Word: metro
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During the European basketball championships last October, Spaniards exiting Madrid metro stations encountered Nike ads featuring Pau Gasol and his Spanish teammates with the caption: "Being Spanish is no longer an excuse, it's a responsibility." Spain played poorly in the final game, losing by a point to Russia. But that was a year ago. Today, as you tally up Gasol's appearance with the Los Angeles Lakers in the NBA Finals in June, the Spanish soccer team's victory in the European Cup, Rafael Nadal's Wimbledon defeat of Roger Federer, and Carlos Sastre's triumph at the Tour...
...went to Moscow in 1995, four years after the fall of the Soviet Union and a year after Solzhenitsyn had returned from exile. By then I had read Gulag, and every time I walked through the Byelorusskaya metro station, I thought of the first chapter, in which he describes his arrival in Moscow in 1945, 11 days after he was arrested for criticizing Stalin in a letter. He is escorted by three intelligence officers, but "not one of the three knew the city," he writes, "and it was up to me to pick the shortest route to the prison...
...state with a tradition of making last-minute decisions. Both Obama and McCain are digging in early to persuade the state's struggling voters to take a chance on them in November. Until they decide, voters can agree on one cause to root for this fall. Billboards around the metro area advertise Lions season tickets for the recession-rate bargain price...
Striking up conversations is not something I have observed to be a common practice on the Tokyo metro, but occasionally I find myself making friends. Sometimes kind people will stop to offer me directions when they notice me standing still and staring at signs. A college student woke me up one morning to make sure that I did not miss my stop. And a trendy man once inquired if I might be able to help him fix the buckle on his cowboy boot...
Although tourist attractions may have their merit, I have found commuting to be an indispensable experience. It is an activity that on the surface may seem mundane but continues to present new surprises. The Tokyo metro has given me an expansive look into the life of Tokyoites, and I never cease to be intrigued...