended up sharing with me some of their bread and kielbasa, some of their seltzer water, two quarters of apples they brought, some Pringle-style Lays, half of the miniature chocolate bar Mikhail had, and a piece of the sweet baked good they brought. When we stop (later on in the trip), the man asks if I have enough money to buy food. He was so sweet. He reminds me of Grandpa Tony. :) The man, as I said earlier, was named Mikhail and his companions were his wife, Ol'ga and their friend who lives in Jersey now, Ella. Ella spoke English well, but Mikhail (the women called him Misha. That made me giggle) and Ol'ga did not. So I got to practice a good bit of Russian on the trip. Mikhail talked a lot about Jazz and how he was interested in English because of it. He sometimes would hum a few bars of a song and ask me what the lyrics meant, like "Jeepers Creepers, where'd ya get those peepers..."
Shannon, the girl who was Deaf, sat behind us and she was inflicted with chatting for a bit with the mentally retarded (yes, the other passengers, later on in the ride, said he truly was MR.) who knew fingerspelling. He was bent on trying to explain to her that cell phones and TTY phones were the same thing or something like that. His name was Victor. He kinda seemed more like a drunk man than a MR man but I can see it now. He comes in later on too.. fun fun...
The bus had to change drivers in Harrisburg, PA and that wasted an hour of time, so we were an hour more late than we already were running. The new driver made Victor sit away from the front of the bus because Victor was... unable to keep his gaseous moments private... This second bus driver seemed somewhat unorthodox. He put up an opaque black curtain around his seat so we couldn't see in. Idk if he just worked better undisturbed or what.
So I continue to chat with the Russian people and the trip goes uneventfully... Until we get to like Easton... When we're there, the driver asks if anyone knows where the bus-station is and he had an old lady direct him to the bus station. By this time we were like an hour and a half behind schedule... I would think that if you worked with a company, you'd know where the stations are... After Easton, we get lost again and have to double back on the Highway, wasting more time... *sigh*
So eventually, we get to Newark. You'd think this was the end where calmness ensues... Nope.. When we're about 5 minutes from the station.. Someone tells the bus driver that Victor is having a seizure and he needs to call an ambulance. We get to the Bus Station in Newark, but not before Victor has another seizure and stops breathing a time or two... Someone is doing CPR on him when we pull in. Like three cops come onto the bus and take control of the situation. Victor starts breathing again and they start to lift him out. He has another seizure. He stops and comes to. He isn't very responsive but they get him in a stretcher and I exit the bus; arriving in Newark at 11:00. Two hours after my bus was supposed to get in.
Mikhail gave me his address and Ella gave me her phone number so she could tell me about some Russian stores in Jersey. She's from Springfield. Very nice lady. :)
So... That's the trip to Jersey...
Aiight, this entry is long enough. I'll save the New York fiasco for the next entry. Thanks for reading so far and tune in next post for Visa Trip, part 2!
-Misha
Wow... There is so much to say... And not just because it's been like more than a month since the last entry. The last week has been either the pinnacle or the third of a set of three insanely stressful weeks. I'll share with you. :)
So three weeks ago was stressful because it was Dead Week (the week before Finals Start), I started working at the Book Exchange, my trip to Brazil was rapidly approaching, and with the school year drawing to a close, I'd need to pack my room up... A task that always takes about 3 times longer than it should. Oh, and I think it was either at the end of this week or sometime around then that my dad called me and told me that he would be unable to go back into NYC to get my visa for me and I needed to come home to do it because NYC are a bunch of rock-chuckers (<-- /sensored) and they need police clearance for me to get the visa, but i'll get into that later... heh heh...
Last week I thought would be the death of me. I was working at the Book Exchange on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. from nine to five on monday, nine to four on tuesday, and eight thirty to two on Wednesday. Then on Wednesday the final exams started... heh heh heh... I had five final exams in three days. One on Wednesday, 1500-1700. THREE, yes three, exams on Thursday, 0900-1000, 1100-1300, 1500-1700. And one on Friday, 1500-1700. Oh, and to top it off, even though I've barely begun to explain, I had two desk shifts that conflicted with my exams. (Thank the gods that people ended up being able to switch with me.) And, if I found a way, my stepsister Lauren's graduation took place on Saturday. yay.
So for my exams (the ones for which I hadn't studied a lick) I thought that would be the peak of stress level. It's the last few days before school gets out, the kiddies will leave, and I'll get to (need to, rather) go home to Jersey to take care of the visa... Oh crap... School gets out and I need to be out of here in 4 days... And my room still needs packing... SHIT. So on top of the five final exams at the end of the week, I had to squeeze in packing time whenever I could... Virtually none. After a long day of exam-taking, packing, though necessary, was among the further of things I wanted to do.
So the weekend rolls around... I need to be out of my room on Sunday. Friday night I forgo clubbing and try to pack. I get some done then someone at the front desk needs an hour of coverage. I say I can do it and take a small break and do that.. then get back and continue working at the snail-ly pace I do.. I meet up with S.e. and we agree to go get my room (I warned her that it was Baad) then in the time remaining go and finish out her room. We go, get Taco Bell (I think) and we head up to my room... S.e. takes one look at it and just says "wow." I'm like "I told you it was bad." And she's like.. "yeah, ya did." So she starts to try to give me some direction to get some packing underway.... I can tell that she wasn't prepared for this kind of commitment and she still had her room to take care of. So I tell her that she can go if she wants, I won't hold her to helping me out. She says that if she had any time she would but she wants to leave by six and.. yeah.. So she goes and i'm back to the room cleaning. I get a hold of B.m. and he agrees to help me move out in the morning before my bus comes. To me it only looks like three car trips and we should be able to do that in the 2-3 hours before the bus is scheduled to leave the Depot 10:06am. So B.m. and Ayaka come over and, to cut out the blow-by-blow, we pack up his car and get my stuff over to the storage shed. Ayaka is an angel because while we were doing that, she took it upon herself to finish packing up my room. Thank the gods she did or we wouldn't have finished by the dot like we did. So ten o'clock, B.m. and I leave the storage shed and head over to the bus depot... We get there at like 10:11. There are no buses to be seen. Well fuck. So I end up needing to wait to leave Mo'town until Monday. In retrospect, it's good that I didn't get onto that bus on Sunday because the next bus from that was a 1300-2100 bus from PGH (Pittsburgh) to Newark... I talked to my dad on Sunday night and he said that he wouldn't have been able to pick me up on Sunday night until like two hours after the bus came. So it was a good intervention by fate for me to miss that bus.
So I spend Sunday chilling w/ S.w. and we watch Memoirs of a Geisha and Sex & The City. MoaG was good. Someone said it was like Moulin Rouge without the music but I found it much more reminiscient of Titanic. But I enjoyed it. Monday, I get to the bus station alright (Thanks, Alli) and have my bags and my bus fare. Usually you just need to give the driver the twenty cash and you hop on no problem.............. Well, because this was the weekend of the Exodus, our bus was just about full... The lady behind the counter at the depot said that there may only be room for one or two of us. I was the first one there after the ticket holders so I didn't have much to worry about, so I thought. An odd looking lady with lots of bags arrives and is all like "I have to catch a plane and blahblahblah..." and she talks to the driver and she gets on before me! I was thinking "You shoulda gotten here earlier if it was that important, Ho." (No, I didn't say that, but I was thinkin' it.) So the driver looks at the four of us remaining and says that there's only room for one more person on the bus. I was there first, so I get to go on. The three Japanese girls behind me say "Why does she get to go on and not us. We have to catch a plane." The driver had already asked for ppl with plane reservations to speak up and they didn't. I alert the driver that they have a plane to catch so the driver looks troubledly (is that a word?) at the bus then at them and he says "We're going to get everyone on here. :) So he rearranges the bags into a small Mount Fuji and pops down three more seats and everyone gets on. Yay.
I end up sitting next to a guy in grey sweat suit with a fluorescent-orange, mesh bag. I don't talk to him too much and have my iPod on most of the time. But he does tell me that he and four or five other people on the bus just got out of a federal prison. Yay... That's calming.
So we get to PGH on time and everything. We arrive at noon and my bus leaves at one. I get the ticket, no problem and wait in line for the bus. I end up chatting a bit with a girl who is Deaf, and I also fall into conversation with three older people who speak Russian. They're from Moscow originally and they immediately say that I have a very good pronunciation and have minimal accent. They tell me "molodec" and ask me about my studies. We get onto the bus and the russian lady (her name is Ella I learn) beckons me over to sit with them. I do and we get moving on the bus-ride.
Those three Russian people were SO nice! They ended up sharing with me some of their bread and kielbasa, some of their seltzer water, two quarters of apples they brought, some Pringle-style Lays, half of the miniature chocolate bar Mikhail had, and a piece of the sweet baked good they brought. When we stop (later on in the trip), the man asks if I have enough money to buy food. He was so sweet. He reminds me of Grandpa Tony. :) The man, as I said earlier, was named Mikhail and his companions were his wife, Ol'ga and their friend who lives in Jersey now, Ella. Ella spoke English well, but Mikhail (the women called him Misha. That made me giggle) and Ol'ga did not. So I got to practice a good bit of Russian on the trip. Mikhail talked a lot about Jazz and how he was interested in English because of it. He sometimes would hum a few bars of a song and ask me what the lyrics meant, like "Jeepers Creepers, where'd ya get those peepers..."
Shannon, the girl who was Deaf, sat behind us and she was inflicted with chatting for a bit with the mentally retarded (yes, the other passengers, later on in the ride, said he truly was MR.) who knew fingerspelling. He was bent on trying to explain to her that cell phones and TTY phones were the same thing or something like that. His name was Victor. He kinda seemed more like a drunk man than a MR man but I can see it now. He comes in later on too.. fun fun...
The bus had to change drivers in Harrisburg, PA and that wasted an hour of time, so we were an hour more late than we already were running. The new driver made Victor sit away from the front of the bus because Victor was... unable to keep his gaseous moments private... This second bus driver seemed somewhat unorthodox. He put up an opaque black curtain around his seat so we couldn't see in. Idk if he just worked better undisturbed or what.
So I continue to chat with the Russian people and the trip goes uneventfully... Until we get to like Easton... When we're there, the driver asks if anyone knows where the bus-station is and he had an old lady direct him to the bus station. By this time we were like an hour and a half behind schedule... I would think that if you worked with a company, you'd know where the stations are... After Easton, we get lost again and have to double back on the Highway, wasting more time... *sigh*
So eventually, we get to Newark. You'd think this was the end where calmness ensues... Nope.. When we're about 5 minutes from the station.. Someone tells the bus driver that Victor is having a seizure and he needs to call an ambulance. We get to the Bus Station in Newark, but not before Victor has another seizure and stops breathing a time or two... Someone is doing CPR on him when we pull in. Like three cops come onto the bus and take control of the situation. Victor starts breathing again and they start to lift him out. He has another seizure. He stops and comes to. He isn't very responsive but they get him in a stretcher and I exit the bus; arriving in Newark at 11:00. Two hours after my bus was supposed to get in.
Mikhail gave me his address and Ella gave me her phone number so she could tell me about some Russian stores in Jersey. She's from Springfield. Very nice lady. :)
So... That's the trip to Jersey...
Aiight, this entry is long enough. I'll save the New York fiasco for the next entry. Thanks for reading so far and tune in next post for Visa Trip, part 2!
-Misha