Today I met with Florian, who has agreed to help me learn French. He has no idea what he’s in for. He’s quite nice and a teacher in Paris. So my bargaining chip is my grammatically correct English. Thanks Mom!

Anyhow I went to meet him in the Marais, one of my favorite neighborhoods. This neighborhood is a good 20 minute metro ride from my shitty neighborhood, but soooo worth it. I generally look outside the window so I don’t accidentally make eye contact with anyone. So I was looking outside the window as a man came into view. He was squatting. It took me a while to process this, really. Then it became apparent the man was taking a shit in the full light of the metro station. There was a collective gasp in the car and a sudden burst of conversation. Apparently no one else could believe it either. Thank God to know it wasn’t a common occurrence. Beware of metro station Poissoniere.