A Horror Story on the Metro
Spitting on the Metro
In high school, people would always make fun of the French by saying that they were spitters. I never understood why they said that. I never got spat on. I never even saw someone spit. And this year I've kept my eyes out, and other than the occasional looggie being hacked up, I haven't noticed anyone spitting on or near someone. That is I never saw someone spit until one fateful day on the metro. And I will rank this as my most traumatizingly gross experience on the metro.On the morning commute to work, you'll come across a lot of people asking for money, going from car to car, singing, telling their life story. Most are not in your face, but one man took it to the extreme. He went up to everyone on the metro, asked them for money, and any time someone said no, he would spit right next to their feet! I immediately booked it out of the car, not caring if it was my stop, I did not want to get spat on. And I certainly was not going to give him money, I'll give nice people money sometimes but not rude people. I think the man cleared out a whole car from his spitting.
Now I'm going to try and keep this brief because I do have a post coming about the homeless problem in Paris, but this does make you realize that most people asking for money maintain a certain etiquette. Sure there are the women that breast feed their babies in front of you to make you guilty and give them money. Others will politely say that they're retired and don't have enough, which is the one where most people chip in. And there are the ones clearly on drugs that are hanging onto the doors with their eyes closed as they ask you for money for their next fix. But I've never seen people that are asking for money harass others. So what drove this guy to spit on people? Whatever it was, that is officially my worst metro experience.
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