Getting around

This morning I had two major goals when I left the house: 

1.) Go to the university to teach my classes

2.) Go to the coffee shop afterwards to buy some sandwiches for dinner.

These seem like simple goals, but I had not accounted for the foot of snow on the ground and the complicating factor this would be for all the public transportation in this city.

After digging myself out of the house and trudging through the unplowed streets, I made it to the stop to catch the meshruka (mini-bus), but all the buses on my route were full.  So I walked another quarter-mile to the next bus stop and got on a regular bus, which I thought would drop me off about 5 blocks from the university.  But instead, the bus went part of the way there, and then went in a different direction.  I got off this bus and stomped through more snow, about two blocks, to get on another mini-bus, which then took me to my usual final stop.  I arrived at my class just a few minutes before it was scheduled to start, after my 65-minute journey.  (The trip usually only takes me about 20 minutes.)

After my classes were over, I headed back out into the streets, which were bordered with snowbanks up to 5 feet high on both sides.  I went to the ATM, only to discover that it was out of service.  Fighting through more drifts, I reached another ATM, which worked, and then hailed a mini-bus for a ride to the coffee shop.  As the driver sped crazily, as if trying to establish his position in a NASCAR race on the slippery roads, I soon realized that I was not going to end up where I wanted to be.  I bailed off this bus and took another 5-block snowy walk to reach the coffee shop.

After finally accomplishing Goal # 2, I trudged another 5 blocks to the grocery store, and then, with 6 bags in tow, I gave up on public transportation, and negotiated a taxi ride home with my remarkable Romanian skills (saved myself 10 Lei).  Somehow the cab driver managed to drive up our very deep street, and Strider had spent some time shoveling our walk, so the last part of the trip was the easiest of the day.  Eight hours after I left the house, I was happy to finally return home alive, contemplating how much money I could make selling snow-plows in this town.