Living in suburban Connecticut, there is no need for public transportation. So I am not as used to traveling by train or taxi as some other cherubs may be.

I have never ridden in a taxi, or actually seen a taxi anywhere near my house. I mean, honestly, my school is 10 minutes from my house, and that is at the opposite end of town. I can walk to most of my friends' houses and to the center of town. I can pretty much drive anywhere in less than five minutes, so why would we ever need public transportation? We

Mike Juliani and Lauren Baldwin sit behind a man on the El, who talks about his screenplay.

do have a train station that goes directly to New York City. But when I go to the city with my family, we drive. And when I go with my friends, we never really interact with the other people whose faces are usually buried in newspapers. So when I came to Evanston, I was surprised with all of the funny occurrences that happened on the train. Let’s rewind a bit.

On the way back from Chicago one week, I watched Josh Kriegel sleep in an upright position while our instructor David Weissman took about 15 up close pictures of him. I heard the off-key singing voice of a lanky man who apparently forgot that the people around him couldn’t hear the music playing on his iPod. My friends Lindsay and Grace even almost got in legal trouble on their ride back from the Art Institute, as they took a video of a man sleeping on Alex’s camera. His friend threatened to sue them and find them if they uploaded it to YouTube.

The funniest experience I have had on the El so far was on the way home from Millennium Park a few weeks ago. To occupy our time, we began a game of “would you rather.” Someone said something along the lines of, “would you rather marry for money or marry for love?” We were about to switch to the next topic when a man sitting near us, who by the way was covering his bald head with a cowboy hat, decided to join in and explain why we could not have both love and money.

He asked each of us which we would rather have, and I believe Emily said she wanted both and the rest of us just said love. Well, our friend in the cowboy hat informed us that we had to pick one or the other, because a person is ruled by one of them, he said. This first became a small debate, but after a few minutes of conversation with this man, we began to wonder exactly why he was speaking to us. It turned into a discussion about a screenplay that the man was writing. We bonded over the fact that we were all writers. After we learned all about his movie that would be set in the year 4044, and learned in-depth details about his characters Emma and Sam, we realized that the main character didn’t actually choose money or love. I think he was just trying to advertise his horrible screenplay, which by the way, I don’t think I will waste $10 on a ticket to see.

The man kept thanking us for the wonderful feedback; though I am pretty sure we were all zoning out during the whole thing and just nodded our heads often. We were dying for him to stop speaking. Mike Juliani asked him if it was supposed to be a satire. He talked for about 20 more minutes until we finally reached Evanston. I couldn’t understand why this man kept talking to us and why we should care about his movie that is definitely not going to make it to theaters. It was extremely funny to watch his face light up as he described details of the religious war in the movie and see his facial expressions change as he acted out short scenes.

Though the only word that comes to my mind when I think about this ride is “strange,” and since it was my first time actually communicating with strangers on public transportation, I have to say it is true when they tell us that everybody has a story. They told us this in the classroom, and look how great it is to actually experience what you learn. I guess these instructors do have some idea what they’re talking about. I know this whole everyone has a story thing is a journalism cliché, but really it’s true. I’m writing about him now aren’t I? And when I return home and next take the train, I will be sure to talk with the people around me and find out what their stories are so I can tell you.
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