These Things Peeve Me

Generally, I think I've adapted pretty well to life here. I even ate a restaurant cheeseburger with a knife and fork once, because I guess that's how they do it here. But here are some things that I absoutely cannot get used to.

- Garbage bags. In my country, garbage bags have built-in handles. When it comes time to prepare the bag for its journey to the dumpster, you simply tie the handles together. Here, each bag comes equipped with a flimsy little red tie thingy. Sometimes the flimsy little red tie thingy mysteriously disappears. Or it will break in two. Even if neither of those things happen, it's just awkward to have to deal with a little red tie thingy when you are trying to quickly close a smelly bag of garbage.

- Square pillows. These are for hiding stains on/decorating your couch. Square pillows also make nice seat cushions for your lawn furniture. But square pillows are not for your bed. I can't explain why, that's just how it works. I slept horribly for months until I bought some rectangular pillows off Craigslist.

- Street cleaners wasting water. There are these fire hydrants type devices that exist for the sole purpose of dumping gallons and gallons of water onto the streets, supposedly to clean them. At the same time, the streets are eternally filthy. Cuz Paris is a filthy city. No one respects the cleanliness. So what is the street cleaner people's logic? Why waste all this water for no reason?

- Shower heads not being attached to the wall. It makes showers so much easier. I don't understand why this concept never caught on over here.

- PDA. Why do I have to trip over people making out everywhere I go? Those metro poles are for maintaining your balance, not for making out against. Park benches are for sitting on, not for making out on. Sidewalks are for walking on, not for making out. Crosswalks are for crossing the street, not for making out.

- Poorly designed ads. It would be better if I had some pictures to show you. But I'd say 75% of the metro ads look really, really bad. Design isn't my speciality. Yet I do know one ad should not randomly switch between italic and bolded type, nor should it contain three different fonts. It's also a good idea to choose an image that makes sense. Additionally, ads should not be an opportunity to smush as much type and as many pictures as can possibly fit in the space. Newsflash: all that stuff confuses people. I learned these basics in my design for dummies class in college. I wonder where the people that design these ads went to school.