last night i was supposed to meet a few friends after my class. due to my delayed start (fully attributable to my stupidity in not actually checking the time table and just expecting my tram that usually stops at the stop there to stop - when it fact it ended service hours earlier) it was quite a while before i actually left. and it started raining.
i persevered.
and caught a different tram to the metro depot where i had to wade through crowds to access the actual metro station... and here is what prompted this bit of writing...
as in any big city there is constant noise, siren, horns, engines, doors, chatter, phones, footsteps. last night, as i walked two blocks, i became aware of the noise around me and sort of tuned in - and i realized, every person i passed who was speaking - either on the phone, to their companion, or to themselves - was speaking in english.
i was a little incredulous at first and thought maybe i'd just hit a pocket of tourists but as i rounded the corner and continued on my path english continued to be the only language i heard.
as i entered the metro station i started laughing... and then i collected some strange stares from the silent non-speakers and from those little english speaking chatterboxes as well. the funny thing - all those speakers, most of them were obviously non-natives speaking to other non-natives, there was quite a number had different accents from their counterpart.
it's really becoming apparent that english truly is a universal language. and all this time i thought it was love. maybe that's my problem!
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