Friends in Unexpected Places

Although it has been difficult for me to interact with the Parisians since I have only one semester of the language and my very limited funds have made it difficult for me to go out and do many of the things I would like to do, I have finally found that the best way to truly connect is to find places where there is potential for people that have similar interests as me. I found a neighborhood this week that has a tattoo parlors, which was unexpected since I have not seen very much of that culture here in France. I really love body art, and I was so interested in looking at how different it was here in Paris and happy to find French people that love it too and want to share it with me and talk about it. I have found that people with tattoos always want to talk about them, and since they are such a personal thing it is really a good way to learn about people and hear their stories. It took a couple times walking by and awkwardly poking my head in before I finally went in and started looking at the art on the walls and flipping through the portfolios. A man asked me if I needed help, and I explained in my best french that I was just looking, and that I have not seen any tattoo parlors yet in Paris and I wanted to see what it was like. He was kind of an intimidating guy, so I was ready to scurry out of there but I saw his face completely change when I told him why I was there and he got friendly and excited and pulled out his portfolio to show me. He did not speak enough english and I did not understand enough French to really have any sort of meaningful conversation, but the shared excitement and interest was the most bonding I have done with a French person since I got here. I feel like I spend so much time in tourist areas where the French people do not want to interact with me because there is no opportunity to break the ice and find out what the common ground is between us. Going somewhere that is a little out of the way took some courage for me, but it paid off in the end.