Thursday, September 25, 2008

Did I somehow jinx myself???

It is 11:38 am as I sit down to write this.

In the past 36 hours we've had problems with the doors, the kid has caught a cold, and I lived through this morning. As the day is not yet half way over I wish I could just take a long nap and sleep through the rest of whatever it is fate has in store for me.

I got up at 6:15 today in order to make my 8:00 am appointment at the pre-school. I carefully plotted out my route last night, on-line, and confirmed it this morning before I left. I gave myself half an hour to make a 15 minutes two bus trip to the metro station we were to meet at.

I started off right.

The world did not cooperate.

I got on and off my bus at the appropriate stops. When I went to catch the second bus there was a problem. It wasn't there. The bus did not go to the bus stop I was at, the bus stop the transit site told me to get off at. So I tried to find other bus stops in the immediate area - there were quite a few. I got on the bus and then realized and then when it stopped and everyone had to get out I figured out I had got on the wrong bus. I couldn't see the next bus stop right away, but I found one and walked over to read the route - I had found bus the right bus but it was going the wrong direction.

There was quite a crowd waiting and I could not see the correct bus stop anywhere - I asked a woman for help, in czech, 'excuse me please, where ' and that's all I got out before she looked at me and sort of spit out ' I don't know, I don't know' and turned away. Everyone else turned away too. So far from helpful, but her refusal to even let me finish my question really made me mad and rubbed in how helpless I was feeling at that moment.

I walked around trying to find the right bus stop and I found one - and then I got on the wrong bus - on purpose this time. Instead of going to the metro station I wanted it was going to a different metro - I got off on that metro as it was only one stop away from the station I needed to be, and it was the fastest way for me to get where I needed to be.

AND THEN - I got on the metro going the wrong direction. So I got off that metro at the next stop and got back on the correct direction and got off and met my boss and another new teacher in the middle of the metro station.

I spent a few hours at school, observing and playing with the kids, and then I left - with a mission.

When the man replaced the lock yesterday he only gave me one key - obviously we need another as the kid needs to be able to come and go at will. I took the red line metro, transferred to another line, the green line which is our home line, and went past out stop to the next in order to get to the one place I know of where they make keys. I got off the metro and walked to Tesco through the mud - yes, it's still raining today - and went upstairs to get some copies made.

Apparently when I went to buy the kid cold medicine last night, I took my dictionary and phrase book out of my purse - which I realized when I went to request new keys. We managed to get through that and he understood how many copies I wanted. He took the key and started grinding a new one.

And then he stopped after just one key (I wanted extras). It seems that he doesn't have the right size keys for my housekey and so wasn't able to make a copy after all.

I don't know of any other key makes, can't find my book, and am tired after having had a stressful morning - and hoping I wasn't about to get fired for being so late to the metro. The kid texted me, which I didn't get until a moment ago - she can't find her housekeys. While she doesn't have a key to get in the apartment she does have a key to get in the building... but not right now as they're lost.

I'm tired and now I have to get ready to go to work. And I have to find a new key guy too.

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