It was hard not to stare when an elderly midget woman wearing a sparkly pink dress and various colorful accessories climbed daintily into the seat across from me, her sneakered feet hanging half a foot off the floor. I guess it would have been one of those "only in San Francisco" moments where you shake your head knowingly and give yourself a little self-appreciative punch on the shoulder for living in such a crazy place, but I was so zoney baloneyed from my 7am - 3pm shift that all I could do was stare, and I had forgotten my ipod bus-interaction-shield, which we all know is crucial to pretending not to care what is going on around you while riding muni.
I wondered if she didn't want me to watch her, even though she was wearing all that awesome stuff. But my prying eyes were rewarded when, without prompting, she animatedly began giving directions to the foreign, map-toting tourist next to her. After telling him what was up and offering to get off and help him find his transfer bus, she asked him what language he spoke. "German," he replied, and before he could even get the word completely out of his German mouth, she began spouting the Deutsch like she learned to swim in it.
Watching what was essentially a real life Fairy Godmother speaking German on Muni was a little bit sensational. It was a real treat, let me tell you, and it only got more cliche and inspiring when the older business man next to me took advantage of the lull in their conversation to physically reach across the aisle towards her, hoping to glean some of her magic. "Excuse me for asking," he prefaced tentatively but excitedly, "but how many languages do you speak?"
She waved her hands as if she knew too many to count, and said, "It's a gift, it's a gift. It's like music to me."
"Does it get harder to learn as you get older? Because I want to learn a language, but I'm worried..."
"No! No, just practice. Practice practice practice, like music!" she exclaimed, and went right back to chatting in German.
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