Crazy Talk

Today while I was waiting for the bus to arrive so I could go to the Auchan some guy started randomly talking to me. He told me all about how people come to Perpignan from Paris and when they go back to Paris they take the nice weather with them for three or four days. That's why it rains like, never here and why in Paris the winter is generally more dreary (because they only take a few days back with them).

He also told me how that if I was going to be out more than an hour in the sun that I should most definitely be wearing sunscreen and that's how to keep looking young for a very long time. He continued to tell me that he was only talking to me because it was so nice of me to listen (he had cut me off both times when I tried to get a word in, so basically how could I not listen).

At this point he realized he had missed his bus and he said it was my fault because I had distracted him by listening to what he was saying. I apologized and he said it was no problem, he'd just take the next one as he had nothing else to do.

He then told me about how bad and snowy the weather was in Canada, and about vacation homes in Spain that got some snow one time and all of a sudden everyone was trying to move out of the area because they did not want a vacation home with snow.

This rant was followed by how he thought it was so tragic that people listen to the government officials, and if they don't disagree the just sit in their bums all day and do nothing about it (especially the younger generation, who really should care more about what is going on in the world today, especially when it comes to global warming). He said at 63 he understands the changes that have been happening on this planet and we are just too young to notice.

He then bid me farewell before walking about 5 feet away from me, stopping, turning around and coming back to where I stood. He just wanted to add that if I ever had a cough he had a great natural remedy - just put a bunch of licorice (reglisse) in your mouth and you won't cough again - you'll be able to sleep through the night, no problem! He said he had quit smoking and as soon as he had he hardly ever coughed at all, but one day he saw this woman on a bus and she was coughing like crazy from her cigarette (which he reiterated as being stupid) and he gave her some reglisse (which he just happened to have on him?) and she stopped coughing immediately, sang his praises, never coughed again.

Well, the good news is that I can understand more French than when I got here!