warning: this post might startle. ribald language used.
now, now, now, before any of you start wondering why i used the acronym for an expletive as a title, let me make myself clear:
WTF stands for 'Welcome to France'; though of coz, the double entendre and allusion to that famous cuss expression play its role brilliantly here. i initially thought of 'moments of magic', but then decided against it as the only magic i can think of is of the dark kind that i wld happily summon to make metro doors clamp unforgivingly on the 'nads and nuts of both french men and women alike, especially those who have crossed me.
i've spent many a post in e past waxing lyrical about paris, or about france in general, and have also learnt to accept odd incongruities as
très normal (very normal)
. throughout the course of my three years here, i've had so many wonderful
WTF moments, some of which are so stupendously dumb you just cock your head to the side, raise an eyebrow and roll your eyes back in disbelief. now, whenever such
casse-noix (nutcracker) incidents occur, you just look away from your interlocutor, and mutter under your breath the three magic words : "
WTF...". and of coz, you have to let the
F-end trail off into a decrescendo, so that you can truely HEAR your own anguish dissolve away magically.
on the average, i have about 5
WTF moments per fortnight. they come about when u least expect them. like nasty traps awaiting you around the corner, they attack you when u're unaware, and are at ur most vulnerable. long given to the minutia of bureaucracy, i have done all the
paperasserie (paperwork) that this country, which seems to have such a genuine affinity for all things past (and backward), just adores. ive used more than 20 stamps this academic year alone to get my residency permit, my health insurance, accomodation subsidy, social security and transport card. the list goes on and on. like seriously, the internet exists for a goddamn reason u dingbats. embrace it, not ignore it. snail mail is called such precisely because they dun get delivered at concorde speeds.
**cues in pyrotechnical display of french brilliance**
yes, let me get back to my
WTF moments. you remember the day when u opened your fridge to see broccoli fluids flowing out of the freezer and turning everything into a lovely shade of green? and how, with a sheer stroke of genius you finally concluded that there's something wrong with the compressor as your freezer completely froze over and busted the plastic door apart? and how you eagerly checked the french word for compressor to make sure that it is indeed
'compresseur' before going down to the admin office and telling them triumphantly that even though uve miraculously managed to spoil the freezer, u've pinpointed it to a malfunction of the compressor? and oh, im sure u will always remember the fateful day when the saviour of a maintenance man came sauntering into your room,
EMPTY-HANDED. 'i'm here just to have a quick look', he deadpanned.
and now, everyone says, at the count of three: '
WTF!!!'
or how after your
colle (oral test) in the afternoon, you rushed all the way to the dining hall as u only had 1/2 hr to eat before lessons start, only to find to your dismay that e doors were closed as they had alr stopped serving? and how you pleaded with the matronly swine that oversees the order in the hall that you'd just ended your colle and were so hungry you wld get gastric if u didnt eat anything soon? and how, without missing a beat, she told you that there wasn't any food left, even though you could see the plates of food right behind her?
WTF.
and just when you think that ure settling comfortably into your
WTF lifestyle, another, even
more magical
WTF moment just comes and takes your breath away.
oh, that saturday afternoon when u just finished your four-hour exam and were raring to go home, but had to do some grocery-shopping as usual. u braved the crowd on the bus, and finally reached the supermarket. half an hour later, you were at the only counter lane that was open as all the other cashiers went for their interminable lunch break. the queue stretched ahead of you and u knew that you were in for a long wait as everyone in front had trolleys filled to the brim while all you had was a basket. finally, you were just before the cashier. the woman before you was in e midst of putting everything back into her trolley, and by everything, u mean copious amounts of provender that could sustain a family of five for a week. by then u were suppressing the urge to just, in what u thought would have been a magnanimous demonstration of civic-mindedness, help her throw everything into her trolley. in the meantime, the cashier, who had already swiped everything and was waiting
extremely patiently for the skank to pay, was beaming at you sunnily. u swear u cld have erupted from the mounting impatience in u. said skank finally finished arranging her stuff, and then proceeded to pay by cash. oops, not sufficient cash. by card then. oops. cant remember the PIN. she decided to pay by cheque then, and so it began: the long process of checking of ID, then the cheque, and then at last the writing of it. she was finally gone, and u heaved a sigh of relief. u got all ur stuff out of the basket, and everything went smoothly, till the cashier delivered the coup de grâce: she didn't have any change.
WTF.
now, seeing that i spend an inordinate amt of time in sch weekly, it only follows that most of the
WTF moments were spent there. i must have mentioned my classmate maxime at least once. now this guy is a rare breed of virtuoso that you cant just find anywhere. he's in the same colle group as me, and so i just relish each time he does smth wrong.
magical maxime
WTF moment 1:
(maxime was doing a thermodynamics qn on the board, and had to solve a differential equation of second degree)
our young descartes here gave the general solution for a diff. eqn of 1st degree!! after two years of prepa math, he was obtuse enough to give such an answer.
WTF.
like, earth to you dude. you dumb or smth? it's a goddamn 2nd deg eqn, u screwed it up and u tried to argue. anw, for that colle, i was so busy simpering away at maxime that i screwed up part of my fick's law, and so was brought back to earth with a hugely disagreeable jolt of hubris by my prof. =(
MM
WTF moment 2:
(we had pork ribs for lunch one day, those that looked exactly like how pork ribs look like: a rack of thick long angular bones with not that much meat actually. we found a table, sat down and i tucked in. maxime was busy inspecting his pork ribs.)
maxime, after much pondering: what meat is this?
me:
WTF!!!!
i could go on reminiscing about the many
WTF moments that whiz kid magical maxime has provided me with. his shocking discovery that when u integrate and then differentiate a function f, u get back f; and how could i forget! that priceless
WTF moment when he asked me if i knew soccer star ronaldinho and mickey mouse.. woah, these oh-so-painful
WTF moments i surely wldn't miss.
so there you go, some of the sweetest
WTF episodes in my life here. the next time someone dishes out something that is unfair/doesn't make any sense to u, all u have to do is give the gallic shrug, think to yourself
'WTF!', smack that jackass squarely in his
bijoux de famille (crown jewels), and then look at him bend over and scream '
WTF!!!'
who says you can't have your own
WTF moment too?