Hi ho, hi ho, it's off to work I go

The Metro, as promised. And other modes of transportation. I’ll do this by describing my trip to work/volunteering. So I leave my building and walk about 5 minutes to a major street that intersects perpendicular to my street so I can take the bus (whatever your picture is, my guess is that it’s wrong) to the underground train. I stand on the corner and wait until a bus looks to be turning right. I then wave to the guy who’s standing out the bottom step, leaning out the door and calling out the bus’s direction (Giza). If he waves me, I get on the bus, which may or may not come to a complete stop. I may or (much, much more likely) may not have a seat, and I may stand in the entranceway and hang on to whatever I can. (Don’t tell my aunt that I climb into moving buses and stand on the entrance. To my grandparents, don’t worry, I’m never hanging outside the bus, the guy who calls the direction is always outside of me.) I ride the bus 10 minutes to the end of the bridge over the street where you can find the Metro Station. The bus ride cost’s me 50 ersh (there are 100 ersh in a gineh). Since you can buy about 4.8 gineh for 1CAD, I’m looking at about 12 cents for my bus ride.

After getting off the bus, I walk 5 minutes to the Metro Station, and a buy a ticket for the Metro. Any ride on the Metro is worth 75ersh. I ride that line for just two stations to a major station, then switch trains at Tahreer. I then ride this line to either of the two places I volunteer. The psychiatric hospital is at the very end of the line, so it’s about 45 min on the train from Tahreer. The school for kids with learning disabilities is closer, about 25 min from Tahreer. From either station I walk to my place of work (10 min to the hospital, 15 minutes from the school. On the way home, I do it in reverse. So the total cost of my trip is 2.50 gineh (or just over 50cents Canadian). And it takes me 1.5 hours to the hospital, 1hr 10 min to the school. So as you can see, I have lots of time to think. I also now carry a book, so that I can read it while I’m on the train, if I’m fortunate enough to get a seat (not super likely until the end of the line, and only in the morning), or if I’m fortunate enough to be in an empty enough car that standing with a bit of room to lean on something and read is possible.

So that’s my commute. Let me just conclude it by saying this…How many of you see goats on your way to work/school?