Nighttime Eiffel Tower, and a few other things

It’s been a while since my last post, and that’s mostly because I wasn’t in Paris for three and a half days. After a great afternoon on Wednesday during which I met some of my law classmates (including people from Italy, Switzerland, Spain, Germany, Austria, and China), I had my first experience in the Chunnel on Thursday when I went to London for a job interview. The stars aligned, and after several hours of interviews that felt more like casual hang-outs with awesome people, I was offered the job! I returned to Paris Thursday night, spent the remaining hours of the day in a blur of shocked bliss, and then went back to London on Friday morning to spend the weekend there with a few other new hires. This is a blog about Paris, so I won’t bother with the details of the time in London. I’ll just say that being back in an English-speaking country was very nice, especially right before classes begin... and of course, it’s an incredible relief to know that I have a job for after I graduate in May. It’s impossible to convey!

Yesterday was the first day of school, and so far it's been an interesting beginning. Of the three classes I should have had by now, only one has taken place! My first class was International European Private Law, a rather nebulous term that we're still trying to figure out based on the themes our professor outlined. This is one of the courses I'm taking in French, and I was relieved to understand about 90% of what happened during the two hours yesterday. (This is partially because my professor is actually German, so she's not a native French speaker - that always makes it way easier.) We were supposed to have our Fundamentals of French Law class right after that, but the professor never showed up, so after half an hour we all left and relocated to a brasserie. The same thing happened this morning for both the English and French sections of International Commercial Arbitration, so I ended up having a free day - and tomorrow I don't have class either (because that professor preemptively canceled it!). My roommate's response to the professor not showing up yesterday was "he's still on vacation," said in a tone that implied "that is perfectly reasonable." The weather has been amazing here the last two days, so none of us are complaining about the lack of class! I spent a few hours this afternoon sitting in the sunshine at the Jardin du Luxembourg; today is one of those perfectly cloudless days, and it's an 80 degrees that feels quite comfortable, even in the sun. 

Last night, a new friend and I went to see one of the chief reasons that Paris is known as the City of Light: the Eiffel Tower and it's hourly, dazzling light show! We got there well before dark and walked from the Champs de Mars to Trocadéro and then back down again (supplied with a bottle of champagne and some chocolate). The tower lit up around 8:40, and then at the top of each hour between 9 and 1 (I think), the tower sparkles for about five minutes. The still pictures from my phone don't do the sparkles justice, but I recommend checking it out for yourself on this 24/7 live webcam: http://www.earthcam.com/france/paris/. (Check at 3, 4, 5, and 6 pm EST.)