It’s the busiest station in Prague
One problem with my job is that I spend way, way too much time on public transportation and since today was even more extreme than usual in that respect, in fact it pretty much consumed my day, that’s the topic of my blog tonight, FWIW.
Normally, a good book is the best defense, the best way of making use of those gaps in time, but I am between books at the moment so that didn’t happen. My morning classes on Tuesday are easy, I get on the Metro at Invalidovna and change at Florenc, one station to Vltavska and that’s it, about 15 minutes on the train, less than a half hour door to door and there were copies of the Metro newspaper still available, which was lucky, there seems to be about a 15 minute window before they run out. So, I had a Sudoku puzzle to kill the 1st trip. After my 3rd graders, I have about a 2 hour break, but normally I have a student, who is really more of a friend I meet for coffee and she gets to call it an English lesson, but she canceled. So I went home, had an hour there, and then back. It’s a short trip, but I made it 3 times. The 3rd time, I was almost late because I was daydreaming, went one stop too far, and had to go back to Florenc and change. I arrived at class with seconds to spare, sweating, and they were my nightmare 1st graders. Half of these kids are destined for a life of crime, I swear.
After that, I get back on the red line and went all the way out to Haje or, to explain it to those unfamiliar with Prague, to hell and gone, where I catch a bus, and there is usually only a minute to make the connection. It’s actually a fairly pleasant bus ride as it’s on the southern edge of town and for part of the trip there are fields and long vistas with hills in the distance, but then you’re back in town in a neighborhood of light industry and scrap yards which are, of course, essential to a healthy economy, but not as pleasant to look at as the grass and the trees.
Coming back from that class, normally I would stop and pick up my daughter from school and be done for the day, but today had one more twist. Parent-Teacher meetings which, normally I would leave to my wife because of the language barrier but all classes were having them at the same time so I had to go. So, I went home first, leaving the kids at school. Funny incident while changing at Mustek (Good lord, the way the ticket inspectors crowd that hall is really obnoxious), anyway, I’d passed that bottleneck and was walking along when I felt something tickling my heels. It was a blind man’s cane. Well, he corrected his course, went more to the center and the next thing I know I heard a commotion behind me and turned around to see a woman, probably in her 40s or 50s, a bit on the heavy side, sprawled on the ground. She’d tripped over his cane. I’m a horrible person, I’m going to hell for this, I’m sure, but I burst out laughing every time I think of it.*
I still had to go back and forth to school one more time, but that made my day.
*I’m pretty sure nobody was seriously hurt
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