being told you look tired 100% beats getting mugged..

So on a normal day, being told I look tired would make me angry. Not today..

So a few of my British assistant friends are leaving forever at the end of this week, so we decided to have a "last hurrah" in Metz this afternoon (since we were off school today). This "last hurrah" included café hopping. I was about an hour late, thanks to buses (or lack thereof) on school holidays (another post, another time), so I missed our time at the first café. But I arrived at the second café, "Cherie," just in time to have dessert, which for me turned out to be mousse au chocolat, my ABSOLUTE FAVORITE French dessert. Once we finished, we decided that since just about everything in Metz was closed except the cafés at Place St Jacques, we would just move to my personal favorite, "White." At "White," you can get 4 cups of gourmet Mariages Frères tea for 3,10 euros in a cute little kettle, so three of us partook. We sat there and enjoyed the sun and judged the outfits of all the people walking by -- good times. So once we finished at "White," I suggested that we try a new wine bar that I had discovered a few weeks back, which is a bit of a walk away from where we were. So we set off. I walk fast (as anyone who has ever walked anywhere with me know.. I think it's something about having such short legs and having to "keep up," but that's neither here nor there..), and so does another guy friend, so we were a bit ahead of everyone else, and we were deeply in conversation about politics or something. I have walked alone down the street we were walking on multiple times and always felt safe, there are a few shops and restaurants and even a "place," which is where the wine bar is located. Anyhow, as we were walking, we passed two guys who were walking on the opposing sidewalk, but I was so deeply engrossed in our conversation that I didn't pay them any attention. Before I know it, one of them, a rather large man of African descent, starts talking to us. It took me a second to get my head switched into French gear from English, but the first thing I understood was "Je prends ca," (I'm taking that) pointing at our BAGS (I was carrying a purse and my friend was carrying a messenger bag). At this point my heart drops to my stomach and everything just goes into slow motion. The man kept saying stuff, but it was kind of jumbled and he wasn't finishing sentences, but he approached us nonetheless. I was waiting on him to pull out a knife or gun or something, but that never happened, so I was (insanely) thinking, "he's not taking my bag unless he has a weapon," and so I was planning my escape in my head. When he finally got to our side of the street, he asked if we smoked. I was so frozen that I couldn't even remember if I smoked or not (I don't), so I just stood there and looked at him, flabbergasted, because nothing like this has ever happened to me. My friend, thank goodness, does, and so he slowly unzipped his bag and pulled out a pack of cigarettes, opened them, and offered the entire thing to the man. The man just kind of looked at them, and then muttered something about his hands being too big to pull one out. So my friend pulled one out and gave it to him, and somehow, by the grace of God himself, this completely and utterly satisfied the big man, at least momentarily. Then, the man looked over at me, laughed, and said "La petite semble fatiguée, la pauvre" (the little one looks tired, poor thing) and said we should get some rest. By this time, the rest of the group had caught up and the man bid us adieu and we took off. The others were curious, but not until we had reached a more public place did we first take a deep breath/sigh of relief and then fill them in on what had happened. Oh yeah, and the wine bar was closed.

So I've been lost in the Medina of Marrakech at night, I've walked around an economically depressed former communist city after dark, and I've regularly passed through the bad area of Metz on the night bus at late hours of night ALONE, but yet I was almost mugged in BROAD DAYLIGHT, in a relatively NICE part of town, the day after EASTER, in METZ..?

Good thing there is also good French wine at the train station café to calm one down after such an experience.