Saturday, January 28, 2006

Note to self: Don't J-walk in Front of a Cop

While walking to this great little Hungarian restaurant, I couldn’t help but notice the police presence at this one intersection.  In all honesty, it made me feel right at home.  To think that there aren’t many places in India I have been to without seeing an officer of the peace at every corner.  As far as I knew, Canada was known for having policemen everywhere…apparently things have changed.

One guy j-walked right in front of a cop and was immediately questioned.  At that point, I started to think about what my excuse would be if I was ever stopped.  It would probably go something like, “I’ve just been in India for the last 7 months and j-walking is legal there, so I did it all the time and now it’s engrained in my system.  It’ll be at least a month before I learn to use the crossing lights.”  I bet they don’t hear that everyday.

Then, after crossing the street legally, I see this cop ticketing a couple of youngsters that were apparently causing trouble.  In a stroke of “genius” the kid decided to mouth off the cop.  It made me think about what would happen if a poor fool did that in India.  Anyways, the cop grabbed the kid and sat him down on the bench for a solid intimidation session.

On a positive note, I may have found the best Hungarian restaurant in Calgary…Jonas’ Restaurant on 6th Ave. and 9th St.    

6 Comments:

At 5:25 AM, Blogger Johanna said...

What is j-walking, Kent? Don't forget your stupid german blog readers. ;)

 
At 8:40 AM, Blogger kent said...

Sorry. Are you guys back now? Can't wait to hear all about your travels.

J-walking is when you cross the street illegally, i.e. not at an intersection or stop light. It's basically what we do all the time in India.

Not sure what the J stand for, though.

 
At 2:27 AM, Blogger Johanna said...

Very interesting! I found an explanation for the term on the net: http://www.phrases.org.uk/bulletin_board/7/messages/509.html AAAAAH, it's a great feeling to teach a native speaker something about his own language, hehe!
Can you also lose your driving licence for this like in Germany?

 
At 2:29 AM, Blogger Johanna said...

Oops, the editor cut the link.
link

I hope it works now.

 
At 8:13 AM, Blogger kent said...

Thanks, Johanna. I'm pretty much a "jay (countrified and rustic for sure)." So I deserve to be able to cross the street like one, right?

I don't think you can lose you licence, but you can have a hefty fine levied against you. Does anyone try to cross the autobahn like this?

 
At 10:47 AM, Blogger Johanna said...

*lol* Actually there are people trying to do this once in a while, but you can imagine they're not very successful. :) I even remember a radio announcement that somebody was on the autobahn on his bike (cycle)... must have been an Indian immigrant... :)

 

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