Since today is my last day of summer break and I'm heading back to school tomorrow, I'm motivated to FINALLY post this interview I did a few months back with my good friends Lauren and Joel. Lauren and I have been friends since junior high and since then she graduated from a university up in lovely British Columbia, met her husband there, and now lives in Vancouver with him and proudly is a Canadian resident! Both Lauren and Joel love to travel and currently take public transportation on a daily basis in Vancouver. I thought it would be fun to hear some stories from their world travels as well as hear how their daily commutes treat them!
Here is a picture of Lauren and I riding the "Skytrain" which is Vancouver's subway above ground. I went to visit her in February 2008 and we rode it into the city!
And here is us at Lauren and Joel's gorgeous, Seattle wedding 4 years later!
E: When was the first time you guys
rode the bus or public transportation?
J: I know we took the Skytrain on a school trip. I think it was grade 7 or 8 we
took a trip downtown to a conference center right on the water.
L: I took the bus as a kid to school and I hated it! There
were like 3 kids to a seat. There were
way too many kids. It was only a mile
away from my house though, so I really needed to suck it up.
E: What was the bus driver like?
L: It changed every year, but we had one bus driver named
(I’m changing her name for privacy ;)) “Georgia”. She was so mean that she would
yell at us and threaten to call the cops on us.
So one time…remember yak baks??
J: Ohhh ya, those are so annoying!
L: Nate (Lauren’s brother) had a yak bak so he recorded her
and then he gave it to the teacher. She
was really mean though. And I remember
our bus stop was right by a guy who had a pomegranate tree in his front yard so
we all picked pomegranates on our way home.
He also, did not appreciate all these kids picking pomegranates off his
tree!
J: Man, you have such a good memory!
L: Well, I rode the bus for a long time! Probably for 3 years. Then I never rode public transportation
again until I was…in college? Well, we
took the bus to the state capitol in high school. Remember that?
E: We did?? I don’t
remember that!
L: Ya, we got on at
the mall and took it to Sacramento.
Anyway, I took it in college every once and a while.
E: What about public transportation in other countries?
L: We took the Amtrak in Spain…Joel has I’m sure.
The cuties on their honeymoon in Malaga, Spain
J: Ya, I’ve ridden transit in every country I’ve traveled
to. You don’t ever have a car, unless
you’re renting one.
E: What country’s system was the most different than what
you take at home?
J: I remember riding the bus in Tanzania. It’s pretty crazy. It’s actually really fun.
They have basically minivans that they use as “the bus” and it’s like a taxi
but you all pile in. You pay 50
cents and they just shove you to the back and load as many people as
possible. And then when you have to get out, 7 or 8 people file out so you can get off the bus. You’re
climbing over people…but it was fun! And everyone was like, “oh a white person,
a foreigner” and they help you with the coins and how much it costs.
I think the nicest transit I’ve ever been on was in Vienna.
They have a million lines and they’re super clean. The map is color coded so it’s really easy to
read. Vienna is all top end.
Vienna
L: We did take the train in Madrid for 2 stops, but that was
it. We took it because we were so
cold we couldn’t walk anymore and my fingers turned blue!
E: What about other trips?
J: I remember in Peru, the main method of transportation is
a motorcycle with a carriage. You can
fit 2 or 3 people and everyone used them.
It was really fun! It was like you’re in your own little racecar weaving
in and out of traffic.
E: And that's something you pay to hop in???
J: Ya, I think it’s more like a taxi. You hire them. They don’t really have buses as much. That’s how you get around town.
Peruvian taxi
L: I was in a taxi in China.
That was just scary…I felt like I was in a video game! People everywhere, so scary!!
J: So, on the way to Tanzania we flew into Nairobi, Kenya
and had to take a 6-hour bus down across the border. I was meeting people in Tanzania, but had to get there on my own. Getting on the bus
there were these porters loading up your suitcases on top of the bus and asking
for money. I didn’t know, so I gave him
like $10. Then the next guy comes,
and I told him, "I gave your money to that guy", then they were all getting
angry. I got on the bus and
was super exhausted because I think I had been traveling for 24 hours at least. Then you get to the border, which is just
terrifying in Africa. There’s all these
semi-trucks laying around and they look abandoned. Then you get to this gate and we all get off
the bus to go into this immigration room where they don’t speak any
English. And I don’t speak Swahili, so
you just hand over your passport and hope they give it back to you (Emily and
Lauren gasping in the background). It
was total chaos.
E: What about now? Do you use public transportation?
L: Well, we both take the bus or Skytrain everyday for
work. I just got my new job at the
University, so every bus in the city that goes east/west, ends up at it! There’s a stop literally at the corner of
my house and it goes straight to UBC. It
takes about half an hour and comes every
10 minutes. And Joel takes the Skytrain
everyday.
Lauren waiting for her bus in the rain :)
J: Ya, I take the train.
The station is about 2 blocks from our house, which is really nice. We
picked this apartment because of that. It’s
about 4 stops to downtown and then I just walk about 15 minutes from there.
L: There are buses that run, but it’s a nice walk. Oh, I have a bus question for you-do you have secret bus friends? People you see everyday at the same time, but you don’t actually know them or talk to them?
E: Oh totally! Especially when I had early classes and it was the commuter time to ride. Those people take it everyday. I definitely had the crazies that I always saw as well J
E: What do you do when you’re on your different modes of
transportation?
L: I’m sitting the whole time, so I read. I don’t even
listen to anything like I thought I would, I just read books.
E: What about you, Joel? What do you like to do on the Skytrain?
J: I usually listen to music or just check my phone for the
news. I used to have much longer
commutes when I was living an hour
away.
I would read or listen to podcasts.
E: Oh! Maybe at the end of the blog, I’ll have top podcasts or
top favorite artists to listen to J
L: Joel loves top 5 lists, you’re speaking his language!
E: What is your favorite thing about riding the bus?
L: I love having time set aside in my day to read.
J: You don’t have to park. Especially in Vancouver. If you
wanna go downtown you have to pay for parking.
It can be really hard to find parking.
L: And we both work in the 2 biggest employment centers so
everything is just more expensive.
E: Have you noticed any unspoken rules on your bus?
L: Ya definitely. I feel like the one that is the most disrespected is the one about people moving to the back of the bus when it’s really full. If you’re already in the back of the bus, it’s hard to move back anymore. You just have to keep moving back, but people don’t want to.
J: People don’t want to get stuck in the back either.
J: The hard part about taking transit is that there
definitely is a learning curve. You
kinda just have to learn on your own unless you know somebody who takes
it. I learned how to use it when I moved
to Vancouver and didn’t have a car. I
just used my bike and the bus because I had to.
It was a conscious decision to use transit and I didn’t want to have to
rely on a car for everything. We have a
car now, but we’re so comfortable using transit because we had to learn
it.
L: Letting people get off the Skytrain before you get on is
a huge one. It’s a classic tourist move
when people just barge onto the Sktyrain.
It’s also common for the Saturday riders.
I learned a lot from Joel when I lived in Langley. From there you have to take transit for 2 hours. He wrote a whole list for me when we first
started dating on how to get out to Vancouver and that’s how I learned lots of
the rules. I had to take a little bus,
then a big bus... Joel gave me his phone number on a card board box in case I
needed help J
J: I remember giving you my number, but I don't remember it
being on a cardboard box…
L: Ya you did! It's the same number you have now…then we got
married, all because of transit!
J: The end!
L & J's Top Podcasts:
1. "This American Life" Each episode will have a theme about an aspect of what it is to be an American
2. "Radio Lab"
3. “Wiretap” It’s a very Canadian podcast out of Montreal about a writer and his phone conversations with people he finds interesting
4. “Lexicon Valley” All about language and the history of a certain words
5. “New Yorker Fiction” An author comes on the show and picks a story from the New Yorker magazine to read that's not their own. They read the whole story and then the host and the guest author will discuss the story
L & J's Vancouver Music Recommendations:
1. Aidan Knight "A Mirror"
2. Dear Rouge "Heads Up! Watch Out!"
3. Hannah Georgas "Elephant" (Lauren's pick) "Robotic" (Joel's pick)
4. Kathryn Calder "Who Are You?"
5. We Are The City "Happy New Year"
I hope you enjoyed hearing their stories and learning a little bit about transportation in other countries!
Lots of love,
Bus Girl
P.S. I will be back to riding the light rail and bus 2 days a week this semester, more stories to come!
