Juggling between so many things – pre-requisites, meeting people, last few days for leisure before classes begin, badminton, where the next meal will come from – I tend to procrastinate tasks that have no tangible impact on my life, blogging being one of them. And this reflects on the numerous incomplete blogs I’ve started. But it needs to change this time and I need to finish what I started. It’s like a commitment and I owe it to myself to honor this commitment.
Ok. I’ll cut the chase but yeah… there have been quite a few events that have unfolded since the last time we met like the get together on 27th Jul where a bunch of us met, my trip to Toronto, the moving into my apartment, the trip to NY and the electricity goof up!
As for our meeting, if I can remember correctly, and in no particular order, there was one girl who is doing Masters in Architecture Design, a guy doing PhD in electrical, a guy who had just completed his MBA from Johnson, a girl who was into her second term in Systems Engineering, another girl who was, I think, taking up an MS in Computer Science, if I remember correctly, and another who was doing a PhD in medical which required her to spend considerable time in the NY medical campus. It was nice to know folks from different fields as niche as they were and to go through their experiences that brought them here. One of them had studied at CMU in Pittsburgh and couldn’t stop comparing it with Ithaca that always inevitably ended up in Cornell lagging behind in the race. The Design major had some unconventional ideas of how to shape her courses in Cornell and the career thereafter. The Systems Engineer was mulling of which courses to take in the fall and was telling me that she was advised not to take any OR courses since they were known to rob you of your leisure time! The electrical PhD guy was fresh out of college and was excited to take on the challenges in the 5-6 year long stay that he has in front of him and the MBA guy was on the opposite end – had had enough life at Cornell with its ups and downs (in terms of temperature as well) and was looking forward to take up a job and start reaping the sown MBA seeds!
Ok. Let’s come to my trip to Toronto. This is something I had been looking forward to. Having worked at Capital One which has an office in Toronto I have quite a few folks who are either working there or were just visiting. There are just a few ways to go to Toronto – book a bus ticket with Greyhound that picks you up from the State Street Terminal and goes via Rochester->Buffalo->Toronto or try looking up for someone who is going that way and open for a ride. I actually found someone, coincidentally the folks I had met the other day and hitched a ride with them till Buffalo from where I had already booked a bus to Toronto. So it helps to meet people! We started off around 3 pm from Ithaca and reached Buffalo bus terminal around 7:15 pm after picking up a friend of theirs from Rochester at about 5:20 pm. I was in time for the 8:10 bus the ticket of which I had purchased but I was hoping to switch to 7:40 if there was space. Upon reaching I found that there were quite a few people for the 8:10 bus and just one for the 7:40 one and that made the chances of my move difficult. Megabus was what I had booked tickets on but the stop was primarily Greyhound and Coach USA’s. We had to wait for a long time before the buses arrived at 9:10 pm, all the while being told of the pathetic New York traffic that caused the delay. The Megabus staff on floor was trying out desperate tricks, actually they were being foolishly comic, to “entertain” the customers that was, frankly, more pestering than fun. Coincidentally both the buses came back to back with the 8:10 one stopping behind, and hence blocking the way of, the 7:40 one which meant that it would, ironically, leave earlier! We hopped on to that bus and, after spending about 30-45 minutes at the border, reached Toronto around midnight. While coming back I realized how lucky I was to have cleared the customs in such a short span of time.
My stay in Toronto was short and awesome. My friend from Capital One lives on the 22nd (or is it 27th?) floor and the view is AMAZING! The first day I went down the memory lane at U of T. Although the pita restaurant at College St. and University Ave. was closed, it felt good to be back in time, so to say J We then went to witness the liveliness at Dundas and Yonge and I was amazed to see the same street performers who used to sit there back in 2006. We had food at a Mediterranean place right in front of Eaton Center on Dundas and then we got some beer to drink at my friend’s place. Let me tell you, its an altogether different feeling to sit on the 27th floor with the cool breeze blowing into your face, the sun setting on the horizon and dozens of ant-sized people buzzing on the ground. All this with a bottle of beer!
Other than that, we hung around a few pubs in the vicinity, met a few folks from my ex-company, went over to a pool party and that was pretty amazing and sat besides the lake, again another kind of relaxation! I was to take my bus back on Sunday but I hadn’t booked my tickets yet and when I inquired about the tickets, guess what, they were $80, CAD 80 which, they told, translated to $100 US. The same ticket when booked online costs $57. With an incentive of meeting another friend who had flown the previous day, I decided to book the ticket online for the next day that I can then have printed at the FedEx next to the Greyhound bus stop. And the decision was well made, that night went pretty well J
The next morning was terrible. With my bus being at 10 AM, I reached the stop at 9:30 only to know that Greyhound has a screwed up online schedule and the next bus would leave only at noon. Although they advised me to check if the 9 AM bus hasn’t still left and, to my utter surprise, there was a big line of about 70-80 folks including the ones for the 8 AM bus. With passengers piling up and no bus in sight the staff were helpless, or so they claimed, even to provide the basic information of when the bus would come saying that they had no means of getting in touch with the driver! Duh!! Somehow, luckily they managed to rake in another bus on way to Binghamton via Syracuse but they had no clue on how I would reach Ithaca! More astonishing and frustrating was the fact that the drivers claimed to have no idea where the bus was going even when they had boarded and began driving!
I had no idea what was in store for me at Syracuse. When I reached I was told that the only bus to Ithaca had left 30 minutes ago and the only way for me to reach Ithaca was to go all the way to Binghamton and then back following which I’d reach Cornell at about 10 pm. I told them that I had signed up for a 10 am to 5 pm ride and Greyhound is bound to uphold that reservation to which he said that the service is on a first-come-first served basis and is not guaranteed. Unaware of that fact I realized how careless and indifferent the staff was to passenger’s schedule. I went over my alternatives and mulled the option of going all the way to Binghamton but I couldn’t wait another 5 hours to reach home. Having thought out my defense I returned for another round of discussion with him and after much deliberation he agreed to refund the money. I felt victorious for a moment but quickly realized that I’ll have to shell out another $30 for a cab ride and demanded that I justly be given the extra amount since there was no reason for abandoning a passenger midway and they owed me a ride to Ithaca by 5 pm. He retributed with the example of the airlines that also operate on a first-cum-first-served principle but he soon fell flat on his words which was apparent from his pale face when I added that they compensate with $600 and provide a day’s stay in a hotel and all that am asking is $30 to cover my cab fare.
It was a sad experience and what made it worse was that the staff couldn’t own up to the situation and could not provide a satisfactory response that could alleviate the passenger’s concerns. I would think thrice before booking Greyhound!!
Did you get the thirty bucks?
ReplyDeleteLol. No man.
ReplyDelete