Maybe this is why people continue to marvel over my brightly-colored Nalgene reusable plastic water bottle. I mentioned last week that it really baffles my students. I continue to get comments, as frequently as every other day. What do they think I’m carrying in the bottle? Perfume? Plasma? Petrol?! I mean, it doesn’t take a rocket scientist…I thought white people were supposed to like water bottles. At least on my former side of the pond, anyway.The best of such incidents was this evening on the Metro. I sat down, Nalgene in hand, across from a little boy (approximately age 3) and his father. And in spite of the aural interference provided by my iPod, I heard the boy blurt out (in French), “Daddy, what is that?’ all the while, eyes wide as saucers and staring squarely in the direction of the magical Nalgene. The father was flustered – he clearly had no idea what it was, either. He mumbled the equivalent of “uh…” and so I took my cue. Unscrew bottle top, raise to lips, sip, and swallow – with a half-smirk, half-wink. See?
1 comment:
The other thing worth pointing out is that the French have a weird fixation on drinking all liquids out of a glass. Beer, juice, water must all be transfered to a dainty glass, usually no more than 8 oz., and sipped at.
My thing is, I hate doing dishes, so anything that cuts down on dishes, like drinking out of the bottle, is great. And in the case of beer, a cold bottle keeps the beer cold longer than the glass you just pulled out of the cupboard, you know?
I think this all speaks to deeply-entrenched French food consumption rituals. Also, they all seem to hate eating at their desks at work. It's just not right (he writes as he finishes off his lunch...at his desk).
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