I just covered the first half.

My neighbors and people I've met (as in, got to know more than 5 seconds' worth of) have been super duper hospitable and welcoming. They're awesome and I think they're going to go a long way toward making me feel at home.

But I've had a couple of brushes with nasty strangers. One I was prepared for: it was a publicly obnoxious guy who yelled "Eh! La chinoise!" when I passed by him on the train a couple of days ago. I had read in David Applebaum's Paris Inside Out (a guide mostly for English-speakers who will be here long-term; talks a lot about logistics stuff like real estate, medical care, and insurance but also culture and some handy shortcuts for living in the city) that lone females should be super defensive, but it was a TGV and ergo a fairly nice one (alter ego: Acela, but way faster). The book mentions that if someone says something rude to you, you should do as typical Parisians do and say something rude right back, e.g. "Ai-je te donné la permission à me parler?" ("Did I give you permission to talk to me?"), but I didn't really think it was necessary as everyone I'd met had been super nice so far. And anyway, the feminist in me rages — why should we just accept the state of affairs, and always be wary when travelling alone? In the 2 seconds it took me to process what had happened (WTF? That's the first time I've heard an overtly racial [I say racial, not racist — I don't think it was deep-rooted enough to go that far, just obnoxious enough to be obnoxious] comment), the moment to retort was over and I just had to share commiserating grimaces with the people around me.

Another was a group of Spanish girls at the Tour today with whom we (three people who'd also gotten there really early and I chatted it up) got off on a bad start. During the wait it rained lightly on and off, and the whole crowd had umbrellas to follow. After one of the stronger bouts was over the girl next to me closed her umbrella in synch with everyone else in the crowd, and happened to drip some heavy drops on me, her classmate, and the girls behind us. She turned to us all with a smile and an apology, but the group behind was super irate and said so verbally. And then one of the girls got my attention by poking me and asking that I move over because they had been waiting for an hour. Sorry, chica. Having gotten there between 9 and 11am, our group was not impressed. Especially not after I had overheard them talking about us earlier, given them a short look, and they started laughing, "Oooooh, crap, she heard us." In the end I gave a fairly curt negatory and turned around to ignore them the rest of the time. I felt like I was being an ass, but I also didn't want to be a pushover given how nasty they had been earlier. I was all icky inside for the rest of the day, that such a petty event had had to happen. But I chalked it up to grouchy crowds, and 4 teenaged girls with too much attitude.

But this evening I called Ass-achusetts for the first time, using a phone card at the local pay phone. One of the two booths was full, so I used the other, and after I'd been talking for about 25 minutes a guy (Dude #1) came up and signalled casually through the glass to ask if he could use it. I signed and mouthed back that I'd be done in 2 minutes and he leaned back against a tree to wait. As I was wrapping up, a man (Dude #2) came out of nowhere and shouted through the glass that he'd been waiting for me for exactly one hour (not even within 150% of true, as contrary to habit I'd been checking my watch fairly regularly to monitor impending expiration of phone card minutes). I replied that no, it had not in fact been an hour, and that I was wrapping up.

"This is a public telephone, and I have been watching you there for over one hour," he interrupted.

Okay. Breathe. I do understand the not-hogging-public-phone bit, but there were two booths and I started to wrap up as soon as Dude #1 had caught my attention. If #2 had really wanted me to get off the phone, he could have tried to get my attention through the all-glass booth. Hence, "Geez, no, you are wrong about the time — and if you hadn't interrupted me I would have been done long ago!" At which point he walked away, I said goodbye for a few moments, and handed it over to Dude #1 who had been calmly watching the whole thing unfold.

Next time I'll do my conversational calling elsewhere — my neighborhood has a noticeable non-Caucasian population (I think Indian and North African), so there are lots of phone-card-and-booth shops. And if it had been a busier time of day I wouldn't have been able to use the public phones that long. But this time... VICTORY, ASSMUNCHER!

I can see now why people visiting the country might say the French are nasty. The top 95% must be the same niceness as everyone else, but the nastiest 5% have been more vocal about their nastiness than I've encountered in other countries. Luckily, between my neighbors, shopkeepers, and other folks I've met there's been enough of an antidote that I'll have faith. Can't wait for classes to start tomorrow so I have a goal in life (clap clap clap). I'm really, really looking forward to seeing how it is.