I'm sitting on a subway on my way to the Saint Michel stop, taking in my surroundings and aside from the heat, this is one of my favorite Parisian experiences.
I guess because watching and understanding people is one of my passions--but also because it's just one of the most interesting cyclings I've ever seen. Every few minutes or so the faces in front of me change like channels on a TV screen. Expressions, sounds--all melding together in an experience to seemingly be the same overall one, but break it down into a singular moment and the experience is more different than you can imagine.
at first I really paid no attention--or not much anyway to what was going on around me. I was too engrossed in my metro map and which stop I was supposed to get off and then where to go from there. Now that I'm more comfortable and my subway anxiety has subsided, I truly enjoy the time to just sit and observe.
People are so interesting--the french language being an obvious difference between them and me, but also their body language. Americans do not share this body language.
what a shame.
last night I was sitting alone watching carefully to see if the next stop was mine. i'm not sure if the subway sound system is on a timer or not but all of the sudden french music was being piped into the subway car.
at the next stop two guys and a girl with a big bag of lilies got off (I remember them being lilies because as she passed by me the smell of the subway was replaced with their sweetness--which was a very nice change for this subway experience).
after the door had cleared and was just about to close, the subway horn sounded and on came a couple, who appeared to have just come from dinner together and who were very obviously very much in love.
it affected them not one bit that I was sitting at the end of the subway car with them, which they had, for this moment turned into their private stage; dancing around the subway pole, not taking their eyes (or hands) off of each other for even one second. then they would stop for a moment from dancing as if they couldn't go on any longer without the breath of a kiss from each other.
it was intoxicating to me. i was certain that i was staring.
they didn't notice.
i was in love with their "in love" moment on the subway. in love with watching two people be so in love that it mattered not that they were on a stinky hot subway and that some girl in the corner was staring at them with a big fat jealous smile on her face.
all that mattered was that they were there together. on the stinky hot subway. they weren't sitting down complaining about it. they weren't sighing or standing around looking pathetic about it.
they were enjoying the music in their love and the sweet smell of their kisses and just the fact that they were there together.
that was enough.
and isn't it though?
they got off...and someone new to watch got on.
i really love the Subway.
