were marching towards my place with Erik, the person who had been here the shortest period of time, leading us. Anyway, she asked us if we knew how to get to some place and, since the Germans had their trusty maps and we were all a bit loopy after a long, harrowing night of drinking and being trapped in the metro,
it didn't seem out of the ordinary at all.
At any rate, after we all talked for a minute or two we figured out that where she wanted to go was closed (obviously in retrospect) and asked her if she wanted to come with us. She did. So, she came back to my place with all of my friends at 3AM.
How was she creepy? I can't really explain it but something about her just seemed a bit off.
I'll admit that I am less sensitive to the signs that a French person is a bit off than I am to an American person. Even then, people who are a bit off are interesting and I often befriend them. You know who you are.
The point of departure is that she said she didn't know where she was going when we met her in the street. Later, she said she had lived in Paris for two years. Then she said she was a nurse. Ok, but then she said she was a student. When Erik and I talked about Normandie she said she was from Normandie. Later, I told her I couldn't understand her name she wrote it down. When I said that her handwriting didn't look like most of the French people's handwriting that I knew, she said she was Italian.
Then, she pulled out this wig and said she wore it/carried it around to look more like a man. Ok.
Then she pulled out this fairly expensive and somewhat professional looking camera and started taking pictures of us like she was a paparazzi. You know, she didn't look through the camera, she just aimed it at us and took what seemed like 20 or so pictures in rapid succession.
I have a digital recorder to help me with class and she was really interested in recording our conversations.
In any case, the cumulative effect of her weirdness, the beverages and the lateness of the evening began to weigh on me and I was very skeptical of her. I had cooked up a couple Croque Monsieurs (that's French for grilled cheese sandwiches with ham) because the crowd was hungry (and to get rid of the meat that Erik had brought into my vegetarian apartment). She ended up eating the bulk of one of them and then threw part of it at me.
She also said something flippant about America or us or something and I told her she needed to leave. I am not going to say I was completely innocent in this matter because a number of evenings have ended this way in my life.
Anyway, before leaving she made kind of a furious dash around the apartment looking for something and then went into the bathroom. Erik asked if she ahd taken anything. I hadn't even thought about it but no, she hadn't taken anything. My camera, my wallet, my passport and a bunch of money were all still sitting right there. When she came out of the bathroom she looked wounded and said she had gone too far and she was sorry but that she didn't steal anything. I said ok but that she should still leave as it was nearly 6:00 AM and everyone was leaving (except Gregor of course).
So that's it. In writing it doesn't seem that bizarre but most of those who were there suggest she was probably a little unbalanced or had some kind of mental illness. Erik and I wondered if maybe she didn't have any where to go and this is how she managed to find a place for the night.
6 comments:
TH, Facebook is over for me but your lawblog is still holding my interest. I like the story of escalating conflict that leads to a guest needing to leave. Once in grad school, this guy in my program was over at my place and we were savoring my speciality Thai curry. The next thing I knew, he was riled and walked out half-way through the dinner without so much as a by-your-leave. I vaguely remember it was something to do with criticizing the US.
I guess hot words, nationalist passions and hasty departures are a global phenomenon.
Speaking to the point about people being 'off', I agree that it's harder to read them away from home. But I find that when I am in a new place, by the fact of being deterritorialized I'm more likely to make random acquaintances that later turn out to be problematic. Once you step outside the narrow path, unpredictable stuff can happen, for better or worse. Also, I find Americans quite guarded. The crazy shit takes longer to table here. Like, who would have thought that Barack Obama would turn out to be an Arab terrorist?
Like I said, I am obviously not completely innocent in this and it isn't the first time I put someone out or got put out myself. So, yes, I vaguely remember that incident---must have been the curry!
Generally, I like making new acquaintances and am quite open to it but there was something not quite right about her. It turned out fine but I should be a bit more cautious.
Hey, low blow re the curry! Play the ball, not the man! No, I totally know what you mean, my flippant tone wasn't intended to suggest disagreement with your basic point. I have to admit, I too met a higher-than-normal proportion of skeezballs and weirdos in France. I'm wondering if the experience of being in a quite different unfamiliar culture and language just made me more open than I normally would be, and the general strangeness made it harder to distinguish the radical wackjob from the normal French individual. Either that, or France just has a generally much higher tolerance for non-conformism than the U.S., which may also be valid.
My alarm bells would have been going off when she whipped out the man wig. That's just crazy and weird.
On a related note, I saw what appeared to be a mentally-slow woman in the supermarket today. She had a crazy look about her and she was flashing generous amounts of unflattering side-boob all over the store. Upon seeing this, I realized she was a bit of a nutter and felt sorry for her. You'd probably have invited her back to your apartment for an afternoon cocktail or two.
Maybe if you come visit Ireland soon we can hang around the supermarket in hopes that she comes back...
Clearly she's crazy if that's the wig she chose to make her look more like a man. Somebody should tell her that Slash's days in GNR are long over. Maybe suggest a Clooney-style Caeser cut wig to at least bring her into the 2000s.
...and I thought I told you about 5 weeks ago that you shouldn't leave large sums of money laying around your apartment. things would be a lot easier if you just listened to everything I say.
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