I traveled to Paris alone and got lost in the Metro for hours. I was trying to get to the Louvre. When I asked a stranger in the Metro station how to get to the Louvre, he gave me instructions in the other direction, away from Paris, to a city that had a similar name to the Louvre. I can’t remember the name of that city, but I do remember seeing a sign on the train platform that was spelled close to the name Louvre when I got off the train. I remember while riding the train looking out the window and seeing the quality of life getting worse and worse. The apartment buildings were deteriorating, and when I got off the train, I knew it was a rundown section of the city. I asked another stranger, a Black woman holding the hand of a small child, how to get to the Louvre? She looked at me quizzically as I was standing on the train platform of the city with a train station sign that had a word close to Louvre on it. She could see my frustration and must have realized I meant the museum the Louvre. Needless to say, she gave me the correct directions on which train I was to take to get to the Louvre in Paris.
When I got off the train in Paris at the Louvre, there were a group of teenagers standing near the Metro exit. I struggled to figure out how to get out of the turnstile exit. The exit door would not open when I walked up to it, or more likely I was on the wrong side to get out. Or I had to input my ticket in order for the little exit door to open. I don’t remember. What I do remember is the group of teenagers burst into laughter, talking in French and laughing at me. The whole thing was a terrible experience and unfortunately the first memory I have of my trip to Paris is this.
Does anyone know the name of that city in Paris? I looked on Google before I wrote this post, but I could not come up with anything similar for City in France beginning with “Lou”
Anyway the point of the story was the misunderstanding.
Texting gets me into trouble sometimes. Have you ever been misunderstood after writing a text and then frantically having to pick up the phone and call that person to explain what you really meant? And that conversation never goes well either. Or have you been on the receiving end of a text whose words were downright mean? I have and it hurts. I guess we all have. You laugh it off later, but in the back of your mind a small part of you thinks maybe that was what they really meant to say!
Conversations are filled with misunderstandings in speech and text. Some make you feel really good, others are painful. In Six Feet Apart, Love in Quarantine you will find both.
What was your worst experience being misunderstood?
