As I walked to school to drop something off I had my first real conversation in French with a man on the street that was more than just hello. I greeted the older man with the typical greeting of bonjour monsieur, half the times I don’t even get a response but this time the man responded and asked me a question! And I knew what he asked! So I answered, then he asked another question – I knew what he asked. The next question I wasn’t quite sure so I shared that I was a student and the name of my school. Then he asked if I was an Arab, and I thought the 2 days we spent learning nationalities and responses were a waste of time but I knew how to answer. Then he spent the next few minutes explaining to me what he did for a living and where he worked, I didn’t get everything that he said but I felt that it was a successful conversation and I’m actually learning the language. Now I need to decide if it was the beard that made him think I was an Arab or he was just guessing and that was his first guess, he seemed to be ok with the fact that I was an American. Hopefully I will run into this man again!