stranger danger!

here's a short list of things that i hate that i can think of at the moment:
1) grocery shopping
2) laundry
3) talking to strangers.

Ugh strangers are the worst. So today I had metro turnstile issues. It wouldn't take my ticket, so I tried another turnstile and that didn't work either. I could see people waiting on the platform and thought "well how did they get over there?" So I figured maybe it was just this side of the metro that didn't work (was i drunk??) and decided to to go to the other side and try to get in there. I had to switch trains to get home anyway so I figured that it doesn't really matter which station I switch at, so what would be wrong with going in the other direction? So the other side doesn't take my ticket either! So I figure I'll just take myself to another metro station. As I'm turning around a girl said something to me in French. It was about three words and I had no idea what they meant. I'm glad I've been taking French lessons since I was eight years old and still can't understand one goddamed word of it when not in a controlled situation. So I was able to figure out that she was saying I could just go through, so through I went. But now I'm still on the side of the metro that takes me out of the way of where I want to go. Well I don't want to look stupid and switch to the other side so I stay put and figure I'll switch trains at Chatelet which I know will be a pain in the ass, but I feel the need to follow through.

So I switch at Chatelet to the 7 heading to my apt. I'm walking down the stairs to the platform and i hear the "excusez-moi!" oh no, i'm the only one here i have to turn around cus she's talking to me! so she says "is this the 7?" and i said yes and she starts asking me questions. i'm like, oh god. so i try to get out of it by telling her i don't really understand what she's saying. so she keeps talking to me but doesn't slow down one bit! she asks where i'm from, what my name is, and then keeps asking me to translate english phrases for her. deep down i really feel like i'm going to end up getting robbed when this is all over. so i guess i understand how the french feel when i speak to them, cus as she's saying these english words, i just can't understand at all! i was able to help her with some of them such as "i gotta," "through," and "go around," but the others, forget it. So when I would tell her that I didn't know what she was saying she would say, "why not? it's an american saying!" So she asked if i had a cell phone, I said no cus I thought she was going to then ask to use it, but she just wanted to hang out, so i told her i was leaving in two days. if my life was a tv show my cell phone would've rang right then! luckily it didn't. i should also point out that she was asking me if the train was going towards porte de la villette. i told her i didn't know, but then we got on the train, saw she was going in the wrong direction and stayed on the train with me anyway! then she told me she liked my purse and i thought for sure i was getting robbed. i was so scared she was going to get off at my stop with me, but she didn't, thank god. and she didn't end up robbing me, so that's a good thing.