The wheels on the bus go 'round and 'round

My hand to God, this is my last post about Vancouver transit. I was hanging around at home today, when my roommate Shereen came home.
"Aaaargh!" she said. "I've just had the worst bus ride!"
Apparently, a gentleman on the bus had been harassing her the entire way home, although in his mind he probably thought he was flirting. Eventually, some of the more gallant riders started yelling at him to leave her alone, and he started yelling back at them, which only made things more awkward. Finally, she had to get up and move to the front of the bus just to get away from him, and understandably so.
After she told this story, Rocel, another roommate of mine, said "You know? I almost saw a fight on the bus, today." Apparently, as a guy was getting on the bus he lost his balance and accidentally hit a seated passenger. As he did not apologize, the wounded rider started yelling at the man who'd hit him, in a British accent. "Take your hat off! let me see your face! I'm going to remember you! Wot, wot!" It almost came to blows!
"Huh," I said. "I had a crazy bus ride last night."
When the bus reached Hastings *, a woman had gotten on board who was in the process of screaming her woes at the world. She began by lamenting the fact that there was a woman with her small child on the bus. "Whatever happened to bedtimes?" screamed the crazy woman. "I don't believe it. With my son he was in bed by eight. Sometimes he'd sleep with me, though. That's not good for a boy to sleep with his mother. But so what? Fuck you!" She was saying all this to no one in particular. Eventually some other passengers told her to "shut the fuck up and quit whining! No one cares about your problems!" "Fuck you!" she screamed back. "No one cares about me. I'm alone 24/7. So what if I'm talking. Fuck you!" And so on. "Fucking cunts! Motherfuckers! At least I'm not cruel! I don't have a mean bone in my body! Motherfuckers!" Finally, the bus driver told her to get the hell of the bus, as he'd seen her before, "blowing her nose all over the seats" (which kind of gave me pause). In fact, the driver got so flustered he went down the wrong street, and we all had to get off the bus.
So, Vancouver transit; it's a real life experience. I just can't wait until my other three roommates get home so I can see if they'd had any bus adventures. Also, I can see if they'd spoken to my other four roommates.



*For those of you who are not in the know, hastings is the saddest street in Vancouver; the saddest I've ever seen. It's absolutely filled with junkies, prostitutes and the homeless. Fortunately, it's right by Gastown and Chinatown, two of Vancouver's biggest tourist draws. Hence, it's kind of a rite of passage for visitors to Vancouver to accidentally wander onto Hastings and find themselves swarmed by homeless junkie prostitutes, making all kinds of intriguing propositions.