Caught the early plane back to London...

"Early" being 6:30 in the evening, and it ended up taking off later than that. But if I wanted to fly out of Luxembourg, it was either that or wait until quite late. I wanted to get at least a bit of sleep before the interview, which was a further train ride out in the suburbs.

The Luxembourg airport is a lot like the country in general: small, but very convenient. It's just a short bus ride out of the city (of course, I was starting from work, which is already a ways out of the city center), no overpriced shuttles necessary. Love it! The terminal itself is rather drab, perhaps because it was under construction at the time and perhaps because, well, it is fall in Northern Europe. Airports are almost always either terrifically exhilarating or rather depressing for me. This time around, it was the latter, even though I had a solid lead on a gig in a country I love. I'm not really sure why, probably just that I was rather tired. Plus, I'm not crazy about spending yet more money on travel when this job is only a maybe. Of course, it wouldn't even be a maybe if I didn't go.

In any case, flying Luxair proved to be agreeable enough. Since I love to fly for the most part, an airline has to do something pretty horrible to get a clear thumbs-down from me, but it also has to be especially great for me to bother with a thumbs-up. Luxair got neither. It was good, not spectacular but good enough. My only complaint is that it was a small plane and we were all awfully cramped in there. No big deal on a nice short flight.

In my experience, the UK is the most tedious country for getting into. But that's not saying too much - I've never had a real horror story to pass on. It went the same way this time: the guard asked me what I was there for and for how long, and stamped my passport without demanding a return ticket or anything (which is good, as I didn't have one - more on that later). More interestingly, no one asked me for my carte de sejour, despite all the dire warnings against leaving the continent without it. I did have it with me, but as it expires next week and I'm expecting the new one to take a couple of months, I wanted to see if I could get out and back in without one. I can, evidently.

The interview went well, but I won't comment on it for now because the outcome is still up in the air. Suffice to say I'll be pleased if I get the internship, and I'm seasoned enough at this point to know I might not. Somewhat more interesting is the dinner I treated myself to the night before, at an Italian place in London. I must have really looked exhausted, because at least two waitresses asked me if I was feeling okay or if there was a problem with the food, or something. I assured them that I was just tired, and let them believe I was dealing with a five-hour jetlag instead of a one-hour one. Since I was tired, I didn't get to stick to my usual practice of visiting a cozy London pub after dinner, but comforted myself with the thought that I can do that every weekend if I get the internship. Not that I would, but I could!

Next it was on to Paris, for class and for a job fair at HEC. I was beginning to worry I'd never have an excuse to take my beloved Eurostar again, and it seems this will indeed be my last ever trip out of Waterloo Station, because they're changing it in a couple of weeks. (For those of you who don't know Waterloo, if you've seen The Bourne Ultimatum, it's where that journalist is murdered. It often is crowded enough that you could almost believe that could happen. Relax, I said almost.) In any case, I got into Paris just in time to catch the last train out to Jouy, which was indeed to be the last train for a few days thanks to a strike. I'll bet some of my old anti-unionization pals from Yale would find that absolutely hilarious. Hey, it's okay with me, I had to stay in Jouy for a couple of days anyhow!

The job fair was...yes, the job fair was. Actually it wasn't too bad; I did get a couple of pretty solid leads. As with the internship interview, I won't comment further for now, except to say that I left feeling more optimistic than I was when I came in. Some of the reps I talked to were pretty discouraging, with their statistics about how many applications they got per space available, but it's just as well that we're aware of the big picture, I guess. One of my buddies told me that a rep had been honest enough to tell him he shouldn't bother applying for a particular job for some reason or other. There's a lot to be said for that - think of the time you won't spend waiting to hear back on that application. It's still a step I'll be very happy to have behind me, but it must be done, and I did it.

Next thing I knew, I'd been on the road for nearly a week - someday I will miss that, I reminded myself as I stood there sleepily at the Jouy train station. Only partial service had been restored at that point, so I had to take a rather roundabout way back into Paris. Among my fellow passengers were a bunch of English rugby fans, who asked me if the strike happened because England made the finals but France didn't. Hey, makes as much sense as anything!

I was quite happy to get back to Luxembourg and my messy, but quiet and paid-for, apartment. There will probably be more of those trips before I leave here, and that's fine. But I wouldn't mind if they aren't quite so long next time. Yes, that's right, even I get tired of being on the road after a while!