Late

I often tell  my students “You have to be smarter than the tram to catch the tram” when they walk  into class with that lame-ass “I missed the tram/bus/train” excuse.
Well, egg all over my face this morning, that’s for sure.
It was a short schedule for some reason, I didn’t have my first class so had until 8:50 to get to school, and that’s a bit dangerous because I  underestimated the time I’d need and when I  got off  the Metro at Strašnicka, I  knew I  was cutting it close.  Still, I figured  if the tram came within 5 minutes or so, I’d make it.  It didn’t.  After almost ten minutes, and I was resigned to being five minutes  late, a young lad said to me “The 26 isn’t running” and I  wondered how he  knew I was waiting for the 26.  I  realized  after a bit that  he must be one of my students – one of those who doesn’t show up very often – there are a few of those.
So, I ran around the corner (about 4 or 5 blocks) to catch the 22.  Two of the students from my first class arrived there around the same time.  I could hardly lecture them about being late when I was in the same situation.  Also, I had them call their friends in the class to let them know I’d be late, so I’m quite glad I ran into them.  A couple of trams went by but didn’t let anybody on, and  eventually one of the drivers clued us in that no trams were running, some problems with the track I guess.
Still, Prague is pretty  good about laying on auxiliary buses when there’s a problem like that and one came along pretty quick, but it took an alternate route  and got stuck in traffic.  When I got to my first class, it only lasted about 15 minutes.  I’m sure the students didn’t mind.