If you go to Yeshiva University, you've probably been on the shuttle that goes between the Beren and Wilf campuses. Often referred to by people as "the shidduch shuttle," this shuttle holds more than just awkward encounters between males and females. In fact, I am not sure anyone in the history of YU has ever met their soul mate on this shuttle. What I am sure of is that people have quite a few hilarious recollections of their time spent in a van with 15 of their peers. Here are some stories I've curated regarding crazy shuttle experiences.
*The stories are anonymous and may have been edited for purposes of clarity.
1. "One time I had a new shuttle driver and he thought he knew a quicker way. We got totally lost and it took us an hour and a half to get to the heights."
2. "Last year during Cram N' Crunch, my roommates and I took the local at midnight to Schottenstein to get pancakes. We got back on the local to return to Brookdale, when the driver noticed our pancakes, and we offered to get him some. So my roommate went inside to bring him a plate. He then asked her to go back and get him a glass of milk, because you can't have pancakes without a glass of milk. When she came back out, he asked her to bring him napkins, because he would make a mess--Then he didn't want to drive us back to Brookdale until he'd finished his plate."
3. "My friend and I were talking about a guy (only good things) I went on Torah Tours with. All of a sudden, we realize his sister was sitting right in front of us. She turned around and we had a really awkward conversation with her while we all pretended nothing had happened."
4. "One time on a freezing Friday we were waiting by 245 for the shuttle, and the driver decided to drive right by the building, not pick us up, and just go straight to the Heights. We had to wait an hour for the next one."
5. "The boys next to me talked about their shoe size for legitimately 22 minutes."
6. "One time the boy next to me and the one in front of me were each watching plastic surgeries on their individual phones and cheering the doctors on like they were watching football."
7. "I was on a late shuttle that was just six guys and me. One of them had just had a bad date and because I was a girl, they decided to ask me for dating advice on how to find 'like cool girls ya know? Not the weird ones.'"
8. "I climbed over Rav Schachter on the local. Scariest moment of my life."
9 ."A guy asked the driver if he could DJ the radio so he could start a sing-along. The driver said no. The guy played music from his phone and started singing anyway. No one joined."
10. "I was once on a shuttle not too late at night, on the Wilf campus. The shuttle was filling up and just as we were about to shut the door to leave, a boy stepped up to the door, yelling "Wait wait wait!" He started to look around, like he was looking for a seat and then explained 'I still need to find a wife!'"
11. "The FDR was under construction, so we were taking streets. About 20 minutes into the ride, at around 85th street, the girl behind me tapped me on the shoulder and told me she needed to pee. I looked at her and told her to do what everyone else does: hold it in. She explained that she really couldn't and was wondering if she should ask the driver if they could stop somewhere. At that point, the shuttle was about to get on the highway. She started freaking out and went up to the driver and asked if he could stop. To her surprise, he said yes, but he was literally about to pull onto the highway and all that was around was a park and a hotel across the street. She yelled 'Sorry!' as the driver pulled over and sprinted out, across the street, and disappeared into the hotel. A few minutes later, she ran back onto the shuttle. A few of us clapped and we pulled onto the highway, at which point she told me that she needed to pee again. I said she should see a doctor."
And to make things more interesting--
12. "Right before the shuttle was about to get on the highway, I made them stop so I could go to the bathroom in a hotel across the street. I learned my lesson: never have a giant fruit smoothie before getting on the shuttle."
Finally, if anyone out there reading this has a hilarious story, there will be another edition of shuttle stories coming out next week, so please feel free to Facebook message me, Jordyn Kaufman, your stories.