So I have the worse affinity with the tunnelbana and transport system in Sweden.
The first day of school, the entire tunnelbana fell apart and everyone was late to work and school. I had to take 2 buses to a school I hadn’t ever been to before and pray that I didn’t end up in Malmo or something. If my host dad hadn’t been with me, I would have been hopelessly lost and confused since all the announcements were in Swedish. According to my host family, this happens once every few years. It just HAD to happen on my first day of school.
The second time, I took the hiss (that’s the world for elevator in Sweden) that had a huge T sign on top, indicating that it was an entrance to a tunnelbanna station. With me, there was a middle-aged chinese couple with huge suitcases-tourists plus two german tourists- all were asking me for directions. All mistook me for American, much to my chagrin. Apparently the accent is slipping in as the years go by. Anyway, we went down, only to realize that the underground path had been walled off due to construction. Unknowingly, I took the escalator up, thinking it was going to take me up to the first floor again. Both couples followed me, only for us to realize that there was a wall right on top of the escalator and the escalator kept going- if nothing was done we were gonna smash right into it. The german tourists turned around and ran down the escalator in the opposite direction it was going, I hopped over the handle of the escalator and the chinese couple followed me, only they had to deal with suitcases. I was so embarrassed and confused for leading everybody there!
The third time, I left my house way earlier than usual, thinking I was going to try to catch the 9.12am bus instead of my usual 9.25am one and grab some coffee before class. The buses run according to schedule here and are synchronized to match the train schedule. Meaning you get off the bus and you’ll probably be right on time to catch the train and vice versa. At the beginning of semester, I took the 9.35am bus only to realize that doing so made me really late for class. Unfortunately luck was not on my side that morning and ALL THREE BUSES came at the same time at 9.45am! Freakin Hell. I was so late for class and it wasn’t even my fault.
Today, the most unfortunate of all. A woman had a seizure in my train. Right in my compartment. I was bobbing my head along to my ipod when this woman stood up and kept yelling something in Swedish. My first response was to think she was crazy (I’ve had some really INSANE encounters in the train) but I soon realized a girl sitting at the window across from mine was slumped over in her seat. When I took my headphones off, I heard her making this strange gurgling noise. It was a really scary experience. This guy ran up and asking asking her if she was ok. He laid her on the ground and her head came right up to my feet and I could see that she was foaming at the mouth. The guy sitting next to me and myself were so stunned we didn’t really know what to do. Thankfully the guy stood up and walked away and so I could do the same. My train was delayed 15 minutes while we waited for the ambulance to come. Poor girl, she looked so confused and disoriented when the medics picked her up and was looking around wondering why everyone was staring at her.
I think I’m going to take all my classes online from now on. Apparently traveling to school can be a hazard.
