<p>I have some questions about using Houston's Metro bus system. The two places I will be going most often is the Houston Galleria (in uptown, I will be working at the Apple Store), and the Bush Airport up north.</p>
<p>Is it complicated to take the Houston bus system? Will I have to make a lot of switches to get where I'm going here? If it's not a good idea (in Cincy where I live it is not a good idea to take the metro unless you are a minority), are there other options to get to the airport and Galleria?</p>
<p>Thanks guys, I know there are a lot of Houston natives on here that can hopefully help me out.</p>
<p>Getting to the Galleria is kinda hard by bus or by car. I have never ridden the buses here, though I have attempted to, but I don't think that it is particularly unsafe for anyone. Getting to Bush is pretty easy. One because you can almost always find someone going up there and two the buses go there for really cheap.</p>
<p>Well that's good to hear about the Airport at least, thanks!</p>
<p>I hope someone knows of a decent solution to get up to the Galleria, I really want to keep my job and that's the only Apple Store nearby. Google Earth tells me that it is a 5mi drive, but from what I've heard about Houston traffic, that could be a half-hour commute. Plus, I don't have a car.</p>
<p>I'll try to answer your questions, even though I don't have any direct knowledge. Having lived in Houston for 20 years, I've never ridden on a Metro bus, as I have always had a car. The buses, in general, are used primarily by those in the lower socioeconomic groups because they are the ones who do not have cars. The exception to this is for the park n ride routes that are used by commuters. So if someone has had experience riding buses, you might want to comment about whether you felt safe or not.</p>
<p>ive ridden the buses a few times and i feel safe. for the airport, i take a shuttle. there are several that run from the medical center (about 1mi away from my dorm). i personally would not recommend taking the bus to a job as a student at rice. the buses take forever. i took one to a doctor's office about 5 miles from rice and it took at least 45 minutes because of the circuitous route and stops. there are PLENTY of jobs on campus that pay $8-9/hr. </p>
<p>if you really like macs, work in the IT department. i really like them and i teach classes for students and faculty on how to use software for mac. there are also jobs for web design in every academic dept. professors must work with the web and generally don't like to, especially when students can do it. i haven't even tried to put myself out there and a professor already asked me to help her with a database she wants to put online next year. </p>
<p>as for the galleria, you can just go with your friends. you are going to know mostly everyone in your college class after o-week (there are only 80 maybe), so its really no problem.</p>
<p>Yes thanks a lot. 30 minutes isn't bad I guess. And unfortunately I'll be selling my car to pay for college, so I won't be able to use it to cut down on the commuting time.</p>
<p>Sadly I don't think you'll be able to realisticly make it to and from the galleria for work on a regular basis without a car (unless you just worked on saturday or something). Though I must admit working in an Apple store would be amazing.</p>
<p>I would recommend looking at employment at the ERC (electronic resource center) where I work. We have lots of Macs and mainly deal with video editing/ webpage design/ general media stuff. It's an easy job (if you have the background, which you probably do) and pays well, plus it's in the middle of campus.</p>
<p>It is an easy job even if you don't have any background ;). I work at the ERC too, and I wish that I could help people with the applications, but... I can't. So I usually just give a blank look, walk over to the computer, click on somethings, and then they get the point that I don't know what I am doing and they try to figure it out on their own, or I call someone else to help.</p>
<p>But, honestly, the ERC is so cool. There are so many macs and the room is really nice.</p>
<p>Thanks for the advice guys. I guess the main reason I want to keep working at the Apple Store is so I keep my stock options and also have a confirmed summer job as soon as I go back home. I can even work over christmas break and stuff at the Cincy one that I'm at now, and the hours transfer with no trouble.</p>
<p>I just wish it would be easier to make this work lol.</p>
<p>Could you make a severe cut in your hours to make it work? Like only work on Friday and Saturday. You can make it work, but you are going to have to see if the benefits outweigh the hassles. You might end up having a couple days a week without any classes (my suitemate has five classes m,w,f and no classes on t, th) or your classes might end really early so you have the afternoons off. I wouldn't recommend purposely choosing classes in order to make this work, but that is just an idea.</p>