Beeing an alien
Created | Updated Jan 28, 2002
Hi! I'm an alien!
This might sounds extraterristial to you but its not.Aliens don't need to be extraterristic.
So here is a definition for you:
Alien
a foreigner, or person born in another country, and therefore not entitled to the
rights and privileges of the country where he resides. Among the Hebrews
there were two classes of aliens.
(1.) Those who were strangers generally, and who owned no landed property.
(2.) Strangers dwelling in another country without being naturalized (Lev. 22:10; Ps. 39:12).
Both of these classes were to enjoy, under certain conditions, the same rights as other citizens (Lev. 19:33, 34; Deut. 10:19).
I'm an alien in France, Paris to be more specific. I don't understand what people
say to me and I try to speak english instead. This is no problem at work since the company I work for is young and everyone speaks almost fluent english.
Beeing an alien simply rocks because everyone is helpfull to you, you can get into
the cinema without waiting in the line and you can insult people without them noticing.
Lets be more specific with examples.
Getting into the cinema without waiting.
Almost every cinema (at least the UGC ones in Paris) have a hard readable sign
how many places of a specific room are left. The thing is you can only see that
if you stand three meters from the monitors. This doesn't help because you can stand
almost 30 meters away from it waiting in the line and if you want to know if a specific movie still has places left you must walk between the lines and check the monitors. The thing is after you did that the line became 40 meters long. So why go back at all?
Now here's the tricky part. Slowly you move backward trying to quenue between
the people, but you are still looking at the monitors. Move forward and backward (this is important) or people really think you like to cheat. Once you are in the line get your wallet and play with it cause you might grin by accident otherwise, celebrating your success. At this time one french will look at you and utter something in his french tongue like: "Excuse moi Monsieur..." and he tells you in french that the line is beginning at the end. Now you tell him with your worsts french accent "Je ne parle pas francaise" (I don't speak french). The UGC cinemas in Paris have many movies in original english thats why many people like to go there. So, the french guy you just told that you don't speak french will talk english to you. "Sorry Sir, but the quenue is beginning at the end". During the 30 seconds this conversation happend you might be lucky and already are the first one in the line so you can just say "I dunt undastand"
get your tickets and having fun watching the movie. Otherwise tell the french dude that you were standing here before and just stepped out the line to see the hard to read monitors. If he still doesn't like that give him the opportunity to go before you because you don't care. If he kicks you out which he is not allowed to do because thats very offensive line up just behind him because people step away from aggressive people like him, thats space for you.
(to be continued)...
