Assholes will be Assholes

I was taking the bus in Nimes to my hostel on the other side of town, and was just getting sleepy when a man leaned over and started to talk to me. I looked at him blankly for a good twenty seconds before saying "Je ne parle pas francais".

"Oh. English?"

"Yes."

Then he started rambling on about how he was Dutch and didn't speak English. He asked a French girl how to say something en anglais, and she laughed but didn't know how. I watched the faces of the people on the bus around me go from entertained to disgusted and uncomfortable as the guy continued to talk to me even though all I said was "I don't speak French." He really wanted to get his point across though, and started talking to an older man about something or other. I recognized the old man saying "She's going to the youth hostel" to which I started nodding emphatically before realizing maybe I shouldn't be saying where I'm going. It didn't matter though, the asshole wasn't paying attention to me.

All in all, he talked at me for a good 5 minutes. Near the end before he got off the bus, he finally managed to say "Will. You (point) Sleep (hands together near head) Wif. Me?"

I didn't know what the hell he meant. If he was asking if I wanted to stay with him, the answer was no. If he was asking more along the English lines of 'sleep with me' it was definitely no.

Which is what I said. And then he had the confidence (or whatever) to say "Why not?"

"... Because I don't speak French!"

He got off the bus at that point, and one lady finally spoke up and told me he was just embarassing and made sure I was okay and knew where I was going.

I don't care if strange people talk to me, and I really don't care what they say, especially on a crowded bus where all it is is talk.

But the horrible reality of being alone in a country where I am struggling to recognize even the simplest of phrases made me feel incredibly vulnerable and not okay.

It was good that I had to walk an extra 500 metres to the hostel after I got off the bus so I could work off the negative energy that settled on me. Well, some of it. I still feel like shit.