"Busburrying"

It's Monday morning, and way too cold to be walking anywhere, so I hop on the CM after dropping off my car.

The elderly woman across from me clutches her purse and sits forward as if worried the back of the seat is carrying some sort of disease.

"Excuse me," she catches me glancing at her, "how do you request a stop?"

I hold back a giggle and tell her you have to push the yellow strip.

A year ago I would not have found her so funny. A year ago, I was her.

The number one thing I wish someone had told me when I first came to UNC?

Take the bus.

You know it's cool if Will Smith does it.

Sometimes, you just have to get away. That's not always easy when you don't have a car. But you'd be surprised how easy it is to get somewhere from UNC by giving the bus a try.

I'd never ridden a public bus before college. The first time I went to the grocery store, I didn't even know that you had to request a stop by pressing the yellow strip or the bus would keep going.

What's more embarrassing, I didn't know nextbus.com existed. I just guessed. And I often guessed wrong.

I have a car here now, but I've learned the value of riding the bus nonetheless. And I'm not talking about taking the P2P on a Friday night.

One of the many reasons to take the bus

Earlier this semester, I did something uncharacteristically spontaneous: I walked to a random bus stop and took the first bus that came by. I was going to kill two birds with one stone, doing some reading while figuring out my way around Chapel Hill.

Unfortunately, that was the D route, which lasts about an hour and a half. When my friends asked where I'd been, I told them I was "busburrying" (Not many of them got the Oscar Wilde reference).

It quickly became a habit to disappear and come back hours later with work done and a new perspective about all the things to do in Chapel Hill. Along any given bus line, there are grocery stores, banks and bookshops.

You don't have to bum a ride to see Chapel Hill, but you do have to get out of the bubble and onto the bus.

Just don't forget to press the yellow strip.

LA's bus tips

1.   Decoding the letters

The D goes east, towards "D"urham

Anything with C will go west, towards "C"arrboro. The CW will take you to "W"eaver Street Market

The F just goes back and forth on "F"ranklin

The NU and NS go "n"orth on Martin Luther King. (While you're up there give Foster's Market a try.)

"X" means express (few stops)

The J bus goes to Jones Ferry Park-and-Ride, which is in Carrboro.

2.   Other tips:

Always bring your phone in case the bus breaks down or you get lost.

Try different buses. You might find a faster route or a cool new place.

Talk to people. You might make friends!