I had perhaps the greatest discovery of all time. There are, in fact, ticket tellers at the Metz train station that are not grumpy! GTL students have to visit the train station about once a week to grab tickets for different trips (France STILL doesn't let you reserve stuff online. It's a pain and someone should fix it ASAP. Anyway...) I stood in a ridiculously long line counting the euros on this sign to make sure they added up to 25 euros (you can check too if you want), distracting myself from the inevitable struggle awaiting at the end of my long wait. I'd once again ask the teller whether they spoke English (in French), they'd say no and get a grumpy look on their face, and then grudgingly get my tickets only because I wrote everything out so explicitly that they couldn't pretend they didn't understand.
Much to my surprise, this time was totally different! I greeted the teller with a 'Bonjour' and a smile as usual and asked the guy if he spoke English. He said only a little, but had no problems with me showing him the paper, and even seemed a little impressed that I was that organized. He looked me in the eye when he spoke, found my trains quickly, and said 'Voila' when he was done with a smile (my favorite French phrase now!). I wish taking pictures of random people in public wasn't such taboo, or else I'd have documented the experience. I'm pretty sure no GTL student is going to believe that he existed...
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