People On the bus.

People are interesting. And learning about them is even more so.

Have you ever been on a bus, sitting alone and have nothing to do?

I have. And more often than not I tend to look at other people in the bus, (try to) study their characteristics. (Actually I was only trying to find something to do, which is better than studying through my lecture notes. =D)

Being in Australia, for sure the kind of people I meet in the bus are a lot more different than Malaysia.

In Adelaide specifically, there are a lot of old people around. They like to take their time, get on the bus, smile at the driver, and they have shaking hands when they want to validate their ticket. (Cepatlerr, aku dah lambat nk pi kelas niii...)

Also, what strikes me the most is the number of 'problematic' people on the streets and in the bus. There is this one day when in the morning, I seem to be meeting really strange people and on the way, I was late for class.

There was this one guy who sits alone, who looks like a homeless. He looks like Shrek version human (no kidding, minus the ears of course.), with a constantly open mouth, and every 7 seconds or more, keeps swaying his head like he was listening to Indian Metal.

And then the same morning, the bus driver stopped for what seemed to be someone who want to get on the bus. What turned out was that the guy just stood outside the bus and started to tell the driver (outloud) about stories about dont know what. And it was polite of the driver to simple say 'thank you' and drove away (I would've thrown a show)...and I was again late for class..

But there are some interesting people who I meet on the bus as well.

There is this one guy, who is a traveller. He travelled numerous places before. What struck me is that he had a pretty steady job before he left Australia decades ago. But he quit all that, went travelling and worked while he travelled. He worked really simply, like teaching English, etc.

And this all happened a few months back. Surprise2, recently we met again on the same bus. And he remembered who I am. And we continued to chat like old friends...(And I cant even remember his name. =D)

So I guess, looking at people keeps me interested in staying on the bus eh.

It's also funny to me when I am living in Australia but the students whom I see going to Uni everyday in the same bus as mine was mostly chinese. Yeap, more asian whites then Aussie Whites. Guess Adelaide is Old Man Country after all.

But being able to study people, quietly, is a bonus in itself.

Don't get me wrong, I dont think Im a 'people' person. But all the same, studying people gives me the pleasure of looking at humans and discerning their character.

Everyone is unique, and getting to know what part is unique is interesting in itself. Because given a situation, everyone would not react in the same way. It's interesting to see how people react and compare it to how you yourself do.

People can also be role models. They can be your inspiration to get better in life. It's interesting to see how people do what they do, and why they do it.

People are interesting, especially people on the bus.