Every day from Tuesday through Thursday, I need to be at the University of Guam by 8:00 am. Every Tuesdays and Thursdays I start my internship with UOG Sea Grant at 8:00 am and on Wednesdays, my environmental biology labs either starts or departs from UOG at 8:00 am. Every Monday, I start the day at 11:00 am and on Fridays I don’t have any classes. I end every day by 3:20 pm, and I prefer to be home by 5:00 pm.
Usually my father drops me to school- I arrive at UOG by 7:45 am, but occasionally, my grandfather or mother would drop me. Considering carbon emissions, it is ‘cleaner’ for my father to drop me than my grandfather and mother because my father heads to work afterwards- albeit, UOG is not part of his regular path, and whereas my grandfather and mother would have no other reason to be on the road. However, my mother or grandfather typically pick me up at the end of the day. The least carbon emission-inducive car transport would be to have my mom drop me and stay at UOG until I get off- I don’t have a driver’s license, but that is impractical. There are a few alternatives that I could take, but it would require sacrifices.
The first alternative, but not the preferred, would be to carpool with my friend who lives a few minutes away from me. This is more carbon emission-friendly but is not preferred because she leaves to UOG later than I need to be there and ends classes earlier than I do. In addition to that, carpooling may not be the most sustainable considering that friendships sour.
The second alternative would be to ride mass transit. However, I have never rode through Guam’s mass public transportation- unless riding school buses count, so it would be quite an experience. In theory, riding mass transit is the most efficient transportation, however on Guam, ‘efficiency’ is never used to describe a GovGuam agency. But, I have faith that someday Guam’ll get there.
Despite not knowing how to operate through Guam’s mass transit, I still want to try to use it. I downloaded Guam’s mass transit app and viewed their website. To my surprise, it was easier to navigate through than expected. However, I was unable to format a solid schedule because the ‘trip planner’ was unable to process one for me. So, I emailed them for assistance. For a quicker response, I’ll call them to see if they could help me map one out.
Because I start classes later in the day on Mondays, I figured that my first ride would be on a Monday. It would give me ample time to make a few mistakes before I get off at the wrong bus stop and call for a ride- in which case, I would try again the following Monday. When I successfully arrive at UOG before 8:00 am, I will consider using it as my transportation method. Now, my next problem would be to find $4 every day to pay for the service.
