As some of you know, I spent this past summer in Paris, France. I was there on an internship with Mercer, an actuarial consulting firm. I will include some unnecessary details in my story for posterity sake.
One day after work, I was getting on the metro at La Defense, route 1. This is the beginning of route 1, so no one is ever on the metro when it pulls up to the stop. This is important since it means I was focused in on being in the right spot when the doors opened to let passengers in. I always made sure I jumped in there and got a seat real quick because not getting a seat at that stop is a guarantee that you won't get a seat for the whole trip. I always brought a book to read on the metro so I would have something to do. Thus, it was really important for me to get a seat.
While I had all these things on my mind, a lady about 5 meters (in France, we use meters) away from me was shouting to get my attention. I figured out she was shouting at me. I noticed she had a terrified look on her face and was pointing behind me.
You can imagine I was shot into a Friday the 13th movie. I was sure there was an axe murderer behind me. Panicked, I spun around and saw a man coming at me who didn't have any eyes. He had the eye balls, but there wasn't the colored part you would expect. (I'm not a physiology person and don't care to look up what that is called.) Because of everything that had gone on, I was sure this was the axe murderer, so I shouted. I guess that's what you'd call it. For those who care, you can ask me to replicate the noise I made that day. I remember it well. It sounded like "Uhhhhh," but it was loud and showed how freaked out I was. While I yelled, I ran away toward the lady who had gotten my attention in the first place.
I failed the sensitivity test that day. I felt like a big jerk. It turned out this lady was trying to get my attention so I could help this man not fall onto the tracks and get run over. She was just worried. As I was jumping out of the way like a little girl, two other people grabbed ahold of him to make sure he would be okay.
Since I'm on a roll, I will add another story that makes me look bad. Remember how I was talking about how important it is to get on the metro at La Defense real fast and get a seat. This next story will demonstrate how seriously I took this task.
Again, I was lined up and ready to go in my spot. When the doors flew open, I rushed on there. Now, you should know it is customary to take a seat on the same side you get on. I wish I could make a diagram of the seating arrangement on one of these things, but I probably wouldn't think it worth the time anyhow.
As I was rushing around the corner, there was a lady coming in from the next door who was rushing around the corner as well. Being the courteous guy I am, I decided to let her file into her seat before I did. In fact, I just went to plop my butt down on the seat next to the isle while she filed in, but she jumped into that seat while I was doing so. I didn't think this was a great sin, so I just stood up and went around her to the window seat. As I did that, she shifted into the middle of the two seats, preventing me from sitting in that seat too. This seemed awful weird, but I just took the seat across from those two seats.
It turned out that her boyfriend/husband/whatever was with her and she was trying to secure a seat for him too. The whole thing was kind of annoying, but I just opened my book and got down to business. Things got even more annoying when I noticed she was enjoying herself way too much over keeping me out of either of those two seats.
I can say I am glad I didn't punch her in the face. I regret not plowing her over when she came around the corner to get her seat. Baby steps.
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