Now if I did something like that … I think my mom would be getting a few complaints, I’m 29 after all.
But the other day we got on the wrong bus (I think the wrong bus factor will play into a lot of our stories).
There are different types of busses in Kiev. Five, I think. I had only one of them figured out … and this one wasn’t one of those busses.
On this bus, you get on. You pay. You get a ticket. You stamp the ticket, yourself. Then you hang out until your stop.
The busses I know, you pay and you get off. We didn’t know the other rules.
So we got on. (Janna and I were with a friend from school. He didn’t know any bus rules.) I handed money for two of us to the guy in front of us, and he passed back our tickets (apparently stamping them in the process). I went to hand him money for one more person and he looked at me, annoyed, and waved me to go pay for myself. So I did.
I got my ticket and went back to our seats. I was watching for when we needed to get off, because I knew this wasn’t the bus we needed.
A few minutes later a two guys got on and started checking people’s tickets.
No worries, we all paid and had our tickets. Right?
Janna was fine. Our friend Jason was fine. I wasn’t. My ticket wasn’t stamped.
The attendant said something to me. I said “Nee pa Russky.” (Not in Russian). So, he hands me a card in English that says something like, “You didn’t stamp your ticket and you owe a fine of 30 Greiven.”
I look at him and say “But I pay,” and wave my ticket at him.
At this point people start looking at me with that annoyed look that seems to say, “Why does that guy have his pants down in public?”
The attendant and I go back and forth for a while, and I still don’t even know what I was supposed to have done.
I say again and again, “I’m an American, I don’t know the rules, but I paid for my ticket, no one stamped my ticket.”
Eventually an older lady starts telling the attendant to leave us alone. And a young lady understood my English enough to tell him what I was saying.
But the attendant was firm. I owed 30 Greiven.
Then I said we were lost and were just trying to get home. And the young lady translated.
After that, it felt like the whole bus was mad at the attendant. I could almost hear them yelling, “He’s just a four year old, he doesn’t understand the rules.”
So he let us go, and a young couple showed us which bus to get on.
It was a humbling experience. And I know that for the next 6 months there will be a lot of times where I feel like I am no longer a grown-up, I’m just a kid learning what is acceptable and what isn’t.
Just a note: The fine of 30 greiven is a little less than $4. I probably could have just paid and gone on my way. But what fun is that.
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