Bitch at Berri-UQAM station and more...

I have two situations I want to comment on, that I came across when I took public transit.

On Thursday, July 12, 2007, as I was exiting Viau station, there was this girl who was blind (I don't know if it was an accident that caused her to be blind, or if she was born that way), and she had a guide dog.

Now, if this girl is walking up towards a turnstile, anyone with eyes would think that it would be polite and civil to let her go first... Since she cannot see, and she cannot see which turnstile is for entrances and which ones are solely for exiting. But she had to stop (and the guide dog stopped because it was trained to when it sees someone blocking an exit), because some bastard who is completely able to see clearly with his two eyes decided to cut in front and enter the station before the blind girl exited. Please, some common sense and civility... She can't see you! She's blind. Let her pass first, waiting for 10 seconds while she passed would not kill someone who has perfect use of his eyesight. What a bastard. He should be shot in the most painful way possible.

And then today, I took the public transit, and I was at Berri-UQAM station. I was with someone who needed to buy six tickets... So, he approached the booth, where this lady was, and asked for "six tickets" But the bitch at the counter said, "No, you're not buying six tickets, you're buying une lisère de six billets". First of all, the STM usage of lisière (=edge) is very bizarre, since you're really not buying an edge of tickets... Maybe it translates to strip, but I personally would say carnet. Even my former French prof said that it is extremely bizarre to use lisière with billets.

And then, when I passed by the booth, I showed her my pass with the student ID. Normally, most booth operators would just press the button to allow me to pass. But now, she insisted that I take my pass and slide it through the turnstile. What the hell type of service is this? I can tell you now, this is not service empressé (outstanding service)! She's a bloody ticket booth operator... Your power trips don't work. You're not important. I can choose to pass through any other turnstile. I can choose to enter from a difference entrance. I can choose to enter from a different metro station. If she doesn't like working with people - and I believe that if you are working for the STM, you need to enjoy working with people, then quit, because there are so many other people who would fill that job in a second, who would actually enjoy it!