The day I almost died in the metro.

Dear friends and family, sincerest apologies if any of you have been waiting in anticipation for my next blog. I thought i posted this last thursday, but I only saved it as a draft. however, its still a story worth sharing so...

Finally, I have another funny story to tell you. Today, I almost died. I know it doesn't really sound that funny,
but just wait. Technicalllllyyy, it was sort of my own fault, but i think its fair to blame them dumb metro control people who insist on checking passengers tickets to make sure no one is cheating the system.  It wouldnt have been bad, but the insistttt on doing so right as you get off the metro.  So here's the story, Andrea and I were heading to get lunch and instead of walking the 1/2 mile down the street, we decided to be lazy and take the metro.  As we're walking to get on to the train, we realized it was the wrong one. So we turned around to catch the right train, and were greeted by a line of metro police(the mall cops of the metro) asking to check the tickets of everyone on the platform.  It was a little annoying but not a big deal until I couldn't find my card, that was weird because I always put it in the same place in my bag.  I knelt down to dig through it, thinking I must have just shoved it in there somewhere when I went home to get some money for lunch.  As I was pulling everything out, the train behind us left, sending a strong gust of wind along the platform.  At that moment, I finally found my ticket; at the same time that the gust of metro wind found my 20E bill, so carefully thrown in my bag, on top of my school books.  I watched as the wind carried my money down the platform, in slow motion.  My first instinct, of course, was to run after it. so I did. until i realized jumping down on to the train tracks only to be greeted by the oncoming train, although daring and adventurous, probably wasn't worth it.  So there I stood, helpless and now 20E poorer. When the metro cops saw the look on my face, they asked what had happened, and after I explained my situation, they realized they had the chance to be heroes for the day.  And they all wanted in on it.  Literally 10 of them ran to the edge, searching intently from the platform for the prize. One of them spotted it while another ran to get the "dueno" of the station.  He came over, evaluated the situation and decided that, to the dismay of the hopeful faces gathered in the area, there was not enough time to grab the bill before the next train came, but if it was still there after the train left, he would go get it for me.  looked like i'd be 20E poorer after all.  30 seconds later, the next train pulled into the station at lightning speed, sending another gust of wind down the platform and covering the prize. time seemed to stop as the crowds moved on and off, the doors closed, and the train left.  everyone held their breath, while one brave soul peeked over the edge to see the damage.  he yelled in excitement, it was still there! the flimsy paper bill had withstood the violent gust from the enemy and hadn't moved at all, ni siquiera an inch! the manager of the station ran down the steps for the recovery, fumbled the ball twice, but finally returned the money safe into my hands...which i presently shoved right back where it had been before, just begging another metro tornado to rip it away from me once again (but thankfully that didnt happen).  Nowadays, i steer clear of the metro police, or just pretend i dont speak spanish when they ask me a question...

another update to come soon!