Let me begin by saying that I love Paris. While my first visit to the city was occupied by exams, I had nothing to worry about this time around. I was happy that I remembered enough of my French to avoid being ostracized for being an American (we aren't exactly on good terms with the world these days.)

To all my French friends out there, the only complaint I have is that such a fascinating city should not be wasted on as self-absorbed a culture as the Parisians!

I have posted some great pictures of the city, but I simply did not inherent the photographic genes to do it complete justice. I have been walking the city from one end to another in order to avoid the over-crowded subways in favor of the bustling avenues. Seeing the architecture, relaxing along the Seine, and devouring paninis is a much more rewarding cultural experience than exhausting myself down the endless halls of the Louvre!

On a much darker note, I had a very troubling encounter last night with a woman who claimed to be from Tehran, Iran. I was walking home from a local grocery shop at around 9:30 pm when an attractive woman wearing full Muslim décor approached me. She spoke to me in English, asking if I knew where a local internet café was. After telling her I did not know, she hesitated and started up the conversation on a new track. I cannot remember all the details, but we spoke for at least 20 minutes, with hints of flirtation highlighting parts of the conversation.

The immediate thought that hit me was the story about the French teenager who was seduced by a Muslim woman and later kidnapped and tortured by a Muslim fanatical group. As a recount of what happened, several months ago the French teenager was approached by a Muslim woman who immediately began flirting with him, and eventually led him away to a less inhabited area. He was then swarmed by a group of Muslims who took him at gunpoint to an apartment basement in the outskirts of Paris. He was brutally beaten and tortured for days before being killed. Only a handful of the culprits were ever apprehended, and the woman who first approached the teenager was never caught.

These thoughts were flying through my head from the very beginning because of the strange way the conversation was going. Specifically, she asked me how long I had been in Paris, how long I was staying, who I was with, and so on and so forth. The questions were all awkward (almost forced), given that they seemed more like she was mentally checking off boxes, rather than being genuinely curious. She claimed that she was working for an Iranian “Petrochemical” company, and was attending a one month seminar in Paris. My mind was racing over “stump questions” to weed out whether or not my worst fears were true. After all, I could hardly believe something like this would happen to me.

I asked her about her specialty, and the development of methane, propane, ethylene, and other hydrocarbons. She responded by saying that her English was very poor, and she could not understand anything I was saying. It was strange because anyone involved with petrochemicals would pick up on these gases immediately (irrespective of language), and every time I tried to pick her brain on something she would suddenly forget her English.

The last part of the conversation that is worth mentioning came near the end. I told her there are three main thoughts (likely unfair) that Americans associate with Iran: 1) woman have very few rights in relation to men, 2) nuclear weapons, and 3) terrorism. She understood the first two, (1) saying that woman have plenty of rights, and (2) “what can you do?” with regard to nuclear weapons. However, she had no idea what terrorism even was, and my mentioning of Jihad, Muslim extremists, and War on the West were completely foreign to her. More precisely, she claimed not to comprehend what any of these words were (hard to believe with Jihad, given that it is surely understood in Farsi).

Shortly afterward, a car pulled up 10 feet from us with a man smoking a cigarette in the front seat. She saw him and her entire demeanor changed, as did mine. I realized it was time to get out of Dodge, and I quickly said goodbye – turning down her request to come and meet the rest of her Iranian friends “to show them how friendly Americans are." I do not know if she was involved with terrorism, but there was no question that there was something very illegitimate about her and I was not about to find out the hard way.

As a bit of a recap, I cannot imagine what I would have done if I had not heard the horrific story of the French teenager. I would have felt a strong inclination to meet her Iranian friends because I was very curious to hear their thoughts and their outlook. A part of me wanted to show that Americans are no different than anyone else, and the widespread criticism of them is unwarranted. This would have been the perfect opportunity for me to branch out, meet new people, and have a remarkable experience. Fortunately, I knew better and my life was not worth the risk. If I ever had any doubts about my engineering education being worthwhile, it came from my understanding of the petrochemical industry and staying up-to-date with French news – nothing goes to waste.