To truly understand my story you must understand the mindset of the average German while riding on public transportation. They look anywhere but at each other with the most frightening scowl on their faces, all the while in their own little worlds. Some are reading, some are watching the TV's provided, many are listening to who knows what with headphones dangling out of their ears.
Usually I read a book on my Palm Pilot. It's a very good system, the time seems to fly by, and I've never missed my stop yet. The book is always the same size, and I don't end up fraying the pages because while not being read it is carried around in some bag... actually the Palm Pilot thing is pretty cool.
Last week I had just finished a very good book by Alexandre Dumas, "The Count of Monte Cristo". It seemed reasonable to give myself a little break between books to consider the life of Edmond Dantès and to think about the end result of all that revenge...
This meant that I wasn't reading on the subway, but of course with good public transport etiquette I needed something to occupy my brain... The TV's spout German news, and I really don't like it... so I thought it would be reasonable to listen to some music.
I pull out the headphones and turn on some great music... in this case Tina Turner, and "we never ever do nothin' nice and easy... we always do it nice and rough... ". Proud Mary is rollin' on that river, the music is thumping with the sound of the paddlewheel... I'm really enjoying it... ... and then I notice that two people are blankly staring at me... um, what? Now a few more are taking furtive glances my way... then quickly look away... WHAT? Slowly my mind takes in my surroundings. Nothing seems to be strange. I take a quick look into the window which doubles as a mirror in the darkened tunnel... no, I seem to be normal... except those cords hanging out of my ears... Oh well, they have a problem... so I push them out of my thoughts and get back to the riverboat queen...
The next song is Gwen Stefani and "Rich Girl"... She's singing about how "all the riches baby, don't bring what your love can bring", and I'm really enjoying the music... thinking about how she sampled this bit of the song from "Fiddler on the Roof"... wouldn't Tevia be happy to have all the royalties... then HE could be a "rich man"... this is when it hits me... why those people are staring at me... I'm sitting with a group of people that aren't hearing the fantastic tunes I'm jamming to... AND I'm moving to the beat... my toes are tapping, my head is bobbing, my hand is beating my bag... all in time to music these people can't hear... Oh yeah... I'm a cool one...
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