Jeffrey Vanneste’s Personal Blog

Since Rach and I decided we are going to stay in Montreal and live downtown we also decided that there is no need to keep our RAV4 (interested in buying it? send me a message.)  We will be living so close to the metro that we should be able to get around without a car just fine.  I figure I’m quite proficient at using the subway here but I haven’t yet conquered the buses.

On Tuesday I went out on my own with the goal of using only buses to get where I wanted to go (I needed some Montreal smoked meat.)  The first couple bus rides I had no issues.  Get on the bus, show my bus pass, pretend I now what the bus driver says to me and give a Star Trek head nod in an attempt to convince them that I know what’s going on, and then proceed to the back of the bus.  On my way back I bought some groceries and saw 2 buses across the street.  The light was about to turn green so I j-walked in true Montreal style and ran to the 2nd bus.

I whipped out my bus pass and looked up to board the bus.  The doors started to close.  There was no way I was going to walk home with all these groceries so I lunged with my left hand into the doors thinking that if there was an obstruction in the doors that they won’t close all the way.  Incorrect assumption.  Just as this is happening a guy is running up to me yelling “YOU DROPPED TEN DOLLARS!  TEN DOLLARS!  AT YOUR FEET.”  At this point I thought it was funny that this guy was going crazy over the $10 at my feet and not concerned about the bus attached to my arm.

As I begin to panic, yanking to get the bus detached from my arm, the bus driver finally decides that she should open the doors for me.  I grabbed the $10, jumped on the bus and held up my bus pass.  The bus driver just looked at me, “ya sure whatever.”  I’m not sure if this warrants acceptance of my bus pass so I held it closer to her while simultaneously head nodding.  No sign of acceptance from the bus driver.  I decided to take my chances and just mumbled “I’m going to go sit down now.”