rosa parks

perhaps a bit insensitive of a title, however, as papa sat upfront in the cab, niall and i were standing in the aisle near the front of the bus. the aisles, pretty much all the way to the back, seemed quite full and we moved no further not wanting to barge our way through the old ladies carrying hefty packages and small children waiting next to their parents.

there was a bunch of yelling from the front to the back and niall and i kept looking back and forth wondering why the men in the back would not shift further back to make room for all of us squished up front.

as papa said, the driver found delight in his attempt to get the people to move back, backing up and then quickly slamming on his brakes. i giggled at this, knowing immediately what the driver was doing and thinking to myself "serves those people in the back right."

however, soon niall and i realized the people yelling (we were not quite sure exactly what they were saying but knew it was a command to move back) were yelling at us. (papa confirmed this when he told us later they were using the word "gringos" a lot up front). the yelling persisted and i made an attempt at spanish to say, well, geez guys, there are hombres in the back and WE CAN'T MOVE! only to be overshadowed by Niall who said, to begin with, essentially the same thing in spanish only to end his sentence with some english explitives aimed at every single peruvian on the bus who was watching and waiting for us to move. i, of course, burst out laughing right away.

we finally got the hint and moved to the back of the bus where there was room enough for a circus. of course, we grumbled the whole way: a mixture of english complaints and spanish insults. it was then that we realized we had no idea what sort of protocol goes on and, well, it's ok to yell at the gringos and step on old ladies toes and learn to go with the flow. my bus etiquette has certainly improved since then, which means no uses of common courtesies and shoving people out of the way in order to get out of the seat and exit the bus. additionally, one has to raise one's voice and look angry to get anything done or to be left alone.

i love it all.