Talk to strangers

I was at my neighborhood Carrefour yesterday when the security manager, after greeting me with a smile started a conversation with me. I noticed that he does that with the regulars and I guess I am one, as I frequent that Carrefour a few times a week - I always forget to buy stuff I need (but that is over now, the last trip to CF, I was shopping for the month, and I hope I get everything so I don't need to waste time grocery shopping)

What amazed me was not the fact that he addressed me as "mademoiselle" or when he asked if I was a student... No, I left Carrefour feeling elated because I managed to hold a conversation with someone who simply assumed that I was french and spoke fluent french, and so he did not slow down his speech at all. I understood everything and he did not ask me questions about my migration. He just took it for granted through our conversation that I lived here in France and I spoke the language. (I'd like to think that I spoke it well enough with him that he had no reason to suspect that I've only lived here for a year)

That was a major milestone for me as someone who found it hard to assimilate as I could not even complain when I did not like the service in a restaurant or ask for my jeans to be shortened as I didn't know the french word to use (its "retouche" by the way...). I've learned to be more tolerable, especially when I used to take language for granted and could tell the waiter that I'd like my meat to be well cooked - here in France I haven't been able to send back my steak because I didn't know how to phrase my request nicely. I tried that once and got a glare from the proprietress instead...