I live far away from school. It’s a fact of life. My normal route involves a >10 minute walk to the nearest metro station (Vinateros), waiting for a train on Linea 9, going 2 stops (to Sainz de Baranda) and waiting for another train on Linea 6, and taking that 10 stops to Ciudad Universitaria, which is a >10 minute walk away from the building with my classes. All in all it takes about an hour, which some days doesn’t seem all that bad and other days (like when I’m mashed against the wall of a sweaty metro car and I look to see that I still have 7 more stops until I change trains) it seems a bit hellish.

Today was one of those days.

You see, Linea 6, of late, has been a little bit… how do you say… unreliable. Trains have been known to, well, stop. For five, ten, twenty minutes. No warning, no explanation really. Today I got two stops in on my gray train, and it decided to wait for 10 minutes. An eye roll, a glance at the clock, a shift of weight from one foot to the other, it was something I was used to. The train slowly started moving again, and I thought the worst of it was over, and I would be there in no time.

Then we hit the next stop, where throngs of people were waiting to cram into my precious train. The doors opened, we squeezed… and nothing happened. The doors did not close. Another glance at the time, another shift of weight, I stood there for five, ten, fifteen, twenty minutes, and nothing happened. By this time my class was going to start in five minutes. I decided to take one of the other lines across town and try to hop on a bus. I ended up making it, a half hour late to class. Total commute time: 1 hour 40 minutes.