Buna Luck

There is one thing that you have to know about the Buna’s. We have bad, horrible, crappy, shitty, shitty luck. There are 3 basic things you have to know about our luck.

1. If anything could go wrong, it WILL go wrong.
2. Don’t ever wish for something lucky…cause you will just get your hopes up and everything will crash and burn after that.
3. You will always have an adventure.

From the time my mom and I left Victoria on August 15th to today August 19th…let me tell you we have some stories. I will try and keep them brief…I wont wish to keep them short because you know what happens then.

Our flight from Victoria to Fresno has a lay over in San Francisco. That is no shock even if there was a direct flight we would have never been able to make it. In San Francisco we had a 5 hour lay over because “there was no other flights”. Surrrreee that’s what they all say. Anyways our 5 hours went by thankfully to the amazing show “Pretty Little Liars,” and we make our way to our gate. Soon enough our boarding time passed, then our departure time passed. Typical. I get worried, and go to find out what the heck is going on. Well, this one is a shocker, the flight got delayed another 2 hours. Like really? After patiently waiting we finally board our flight. We wait on our airplane for 30 minutes, and the flight attendant finally comes on and asks “Can we have 2 people volunteer too get off and wait till the next flight. There is too much weight on the plane. You will receive a 400 dollar voucher.” In the back of my mind I was like..sweet 400 dollars but then I quickly snapped out of that and I was like hell no! There is no way I am stepping one foot of this plane. After 20 minutes of bribery 2 people get off and we are on our way to FRESNO!

We arrive in Fresno a “couple” hours late. Haha. First stop, AT&T for my lovely, beautiful, precious blackberry. We get to the shop at 5:00 and the store closes at 6:00 (this is important). I immediately go to the torch which is the new blackberry, google it. We set up my plan…as far as I know im golden. There I go again, wishing. Soon we find out that since I don’t have a social security number that we have to have a 500 dollar deposit. That hit me hard. Well I guess we have to do that, so we go to pay with Visa. First swipe, declined. Second swipe, declined. Third swipe, declined. You get the pattern. After many phone calls we find out that our Visa was flagged cause they thought it got stolen. It is now 6 o’clock and we have not purchased our phone. After several back and forth phone calls with the Visa company we are officially un-flagged and ready to buy the phone. BUT now the store machine is blocking our Visa cause we tried too many times. They tell my mom to go across the road to “King Liquor” to the ATM to take out cash. My mom walks there, and 2 seconds she walks back and was like “I am not taking money out from that machine! Its sketch!” At King Liquor there was random Indian guys and drunk girls running around and dancing (that’s not my mothers scene). After all our possibilities were wasted, we end up leaving the phone there and I didn’t get my lovely, beautiful, precious blackberry.

Just to remind you that this all happened in one day!

The next day, I meet my roommate Brooke for the first time. She came down from her hometown, Modesto, which is about an hour and a half drive. We go shopping that day and get our dorm stuff! Thank the lord the day went smoothly; hopefully Brooke’s family thinks were normal?

As an international student I am required to take 2 full days of orientation. Ya I am so international and all, coming from Canada. However, there are no exceptions! They gave us international students a “clearance card” and after every lecture/activity are advisor stamps a section of our clearance card. Every box on this card has to be stamped by October 1st. Great! Lets not get started on the TB test. The first day of orientation was long, tiring, and very overwhelming!

So after that long day Brooke, Melanie (her mom), my mom, and I go out for a nice dinner at the Doghouse. The Doghouse is a really good American grill which has an amazing steak cobb salad…its indescribable. Although, the parking is soooo hard to get cause its so busy. My mom goes and parks down the road in a mall/hotel parking lot. The car is bordering Starbucks and the “University Inn,” these are key points. We eat at the Doghouse for about an hour and half, Brooke and Melanie have to go visit their aunt who lives in Fresno. My mom and I start walking to the car, well, what car? The car was gone. GONE. BYE BYE RENTAL CAR. My mom quickly goes to the University Inn and I call Brooke to come and save us. So much for there nice visit with their aunt. After 5 minutes of talking, the receptionist told my mom that, unless she was here visiting someone she would have to pay 200 dollars for her car back. That wasn’t going to happen!
My mom went and found some random guy. Luckily (this is a new word) this “random guy” was bringing his son to college at Fresno State. This man, Nels, went down to the front desk and talked to the receptionist that we were visiting him. She didn’t believe him so he brought down his son and the sons friend and we had to act like friends. Well funny enough this guy went to school with Brooke in grade 8. Small world. Nels and my mom couldn’t do anything but call “majestic towing”….really they couldn’t have thought of a better name. We just got a number. No address. After several conversations and many impolite words, we got the address. The tow truck company told my mom to bring all cash and to come to the ghetto (literally).
After that conversation my mom called the police to meet us there, so we didn’t get killed. Brooke, Melanie, my mom, Nels, and I all pile into the car and drive off to our “destination.” We arrive at majestic towing with the police (a very short policeman..i felt safe). We arrive at this house, which looked like a trailer. We could barely see the house cause there was no residential streetlights. Skkkeetttchhhhyyyyy. Brooke and I stayed in the car while my mom, Melanie, and Nels are talking/yelling with the people at majestic towing. After many minutes of yelling nothing got solved. The worst part was the policeman just stood there and let the men yell at my mom. Then my mom finally gave in and went to go pay the bill and asked if there was Visa. Oh they said that the Visa machine was broken. How convenient, the visa machine was broken…so you don’t pay taxes. Clever. And side note. The policeman didn’t care…it’s the law. How do you not care! Anyways after many hours we get our little Nissan Versa back and are ready to rock and roll. But not.

Day 2 of orientation. Longest day ever! I met many people let me tell you that, I can even join the Chinese, Japanese, Indian, and Mexican clubs all over campus. JOY! But the minute the orientation was done I stepped out of that building I was off to decorate Cedar 162C!

I’m currently in the middle of decorating my room! And I hate to bore you with more stories, but I’m sure there will be more. Remember I am a Buna and I am cursed with bad luck!