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Thursday, August 21, 2008
Yesterday as I was about to broad the train at La Hacq. to Antony, a young guy asked me if the train stopped to Gare du Nord.. I had to think about it for a moment as there were two possibilites- Yes... or No, and get off at Massy P and change to the train that leaves from there.. I told him to get on the train and he asked another passenger... As I sat down, he started to talk to me in English, as I had spoken to him first in English... He was a young Uni student from Tunisia who has only been here two months so far... We started talked and he was telling me how he had applied to two universities in the U.S. but was denied... So, here he is in France at a private uni. in Paris, trying to get a international business degree or something like that.. He said he wasn't accepted at the public unis in Paris so he is going to a private one which will cost about 4,000 euros- of which 2,000 is paid for or something like that...
The lady controller took my ticket first and then said, oki... Azziz passed his Navigo to the woman and then she started telling him it wasn't good for this zone and that he would get a ticket... Normally, a ticket is 45 euros, but she said something about a "warning" and it would only be 27. He tried to talk his way out of it by saying he didn't know ... etc... He didn't realize that he was "out" of the zone... His navigo was only for zone 1-3, I think... and we were in zone 4 or 5... Anyhow... because he had NO credit card or money on him... he even tried to make a phone call but his phone didn't work... They asked him to open his wallet and when he did, all that was in it was a picture of him... NO i.d. card, no papers, cards, money... NADA!! So strange... I told him that when he goes out out of his place he should ALWAYS carry i.d. in case he gets stopped by the cops... OOPS.. He said something about always bringing his passport with him ... I said ... No, you may lose it or it may be stolen... A photocopy will do or a copy of your CDS.... When we arrived at Antony, the two controllers asked him to descend and they continued to take his info.- name, phone #, etc... As I was walking away, I said... Gosh, he doesn't even have money to get back to Gare du Nord now... I turned around and gave him a 10 spot... I will most likely NEVER see him again, but I felt like I somehow did something nice. When I got upstairs, it HIT me like a brick that his pass was valid from Antony to Paris so he didn't need any money to get back. OOPS... Oh well...
That was my good deed for the day!!! But, it also goes to show you... Always buy a valid ticket and keep it on you, and have an i.d. or something... I told Alex about it and he said that then guy most likely did it on purpose.. that if he got stopped he purposely wouldn't have any i.d. on him to pay... But, I'd like to think that he was just really out of the zone and didn't realize that he needed to buy a ticket from that gare at least just to Antony ... La Hacq. is a 20 minute ride from Antony and if you ride the metro for a few months you should at least KNOW that there are different zones, right??!! What do you all think about this? I'm just curious...
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