Mishaps

Despite the inevitable negative events or accidents that can occasionally occur throughout life, I try to shake things off and laugh when I can. Within the past three weeks, I’ve experienced some mishaps.

It was hours past dusk when I was walking to a nearby bus stop. I needed a ride to Fallowfield so I could meet up with some friends. Not having a bus pass, I kept my eyes open for a Magic Bus, knowing it would only cost me one pound to ride. I waited and waited…and when a Magic Bus finally came my way, I quickly stood at the edge of the curb and thought to myself, “Oh yeah, as soon as I hop on this bus, I’ll be on my way. This night is going to be so lit!” I watched the bus quickly approaching.

And then I watched the bus pass me at the same speed. WHAT? That was the night I learned you have to hold your hand out and wave in order for the bus to stop. If no one on the bus is getting off at that stop, and the bus driver sees no hands indicating the need to stop, the wheels keep on turnin’. Luckily for me, the next Magic Bus was not too far behind and I eventually made it to Fallowfield.

That happened during my first week here in Manchester as well as this next “uh-oh.” I found myself in one of my dorm’s unisex restrooms chatting with three male acquaintances. I had recently met them and one male was the visiting boyfriend of a guy who lived in one of the flats nearby mine. During our casual conversation, I mentioned that I absolutely loved the pants one of my flatmates wore. I enthusiastically said something along the lines of, “Oh yeah, and her pants are sooo cute!” In that moment, the boyfriend asked me, “So, you’re into girls?”

For a few seconds I was puzzled because this seemed to be a random question. But it wasn’t. Apparently the British term “pants” refers to “underwear.” So I had essentially had a conversation complimenting my flatmate’s underwear, not her pants (which the British refer to as “trousers”). I answered, “No” and subsequently laughed.

Other than having my sexual orientation questioned, I was also puzzled at something else that happened near my dorm. Laundry. First off, the price of laundry here has me feeling some type of way. One regular degular shmegular wash cycle costs £1.30 (except one random machine says £1.10, but you’d have to be quick to get to it first). This is $1.82 USD. However, one regular degular shmegular dry cycle costs £2.60 which is about $3.64 USD. AND apparently there is an even more expensive special dry cycle that costs I-don’t-want-to-know. Aside from the cost, I literally spent a good minute trying to figure out where to put the laundry detergent. I’ve done laundry hundreds of times, but I assumed the washing machine was similar to the one at my college in the US. I was wrong. You simply dumb it straight onto the clothes. Gotta have clean trousers.

So I needed to do laundry in order to survive, thrive, and of course travel. How could I go anywhere if I didn’t pack? With that being said, I did something my mother always told me not to do. Try to buy something online a second time when it doesn’t go through the first time. I was on the National Express website…but I had already gone wrong earlier during that night. I wanted to book a cheap bus ride to Edinburgh, Scotland to hang out with a friend. Knowing Megabus was the cheapest, I went to the website…I wanted to buy a roundtrip ticket but I could only find a ticket to get me there, not back. I thought, oh I’ll just use another website. Wrong. Don’t be like me. Don’t buy a one-way ticket thinking another website will help a sista out. Needless to say, I was able to find one but the website was having tech issues. So I did something really dumb and re-entered my info trying to buy this must-have ticket. No luck. Then I checked my bank account the next day.

Apparently, I bought TWO tickets. But where they at doeee? In the midst of the technical difficulty, I had been charged twice. No email. No text. Nada. So I did what any rational person would do and complained to an online customer service representative. (Sorry, I know, emotional labor, forgive me whoever you were but it was BBHMM time.) I was informed that they were in the process of giving refunds due to the website’s error, but I couldn’t wait so I bought Edinburgh Ticket #3 and in time I eventually got my money back for the other two tickets. Ca ching.

Yay! So I wouldn’t be stuck or lost in a city I had never been to before! Wrong. I went to London about a week and a half ago. I arrived via the Megabus and the first 24 hours in the city I had no issues. Then Saturday night into Sunday morning happened. One of my friends informed our group about a club that we had to check out. She hyped it up so much that I wasn’t even going to flip about the cover fee. I was informed it was £15 with student ID and £16 without student ID. Here comes the sub-story.

I didn’t have my student ID with me because I was staying with a Cornell friend who lived in a residence location where you had to give them a photo ID in order to receive a building card granting you access. I was being touristy with friends in London while she was on a school field trip; tired, we napped and by the time I woke up in my friends Airbnb, it was time to decide on dinner and my friend had just arrived back at her place. It would’ve taken too much time to go back and then knowing that I’m directionally challenged, I would have struggled to find my group of friends among the London nightlife.

So anyways, the goal was Fabric, a widely known club in London. My friend called an Uber and we hopped in after it arrived. What happened next was 0% our fault.

Our Uber driver starts driving in the bus lane. The lane made specifically for buses. I’m sitting quietly (yes, quietly) in the back thinking, okay…well then…Anyways, after a while, he, on his own says, “If I stay in this lane, I’ll get a fine.” It’s a Saturday night in London and traffic is crazy. This man starts trying to see where he can get over to the right (keep in mind they drive on the left side so he had to get away from the far left bus lane). All of a sudden, SCCRRRAAAAPPPPPEEEEEE!

That was the first time I’d been in an Uber accident. None of us were harmed in the collision. But as soon as that happened, the driver started yelling at all of us and kicked us out of the car. Wow. So from there, we had to walk to the club. Good thing I had boots on. Now remember that cover fee I mentioned? Well apparently my friend was mistaken and without student ID, it was £22! LIKE $31 USD! Obviously I wasn’t going to turn away and attempt to travel by myself on a Saturday night in London post-Uber-accident. So I paid it. So much for leaving my student ID. On top of that, I had my book bag with me because I was spending the night with that same Cornell friend and had the bag since the day tour. So in this mishap, I should have just left my bag at my friends’ Airbnb. My bag was searched and they took my expensive camera AND my selfie stick to hold for the time being. They did not give me a reason for taking the camera BUT they said I could not take the selfie stick in because it could poke someone’s eye out. Wow.

Long story short. I paid the cover fee. I paid for them to keep my coat and book bag (and my camera and selfie stick were kept safely in a separate location). And the next day, Sunday, I got lost trying to get back to the bus station because the CityMapper app froze on my phone. But eventually I made it back to Manchester and have some cool photos for the good memories!

Moral of the story: laugh at your mishaps and as Taylor Swift said, shake it off.

I used to call Drake on his cell phone from here.

My friend took this photo when we saw Big Ben.

We witnessed the changing of the guard ceremony at Buckingham Palace.

I had a very sweet Valentine’s Day at Brick Lane!