Unusual Similarities

The character and uniqueness of Lille France can be seen in its architecture, food, and ch'ti accent. However, as Kathryn discovered yesterday Lille shares one very unusual characteristic with a surprising number of cities and towns that I have lived in. Something that has reared it's ugly head in the National Gardens of Athens Greece, had articles written about in the Eugene Daily Emerald, and now has surfaced while riding the Metro home from work in Lille. It has become unavoidable. What I am talking about here is public indecent exposure coupled with inappropriate self...well...lets just say, manipulation.

While Kathryn was riding the Metro home from work yesterday she got a very unexpected and unwelcomed show from a gentleman sitting directly across the car from her. To better illustrate how this happened first let me describe the normal Lille Metro car. It is rather simple; seats on one side, and a half-bench to lean against directly opposite. Kathryn was leaning, minding her own business listening to her Ipod when she casually noticed the man seated across from her. He was of stocky build wearing a suit, tie and glasses, and he was seated between an old lady and a very skinny guy. The only reason she noticed him was that he kept staring at her.

In the blink of an eye and with no warning at all the man relaxed his posture, and let his "business" hang out for the entire Metro car to see. Unfortunately the French are quite self-conscious when bunched together on public transportation, and they usually just stare at the ground or do everything possible to not make eye contact with a single other person while in transit. That being the case it appeared no one else noticed. Not wanting to risk some kind of attack or really any interaction with the crazy person at all, Kathryn pushed her way through other passengers (yes the Metro was packed) to the door. Luckily as she did so the train pulled up to Gare Lille-Flanders, and she was able to flee to safety. It was quite traumatic.

After returning home she relayed the story to Fiona (the woman who owns the house we are living in). Now she is a very nice woman, but at the same time has some unusual tendancies of her own like performing unnecessarily loud home improvement projects in the middle of the night, or vacuuming the small area just outside our room for hours at a time starting at 7am on weekends. So had we not been living with her for these past four months her reaction may have seemed a bit bizarre. She said, "Oh, well, I mean, yes it happens, but they're not dangerous at all. There have been reports about various men doing it for a while now, and Transpole (the transportation authority) can't really do anything about it." Not shocked or surprised or anything, and her son's response was to go on the defensive, "Well, it's not just Lille, every city has people like that." So judging by their reactions apparently this is not as uncommon as we think, and from now on we'll be wary of large men in suits ,wearing glasses on the Metro.

Tomorrow we leave for Ibiza for the first six days of our February vacation. We'll be back on the 10th.

A bientôt,

Jordan and Kathryn