Since starting to take the connector bus about a month and a half ago, my life has gotten considerably better by eliminating the stress of the commuter traffic, and giving me about an extra hour a day to read.

One of the unexpected highlights has been the crazy array of characters I’ve seen while taking The Connector. So in the spirit of Overheard in New York, here is the first installment of As seen on the bus.

Dear Mr. Sweaty Man,

You got in all in a hurry the other day looking quite frazzled. From the the way that you were panting, the casual observer would have thought you ran for miles (or even a few blocks) to get to the Connector. However, you and I both know I saw you cross the street from your apartment building exactly one block away.

You proceeded to sweat uncontrollably the entire ride. So much, in fact, one might have been scared for your health. The panting you had initially when you got on the connector had passed, but for some reason your body wasn’t in agreement. You looked so hot for the first 15 minutes of the ride, but then you started to sweat through your entire shirt. Half-way through our commute, your shirt looked like saran wrap and we could see the pores of your skin. I hope that your jacket and bottom of your shirt helped cool you down as you wiped your face.

Proof that it’s a good thing that we have on-campus showers.

Love,

Me

What do all 3 of these have in common? They personify Rome!

First let’s discuss sweat. Being a Vancouver native and now living in Seattle, I’m hot when it tips over 80 degrees, even without humidity. We took an insanely early train out of Cinque Terre today (5:25am!) so we could get to Rome at reasonable time. When we left the Termini train station we knew instantly it wasn’t good news. I was already sweating and we were about 15 steps from the train station. not good. We spent the day exploring a few of the major tourist “mus see” sights — the Colosseum, Palantine Hill, Trevi fountain and the Spanish steps. Along the way we must have drank 1 full gallon of water and I must have lost at least 5 pounds out of my pores.

Second, it’s the Coffee. I’m slowly eating and drinking my way through Italy. Gelato here is out of this world, as well as the coffee. I can’t tell you how good the coffee is, no matter where you get it. I had a cappucino this morning at the counter of the Macdonald’s in the Le Spezia train station at 6am. Ummm.. tasty! I think I’ve found my ultimate burial ground. When you bury me, make sure I have an espresso shot in my hand.

Lastly, let’s talk about Hypothermia. We’re staying our first night at this hostel called The Freestyle Hostel that we found last minute on Hostelworld.com. Our second night will be at a place called The Pop Inn since we couldn’t find a single place that we could stay the entire duration. The hostel so far is really nice, though not as nice as the Villa Saint Exupery in Nice. The room and board here includes free dinner and wine, which is never a bad thing since we’re trying to stretch our already thin money. After being out all day, we got back to the hostel at 7pm in time for dinner and a quick shower. The shower here has got to be the coldest shower on the bloody planet. To top it off there is no water pressure, but in retrospect, I’m not sure the pressure matters when you’re literally biting your tongue to stop yourself from screaming. I don’t even think it’s possible to have water this cold — it’s as if they have a mechanism to actually make the water colder.

We met some cool guys from London in the hostel tonight that we’ll probably hang out with tonight and go to a local bar. We’ve been up so long, I’m anxious for a low key night.

Tomorrow we’re hitting the Vatican most likely and maybe check out the statue of David if I feel up to a museum.