Oh, the last dinner of the week. (Warm goat cheese and raisins on a oddly but pleasantly salty bed of greens, sea scallops with deep-fried asparagus on a kind of chick pea puree, pear slices on a round piece of cheesecake.) If I had the energy, I would shout for joy.

It's difficult to sustain the energy. When you're an introvert, it takes an enormous amount of effort to go to a party. I have to psyche myself up to go to these dinners, where you have to meet and greet and listen and chat and be agreeable and pleasant. I've had dinner (and drinks) paid for by firms each night this week, and it's exhausted me.

This last one, a front runner, is a very good domestic firm, based in New York, but known for international work and for sending people to different offices. There was an ultra-annoying, extremely fratty guy at the table, but he works in DC. The woman to the left of me had a masters in philosophy but was a little bland and awkward. (She did say there was a lot of legislative history research in tax, which caused my ears to perk up -- I love that stuff.) I talked with the guy to the right of me about traveling in Cambodia and India.

After the shuffle (the moment between entree and dessert when associates move tables so we offerees can get a range of people to meet), I ended up sitting between a rather good-looking young associate and a 3L who'd accepted her offer. They knew each other, so I wound up listening to them chat for a while, and then the 3L moved in and did an excellent sell job on the firm. She had an advanced degree in Chinese history and had spent some time there, so we talked about the amazing speed of social change in Korea and China. She had actually summered at a UK firm, which I'm considering, and outlined her reasons for choosing this domestic firm: (1) in a bigger firm, you have more leeway in terms of people picking up your work if you really need to attend to personal issues; and (2) she thought people who left this firm left to do interesting things.

Overall, I felt the same I did about almost every other firm -- nice people, could work with them -- but this one does seem to really offer the option to work overseas. And it's supposedly a "nice" (read: non-screamer) firm.

Of course, last night, I really enjoyed the smaller, more intimate grouping of the UK branch office, and I'd definitely get the chance to work overseas there too.

I'll be giving this all more serious thought over Thanksgiving.