bus blues

I don't ride the buses here very often. If anything is within a half hour walk, I walk. The buses tend to be overcrowded and uncomfortable.

A friend's house is not within a half hour walk. It's in the upscale suburbs, so I have to take the bus. Last night, I was running late. The buses are being continually rerouted due to construction projects and it always takes me a while to figure out where the new bus stops are. I found my new bus stop a few minutes before my bus arrived.

It was rush hour and the bus was full. I managed to squeeze my way onto the bus and stood pressed against the door. At the next stop, the door opened. I wasn't paying attention, so I didn't move out of the way of the opening door. My foot became trapped between the door and the side of the bus. My foot was smashed against the wall and halfway out of my shoe and my leg was twisted.

A woman asked me to move and I responded in my best-I-could-do-while-panicked Serbian, "I can't, I can't," and pointed at my foot. She yelled to the bus driver and I was released.

I spent the rest of the bus ride standing as far as I could get from the door (not far, the bus was so crowded) with my foot halfway out of my shoe. Today, my leg is sore from its ordeal.