The Metro

So I have seen some interesting things while on the metro. Sometimes, on the metro, pretty regularly actually, I think, "This is my life..."

I take the metro every single day, sometimes 4 or 5 times a day, and that's a lot of time to rack up some good stories. It took a few days to understand how the directions work, but now it is so easy to me and I even have a parts of some lines memorized. 

One time the metro was pretty full and I was on line 1 at the stop Chatelet which is probably the busiest stop. Very central, 15 minute walk to change lines, very annoying and I avoid it as much as possible. Line 1 has a safety guard so people wont fall into the pit where the tracks are. There was a guy jumping on the train just as the doors were about to close and then decided he wouldn't make it and his leg was caught in the door of the safety guard and the train door! He yelled a little and pulled his leg free. 

Yesterday actually I was standing on the platform waiting for the metro and in some stations there are benches or chairs along the wall. I went to sit down and there was faint poo smear on the plastic seat. So obviously I chose another chair and almost threw up. 

On the first weekend here my program went on a trip to Loire Valley. We had to meet really early at a metro stop in the south of Paris. On the silent metro ride there, a shabby looking man was staring straight ahead and started speaking very loudly to the whole train in French. I instantly panicked and thought he was going to blow up the train or something and even though Allie and I were running late, I was tempted to get off the at the next stop and just catch the next train. But when we got to a stop he got off and got onto the next car to ours so I felt safer. I asked my friends who speak more French than I do if they had anything like that happened to them and they said yes and he was just begging for money. All that worry for nothing. 

Another time I was on the metro on my own and I see a Middle Eastern couple and their kid and two older Middle Eastern men come onto the train with a guitar and a speaker on a little wheelie cart. A speaker. And microphone. The man started strumming some notes on the electric guitar and the lady starts singing into the microphone and an auto-tuned mess comes out the speaker. It sounded like she was humming with her mouth opened and it was auto-tuned! What?! And the guitar notes didn't even match the vocals. I listened for a harmony and couldn't find it. I felt like a typical Parisian avoiding eye contact and being really annoyed but I wanted to take a video.

On the way to my photo class a couple weeks ago, I was waiting on the platform and something bright pink caught my eye. I usually avoid looking around or making eye contact, but I couldn't help but turn around. My mouth dropped. There was a girl in a bright pink and white poofy dress and a long blond wig holding a stuffed Pokemon and a guy dressed as the main guy from Pokemon with a stuffed Pikachu sitting on his shoulder and they were both putting an orange circular mask on another guy wearing a big black straight jacket coat and a sign on it that said something like "So- and-so gives free hugs." I could not believe it. I was a fan of Pokemon when I was little. Growing up with a little brother I watched the movies, played the video games and we even had a book with all them in it. So that's how I knew what the stuffed animals they had were and how I knew it was so crazy!! They were in full costume! They got on the same train as me and sat across from me. I just couldn't stop staring. 

Recently I was with my friends Maddy and Danielle on the metro and there were two guys standing on either side of a speaker so of course I naturally didn't make eye contact. They put on Thriftshop by Macklemore and I smiled at my friends. Then they started rapping in French and dancing around! It was so funny my friends and I started dancing in our little chairs. We were the only ones getting into it so they started dancing towards us. I whipped out my phone and took a video! I was nervous that they would steal it or see that I had an iPhone and demand money from me. But it all worked out! 

A few nights ago, I was on the way home at night and I blond girl around my age asks if she can sit in the seat next to me. Obviously she was foreign. Not only because she spoke English, but because locals do not make eye contact or ask to sit in a seat. They just sit. But she was with 4 other guys and one of them who was French had a bag of alcohol. She was explaining to him what "sh*t faced" means and I laughed and helped her explain. She asked where I was from and for once she knew where Idaho was because she was from Canada! One of the guys didn't hear me say Idaho and when he asked where I was from I said America. And he's like O you two are from the same place. And the girl and I both intensely explained that just because Canada is in North America, it doesn't make her American. He was sassy like most French men. I continued talking with their group and they ended up getting off on the same stop I did to get to my apartment. While we were walking out of the station, the girl asked me something (I can't remember what it was) but at the end of the sentence she said aye. I had a big stupid smile because it was so funny. 

Here are some pictures of my subway stop! Sully-Moreland (not pronounced the same in French as in English) line 7. 

 The dark area in the bottom of this picture is where the trains run. You can kinda see the tracks. 

 The exit that is right on my street. 

This picture isn't at the stop by my house. I just thought the sign was cool. It looks like it should be at a ride at Lagoon. 

I have a few more stories and even some really traumatic ones that happened to my friends. But this post is really long! So there might be a part two soon. Tomorrow, I have no class so my friends and I are going to the Eiffel Tower and are having a typical French picnic: baguette fruit cheese.

Bonne Nuit!