This is the bus line up at Lydia's school for afternoon dismissal. The school is on a dead-end street with nowhere to make a u-turn, up a fairly steep hill. The road is about the width of a low-traffic residential street in the US; this street happens to be surrounded by apartment complexes (and HKIS). Around 7:45 am and 3 pm, dozens of buses make their way up the street - transporting the 1200+ kids to Lydia's school.
Watching the bus drivers maneuver the Greyhound size buses up the hill is a sight to be seen. I scraped up the side of my Mini Cooper in a parking spot - can't imagine the damage I could do with a bus! But, the bus drivers are so skilled, it actually looks easy. There are about 17 buses squeezed in the photo above! There's another short, one-lane dead-end street off to the left that holds another 3-5 buses.
I distinctly remember one of the first days Lydia was at school and I happened to be there at dismissal time. It appeared to be absolute mayhem - kids checking a white board to find out where their buses were parked that day (they're never in the same order - logistics is just too complex), bus mothers (what they call the attendants - I don't know what they get paid, but whatever it is, it's not enough) vascillating between encouraging kids to get on the bus to shouting at them to be quiet and sit down, etc. Kids and adults were milling about between the buses trying to find the right bus number.
What does this have to do with making sausage? An assistant principal came up to me as I was witnessing the chaos for the first time. He said "Dismissal time is like making sausage - you really shouldn't watch it, especially if you're a new parent. But, I assure you that we've never lost a kid!"
See what we're going to miss in KC?!
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