6/14/2014
MEGABUS IOWA CITY-CHICAGO: NO-NONSENSE SERVICE, WET SEAT, SUNRISE
Three alarms go off almost simultaneously in Iowa City: 2:15 am. We are to get up to leave at 2:30 to be at the transportation center at 2:45 in order to catch my 3 am Megabus to Chicago. This is the first time I am checking Megabus out to catch my flight to Seville, Spain this afternoon. I don't know what possessed me to make this plan. I tell Greg as we are waiting for the Megabus among mostly college students, who are also waiting to get on the bus, which will not arrive from Des Moines until 3:10 and depart until 3:30 (could have had another half an hour of sleep!), this will probably be once in a lifetime experience I will consider. This brings memories of a loop that I had done on Greyhound years ago, when I had just moved to the USA.
I had to interview at two hospitals for residency positions. Thus, I took a bus from Columbus, Ohio to Detroit, Michigan, to Buffalo New York, back to Columbus. I recall getting on the bus and feeling unsafe instantly, and had grabbed the seat closest to the driver, just in case. Even before completing the journey, I knew I wouldn't do it again. I was actually told that Greyhound trip was not the best experience one could have, but the price of having an open jaw flight like that was so prohibitive, I had no other option. Furthermore, how could I know, traveling on an interstate bus would be so different (like day and night) compared to taking an inter-provincial bus in Turkey. Until recently, when the airline business picked up in Turkey, such bus service was very close to airline comfort utilized by most middle and upper middle class people. On this greyhound, I was trying to calm myself down in terms of safety, but I sensed, I wasn't feeling not safe for no reason: First of all, the driver started with informing us all that guns, drugs, and other illegal activities were not allowed on this bus! The thought that rushed through my mind was "Oh my gosh, are we in Texas of old or what?"
In half an hour, the bus stopped, the driver stood up in his seat and turned his body and stern looks (angry should I say?) toward the back seats and threw at them all kinds of threats about throwing them off the bus if they didn't behave themselves, what he saw I never found out, never asked, didn't even look back to see if there were any indicators for me to appreciate why the driver was alarmed. I was naive and new to America and the backstage of American culture, some of which I was witnessing on this trip. I clearly was scared considering all the stereotyping I had been exposed to through American movies back home.
After hearing this story, Greg tells me his story about a Greyhound loop he had done when he had graduated from high school. He had started in Chicago, traveled to Montreal, then to Maine, down the east coast, through the southern states all the way to the west coast and back home in 30 days. He tells me about one of his tricks while traveling: In major cities, he would stay at the end of the line for the possibility of the company calling a second bus to accommodate all ticketed passengers. Surely, the second bus would be less crowded with the spill over passengers once the first bus was full. Isn't it interesting that anything one engages in, there is room to develop skills to a significant depth? I appreciate that my daughter is right, everything every human being does on earth has an importance and requires certain depth in skills-development. As I read recently in "Alchemist" by Paulo Cuelho one more time, "every human being in fact is a hero of their own story and saga".
Finally the bus arrives. A female assistant gets down to address the luggage of some 30 people waiting to get on. She is clearly a no-nonsense woman just like the Greyhound driver of 17 years ago. Somebody attempts to get off, who turns out to be out for a minute to stretch his legs. Her order is concise and stern: "Get back on the bus", and he does, too! Greg is waiting to hand my luggage to her, he will not move until he is told so, neither will I, she knows how to have a grip over her audience! I get on the bus and find a seat after asking if a young woman would sit up and leave the second seat she has been occupying in her comfortable sleep from Des Moines up to Iowa City to me. She reluctantly and without a word sits up and I have a seat at the very front of the upstairs coach.
More passengers are getting on and more young people are kindly asked to sit up and release the second seat they are occupying to the newcomers. There is a mixed-racial beauty who is repeatedly advising every new passenger that the seat next to her is wet. I read on everybody's face just like mine when I had attempting to take that seat "how did it get wet?" Nobody asks the question, neither did I. Until all the seats are taken and there is still a passenger that needs a seat. Our no-nonsense assistant appears upstairs and asks the mixed-racial beauty "How did it get wet?" I bet many people think "finally the question has been asked". No-nonsense continues "There is no leakage here, it is your seat, you must have wet it!" I am stunned, such brutal honesty is rare! She goes away murmuring "I have plastic bags, it is no big deal", her voice is like a slap on the face. She comes back with a black garbage bag, puts it over the "wet seat" and asks the mixed-racial beauty rather orders her "you sit here and leave the dry seat to this lady". I am "This is too much" rises within me, I am expecting the order recipient to rebel, to my great surprise she doesn't. I am compelled to tell her "You don't have to do that, you know, she can't order you around like that." But then, something inside me tells "She is an adult, she can defend herself if she needs to."
I wait to see what unfolds. She gets up obediently with no sign of anger or frustration and leaves the dry seat to the lady without a seat and moves onto the plastic covered seat. She is so free of any emotional reaction, I understand that she indeed might be the one who perhaps spilled water on the seat next to hers and is now taking her minor punishment gracefully despite the not so graceful presentation of it. Later on, the young woman next to me will wake up and I will discover that she was just shy in not talking to me earlier. She eventually tells me that she and her friends, the mixed racial beauty turns out to be one of her friends, will fly to Colombia today to visit family and have vacation: they are all from Colombia by origin, their parents immigrated to the USA "to have more". I don't ask "of what?". Her mother was the one who brought the family to Omaha, Nebraska, where she is going to be a sophomore in health administration next fall. In a few years, perhaps even before I retire, she may become my administrator, who will have a larger office than mine, and more say in how we deliver health services to our clients... She has a very innocent, naive air to her, I wish that doesn't go away... That is my Megabus experience for you. I am glad I did it once, I don't know if I will do it again, hoping fast train project can become real between Iowa City and Chicago some day.
MEGABUS IOWA CITY-CHICAGO: NO-NONSENSE SERVICE, WET SEAT, SUNRISE
Three alarms go off almost simultaneously in Iowa City: 2:15 am. We are to get up to leave at 2:30 to be at the transportation center at 2:45 in order to catch my 3 am Megabus to Chicago. This is the first time I am checking Megabus out to catch my flight to Seville, Spain this afternoon. I don't know what possessed me to make this plan. I tell Greg as we are waiting for the Megabus among mostly college students, who are also waiting to get on the bus, which will not arrive from Des Moines until 3:10 and depart until 3:30 (could have had another half an hour of sleep!), this will probably be once in a lifetime experience I will consider. This brings memories of a loop that I had done on Greyhound years ago, when I had just moved to the USA.
I had to interview at two hospitals for residency positions. Thus, I took a bus from Columbus, Ohio to Detroit, Michigan, to Buffalo New York, back to Columbus. I recall getting on the bus and feeling unsafe instantly, and had grabbed the seat closest to the driver, just in case. Even before completing the journey, I knew I wouldn't do it again. I was actually told that Greyhound trip was not the best experience one could have, but the price of having an open jaw flight like that was so prohibitive, I had no other option. Furthermore, how could I know, traveling on an interstate bus would be so different (like day and night) compared to taking an inter-provincial bus in Turkey. Until recently, when the airline business picked up in Turkey, such bus service was very close to airline comfort utilized by most middle and upper middle class people. On this greyhound, I was trying to calm myself down in terms of safety, but I sensed, I wasn't feeling not safe for no reason: First of all, the driver started with informing us all that guns, drugs, and other illegal activities were not allowed on this bus! The thought that rushed through my mind was "Oh my gosh, are we in Texas of old or what?"
In half an hour, the bus stopped, the driver stood up in his seat and turned his body and stern looks (angry should I say?) toward the back seats and threw at them all kinds of threats about throwing them off the bus if they didn't behave themselves, what he saw I never found out, never asked, didn't even look back to see if there were any indicators for me to appreciate why the driver was alarmed. I was naive and new to America and the backstage of American culture, some of which I was witnessing on this trip. I clearly was scared considering all the stereotyping I had been exposed to through American movies back home.
After hearing this story, Greg tells me his story about a Greyhound loop he had done when he had graduated from high school. He had started in Chicago, traveled to Montreal, then to Maine, down the east coast, through the southern states all the way to the west coast and back home in 30 days. He tells me about one of his tricks while traveling: In major cities, he would stay at the end of the line for the possibility of the company calling a second bus to accommodate all ticketed passengers. Surely, the second bus would be less crowded with the spill over passengers once the first bus was full. Isn't it interesting that anything one engages in, there is room to develop skills to a significant depth? I appreciate that my daughter is right, everything every human being does on earth has an importance and requires certain depth in skills-development. As I read recently in "Alchemist" by Paulo Cuelho one more time, "every human being in fact is a hero of their own story and saga".
Finally the bus arrives. A female assistant gets down to address the luggage of some 30 people waiting to get on. She is clearly a no-nonsense woman just like the Greyhound driver of 17 years ago. Somebody attempts to get off, who turns out to be out for a minute to stretch his legs. Her order is concise and stern: "Get back on the bus", and he does, too! Greg is waiting to hand my luggage to her, he will not move until he is told so, neither will I, she knows how to have a grip over her audience! I get on the bus and find a seat after asking if a young woman would sit up and leave the second seat she has been occupying in her comfortable sleep from Des Moines up to Iowa City to me. She reluctantly and without a word sits up and I have a seat at the very front of the upstairs coach.
More passengers are getting on and more young people are kindly asked to sit up and release the second seat they are occupying to the newcomers. There is a mixed-racial beauty who is repeatedly advising every new passenger that the seat next to her is wet. I read on everybody's face just like mine when I had attempting to take that seat "how did it get wet?" Nobody asks the question, neither did I. Until all the seats are taken and there is still a passenger that needs a seat. Our no-nonsense assistant appears upstairs and asks the mixed-racial beauty "How did it get wet?" I bet many people think "finally the question has been asked". No-nonsense continues "There is no leakage here, it is your seat, you must have wet it!" I am stunned, such brutal honesty is rare! She goes away murmuring "I have plastic bags, it is no big deal", her voice is like a slap on the face. She comes back with a black garbage bag, puts it over the "wet seat" and asks the mixed-racial beauty rather orders her "you sit here and leave the dry seat to this lady". I am "This is too much" rises within me, I am expecting the order recipient to rebel, to my great surprise she doesn't. I am compelled to tell her "You don't have to do that, you know, she can't order you around like that." But then, something inside me tells "She is an adult, she can defend herself if she needs to."
I wait to see what unfolds. She gets up obediently with no sign of anger or frustration and leaves the dry seat to the lady without a seat and moves onto the plastic covered seat. She is so free of any emotional reaction, I understand that she indeed might be the one who perhaps spilled water on the seat next to hers and is now taking her minor punishment gracefully despite the not so graceful presentation of it. Later on, the young woman next to me will wake up and I will discover that she was just shy in not talking to me earlier. She eventually tells me that she and her friends, the mixed racial beauty turns out to be one of her friends, will fly to Colombia today to visit family and have vacation: they are all from Colombia by origin, their parents immigrated to the USA "to have more". I don't ask "of what?". Her mother was the one who brought the family to Omaha, Nebraska, where she is going to be a sophomore in health administration next fall. In a few years, perhaps even before I retire, she may become my administrator, who will have a larger office than mine, and more say in how we deliver health services to our clients... She has a very innocent, naive air to her, I wish that doesn't go away... That is my Megabus experience for you. I am glad I did it once, I don't know if I will do it again, hoping fast train project can become real between Iowa City and Chicago some day.
Sunrise in Illinois
I try to sleep for a bit. After an hour, I give up and open my eyes. The dark is not as intense as it was, I notice. The shade of gray is getting lighter and lighter by the minute. Finally the first line of orange at the horizon toward which we are fast approaching emerges and becomes thicker and thicker. Orange turns into red, into dark red and occupies the entire horizon climbing up to the sky, finally covering the entire eastern panaroma; in other words, the sky is aflame. Just before sunrise, I conclude, it was worth to get up at 2:15 am, if for nothing else just to see this, one of a dozen times, I managed to savor the wonders of nature at sunrise....
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