Je n'ai pas de chance...

As I was walking to the train station this morning I heard that sound we all dread. The train was leaving. Disappointed but not in a huge hurry, I patiently waited the fifteen minutes for the next one to come along. For some reason this morning the Transilien (aka the suburb train) was stopping at every stop. Normally it goes straight from La Defense to Paris Saint Lazare sans arrete. I realize this means nothing to you, but let's just say it added a good ten minutes onto my trek into Paris.

When we finally arrived at the station I was already late for class so I walked quickly to line 12 which takes me straight to my stop: Sevres-Babylone. After a four minute wait the train pulled in, packed with Parisians headed to work. We stuffed ourselves in and just when we thought there wasn't any more room, people forced their way in. After one stop the train slowed and barely inched forward, jerking every few seconds to a complete halt.  Then we didn't move at all... The conductor announced over the intercom that there was a blockage and thanked everyone for their patience... yet time continued to pass with no mercy. Sandwiched with at least 30 other people in the area of the train by the door (around 6 ft by 6ft). I finally managed to awkwardly take off my beanie and jacket without hitting too many people and watched as the men in their suits wiped the sweat from their brows with their handkerchief. People began to moan and a few shouted as I realized an elderly woman had sat down and was beginning to vomit. Everyone pushed as far away from her as possible, which only meant a step at most. Someone passed her their water bottle and others tried to fan her with the Direct Matin journal in attempt to get her some air. More time passed yet nothing happened. We all just stood their, staring at each other with sweat trickling down our temples. A young woman near me began crying into her scarf as the man behind me gently said, "Excusez-moi, ca va aller." in an attempt to comfort her. Every so often the conductor would announce that it would only be a few more minutes and we hoped it was true. Any signal that we were going to move and people would breathe out a sigh of relief only to remain motionless.  "Putain" seemed to escape the lips of everyone around me and I wanted to say it too.

I couldn't help but think of the Seinfeld episode of Elaine trapped on the subway, surrounded by people. You hear her thoughts as she screams inside her head. After nearly an hour of standing, hoping I wouldn't faint, my inside voice was all screamed out.

The good news was it finally rolled forward and got me where I needed to be, even if I was over an hour late for class. But you can bet I wasn’t in any hurry to get back on the metro after that.