This morning, Mary and I ventured out for my first ride on the Metro to secure a few supplies at Carrefour, a French chain, much like Target. We loaded up our cart and bought cloth shopping bags for the trip home.

I decided to duck into a shoe store as we are attending a fancy party tonight, of which I was totally unaware. I do not travel with dress shoes! The window display showed promise, however, I did make a mental note of how tiny the sample shoes were. We walked past the handsome Greek shop keeper who was smoking in the doorway. Interrupting his smoke break: mistake #1. I held up a nice pair of black pumps and he looked at my feet and made a motion with his hands as if to demonstrate the size of a 10-pound bass and shook his head “no.” Thanks for the ego slap.

After grabbing a slice of incredible cheese pizza, we opted for a cab ride home. The driver asked if we taught at the University. We explained that Mary was a professor and I was a student. He laughed out loud. He said in a thick Greek accent, “In Greece, this is very unusual.”

Okay, so I’m old and I have big feet. So what? I’m having a grand time and the adventure continues.