Always an adventure, my usual ride home on the bus at 12:30pm-1:00pm after teaching my morning class is anything but relaxing. Surprising, because you’d think it would be a peaceful ride back since it’s the lunch hour and that there would be few passengers since the college is in a relatively remote area (past the Kaohsiung International Airport). It often does start off that way; when I get on the bus there will be only of 5 or so passengers total on the bus, but I don’t get too comfortable because it won’t last for long.

At the next stop my ears are first assaulted by screaming, howling voices, then bus is crowed by an imposing mass of school children who are like a bunch of heathens released from captivity into the light of day. The bus is immediately transformed from lifeless to an unruly sideshow act. They raise the noise level on the bus from 0 to 1000, run up and down the aisle of the bus, and push and smack each other continuously. It’s as if they are trying to see who can get in the last smack just before hopping off the bus. It really is quite a spectacular site.

Oblivious to what’s happening, the bus driver drives as madly as ever. It’s an accident waiting to happen. I’m surprised that I haven’t seen more bus related casualties. On several occasions, I have seen children slammed into the stairwell of the side rear door when the bus comes to an abrupt halt. The violence of this act always jars me.

And then there’s always some old woman who boards at the same stop or shortly there after- who takes to yelling at these children to take a seat for the sake of their safety. It really is quite the scene. Don’t get me wrong, despite my “charming” description of these children, I don’t feel the need to discipline them. I usually just sit there in sheer amazement and amusement at their unruliness watch how this scene plays out weekly.