Public transportation & NPR

A bit of bad news: my beloved old car seems to be on his (Yes. His name is Milo, for the record) last few years of life. I was driving home from school last week, and one of the stick shift gears completely stopped working. A couple days later, all of the gears broke. I decided to repair the problem, since I need something to drive until I can get a new car, but this left me car-less while Milo got some TLC.

Thus, in the meantime, I used public transportation (aka city bus) to get to school for the past few days. I have never ridden on it before, but it has its benefits. First, it's free to full-time students here, and secondly, it's actually pretty fast. I think I arrived at school more quickly than I ever have driving, which consists of fighting morning traffic to get to the parking lot, trying to find a parking spot, and walking 10 more minutes uphill to my class--typically a 30-40 minute commute.

So instead of getting to school all frazzled, I've come in relatively relaxed. I simply walk to the bus stop which is luxuriously right across the street from my apt, wait, get on the bus, wait, get off the bus and then walk a short distance. It's a lot of sitting around, and to pass the time..

I started listening to public radio's This American Life via podcast. This segment is AMAZING, people! I'm hooked. The themes are so random, but somehow it's written in a way that draws me in.

For example, I just listened to one titled, "Take the Money and Run for Office", about how politicians fundraise and how money is turned over in Washington. This is a topic that I normally would have absolutely no interest in, but I kid you not, by the end of the story I was shaking my head and indignant, saying "this ain't right", like I was directly in the line of fire of corruption going on.. even though 30 minutes prior I had no idea it was even an issue! haha. So I've found that TAL is a good way of stepping into other, real life people's shoes for a bit.

I just picked up Milo from the shop, good as new (sort of), so it's back to my regular routine, but it's been an interesting week.