SNOW- okay, it might be slightly in convenient, or TBC is trying to ruin my life

One morning I woke up to this- I was thrilled

(This was mostly written right after that day it snowed, which was like erm, more 2 4 weeks ago)

Last night, I did what I do every night – after dinner I head into Bordeaux and hang out with Tristan at MacDo (the internet was broken though, it was tragic).

Anyway, at around 11:45, I was going to head back home. As we approached the tram stop I noticed something was off. Then I could read “service terminé” (I don’t need to translate, do I?). So my first reaction is to be like: did I lose track of time and miss the last tram? But that didn’t make any sense because it was Thursday and the last tram leaves the terminus at 1 am. And the sign stated quite clearly that it was 11:48 or so. Then it switches and shows an announcement, which we eventually translated as saying “the tram service is stopped after 10 pm because snow is predicted”).

This made (and makes) no sense for two reasons:

1)      There was NO snow; it had mostly melted away during the day.

2)      It had snowed that morning, quite a lot, actually, and the tram was running THEN.

So Tristan and I stood there in utter bafflement. (Tristan lives by this stop, so this only REALLY affected me- but he isn’t a jerk so he didn’t ditch me).

I’m not sure why, but we stood there for like 10 minutes. I think we were certain that there must have been some mistake. In fact, the tram was still running in the opposite direction.

Finally, I was like okay, this sucks, but there is also a bus that goes to Pessac (and that is actually faster) (I discovered this bus when I was stupid and missed the last tram- even though I knew when it was leaving). So we walk to the bus stop. When we arrive, a totally random man sitting there tells us that the bus service was also stopped. So now I’m all: great, I’m stranded in Bordeaux.

We went back to the tram as if we expected something to have changed. And I spent my time exclaiming “THIS MAKES NO SENSE. THERE IS NO SNOW!” etc.

In fact, I’m pretty sure this is why this happened.

Three TBC workers are sitting in the break room eating lunch. One is on his I-phone.

TBC 1: You know what sucks?

TBC 2: What?

TBC 1: Working. 30 hr weeks are too hard. I think we need to work less.

TBC 2: I agree work sucks.

TBC 1 & TBC 2: *pout*

TBC 3: Hey guys, it might snow tonight!

TBC 1: SO? It does that sometimes.

TBC 3: No, you don’t understand

TBC 2: DUDE, it’s not that complicated: white stuff falls from the sky. Happens every winter.

TBC 3: YES! I know- you see, snow is DANGEROUS. Especially for public transit.

TBC 2: No it’s not, STUPID.

TBC 3: You don’t get it- There is NO way we could keep providing public transit. It’s too dangerous.

TBC 1: Oooh!

TBC 2: I still don’t get it…

TBC 3: Let’s take the night off

All: YES

Anyway, I stood at the tram for a bit, waiting in vain and considered my options

a)      Walk for an hour and a half by myself after midnight in just above freezing weather.

b)      Attempt to procure a bike (the TBC has a nifty thing called Vcub where you can take a bike from one station to any other), however, this is likely to fail because it requires a European credit card- which I don’t have.

c)      Nick Johnson it (ie party it up until the trams start running again at 5 am)

d)     Call host family (hahaha NO)

e)      Take a taxi

Taking a taxi seemed like the best option, so we walked off in search of a taxi. We found a taxi stand, and I was lucky enough to share a ride with some others headed to Pessac, so I only had to pay 6 euro instead of 18, yay. Our cab driver was bit of a jerk though: “this isn’t a bus”. So I got off with the others, and walked the rest of the way (a bit farther than usual, but not much), and just as I turned on to my street the predicted snow began to fall softly.

…

Then, as a going away present, the TBC went on strike for my last two days in Bordeaux (canceling almost everything, particularly anything that could be useful to me). They probably did this to spite me for laughing at their earlier strike (“I have to wait 10 minutes instead of  6? OH NOES”). Therefore I had to take an actual train to get into Bordeaux, which was annoying, but not awful because I totally didn’t pay for it (they owe me—remember the 40 extra I shelled out because you wouldn’t print out my ticket, SNCF? I want it back). Then on Sunday, they canceled the one tram that was still running (the one Tristan was using to get to the train station), but it was kind of a legitimate cancelage, what with everything being icy and dangerous to WALK on. So I ended up walking halfish way to Tristan’s house, and then back to the train station with him.

THANKS FOR NOTHING ,TBC.

I’m going to miss you :( I love(d) that tram.