she's a local girl with local scars The other day I was invited to participate in testing for "French as my second language", further to a competition for a job I applied for with the federal government. So I made arrangements to miss work and headed to the test location. I'd been given the room number, so when I arrived and saw a woman waiting for an elevator so I tagged along behind her. It was only once I was in the elevator and the button I pressed didn't light up until she used her security card to authorize the selection that I realized I should have probably stopped at the guard's desk on my way in. Oops.

I said to her, "oh, you need a security pass to get in here?" she said "oui, tu es visiteur?". And I said "oui, I didn't know". By this time we'd arrived at the floor and so I just said "ou est la salle 300?" and she pointed me in the right direction. (Look at me, all practising my French for the test.) I noticed that the other two ladies sitting at the table for the test were wearing noticeable VISITOR badges. Oops.

Whatever, I wrote my two tests. I found out that I don't get tested for my speaking ability until I pass a couple other tests (this one, then an interview). I was trying to score well enough to get classified as an "intermediate" French person. I had to think real hard for some of the questions, but it paid off. I'm not only "intermediate" for reading comprehension, I'm "advanced" for writing. Who knew..!

Anyway, when I went to leave the building, I ran into a problem with the elevator. Nobody was in it to activate it with their security pass, so it wouldn't budge. So I ducked into a stairwell and was able to get into the lobby that way, and I swooped right past the security guard trying to look cool. But while I was in the stairwell, I noticed that the scene from the windows overlooking the alley section behind the building looked very cool and I really wanted to photograph the scene. So I did. Don't tell the government.  | ¶ 11:30 p.m.