I learned last night that the neighborhood I'm living in used to be a landfill and has a drainage system that causes it to smell the way it does. Bad. Especially in the morning. I thought it might just be sulfur in the water, and that a lot of water gets used in the morning from bathing, etc., which causes the smell. That may still be true, but a flatmate told me yesterday that it's the sewage that's smelling. Whether that's true or not, it's undeniable that this place smells. I don't mean that in a bad way necessarily (although some of the smells are quite putrid), but just that there are a lot of scents happening. There's the smoke, the car exhaust, the street food cooking, the sewage; at different places there's trash, or fresh fruit; on the train, there's always someone whose body odor is noticeable.
I was on a particularly crowded train one night, and this guy who was about my age said, "you must be very frustrated [by how crowded it is]."
In a moment of uncharacteristic calm, I said, "not really; there's nothing I can do about it except be glad I'm not in second class."
He laughed and said, "yes, because at least it doesn't smell here."
I just meant that it is less crowded in first (although I'm starting to wonder if that's even true), but I suppose he's right.
There's just a lot going on in this country, for all the senses.
I was on a particularly crowded train one night, and this guy who was about my age said, "you must be very frustrated [by how crowded it is]."
In a moment of uncharacteristic calm, I said, "not really; there's nothing I can do about it except be glad I'm not in second class."
He laughed and said, "yes, because at least it doesn't smell here."
I just meant that it is less crowded in first (although I'm starting to wonder if that's even true), but I suppose he's right.
There's just a lot going on in this country, for all the senses.
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