Diversions

Recent developments in how to take a study break and still feel productive:

-Read the New York Times
-Bake cookies or other baked goods to share with friends and neighbors who enjoy cookes and baked goods
-Create casseroles to live on for the week
-Look like a deranged maniac while attempting to quash the fruit fly infestation in my kitchen.


Kari and Eric and Elizabeth all rolled in this weekend for a vist. We went to dinner, a (bad) drag show, watched silly movies and said silly things. Life seems a bit drab now in comparison.

But the studies will pay off...

The Fountain of Knowledge is running a little dry...

I've been so good about being motivated, but yesterday I just hit a wall. I had two study sessions with our tutors, and I left each one thinking I was an idiot. Sometimes it feels as though I read for hours and I have no idea what nuggets of knowledge I should be taking away from the reading.

I still got it done though. Today and tomorrow are going to be a bit hellish.

Money

I got very spoiled in the big city, working downtown with a delightful little cafe around the corner where I'd spend an ungodly amount of money each week on a daily grande soy chai. I haven't bought a soy chai since school started - a whole month. Instead, I've been funneling the money I usually would have spent on such frivolous expenses to a movie or two every weekend. I'm making my own chai mix now.

Gunners

I am taking what is perhaps an unwarranted break. Three classes tomorrow for which to prepare.

I am trying to be nicer in my thoughts to people than I was as an undergrad. For example, when the same people raise their hands in class day after day to pose hypotheticals so far out of the realm of reality that I cannot help but inwardly groan, I try to realize that they must learn by questioning, and during this realization, I try to suppress an inward string of profanities so hostile in their nature that they would shock the conscience of many an elderly citizen.

Ye Gods, how time flies.

It has been almost a month since I posted. I've been meaning to post for weeks now, but I just recently got internet at my apartment, and the time that I did spend on the internet was spent filtering through hundreds (and I'm not exaggerating here) of emails from the law school list serves telling me about every law school event known to man. There are many, many, many, many, many student organizations at the school. I'm trying to keep track of which ones I want to be a part of.

Back to the beginning: the administration absolutely inundated us with advice at orientation. Don't use study aides, do use study aides, spend three hours on homework outside of class for every hour you spend inside of class, start outlining early, don't outline right away, make sure to get involved in student organizations but also get your work done - by the end I was ready to just start.

The first week was completely overwhelming. I had never been so happy for a weekend. But at the same time I began to feel as though I could handle this.

My classes are as follows: (All first year students take the same classes with the same 60 people for the whole year)

Civil Procedure
Criminal Law
Legal Research and Writing
Contracts
Torts

With the exception of Legal Research and Writing, the grades for those classes are determined by one exam at the end of the semester. I'm looking forward to Christmas but first I have to survive the exams. But those are months away.

I am doing one volunteer thing for sure - I am working at our county's legal aid as a volunteer intake interviewer. I hear people's legal issues, present them to the attorney in a concise way, and then convey the information back to the people. I really enjoy it. It feels as though I'm actually giving back to the community. I am also going to be involved in the Public Interest Public Service, Women's Legal Forum and Streetlaw clubs. We'll see how all of those go.

I study every spare moment. Constantly. Which is why the weekends are such a blessing - I can at least take a couple of hours to relax before delving back into it.