It wasn't the worst bus ride I've ever been on

But I'd say that it's up there.

I don't live on a super busy street, but it's only a ten minute walk in either direction to get to one. I also don't live on a completely dead street, and usually it's pretty easy to get a taxi or catch one of the few buses that go down it.

I used to take a lot of taxis. I could never justify waking up an hour earlier to avoid paying the extra five thousand pesos. Now that I have to wait until September before I get a full month's salary, I figured taxis are probably the easiest thing to cut from my budget. And in a city with thousands upon thousands of buses, catching one shouldn't be so bad.

So I'm waiting for the bus this morning and constantly keep checking my watch as 10 minutes go by, then twenty minutes go by, then probably around the 28th minute the bus showed up. (This is an extremely long time to wait for the bus. You should really only have to wait like 7 minutes max.) And I never know if I should walk to the busy streets, or just keep waiting, or just grab a cab, because by the time I do then the bus would come, etc. It's a bit of a dilemma.

The bus was packed full, and I almost didn't get on because they absolutely could not squeeze one more person onto the bus. I pushed my way in, because there was no way I would wait for another one, as I was already going to be late to class by this time. So I'm kinda-sorta hanging out the door until the driver decided that he had to be able to close the doors. All buses here have turnstiles, but unfortunately they don't allow you to move, or stand very efficiently. So I'm jammed up against the door, trying hard to not swallow the hair of the woman in front of me, while balancing on the step and holding my heavy book bag. And to top things off, some lucky person that got on before me stepped in dog poo and brought it on the bus (which was not well-ventilated), and left most of it on the steps, right where I happened to be standing. This pretty much cut in half the area I already had to stand.

We sat in traffic for an hour plus, (it usually takes twenty minutes to get to my first company) and I didn't even get a chance to pass the turnstile. Unfortunately I still had to pay for my ride. I emerged gasping for air and triple checking my shoes. They were clean, but needless to say I was very late to my class. One student had arrived, but the rest never made it due to another traffic jam.

Rush hour SUCKS.