Huh.

I swear, I have never been hit on so many times in my life. Majorly persistent guy today while I was eating lunch; I eventually tried resorting to "je préfère les femmes," but this had very little effect either. He was a boxer, originally from Africa — what's next to South Africa? Anyway, I think I may make it a rule simply to ignore any man who addresses me unless he's with a woman or a child. At least until I know enough French to politely give someone the brush-off and make it clear I mean it! Maybe I should just start wearing my glasses... and not shave my legs... and pick my nose.... On the bright side, it gave me a very good chance to practice my French.

Page and I tried to go to a concert tonight, but it ended up being 20 euros, not 9 (as we had thought), so that was a no-go. Wandered along the Champs-Elysées to the Arc de Triomphe, instead.

Also took the placement test for the Alliance Française today; I aced the level II test and absolutely bombed the level III test. And fun and hijinx with credit cards. Yippee.

Why? *Why?*

In French, Xander is Alex. Poor, poor boy. I discovered a Buffy novel (one of those horrible things) in French, and there was mention of a discussion between Oz and Alex. Ugh. Anyway, how do they do the amnesia joke in Tabula Rasa if he's already called Alex?

Fuschias

• One named after Gustave Dore
  
• had 'Lord Byron'! (And I recognized it, tee-hee)
  
• really like 'Napoleon' — prolific, white outside and bright purple inside
  
• 'Autumnal' v. interesting leaves looked sick b/c of all the colors until I saw the name. Flowers nothing special
  
• 'Clair de lune' is all peachy
  
• 'Coralina' has v. pretty flowers — same colors as 'Lord Byron' but slender and long
  
• 'V[...]' pretty nice, too. L.B. colors, small flowers.
  
• 'Venus Victrix' - white (l. pink?) covers, dark purple flowers; v. small