Ausgang, ausgang

Tuesday June 28. Hot again today: 30 Celsius by 9 a.m. Today I'm going to be a ‘lady who lunches’. The Ladies International Association had its annual new members lunch today. I took the S-Bahn to a transfer point, then took the tram to get to my destination. The trams are big, 2-car affairs, they run on a track and have doors in the side of each car that automatically opens at every stop. (Unlike the S- and U-bahns, where you have to activate a button or push a handle to open the doors.)

A couple stops after I got on, two young women shepherded a group of 15 or so 4 year-olds onto the tram. They couldn’t all find seats together, so one woman & 5 of the kids walked to the back & ended up in front of me. All was well for a couple stops, but the tram was hot, the kids got bored. The two across the aisle decided to have a ‘bite the handhold on the back of the seat’ contest. This didn’t phase their minder. Then, one started a shrieking contest and of course a couple more joined in. (Not the girl across from me, she was holding her ears. I wanted to do the same.) It wasn’t until everyone else in the tram was glaring that their minder noticed. First she talked with one, then another and they sort of settled down.

A few minutes later, for some reason their minder grabbed her bag & walked up front to talk with the other woman. They’re chatting up at the front, when the tram comes to a stop and the doors open. The kids near me look around, don’t see her and so they stand up, start singing ‘Ausgang, ausgang’ (exit, exit) take hands and walk off the tram! I could see the alarm sweep up the car before I could say anything, one teenager vaulted off the tram & talked to the kids, someone else told the driver to stop. And it’s not until now that the women in charge have noticed that anything’s wrong. Everyone was herded back on the tram and we proceeded. Until 15 minutes later, we stopped and never got going again. We sat for 5 minutes, very unusual, and the driver made an announcement. We all got off the tram. It sat there for a couple minutes then pulled away, just as the next tram was coming. So we piled onto that one and continued.

I finally got to the lunch destination, at a member’s house. It was a very enjoyable time, I had already met several of the women. Met a few new ones too, a couple who had lived in the area I’m in and offered help with anything if I needed it.

Getting back was also a bit of an adventure. Eva kindly gave me a ride to the tram stop, where there already were a couple of the women I had met. Good thing, too, as we waited & waited, there came an announcement from the kiosk would we please wait; and then a bus pulled up. We all piled on to it, and it traced the tram route. The other women, Ewa and Alex, told me this rarely happens, but they always make it right & get you to where you need to go. So now I know, in case it happens again and I still don’t understand what they were saying.

Got home at about 4, exhausted and hot. Didn’t do much else. Forgot how much humid heat tires me out.