Cultural Blog #1!

We all know the metro is a dirty, smelly place, but I always thought it was the work of homeless people or animals. It wasn't until last weekend I realized how wrong and biased my thoughts were. On Saturday June 1, 2013 at approximately 1:00 am, Laurelle, Lea and I were waiting to get on the metro. It was late at night in a popular area of town, so the metro was surprisingly crowded. People were running through the metro as though it was a jungle gym, knocking over trash cans; the sort of behavior one would expect to see on the hill. While a little shocked at this new side of Parisian life, we were quite amused. Many people were casually smoking cigarettes, holding beers, one girl was even drinking out of a wine bottle. As we stood there watching the show in front of us we heard the faint sound of running water. As this is an usual sound in the metro, we all turned around to see a man blatantly peeing on the wall. The shock value only increased when we saw what he was wearing. Picture your stereotypical European: expensive pointie toed shoes; dark jeans questionably painted on; leather jacket; button down tucked in; burberry scarf and perfectly groomed hair. Upon finishing he turned around and sauntered back to his friends. It was the opposite of what I was expecting, especially after our orientation about how disinclined to alcoholic behavior Parisians are. Strangely this experience made me feel more relaxed in Paris as I saw the intimidatingly composed and classy nature of the French slip a little.