Globe Jotter

postgradlife:

So, to save a large chunk of money, last night I took the Chinatown bus from NYC to South Carolina. It was a $60, 10pm-12pm trip, and for the parts of it that I was awake it was certainly amusing.

Put on your stereotype glasses and imagine an assortment of large, loud black women, aggressive asian men and thrifty, college-aged hipsters. There was shouting, pungent ethnic food and an array of bubbly, pop-music ringtones. That was my bus ride. All 14 hrs of it. 

I did my research before going (but after I’d bought my ticket) and discovered that the company I obtained my ticket from GotoBus.com, apparently had been issued a subpoena and should have ceased and desisted (can I say that?) all ticket sales back in June. The bus lines received an unsatisfactory rating under the DOT safety guidelines. That certainly put me at ease, but hey, where else was I going to get a $60 ride to South Carolina? 

Probably not one of my smarter decisions, but I kind of enjoyed it. Besides, the buses I took in Morocco were probably 35x more unsafe then these ones—just exchange the women yelling in Mandarin to turn on the a.c. with men shouting in arabic to check on the goat they put in the baggage compartment and the ride could be comparable.

Above is my last glimpse of the city through the window.

-Tas