Perhaps you may be wondering how I could possibly give a thorough review of the Durham area public transit system after riding it for only one day. Well, one day was enough, trust me. First of all, the bus riding experience was just fine. The bus doesn't announce every stop, so if you don't know the area at all, you have to pay attention. Otherwise, it's just like riding the bus in Chicago. Sometimes the AC doesn't work, and sometimes the windows are a little gross, but it's still just a bus. They don't come very often, so you really can't be in a hurry (or you have to plan your trip in advance so you know when to get to the stop). The biggest difference between public transit in a big city and public transit here is that in Durham, pretty much anyone who can afford to own a car drives everwhere. So the people who take the bus are working class (or are a little off, if you catch my drift), and unfortunately segregation is a problem here, so 95 percent of the people on the buses yesterday were black or hispanic. That doesn't matter to me at all--I took the bus and the train on the South Side of Chicago, and anyway, we're all just people trying to get somewhere. I felt a little out of place, but otherwise it was fine. And after all, I can't afford to own a car right now, so just like everyone else on the bus, I gotta take it to get anywhere I can't walk to.
Yes, the bus riding experience is fine. It's the bus waiting-for experience (as well as the walking-down-the-street experience) that requires some strength. Maybe once students get here, it'll be different, but right now, I get really funny looks for walking a mile and a half to the CVS or standing on the sidewalk waiting for the bus. Apparently people aren't used to seeing a white girl who doesn't have a car. Funny looks I can handle; my good friend reminded me that I just have to be my own person. It's the creepy guys who drive past me slowly, honk at me, call out to me, openly gawk at me, as if I were a prostitute. Hardly. Yesterday I was sweating my balls off in a plain t-shirt from Old Navy and denim capris from the Gap and Teva flip flops. Sexy, I was definitely not. I don't know what makes these guys think they can act so disrespectfully to me--they didn't do it to any of the other women standing at the bus stop, and a couple of those women definitely looked more put-together than I did. I feel like it has something to do with me being one of the few white people among the other racial minorities, so I stand out, but how does that warrant such behavior? The other day I was riding my bike down the sidewalk, wearing a white t-shirt, soccer shorts, and my bike helmet, and I got honked at then too, although I think that was some dumbass macho white guy. Why?
Maybe that's what they call Southern hospitality. That, or there really is such a split between whites and racial minorities that a middle-class white girl from Chicago can't blend in at all.
