I was going to leave early with Sophia, take the bus and pay for the Internet, but then Irene said that Sophia was invited to go skating after school. Well, I didn't want to deprive Sophia of that, so I hung around the school until 5, when her dad showed up and was ready to take the girls skating--just for an hour. They left, and then I ran to get my winter gear on and get to the bus stop. I didn't have my winter boots on, so I would have to run home and change. It was far too cold to be walking in regular dress shoes.
I got there just as one bus left and I'm sure the other people waiting there wondered how crazy I was, to be out there wearing regular dress shoes and thin tights. Crazy because I'm used to having a driver.
Finally, a bus showed up--Bus 14. No way was I in the mood to wait 10 minutes in the freezing cold while the bus changed drivers--as sometimes happens on the route home on bus 14. I looked at the time. 5:25. I called Christie. She was getting ready to go. Wait for me, I said, I'm coming.
I left the bus stop just as the bus I had been waiting on--Bus 4--showed up.
So the lesson is this: It is faster to take the driver than the bus. Even if you leave half an hour early. Better to wait on the driver than head to the bus stop, freeze, and still not get home any earlier.
I got home, changed into my new, over-the-knee boots, and out the door I went. Ready to see if these boots were worth it!
Without Sophia, I'm a fast walker, and I enjoyed striding quickly through the snow, in the dark cold, on the way to Kazkh Telecom. I timed it. 30 minutes from when the driver dropped me off to when I reached the Internet store. About 20 minutes walking. The store is not far from Eurasia, the huge and expensive shopping complex where we bought Sophia's hamster so many weeks ago.
I went to the kiosk machine, it still was not working for L/C. So I guessed a button at the "take-a-number" machine, pushed it and took a number. It looked like the button that the IT guy had pressed for me a month ago.
It was my turn within seconds, I went to the teller and said, "Ya ne govoriu po-russki"--I don't speak Russian. Then I handed her the post-it note with my L/C number and monthly free.
She understood! I paid and got a receipt! The whole thing took about 5 minutes!
Which means paying the monthly Internet bill takes about 1 hour 5 minutes, given the getting to and from the store. How I miss paying for things on the Internet!
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