A Glimpse at my Emotions

abuela, are you alright?

2018-02-13, 2:39 PM

Exactly how long has it been since I updated something here? Well, damn. My excuse of being too busy can't exactly help me now, can it.

Quite a bit has happened, the big major thing being huge misunderstandings at times between me and my grandmother. And Chinese New Year is coming up (I can't wait for more time to crash and sleep since we got a week off!). And I am still keeping in touch with my parents and Mathieu and one of my Wattpad friends through email. And I was involved with yet another bus/car accident yesterday. Again.

So here's a bit of context. There are a lot of bus lines here in Beijing that carry people to different places. Some lines go to the same stops as others, but some don't. Some don't follow the exact same route as others so you might have to switch lines at times. Everyday from where I live now, I have to sit through four bus stations before I could get to my workplace. Along the way, we pass the hospital that my grandmother had to go to yesterday to retrieve her medications, and that's one stop before I get off.

So here's what happened. Yesterday my grandmother and I both started off sitting in a bus that would make a stop at the hospital my grandmother was going to, but would not stop at the station near my workplace. I sat with her for two stops before I noticed another bus right in front of my bus that would take me directly to my workplace station at that stop. So I said goodbye to my grandma and ran for that bus. Got in just in time.

But the bus didn't move.

I wasn't sure if this was due to traffic or something. All I remember was finding a seat near the back of the bus, putting on my headphones, and having "The Schuyler Sisters" blasting through. And then just as Burr finished rapping, there came a huge CRASH from behind that almost made me slide out of my seat.

No doubt, a car crashed into us. And everyone started to panic. The bus driver let us all out and so we left. It turned out that the bus that my grandmother was on also suffered a major dent near the headlights and the front--the car was squished right between the buses like the meat in a sandwich.

And of course I began to panic when I looked for her and didn't see her. So I went on the other bus to look for her.

She was fine. Physically at least. Besides the fact that her back hurt slightly from the crash (she fell sideways in her seat and there was a pole that kind of blocked her fall) and her heart rate went insane, there wasn't anything major otherwise. No broken bones at the very least. To me, though, she pointed out that I looked as pale as a ghost--and yeah, that was true. My face turned white according to her. Perhaps it was from the shock of the accident.

I mean, I'll be fair. I was involved in a bus accident when I was 14. I was part of an elite regional band group and we were going to give a performance at the end of the week at a theatre. We had two buses leaving from separate regions and they were meant to meet at that theatre. But our bus was held up because it didn't stop at a red light in the middle of a major intersection, and then a car sped along and crashed right into the left front wheel of the bus.

I remembered how shocked I was back then. And yesterday, it all came rushing back. I had to make sure my grandmother was okay before I did anything else.

Eventually after a dispute with the bus driver, my grandmother and I left that bus and got on another one that dropped her off to the hospital and me at work.

Honestly, I'm still a little shaken. Most people were. Two other passengers complained about how their neck hurt or how their spine felt weird (I don't know how exactly to translate that from Chinese), and I noticed the abnormality in face colour. Their faces were really, really yellow.

Mine was white. Theirs was yellow. Sickly, I suppose. If anyone else came away looking absolutely fine, I'd probably feel a bit outraged.

I mean for heck's sake! We were chugging along fine and then all of a sudden BOOM.

So I ended up being at least half an hour late for work.

Honestly, I probably wouldn't know what caused the crash. But all I do know is that in a crazy world like this, it's always wise to exercise more caution than one could ever be used to.

I don't know if such a thing would happen to me again, but if it does, at least I'd be more prepared for it.

Maybe.