Vantines Day and Buses

So I made it through Valentines Day. I consider this a success for two reason: 1) My girlfriend is back in the U.S so it was a rough holiday to have to endure in Mexico, and 2) I witness and survived watching Mexican PDA at its maximum. On Monday you would have thought that it was Christmas time in Mexico or something. I woke up that morning and walked out of my Colegio and the entire lobby was filled with flowers, candy, balloons, and cards. I mean literally there were probably between 50 and 100 packages sitting there. All of my teachers were talking about Valentines Day and asking how it was going for us to far. Then on my way to my internship there were street vendors EVERYWHERE. They were set up along the sidewalks, roads, and some even were blocking major interstate exits in an attempt to get the business of poor Mexican men who forgot it was Valentines Day. PDA was at its maximum. Everybody seemed like there were holding hands, kissing, hugging, making out, or doing more. It was pretty interesting to experience that holiday. I never thought that I would ever say that Valentines Day is bigger in Mexico than in the U.S. BUT it is.

On Wednesday my friend Emily and I decided to test out the bus system as an alternative means of transportation to our internship. We had been taking the taxi, but it gets very expensive especially when the drivers prey on taking advantage of Americans. The UDLAP is located in Cholula, Puebla, but our internship is just outside of downtown Puebla, Puebla. We have pretty much figured out the bus system in Cholula. I'm able to get to church, Walmart, and the markets with no problems at all. I was a little more concerned trying to figure out the Puebla bus system because its so much larger.

In South Bend (city of just over 100,000 people) I never really used the bus system. If I needed to though it was very easy to understand. They had specific routes, pickup times, drop-off locations, and each bus was clearly marked as to which stops the it was heading to. In Puebla (a city of over 4.5 million people) the bus system is so much more confusing. There are so many corporate and independent bus systems that its very intimidating. None of the buses have a posted schedule although they seem to follow some sort of schedule in order to allow for busy transfers. The buses are marked with locations that they are heading in, but its such a large city that we weren't really sure if any of those stops were around where we needed to be.

Moral of the story: four buses, and about two hours worth of traveling/waiting for buses later we made it there and back via the public transportation system. Was it worth the savings of not taking a taxi? Hell yes! Buses might be confusing but they are so cheap (equivalent to less than $.50). Plus there is something exhilarating about not knowing if you are on the right bus, or if you will have to take another bus....its like riding on a roller coaster :)