A river runs through it

What a crazy week! Seriously, weeks with Phonetics classes are insane. It's like I live on the metro and in a classroom. Kind of cool though... instead of walking five minutes to class through campus I'm passing the Pantheon. 

It's weird to be so busy in a place that you just "started" a life- usually getting to be too busy is because you have so many friends in one place or you've been doing one thing all of your life and have to squeeze something else in. I'm not even working- it's just a ton of classes, running, seeing NEW friends and oh yeah, seeing Paris. 

Being the mid-point of the semester, this week I finally defined one of my favorite things of Paris. It happened when I was walking back from the Metro around 11pm on Wednesday (my friend Tara always has friends over for a culturally themed dinner- this week it was Mexican stir-fry). There was almost no one around- no cars, and only the occasional biker. It wasn't freezing out, but there was the definitive crisp air that only seems to come on those early spring nights, when the weather is just in between the two seasons. I was walking onto the bridge (Pont Marie) when I just stopped, in the middle of the bridge. It was almost silent, except for a slight breeze that still seemed far away. The Eiffel Tower was lit up way in the distance, and all the way down the river every bridge had their streetlights on. Some of the buildings that lined either side of the river were lit, and some were almost pitch black. It was kind of comforting, almost like I was having alone time in the middle of a city that was usually bustling with noise and crowds. And the people were still there- the lights in the windows indicated the silent presence of the city at night. All the way down the Seine. 

Paris really is beautiful. The people, the architecture, the river... it's all there, and it all just fits. 

Today was finally daylight savings time... so it will be dark an hour later today! Meaning that I had time to procrastinate this morning before getting ready to go for a run. I'm going to go explore the Bois de Vincennes.. it is supposed to be one of the prettiest parks, arguably prettier than the Bois de Boulogne. (I think I still might prefer my afternoon short runs through the Tuileries- even if I'm not going INTO the Louvre all the time I can still look at it every day.) 

A bientot!