Second Semester In Paris: A Few Random Entries
March 21st, 2012 by Raha Francis | EFUTThe Backbending Curve of Labour Supply Guys’ Chances of Being French Based on Their Trousers:
- Baggy baggy pants –> Must be American.
- Getting slimmer and more form-fitting –> Hop! Must be French!
- Getting skin-tight –> OK, now we’re getting Scandinavian.
The Most Wonderful Accent I Have Ever Heard:
Why does my native French prof (green eyes, brown hair, definitely Frenchy) for my Colonial India course have an Indian accent whenever he speaks English? And why do I find it strangely comforting, like Ghandi’s voice? What is going on?!
Best-Of: Ditzy Moments:
Falling asleep in a humid, drowsy Economics of Education class at 27 Rue Guillaume tonight. Think suddenly, ”I am in Paris!” Shoot up, startled, awake, happy.
People are such an interesting group of thingamajigs. Tonight, I was coming back from late grocery shopping with 6 bright pink Monoprix bags on the subway. On the tunnel transferring through line 12 to line 4, I heard spurts of high pitched, uncontrollable laughter in the distance… and then silence. And then… the laughter again. Just spurts of low-pitched giggles, uncontrollable as if the laughers couldn’t hear themselves at all, unlike anything I’d ever heard, between long bouts of silence. What was going on? So I got near the platform and saw a group of young black men in hip hoppity clothes standing by the tracks. A few old ladies were clutching their purses in intimidation (ha ha). A few others were glancing at the boys in exasperation : ‘Why are they making so much noise?’ Looking closeR, I saw that a few of them were gesturing wildly. It turns out that some or all of them were deaf, and were sign-language-ing to each other some hilarious story. Every time someone finished saying (sorry, signing) something, they would all break out into fits of laughter.
They were uncontrollable laughs after a silence of story-telling – unaware giggles, unadulterated, beautiful.
How beautiful could we sometimes be if we chose not to let our self-consciousness get in the way… if we were sometimes not aware of the results of our actions… if we sometimes acted solely for something’s intrinsic worth?
