Riding the Bus and Learning On the Go

Thursday 06th September 2007
at 08:52pm

Hey, let’s save $20 and catch the bus.....

It could not have been more obvious today that we were out-of-towners.  As soon as we stepped onto the Number 12 Bus on Main, we knew we were in for an interesting ride. Picture this.....2 Aussies, 2 children a stroller and a $10 bill. We weren’t 100% sure of which bus to catch (sorry to the numbers 4 and 10 for stopping you without reason). We didn’t know you had the collapse the stroller. We didn’t know that there was a ticket machine to take payments, as I’m trying to give the driver my $10 bill and outside of knowing that Lambeau Field was our destination, we had no idea where we were going, for how long or where to get-off. In saying that the $17 saving was well worth the learning experience.

At one point, once we had taken our seats and started talking to the people next to us, we noticed that almost every single passenger was staring in our direction. We’re certain they were all thinking the same thing. Who are these British, come Kiwi, come Aussie people, what are they doing here and why are they riding our bus? Needless to say by the time we made it to our destination we were being helped by most of those around us, including for the most part our driver who made sure we knew where to get off, in which direction to go once we had and at what time we should be outside waiting for our return trip.

I think the best part of our ride was having the front half of the bus laughing at us, yes, actually laughing together at us and the idea that we came to this part of the world without so much as a sweater and some jeans to keep us warm.  Of course we told them that we’d buy some warms when we needed to but this made them laugh even more. “You get down to those shops today and get what you need” was the most obvious advice. “The weather ‘round here can go from 90 to 60 without so much as a blink and you’ll be freezing”. Their sound advice was greatly appreciated and from people who experience these sorts of conditions every year, somewhat concerning. If they think it’s cold what the heck are we going to think?

We had a very brief stay at Lambeau. One that i was hoping to have been longer but with the heat and the boys we were lucky to stay as long as we did. It’s the first of many trips and i look forward to catching the number 12 there again.

This evening was a great night for 2 reasons. One, true Wisconsin hospitality came to life again. This is in so much as a car seat loaner for Luc while we’re here. Not having the arms to carry one from our part of the world to this left us needing to head to the shops again to get one. Thanks to our new friends though we are now in a position to take both kids with us wherever we go. Quietly I think Luc is somewhat relieved at this late breaking news.

And 2, we met our friend Tari for the first time. Remember the envelope that become the box? Same Tari. Having sent 100’s of emails back and forth for the last 2 years we felt we like we were already great friends anyway. With our meeting came the seal that, like with anything permanent, cemented something very special for years to come.

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