the bus stop the buses don't stop at

Yesterday when I was finished with the last lesson of the day, my cooperating teacher, (bless her heart,) stopped me to give some feedback. She has a lot of wonderful wisdom to share, and I learned a lot from the things she said...but she was just thorough enough in her advising that I missed the school bus by just a few crucial moments.

I took a moment to thank the All Mighty for the random impulse to withdraw a few bucks from my account the day before. Though its a grim enough fate to be left standing in the rain with no way home and only £5 on hand, it would have been worse to have nothing.

I had nothing left on my prepaid phone and therefore, no way to call a cab. For a brief second I considered walking to the nearest shop and topping up my phone...but with a £5 minimum top-up fee...what would I pay the cab driver once he arrived?

So I looked at my sparse array of options. 1) I could walk the miles and miles back home. 2.) I could walk the several miles to the bus stop, catch a city bus to city center, and walk home from there.

I started off for the bus stop, hoping all the way that my cooperating teacher wouldn't drive by and see me walking in the rain. Believe it or not, I preferred the miserable walk to the embarrassment it would cause her and I both if she found out what a miserable trek home I was attempting.

When I got to the main road and therefore, the bus stop I enjoyed the wordless company of an equally drenched man who stood there as well. Neither of us said a word, but it was such a miserable thing we were both enduring: standing there in the wind and rain at a bus stop we had walked far to reach: that it seemed we ought to count ourselves comrades on at least some very small level. After about 15 minutes, a bus came, but it whizzed right by us as if we should know better than to wait for it at this particular bus stop. Then another bus came and went...and another.
After a while, a car pulled out and a woman got out to stand next to us and wait.
'You don't know what your doing!' I thought to myself, 'Don't you realize what purgatory you've just entered! Don't you know this is the bus stop the buses don't stop at?' Despite the warnings I was shouting inside my head, I stood silently and let her join our miserable little waiting party.

Finally, a bus stopped. I got on immediately, only pausing to worry when we pulled away and the other two bus-waiters didn't join me...I got the slightest bit worried. All city buses eventually lead to the city...but I wasn't sure how far out they went before getting there...I had paid £1.70 for the day pass...so i knew it couldn't be a bus that went too far away. The bus went on and on and finally the bus driver shouted back, 'Where are you going anyway?' (This is typically what bus drivers ask of people who have stayed on for a long while...its happened to me before.)
'All the way back to city center,' i said.
'You'd be quicker still waitin on the side of the road!'
'I just didn't want to wait in the rain anymore.' I admitted, confident enough with my reasoning and willing to brush off any laugh he might have at my expense.

Indeed the bus ride was fairly long...although perhaps shorter than my time in the rain had been. It was at least long enough for my trousers to dry off a bit, so I didn't mind. I got a bit worried when I saw we were headed in the direction of Limavady, but when we turned around I relaxed in knowing we were on our way back to the city center.

It was after 5 when I got home and school ends at 3:20.
It felt great to run up to my little room and get into warm, dry clothes. There was a turf fire going in the little living room fireplace and before long I was sipping hot chocolate in a cozy room watching CNN with my little temperary family.

Indeed there's nothing like a long journey to make home feel so home-like. :)