Bus Success!

This morning was the trial run.  We were ALL up earlier than we are accustomed to normally.  Well, I am usually up this early, but not used to having to be "on" until I have had an hour or so to drink my coffee and scope out the game plan for the day.

We had to be leaving the house by 7:15.  All of us!  Tom had his first appearance at the University scheduled for 8:30, so was only walking us to the bus stop and taking the picture.  I was feeling a little anxious about how I was going to manage to not only escort A and R onto the bus, but ask the driver for an all-day ticket for me (at the front of the bus) and get O with the stroller onto the back door of the bus.  We ended up having A flash her student pass to the driver then run to the back to take the stroller from Tom while I decided to just take a single fare.  I was supposed to place the money on the top plate of the money box (I assume so the driver could see the money), but in my nervousness, I dropped it into the first slot I saw.  With a grumble, he had to open the box and retrieve the money and then give me the change.  Ooops!

Fortunately, the rest of the ride to the train station/ bus transfer center and then the second bus went much smoother!  We delivered A to the school office of her campus, where she was met by one of the teachers and escorted to her first class.  A hasty good-bye and then the sub-headmaster, Herr Surr, escorted us by foot to R's campus and classroom.  We met Herr Surr yesterday with R.  He speaks English fairly well - much better than my German-but apologizes for it.  Once we had delivered R to her classroom, Herr Surr was kind enough to wait for the bus with us and ask for the all-day pass.

At 9:00 am I was once again standing back in the kitchen of our house, breathing a sigh of relief and feeling as if I had finished a Survivor: Germany challenge!  Whew!  Now for the return trip:  I need to be leaving the house once again at 11:55 to retrieve A at 12:30 and then R at 1:30.  Somehow I need to fit in lunch and a nap for O!