Before I left to Paraguay my friend and I put our selves in the middle of Pittsburgh and said if we got lost it was just part of the adventure. Well, I knew Pittsburgh, its my home, so we did not get lost, but here, well that is a different story. I can not rememember the first time I got lost here, but I am sure it was sometime towards the begining of my trip. To my surpise I never got lost going from my work to my old home, not even on my first day! But my new house, well that is a different story. My biggest and worst ¨lost¨ story was on my last day at my old house. I needed to go home so I had to take the bus. I went to the bus stop and got on 61, the one I take everyday, and it even had my cities name on it so I knew it was right. It was going in the opposite dirrection of home, but buses loop around, right? Hey, I was told to get the 61 at that bus stop, so I know it was not my fault that bus did take me home.
Just picture me, sitting on the bus, a bit sweaty because this weather is not cold anymore, it is hot, like PA summer hot, and I thought it was supposed to be winter?! Anyway, we keep going, I see different things, some cows, feilds with palm trees (but those are common) ,and I think, This is cool, I did not know I live by these things. We keep going, and I started wondering when it was going to loop around again, or when I would see something familiar. That did not happen. I did take lots of pictures of what I saw though. In the middle of no where the only other people got off, and I was alone, with the bus drivers. Here there are things you NEED to be careful about: do not be on a bus when you are the only passanger, do not pull out your phone, camera, or ipod on a bus, do not ride a bus when it is getting dark or it is dark, do not walk alone in the dark, and do not pull your money out in public. I am proud to say I have done all of those things, and look at me (well read my blog) I am fine. I was only going against the ¨being the only passanger¨ and ¨do not use your camera¨ rules on this trip, but being the only passanger was not really my fault. They drove a little and asked me where I needed to be. I said Luque. They said other things, but my Spanish is terrible, and when someone speaks a mix of Spanish and Guarani (which I am sure they where) that is when I am completely lost. They kept saying things. Then it just sort of stopped. They kept driving though, they stopped at someones house, I was really confused. They got off the bus, the one went inside. What was I supposed to do, they did not say anything to me. The first time I just stayed on the bus. Then they drove to another house, that time I got out and stood by the bus door, there was no way they where just going to ditch me there! Some new driver guy came, he was kind of creepy, but at least the other guy was still there, for some reason I trusted him. (I am not sure why, but lots of times there are two people in charge of a bus. In the frount there is a little seat for they guy who is not the driver, to sit. Its kind of strange, but I find it, and everything else about the buses here interesting! At the second house another girl got on the bus, she just sat in the back of the bus, I think she knew the drivers though. We drove a little and then stopped, they did not know where to take me. I asked them if they knew the big Catholic church in Luque, but they did not seem to know, I was surpised, it is right in the middle. I called someone to try to give me a common place they might be able to take me, but they did not really help much, they did give me the name of the church, but then I remembered the stadium (where I get off the bus everyday) and they said they could take me there. So we left. I sat in the front and talked to them a little. It was kind of weird, I thought about asking to take a picture of them before I left, but I never did. At first, as we got to a town I did not think we were in Luque, but then I realized we were in the mercado. Right when we started to go into the town, the one guy just stood in the door for the rest of the ride, and the driver told me to sit in the very front see, next to the driver. I did, it felt weird, but cool. I thought, hey if I am in Paraguay, and I have already been on a crazy bus ride, why dont I just relax and sit in that cool seat. So I did! I told the driver I knew where I was, then he asked me for my phone number, 1: I did not want to give it to him, that is creepy, and 2: I did not know my phone number, so he wrote his down and gave it to me. I still have it, but I will never call it, that guy was weird, and had an even weirder beard thing. Then I got off at the mercado, quickly, and walked to the restaurant, from there I took a taxi to my house.
That guy straight ahead is the nice bus guy who was not creepy and did not give me his number.
That was just one of my lost stories, I have more, they are just not as interesting, or scary, well that was scary for me anyway. The day after the long bus ride catastrophe I was taking the bus home to my new house. The bus ride went as normal as ever, but when it came to finding my house, I did not have a clue. My house is kind of in a neighborhood of other houses, and dirt roads. You get to it off the high way, I guess, and if you go the correct way it only takes about 3-7 minutes to walk to my house. It took me about an hour that day. I walked down the right roads, but then I did not know when to turn so I kept going and I turned on wrong roads. I ended up walking very far away. Then I remembered that the day before, when we were driving home, we turned onto a road between the super mercado and the big ice cream shop with a giant Pepsi bill board. I went that way, and then I remembered that my house had very square cut bushes, so as I walked down the road I looked for the bushes and then I found it. That whole hour I did not know what to do, I did not have a phone, it was really hot, and I ended up walking at least a half a mile away from the Pepsi bill board even though it seemed like it was just a few streets. I did it though, and when I got home, the girl at our house was waiting for me, as soon as she saw me she knew I had been lost.
I think they are supposed to be yelling, but the one guy looks like he is singing and the other just looks weird. The one kind of looks like one of my friends.
The next day I had bus troubles again, but nothing as bad as the other bus problem, and I was not as lost as I was the day before this either. What happened was, I got on the bus and I asked him if it was going to Shopping del Sol, when I meant to ask him if it was going to Los Jardines. So I ended up going not quite half way between my house and the mall. I did not know if I was going the write way, and I was afraid that if by the time I found the neighborhood I would not be able to find the house again. This time was pretty nice. The only bad part was the long walk in the sun, and not knowing if I was actually right or not, but it turned out I was. I found my house easily too! After that I have not really had any problems with getting lost. I guess Luque really is my home now, but I leave in about 5 days. To me, sometimes it only felt like 6 days, but other times it felt like 6 years.
I will try to write some more before I go, and I am going to try to squeez in a few last minute things, that is if I do not get eaten alive by the bugs first, they are killing me!
Oh yeah, and once again, I am sorry about spelling and grammar problems, all of my posts have had and will have them...
Oh my god, I can't believe that weird bus trip! Now that is a story! Can't wait to hear the others when you get back!
ReplyDelete