Yesterday I had to go down to the local police station to get an official paper. When I arrived the lady at the desk handed me a blank sheet of paper and informed me that I need to write an official letter of request.
I wandered back to the front door in somewhat of a fuddle. I am terrible at writing things in normal French, to say nothing of formal French. I had no model to copy, I wasn't sure what I was supposed to write, and I didn't even have a pen! It was at this moment, standing forlornly before the front door of the police station, that I met a great guy.
One of the officers behind the front desk, a good-looking young guy, called out to me and asked if I had been running. I replied that yes, I had been running a little (I had been afraid that I would be late to the police station, so I had run a good portion of the journey and was still sweating profusely). He then asked me what I needed, since I was standing so aimless in front of the door. I held up the blank sheet of paper, now containing a couple of wet spots where my sweat had landed, and told him that I had to write a letter of request and had no idea how to do so.
He motioned me to come around behind the desk with him. When I got there he layed the piece of paper on the desk and began motioning to various parts of it.
"Put your name and address up here," he said, "And the date here." And here write, 'To Madame the blah blah blah blah' and here write, 'please receive, madame, my most sincere greetings' and then sign your name here."
He looked up and discovered a rather overwhelmed look on my face. He found a pen and said, "Right, what's your name?" He then proceeded to write the entire letter for me, asking for the pertinent details. When he finished he said, "Right, sign here." I signed it, and I was good to go. I walked back into the office, handed in "my" letter, and that was that. Talk about helpful guy!
