Tuesday, July 28, 2015

Adventures in a Foreign Land - Hitch Hiking

I can imagine the look on my face if I wasn't me and I was reading this. The expression that readily comes to mind is, "this one too?"
But I am me so yes, this one too. I just had to try everything (blame it on too much television, curiosity or something like that). But really, it was very necessary (I would like to think).

It's Sunday. I plan going to church. It's a 20 minute walk from where I live to the bus stop (I was 100% sure of that calculation) except that I hadn't factored in snow. That calculation I was 100% sure of was done in the summer and it worked quite well in the fall. It'd just started snowing and I didn't think (I wonder why) I'd need to revise that calculation.

It took me twice as long to get to the bus stop.
It's Sunday morning, the roads had been ploughed but the sidewalks hadn't. Obviously, I missed the bus. Rather than walk back home (forwards ever) I decided to start walking to the bus terminal where I'd still have to catch another bus to church (2 buses I needed to take to get to church). It was quite a long walk, but I'd done it before (in the summer). It still hadn't clicked that walking in summer is totally different from walking in winter. Did I already say it was 15° below 0°C? Guess not. It was 15° below O°C.

I'd been walking less than 5 minutes (after I'd missed the bus) and I was already tired. But there were so many cars bypassing me, if only one would stop and give me a ride just to the bus terminal. And then I remembered I'd seen in movies people walking and lifting a thumb up to vehicles passing by indicating they needed a ride, so I did same (at least I started to until I realised the futility of what I was doing). Needless to say not a single car stopped for me. Occupants of some vehicles looked at me like I wasn't quite okay (more like, like I was crazy), some didn't bother looking at me and others slowed down (mostly ones with nice granny-looking-like occupants) and then they just continued on their way.

After a full minute and a half of trying to hitch hike, I just forgot about that and concentrated on walking. With just about 2 blocks to go to get to the bus terminal, I saw a bus headed there and boy did I stop it and enjoy the warmth of a 2 block ride.

Moral: just because you've seen something being done elsewhere (television) doesn't mean it'll work for you. You don't exactly have to try it.
Yeah, forwards ever, but really it doesn't hurt to turn backwards every now and then (it totally wouldn't kill you neither would it cause the world to end).
Yep, racism exists (of course that thought occurred to me), but really most of the people that sped past me had same skin colour as me. Those that slowed down were so much lighter than me (at least they slowed). Besides, had I been back home, driving, trust me, I wouldn't have stopped to give no stranger a ride just because they look like they need it, even if they were from my hometown (and could prove it).

That said, I reevaluated my calculation and all was right with the world again (meaning, I never had to and I never ever tried to hitch hike again).

Saved (Twice)

Sometime in 2018, I was heading to work when I heard this knocking sound. It was coming from my car but I couldn't tell which part of th...