Translink Adventures

If anyone knows Vancouver transit, you'll probably relate.  If you don't, quick rundown

• There are 3 zones - Vancouver (1), around Vancouver (2), and hella far from Vancouver (3)
• Each zone is $2.75.  If you wanna ride 2 zones, it's $4.00.  If you wanna ride all 3 zones, might as well stay home because it's $5.50
• There are buses, Skytrains, and seabuses.
• No one from North Vancouver ever leaves North Van.. unless it's a "special occasion."

I work in West Vancouver, which is just around Vancouver, meaning I must travel 2 zones on my hour long commute to and from work ($8.00 total, I love it).

Today, I skipped down the street (more like trudged along with my amazingly heavy backpack), FareSaver and $1.25 in various change in my hand, to catch my bus taking me back to the grand ‘ole city of Vancouver.  To the relief of my wallet, the ticket machine was broken – I screamed a little YES! in my head.

The bus was completely packed, so I was squished standing in the middle between some old ladies sitting who didn’t speak English and a mother holding a baby and a stroller desperately trying not to bang her baby’s head against someone or something.  I heard a small voice from behind another woman say, “Do you want me to take him, Mom?”  The exasperated mother passed her baby over to her young daughter, who proceeded to bounce him on her knee and point him out the window.  The entire bus was taken by this little drooling lump of smiles; women were baby-talking to him, men were smiling and making faces at him – myself included.

I chatted up the mom a little bit, telling her that he was already quite the ladies man, despite the drool.  She said, “he takes after his older brothers!” to which I replied, “I hope not with the drooling, too!” (insert raucous laughter here)

When I continued onto the Skytrain, I stood beside some extroverted Australian couples talking about a variety of topics, from war stories to shady pipeline deals to how “this generation doesn’t know anything about real work.”  I noticed one of the gentlemen had a ying-yang tattoo on his hand, which gave me a glimpse of what this generation would look like in 50 years with all our tattoos..
Just listening to their conversations made me feel connected to them and their topics, even though I was much too shy to say anything and have nothing to add to them (except for "I have WORKED, believe me").  There’s this unspoken rule on public transit - I’m sure you’ve all felt it - that you get on and only speak to those you’ve come on with.  Although this norm is useful when a) you’re tired and have spent your last amount of emotional energy, b) you’ve spotted someone you probably shouldn’t talk to, or c) you have been spotted as one of those people, it’s sometimes a great joy to talk to people on transit.  You never know what kind of shared connection or experience you could have, which is what I probably learned last summer but has been really apparent in this week alone.

OH, and a few stops before mine, two men in their late 40’s came on the bus reeking of weed.  Ahh, BC.  How I missed you..