Bus Report #521 - Dispatches from Boston
I am back home after a successful week at my MFA residency in Boston.
My first day in town I loaded up my Charlie Card, ready for a week's worth of bus rides on the number 66 bus, one of the MBTA's finest (not really. The 66 is a lot like the 22, only smaller).
My first day of class, I tried out the MBTA's trip planner. It's a little like 511.org, but with way less scope. The bus was supposed to come at noon, but it was five minutes late.
I got on and slid into the first of many seats shared with someone wearing a Red Sox T-shirt. The air conditioning was on full-blast and it felt great.
The trip planner told me I'd have to switch buses in Harvard Square, but when we arrived I realized that while I could stand around for fifteen minutes waiting for the bus, I could just as easily walk the rest of the way and be there in less than ten minutes, tops.
So that is exactly what I did.
That first night, I still hadn't grabbed a bus schedule, so I languished in the heat and humidity for twenty minutes, waiting for the bus to arrive. Got back to the homestead eventually, after pushing my way through the very crowded bus to the door.
I got better at taking the 66 as the week went by. I played the schedule fast and loose, showing up a mere minute before the bus lumbered in to view. Leaving school with exactly ten minutes before the bus left the Square, and making it with a few minutes to wait patiently for the driver to pull up and let us on.
And I had regulars, too! The man who got on at the Hess station, once with his baby, twice without. The well-dressed woman reading Proust, almost every morning. Two of my classmates, sleepy in the morning, chatty in the evening.
A great week.
Glad to be home, though.
My first day in town I loaded up my Charlie Card, ready for a week's worth of bus rides on the number 66 bus, one of the MBTA's finest (not really. The 66 is a lot like the 22, only smaller).
My first day of class, I tried out the MBTA's trip planner. It's a little like 511.org, but with way less scope. The bus was supposed to come at noon, but it was five minutes late.
I got on and slid into the first of many seats shared with someone wearing a Red Sox T-shirt. The air conditioning was on full-blast and it felt great.
The trip planner told me I'd have to switch buses in Harvard Square, but when we arrived I realized that while I could stand around for fifteen minutes waiting for the bus, I could just as easily walk the rest of the way and be there in less than ten minutes, tops.
So that is exactly what I did.
That first night, I still hadn't grabbed a bus schedule, so I languished in the heat and humidity for twenty minutes, waiting for the bus to arrive. Got back to the homestead eventually, after pushing my way through the very crowded bus to the door.
I got better at taking the 66 as the week went by. I played the schedule fast and loose, showing up a mere minute before the bus lumbered in to view. Leaving school with exactly ten minutes before the bus left the Square, and making it with a few minutes to wait patiently for the driver to pull up and let us on.
And I had regulars, too! The man who got on at the Hess station, once with his baby, twice without. The well-dressed woman reading Proust, almost every morning. Two of my classmates, sleepy in the morning, chatty in the evening.
A great week.
Glad to be home, though.
posted by Rachel at 10:44 AM
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