Thursday: Picking up the Birth Certificate Downtown

As a footnote, I had asked for a translation of my birth certificate downtown and had to rush from the campus to pick it up before they closed at 5:30. Class ended at 4:30, so I ran to catch the first bus, transferred to the metro and within the metro, jumped on a bus going eastbound and arrived (luckily) at 5:20 p.m.

Everything went smoothly, but there's always a lot of things to foul you up when you're on the move. Just yesterday (Friday afternoon), my classmate was planning to take a bus back to the school from the Gare Perrache bus station and arrive shortly before a scheduled meeting at 1:00, when a TCL (local transport company) official came to announce that a serious accident in the Fourvière tunnel forced the TCL to cancel service of that line from Perrache. My classmate scrambled to find an alternative route but was able to figure out a work-around using the metro and another bus that passes by the school.

Always helps to be prepared and carry copies of the bus schedules on you!