| Monday, September 15, 2003 |  |
| C'est normal! |
 This evening we were coming back from dinner at our new friends Lionel and Silvie. And somehow I had thought that the metro went till half past midnight. But it doesn't on weeknights and the Capitole station was all closed up. So we were looking for buses, but there were none going to our part of town. One last bus showed up and my wife went to ask the driver where he was going. I instead were looking at the chart of bus plans and had already decided that it was hopeless. That bus was going to Empalot, which is in a totally different part of town, in a different direction. But a helpful employee of the bus company magically showed up, and after some discussion with the bus driver they decided that we'd just go with his bus, and when he was done with his route, he would drive us to where we needed to go. And, wonder of wonders, that's what happened. Instead of finishing his work day at 1AM, he drove us almost all the way home in his bus, and he was all smiling and friendly about it. The typical answer you get in this kind of situation here, when people go out of their way to help you is "c'est normal". "It's normal". Meaning: Of course we'll help you, it's the right and proper thing to do, no need to mention it.
But there's a way of getting there, and a way not to. Notice that my wife was over there, involving the bus driver and the bus company employee in our problem of how we get home when the trains and busses don't run any longer, and we're tired and have a little kid, and there's a long way home. That's when it becomes quite possible and likely that they'll decide to help us solve it. Whereas I was just grumbling about having misunderstood the metro schedule, looking at the bus plan and deciding that there was no way, unless we walked or took a taxi. I obviously have a few things to learn about how to work things here. [ Diary | 2003-09-15 16:52 | 4 comments | PermaLink ] More > |
| Hash House Harriers |
 Sunday we were on our second outing with Toulouse Hash House Harriers. And what is that, you say?"The Hash House Harriers is a running/drinking/social club which was started by bored expatriates in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia in 1938. ("Hash House" is the nickname of the restaurant/bar to which they retired for food and beer after a run). Hashing is based on the English schoolboy game of "Hare and Hounds"; a Hash is a non-competitive cross-country run set by one or more runners called hares. The hares run out in advance of the other runners (the pack of hounds), and set a course marked by white flour, and/or chalk marks."Apparently this exists all over the world, which you can see at the Global Hash House Harriers Home Page. And, well, it is quite a hoot. Here in Toulouse there's an event (a hash) twice per month, each time in a different place in the surrounding countryside or in the city itself. Which provides a fine way for seeing places you haven't seen before, and meet interesting people who speak English. As the site says it is "a drinking club with a running problems", but the run is actually the major part of the event, timewise. There is usually a path laid out for runners and another for walkers, each one intended to take 1-1.5 hours to get through. And, yes, you're following a path marked with occasional splatches of flour or chalk marks, and part of the enjoyment is to try not to get lost, or to get lost and to find your way again, or not. Being first is not in any way a virtue, so being there is the main thing. There's an assortment of rules about what you say to let others know we're on track ("on-on"), and when you're not, and how to interpret various signs. The more silly and fun ritual takes place after the run, where various points of order need to be taken care of. One of them is to assign punishments to various participants for no terribly good reasons. There's almost always something to punish the hares for, and whoever tended towards being first deserves another one, and of course any new people. The punishment is generally a "down-down", which is a drink of choice (beer, or water if you prefer) which you have to gobble down in one go while everybody else sings the accompanying down-down song. That's the drinking part, obviously. And also, anybody who's been there a while will be assigned some silly and preferably somewhat offensive and suggestive name that they'll be known by for the foreseeable future, and there's a ritual to administer that. All of it is crazy good fun, and it is a good place to meet other foreigners. This is obviously a British idea, but there are also Americans, Dutch, French and anybody else who somehow gets inspired to come. This time we were accompanied by our new friends, fellow Dane Thomas and Karine, who's from Toulouse. Delightful people that it is a pleasure to know. And well, they were Hash Virgins, as was Zachery, so here on the picture you can see them get ready for their down-down initiation. [ Diary | 2003-09-15 18:40 | 7 comments | PermaLink ] More > |