3 Vignettes for Monday

1. On my way down a corridor in a métro station, I pass a poster for a comedy show called (roughly translated) "How to be a Jewish mother in 10 lessons." Apparently, some things are transnational.
2. I'm waiting with an ever-growing crowd of people during rush hour on a métro platform for the 11 line. There's been a delay and the crowd is immense. The train finally pulls in and we pack in like sardines. Just as the warning signal sounds, a tiny old lady in pearls, glasses, and a cute little purse flings herself through the closing maw of the subway train and plows into the crowd of people aboard the train. Suddenly demeure, she excuses herself politely and arranges her hair. Not 5 seconds later, the crowd parts to allow her to sit on one of the fold-down seats. When the train is this crowded, nobody is allowed to use these seats. But she's frail and weak, apparently...
3. I didn't have any leftovers to bring to work, and I forgot to pass by the boulangerie in my neighborhood to pick up a sandwich. So I stop in a sandwich place in the much swankier (read: condos coming soon!) neighborhood around the Centre. A sandwich and a bottle of water come to 8.50€ (about $10USD). Later that same night, I stop for groceries in my working-class neighborhood and 12€ gets me 3 carrots, a head of lettuce, a bunch of baby radishes, a cucumber, 4 onions, a zucchini, 1/2-kilo of stewing turkey, 4 tomatoes, a 6-pack of diet coke, and a bottle of white wine.