Friday, September 23, 2011

The One Where I Figure Out How Little My Commute Actually Is ...

So, I JUST figured out how short my commute actually is. It is approximate, but it is less than 6 miles from my apartment to the school I am teaching at. Serious?? SERIOUS? Yes!!! So, now I am wondering why I am even bothering to take the RER train at all. 6 miles ... That is nothing compared to what I am used to. Here is a visual for all of you visual people ...


Paris "commute" (just under 6 miles each way):
 California COMMUTE (about 52ish miles each way):

Not to mention that I will pay one monthly fee and that will take care of my commute costs. I can take the metro, RERs and buses as much as I want in that month! No paying for gas, oil changes, washing my car, worrying about tire pressure, traffic, parking pass, coins for the meter, parking spots, blah blah blah. And the only ticket I could get is if I forget my pass and have to hop the turnstiles to get on the metro ... the best part? I've heard it's only about 25euro - and it's even possible to get it reduced down to 5euro. (OR I could be a normal person and buy one way tickets which run about 1euro70 each). Yep, no worrying about getting a red light ticket or speeding ticket or anything that is going to cost between $250 - $450. Nope. Nada! Although, I will have to deal with crowds, stenches and being a bit less comfortable than being in my own car. And not to mention that the commute is based off of the times of the train, so I may have to wait 0-10ish minutes for it to arrive. But that's ok because I can just read a book or something ... and then continue to read it DURING the commute since I'm not driving. Yay!!!

Overall, this seems to be a really good thing! If not, well then it is just a nice break from that hell hole that we in So Cal like to call the 91 freeway where major accidents are daily (such as that time it took me FOUR hours to get home instead of 1.5 because a cement truck flipped over ...).

Oh, and I could even talk on my cellphone/text as much as I want to now - be prepared for possible Skype calls from the inside of the RER B! :)


Peace

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