I forgot to add two things about the metro! One thing will always make me angry, and get me muttering under my breath, and the other will make me giggle, sigh and generally turn my day around.
The first, which I have probably mentioned before, is getting regularly bumped into. Now this isn't ordinary metro jostling, which happens on a regular basis but can be tolerated. This is the: oh man, there's a white girl, maybe her physical consistency is different from the people I know, let me go knock into her, mentality. I honestly don't know if these guys (though sometimes ladies) are just so nervous while trying to touch me that they miscalculate distances, but regardless of the reasoning, I get unnecessarily shoulder smacked/body checked/almost bowled over on a semi-regular basis. That makes me mad.
The other is something that I really could never imagine happening in the states: watching people use an escalator for the first time. The mix of awe, fear and trepidation is positively adorable. The other day I was walking on the platform and saw a man so nervously and cautiously get on the escalator that he forgot his suitcase at the bottom. He was then as nervously and cautiously forced to run down the upward moving stairs to catch it. I walked toward him to pass him his bag, but he managed to grab it just as I got there. Turning back to get on the train, I caught a glimpse of his face, determined and experienced, stepping onto the escalator.
The first, which I have probably mentioned before, is getting regularly bumped into. Now this isn't ordinary metro jostling, which happens on a regular basis but can be tolerated. This is the: oh man, there's a white girl, maybe her physical consistency is different from the people I know, let me go knock into her, mentality. I honestly don't know if these guys (though sometimes ladies) are just so nervous while trying to touch me that they miscalculate distances, but regardless of the reasoning, I get unnecessarily shoulder smacked/body checked/almost bowled over on a semi-regular basis. That makes me mad.
The other is something that I really could never imagine happening in the states: watching people use an escalator for the first time. The mix of awe, fear and trepidation is positively adorable. The other day I was walking on the platform and saw a man so nervously and cautiously get on the escalator that he forgot his suitcase at the bottom. He was then as nervously and cautiously forced to run down the upward moving stairs to catch it. I walked toward him to pass him his bag, but he managed to grab it just as I got there. Turning back to get on the train, I caught a glimpse of his face, determined and experienced, stepping onto the escalator.
Love,
Violet
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