Metro

While I was studying in Paris, it became the running joke to have "metro face." This means that when you're on the metro, you're supposed to put on the face that says, "I am a zombie and therefore can show no emotion." This is ironic, because in Paris you could check a person out without making them uncomfortable. Staring is commonplace. However, you cannot show emotion when you do this. Or if you do, it can be seen as a come on. And really, that's just awkward on a metro. Ironically, I feel that metro face is something that those Frenchies have in common with Americans (or maybe it's just me and my efforts to keep something Parisian in my life).

Anyway, this brings me to this morning in the nation's capital. My face was slowly recovering form its zombie state as I was walking the couple of blocks from the metro to my work building. A tall man stuck his face in my glance. I was happy and surprised to see that it was my friend, Ali. He just moved back to DC and started working a couple blocks away from me. He said I was making a weird face. And I thought, "metro face." But he quickly saw past the weirdness and we made plans for lunch. I'm so glad to have a buddy who works so close to me. I foresee many lunch dates with Ali in my future.

A word about Ali: I know Ali from back when we were early morning custodians in the Eyring Science Center at BYU. We both worked for Ralph. Every morning at 5:00 am we would meet together, pray, and then clean the building while laughing and having a good time. We also all pitched in $1 on Fridays and had breakfast together over a happy discussion of embarassing stories. Those were good times. That's when I first fell in love with "internationals" as I like to call them. There were a bunch of international students who worked on my crew. My buds were Jaewon (from South Korea), Isaac (from Spain), Caleb (from Ghana), and of course Ali (from Mexico). Notice how they're all guys too? That seems to be the way with me. Now I work with, plan programs for, go to Church with, and sometimes...date "internationals." And I guess I have lunch with them too.

So all that from a metro face. Today I told my friends the high and low of the day. The high was running into and having lunch with Ali. The low was that the escalator at Farragut North Metro Station was broken and it really clogged up the flow of traffic. Both are metro-related. My life seems to revolve around the metro.

beck