This summer, I take the TRE train into Dallas every morning to work in my research lab. The first thing I remembered as I stepped onto that train the morning I began my summer commute was its similarity to Paris’ RER. The way that I could take in the Dallas skyline as the train slowly pulled away from the station brought back memories of staring at the saturated yellow-green wistfulness of the French countryside as my friends and I went into Zone 1, 2, 3, 4… until we were in the 5th zone for a beautiful night at Disneyland Paris. 

There’s something about the train environment that makes them perfect for thought: they are ideal places to stare out the window, with your mind’s eye able to look past the nature just beyond the window, and delve into other kinds of trains — ones of thought — in hopes of sorting out recent life experiences or finally pondering the lyrics of one’s favorite music. This environment is one of the few where Paris and Dallas have a lot in common. The ambiguity of each passenger, though you may pass each other every day on the way to work, remains the same day after day, whether you’re saying “Good morning” or “Salut.” Physical proximity (which is quite paradoxical, actually) does not completely yield to greater emotional proximity between strangers. When in Paris, I marveled at how metro riders could be packed into a small space for an amount of time, yet never even attempt to make eye contact with their neighbor (I realize this is a cultural cue, but in any case, when some unnamed rider is bumping quite closely to your body for at least ten minutes, a simple smile just might make things less awkward). Here on the train to Dallas, seats are incredibly close to each other, yet rarely do two strangers sitting side-by-side venture to speak to the one less than six inches away. It baffles, yet interests, me. We’re all wired to stay within our little bubble and leave anything else around us undisturbed, for fear of appearing too out-of-the-box. Maybe next time I’m on the RER, I’ll try to start up a conversation (en francais, ouais) with my neighbor. But I guess for now, on the TRE, I’ll stick with immersing myself in Time articles and my favorite music at the moment, a CD called In Jesus’ Name and my Adele, Run, and Drive playlists.