A funny thing happened on the way home from school...

Yesterday, for the first time in my three years at Cag University, I took the wrong service bus home. Because Cag is so far from Tarsus, Mersin and Adana, the service buses travel all over the cities dropping students off near their homes. My friend Annie and I asked the bus drivers for the bus to our neighborhood, and he said, "The first green bus." We got on the first green bus with no questions.

This was also the day in which I was starting a private lesson at a language school in Adana. If all went well bus-wise, I'd have about 8 minutes to get settled at the school before my student arrived. It wasn't until the driver turned on a freeway headed to the far north part of town that we said, "Uh, where are we going?" "Suleyman Demirel," the driver answered. This neighborhood is a good 40 minutes from where we need to go. Ugh! We got off the bus near a bus route that we recognized and continued on our way to our neighborhood. I called the language school and told them I'd be late.

It was on the minibus to our neighborhood that a very interesting thing happened. There was a mother with two children, maybe 2 and 8, sitting in front of Annie and me. As I was watching them, I thought all of the American out-in-public norms this family broke, things that are completely appropriate in Turkey. It started with the 8-year-old walking up and down the aisles of the moving bus entertaining herself; then the 2-year-old crawling all over the seat completely unrestrained (also in the moving bus); the mother carelessly watching out the window, sometime reprimanding (usually with a click of her tongue) but most of the time giving freedom to her children. I guess the strange thing for me was that I often trip and fall on moving buses. I know multiple people who have been injured on buses from unexpected turns, sharp stops, etc. Surely this mother is aware of these things, she just trusted that her children would be fine.

The moment I won't forget is the 8-year-old walking to the open window of the bus and shamelessly throwing her wrapper out the window. I said to Annie, "I can't believe that just happened!" To which Annie replied, "You can't? I can!" We both laughed. Throwing garbage out a window is something I've been trained not to do for as long as I can remember! Maybe someday, that message will reach Turkey.

Annie and I finally made it to our neighborhood, I was a half-hour late for my lesson, but so was my student. We had an entertaining bus ride, and saw a different part of town. I can say I learned from the experience, though. I was definitely much more careful today to get on the right bus to come home!