Around Aix - On the Street

Walking around outside is a very different experience here than at home. You don't make eye contact with people - especially if you're a woman making eye contact with a man - it could be taken the wrong way. (Sidenote: Seriously though, what if you're just looking around and you happen to make eye contact - how on earth can they take a first glance as "ooh... you're interested in them".) Anyway, another thing is you have to constantly watch where you step. There aren't really grassy areas in Aix - none at all in the old part of town that is the city centre. And the French love their dogs. This means that dogs pee and poop all over the street (though signs instruct owners to please curb their dogs to the gutters in the center of every street it doesn't always happen) and you really have to watch where you're walking except early in every morning right after the streets have been washed. (When you still have to watch to make sure you don't step in the huge puddles of water.) Anyway, I must have perfected the appropriate French combination of looking down and looking ahead today because I'm still dressing like an American, and yet, I was stopped four times by people asking for a cigarette or a light. It was exciting to be taken for a French person, if only briefly, cause it was definitely a letdown to see their reaction every time I said anything in reply...