Monday, April 9, 2012

Interaction w/Slavic women (1 of 2): Drinking fountain.

All over school there are these new drinking fountains they’ve installed, that have a place where you can refill water bottles, and an electronic counter that shows how many plastic water bottles have been saved from a landfill just by people recounting their water bottles.

This one (female) (dishevelled) (extrememly pessimistic) (Russian) ph.d. student and I were by the fountain and I was filling up the thermos I have with me, and she said something slightly positive, about how she liked how the drinking fountain counted up, and said how many water bottles people didn’t throw out because of it.

“Yes,” I was like, “But because my thermos is slightly less than a water bottle, the counter never increases when I fill it.”

Then, I was like, “You know your life is nothing, when even inanimate objects don’t recognize you.”

At that she started to smile, so I turned to the fountain and said in a mock-theatrical voice, “Please, what do I have to do be recognized, to count as a human being...?!?!?”, and that got a good honest laugh out of her.

I think she liked the black humor.

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