Encounters with the French police (aka the cheese-eating surrender monkeys)

Wow. Great night tonight. After a couple of days of going to bars, cafes, creperies, supermarkets, and bakeries, I've definitely started to feel like I'm becoming a part of the Parisian society. I've basically been speaking exclusively French when out of my apartment, and even the locals seem to appreciate my efforts and often mistake me for a Parisian. Yesterday, an middle-aged woman asked me for directions on the Metro, and later that day an elderly man asked me if there was a "marriage" going on at a cathedral that Jonah and I were photographing. It's really a great confidence booster.

Tonight, though, I definitely had my most interesting encounter with the French. So the way the Metro works here, it's really easy to pass through the entry turnstiles without paying (the person in front of you go, and you sneakily get in behind them). It's a common practice for the Frenchies, so I've been doing the same since I haven't gotten my monthly Metro pass yet. I've never had a problem with it... until tonight. To make a long story short, we took a slightly different Metro line tonight which required you to use your ticket to get out of the Metro, which I obviously didn't have. So I couldn't get out, and there happened to be four French Metro Police guys on the exit side (basically the Gestapo). One of them came over to the exit gate to let me through, and I though I was going to be fine, until he started questioning me. In French. So we ended up having about a three minute conversation in French in which he asked me for my passport, where I was from, what I was doing here, who I was with, where I was studying, and he even asked me for a proof of residence. I didn't have either my passport or proof of residence on me, so I gave him my Mass ID, which he was not amused by. I think he bought my story of how I "lost" my ticket on the Metro, and he eventually paused, which gave me the opportunity to ask him is "everything was good". He said that no, everything wasn't good. So in return, I said, "But is everything good now?" At this point, I'm sure he had had enough of my antics, and, seeing that I wasn't intimidated by the surrender-prone French police force, he let me go. Not a bad beginning to my night.

So, Jonah, Derek, Grace, and I made our way through the Latin quarter in the 5th in search of a bar. Nearly everything is closed on Sundays here. Fortunately, we were able to find this local bar place with live music that was absolutely phenomenal. The drinks were reasonably priced as well. In addition to the fantastic music and company, the overall experience of feeling like a pure local was awesome. It's getting really late now, but I do just want to mention that I went into the Notre Damn cathedral today (Sunday) during mass. Quite the experience.