a tale of the city buses

i spend at least 2 hours every day commuting from my home to the center--even though my house is only about 4.5 miles away! this means that i´ve had lots of lovely encounters with very strange people, and i´m beginning to recognize people on my bus route. so here´s a post in honor of my bus regulars.

angry old man:
angry old man has already been the subject of another post, and though he is definitely not a bus regular, he merits mentioning again. i think my favorite bus moment so far was definitely the brawl on line 23 between the angry old man, the bus driver, the nosy lady, and the other old man. it was a pretty interesting (and pretty great, really) moment. i don´t think i will ever forget this little old man with his maroon cardigan mr.-rogers-type sweater ever. ah, that was a good day.

the beige man:
the beige man and i met each other one morning while i was waiting for the bus at the stop near my house. the beige man has a very interesting figure: his arms and legs are somewhat wiry and spindly, but he has quite an ample stomach. it looks like he´s had a few too many cruz campos (the beer brewed locally in sevilla). in the charles dickens´novel ''great expectations,'' dickens describes a character who looks like a spider: this is the beige man. he is also called the beige man because, on our first encounter, he was wearing a beige shirt that matched the color of his skin exactly along with beige pants (same color as the shirt) and a beige murse (mures being man purse, which are actually pretty common here in sevilla). we rode the #23 bus together all the way to the center, and he kept staring at me, and i kept staring out the window avoiding his gaze. later that night, when i hopped on the travía to come home, there he was, sitting across from me. spooky. he spent the whole travía ride waving at me in this very slight gesture. i, again, spent the whole tranvía ride pretending not to see his subtle wave. and that this the tale of the beige man. i have seen him several times on other buses (though he wasn´t wearing all beige) and every time he tries very hard to make eye contact with me.

the gothic lovers:
the gothic loveres ride the bus regularly during the afternoons, and i see them pretty much every tuesday and thursday as i head to dance class. both of them (there is a man and a woman) are fairly tall and shaggy--that really is the best way to describe it. they´re always dressed in all black, and their t-shirts frequently advertise bands like iron maiden, korn, and slipknot (all american bands, i believe... interesting). anyways, the funniest thing is that the man has a murse that is a metallica murse! it seems like such a contradiction for a goth to wear a murse, but whatever. i also seems highly contradictory that they would spend their whole time on the bus making out with each other, but they do. strange, very strange.

the painted pants woman:
the painted pants woman has been spotted three times now on my bus travels. she is a regular spanish woman, complete with shorter curly hair and ample curves. however, she seems to have made the life choice to wear pants so tight that they look like they are painted on her body. her pants also tend to be incredibly flamboyant colors: black, shiny pleather, red plastic, and bright, royal blue. it´s very interesting. i´ve never seen her sit down on the bus (even when there have been chairs available), whic would leave me to believe that she can´t actually sit down in the pants she wears. one day, i´m going to ask her what she does for a living, because i´m curious as to what sort of job allows her to stand up all day in those ridiculously tight pants...

so there are a few of my bus favorites. there a more regulars, but some of them just aren´t as interesting as those three. i really do like the bus, though i do hate that it takes me about 45 minutes to ride into the center and another 45 minutes to ride home. i feel like public transit should be a little bit more efficient than that, but apparently not. they are currently finishing up a brand new metro system in sevilla. the system is scheduled to open on december 20--exactly three days after i leave! it makes me appreciate the beauty of american transportation (in the northwestern cities of boise and spokane, at least).