Friday morning, S and I had a long conversation, the first time we reallly talked to each other in weeks, perhaps months.
He told me that he has a crush on this girl MT from our section. MT is a petite girl from California; pretty; spunky. He was asking me for advice and whining a bit, because apparently MT had been flirting a lot with him but it was hard for him to figure her out. S, I should add, is extremely inexperienced in the area of women and courtship. His parents are very traditional and conservative, and he is very shy. He has never had a girlfriend.
I gave him what advice I could (which was actually a lot). I felt ambivalent about the whole thing, partly because I don't really think that he and MT are a good match. Perhaps I'm also a little sour that I'm no longer the Coolest Girl In the Section for him, but ah well. That was never going to last anyway. :) On the other hand, I'm happy that we are talking again. S also seems a bit less immature than before. Perhaps the pleasurable pains of luuuuurve has given him more depth. :P
Friday afternoon, ABS and I worked furiously on and finished our memo for the competition. He printed it out and handed the copies in while I went to DPP's house to play scrabble. Lost again. DPP is at the height of his powers, and I'm too underslept (and know too few words).
Friday evening, had dinner with J. her husband, S, and AC. Then I met with a friend from college (not really a friend... more like a stalker... long story that I shall not waste time recounting here. Asking me if you are truly interested... which I doubt) and had a drink. Or two. Then I went to the Indian Bhangra event that J organized (in her new capacity as the co-prez of the South Asian Law Student Association, aka SALSA, heh).
Lots of Bhangra music, and a lot of very intense dancing from my classmates. I was mildly scandalized by how certain individuals were bumping and grinding and REALLY getting down. Everyone was drunk and touch-feely and there was a lot of sexual energy in the air.
A guy that I know casually from the law school, AS, was very obviously hitting on me. He was clearly very drunk, but not drunk enough to pass out, only drunk enough to be lonely and wanting someone. I liked him enough to not want to yell at him (he's usually nice when he's sober). I am also extremely bad at saying "no" to guys. So instead I tried to stick close to J and her husband and tried to avoid him. S, J, et al were very amused at the whole spectacle.
The night ended with him insisting -- really INSISTING -- that he walk me home. Of course nothing happened. He hugged me before he left and said that I needed to go to his party next week. Came back and felt tired and relieved.
Saturday: worked all day. That's about it.
:D Feeling close to S once again.
:( Too much work.
4/16/2006
4/13/2006
Happiness and Perfection
Someone once said that all happy families are alike, but unhappy families have their own unique miseries.
DPP's family is a happy one. Looking at him and L today at their seder, I wonder how they manage to be so picture-perfect so effortlessly. I don't envy them, because people don't envy others for things that are far out of reach. Mostly I sit in awe of them.
They are both smart, lively, and charming. Both of them have degrees from prestigious undergrad and grad schools. DPP is witty and smooth, while L is more bubbly and wholesome. (I swear that every time I look at her that word invariably comes into my mind.) Their parents were great friends and they were high school sweethearts. He is studying for his doctorate in English, something that I swear he was born to do. She is a law clerk for a federal judge. They have traveled widely and lived in France for a year. When they came back, they got married. She cried when he proposed. Their wedding was in July in Oregon, in a vineyard, on a beautiful summer day.
If I were more cynical, or knew them less well, I would think that there must be some flaw, some dark side, to them. Their happines must not be perfect. They must have some secrets, soem heartbreak, beneath the calm surface. But I know them. I have known DPP for nearly 9 years now, and Laura for almost that long, and they have always been like this: calm, confident, self-assured, HAPPY.
Their apartment is spotless. I believe that your environment reflects your soul, which is why my apartment is messy and badly furnished (seriously, I really do believe that. My soul is disorganized and cluttered and self-contradictory. There are too many things in there that would take me (or a psychiatrist) years to sort out). But theirs is well-ordered, clean, charming, lively, bright, a perfect symbol of their lives. There are always flowers in the vase, New Yorkers and NY Review of Books laid out neatly on the coffee table, and something yummy cooking in the oven. It's not that their apartment is just clean but devoid of life either. There are books everywhere, newspapers and notes, too. There are little decorations and photos and comfy chairs and bottles of wines... and yet, everything has its place.
Both of them like to cook. Last time I visited them, DPP's mother was there, and they were making challah together for their Shabbat dinner. Making challah from scratch! For Shabbat! Is there anything more wholesome than that? They experimented with making a garden in the backyard where they grew mint and peas. They hike in the park on Sundays. They are quirky... DPP love to sing and displays a guitar in the livingroom. In spite of being Jewish, he sings for an Episcopilian (I think) church every week and gives concerts periodically. They go to parties and concerts and museums and book-signings. They have many friends and a rich life. They are in love with each other after 12 years, and they are happy. Can you believe that such people really exist?
Happiness is an accident for me; there is always something precarious about it. It always makes me anxious because I am afraid that something disturb and overturn the balance. How can one be so sure? Perhaps DPP and L are extraordinarily lucky. Perhaps they are also very wise, and want what is within their grasp. But they are extraordinarily lucky because what is within their grasp is already so much. How many people find their love of their lives in high school? Even if they do, how many people will say to themselves: "I love her/him, but I'm young and want to see what else is out there?" only to realize years later that they've made a mistake? How many people are lucky enough to have what they want, and wise enough to treasure what they have?
DPP's family is a happy one. Looking at him and L today at their seder, I wonder how they manage to be so picture-perfect so effortlessly. I don't envy them, because people don't envy others for things that are far out of reach. Mostly I sit in awe of them.
They are both smart, lively, and charming. Both of them have degrees from prestigious undergrad and grad schools. DPP is witty and smooth, while L is more bubbly and wholesome. (I swear that every time I look at her that word invariably comes into my mind.) Their parents were great friends and they were high school sweethearts. He is studying for his doctorate in English, something that I swear he was born to do. She is a law clerk for a federal judge. They have traveled widely and lived in France for a year. When they came back, they got married. She cried when he proposed. Their wedding was in July in Oregon, in a vineyard, on a beautiful summer day.
If I were more cynical, or knew them less well, I would think that there must be some flaw, some dark side, to them. Their happines must not be perfect. They must have some secrets, soem heartbreak, beneath the calm surface. But I know them. I have known DPP for nearly 9 years now, and Laura for almost that long, and they have always been like this: calm, confident, self-assured, HAPPY.
Their apartment is spotless. I believe that your environment reflects your soul, which is why my apartment is messy and badly furnished (seriously, I really do believe that. My soul is disorganized and cluttered and self-contradictory. There are too many things in there that would take me (or a psychiatrist) years to sort out). But theirs is well-ordered, clean, charming, lively, bright, a perfect symbol of their lives. There are always flowers in the vase, New Yorkers and NY Review of Books laid out neatly on the coffee table, and something yummy cooking in the oven. It's not that their apartment is just clean but devoid of life either. There are books everywhere, newspapers and notes, too. There are little decorations and photos and comfy chairs and bottles of wines... and yet, everything has its place.
Both of them like to cook. Last time I visited them, DPP's mother was there, and they were making challah together for their Shabbat dinner. Making challah from scratch! For Shabbat! Is there anything more wholesome than that? They experimented with making a garden in the backyard where they grew mint and peas. They hike in the park on Sundays. They are quirky... DPP love to sing and displays a guitar in the livingroom. In spite of being Jewish, he sings for an Episcopilian (I think) church every week and gives concerts periodically. They go to parties and concerts and museums and book-signings. They have many friends and a rich life. They are in love with each other after 12 years, and they are happy. Can you believe that such people really exist?
Happiness is an accident for me; there is always something precarious about it. It always makes me anxious because I am afraid that something disturb and overturn the balance. How can one be so sure? Perhaps DPP and L are extraordinarily lucky. Perhaps they are also very wise, and want what is within their grasp. But they are extraordinarily lucky because what is within their grasp is already so much. How many people find their love of their lives in high school? Even if they do, how many people will say to themselves: "I love her/him, but I'm young and want to see what else is out there?" only to realize years later that they've made a mistake? How many people are lucky enough to have what they want, and wise enough to treasure what they have?
Take That, Uncle Sam!
Yay, I stayed up late last night and filed my tax returns. Sent out all relevant forms today. Big load off my mind.
I am getting all of my federal taxes and nearly all of my state taxes refunded, since my income is lowered by the fact that I was a student for the last four months of the year.
That tax class is useful for something after all. I learned about the educational tax credits I could claim, which increased my refund by over $1,200. Sweet.
Sadly, I found out last night that I owe my law school over $5,000. Sniff. The Lord giveth and then He taketh away!
Anyway, going to DPP's seder tonight, so have to run off. (I'm preparing a salad for the feast). Happy Passover all you Jewish (and non-Jewish) readers!
:D warm weather
:( my background file is deemed complete by the office that is hiring me for the summer, and is being sent to Washington for further investigations. I guess I should be happy about this, but why does it feel scary and creepy?
I am getting all of my federal taxes and nearly all of my state taxes refunded, since my income is lowered by the fact that I was a student for the last four months of the year.
That tax class is useful for something after all. I learned about the educational tax credits I could claim, which increased my refund by over $1,200. Sweet.
Sadly, I found out last night that I owe my law school over $5,000. Sniff. The Lord giveth and then He taketh away!
Anyway, going to DPP's seder tonight, so have to run off. (I'm preparing a salad for the feast). Happy Passover all you Jewish (and non-Jewish) readers!
:D warm weather
:( my background file is deemed complete by the office that is hiring me for the summer, and is being sent to Washington for further investigations. I guess I should be happy about this, but why does it feel scary and creepy?
4/12/2006
Getting to Yes! Yes! Yessss!
I have been very busy but also very productive. What took up the bulk of my time the past few days has been the contracts/negotiations contest ABS and I decided to enter on Friday.
The issues in the competition turned out to be extremely complex. The negotiation is about a university and a law school arguing over the law school leaving its current campus (which the university owns and leases to the law school) to move to another town somewhat more remote than the current location.
We represent the law school, and our opponents represent the university. We of course each have our list of demands.
The host of issues involved in the move include: buiding and financing new law school facilities, building and financing new student housing, developing a commericial district that would enhance student life, constructing an additional gym and student center for the law school, the timing of the move, and many other miscellaneous demands and pet peeves borne out of the law school dean's resentment at having to move.
We quickly found out that on many of these issues our opponents and we are on opposite sides, so a lot of compromises and creative solutions were called for. After meeting for 2 hours on Sunday, our opponents and we spent another 3 hours yesterday negotiating intensely. We reached an agreement on most of the issues, but there are a few issues, mostly about money, that we keep bickering about. We are going to meet again tomorrow, hopefully no longer than 3 hours.
I have also started drafting parts of the contract today, since we will be judged on the quality of the contract we produce. It's damned hard to write a good contract! Well, I suppose it's just hard to write in a clear, elegant, and precise way in general.
But still, I really feel like I'm learning a lot, and the whole negotiations proccess, though exhausting, is not un-fun.
The issues in the competition turned out to be extremely complex. The negotiation is about a university and a law school arguing over the law school leaving its current campus (which the university owns and leases to the law school) to move to another town somewhat more remote than the current location.
We represent the law school, and our opponents represent the university. We of course each have our list of demands.
The host of issues involved in the move include: buiding and financing new law school facilities, building and financing new student housing, developing a commericial district that would enhance student life, constructing an additional gym and student center for the law school, the timing of the move, and many other miscellaneous demands and pet peeves borne out of the law school dean's resentment at having to move.
We quickly found out that on many of these issues our opponents and we are on opposite sides, so a lot of compromises and creative solutions were called for. After meeting for 2 hours on Sunday, our opponents and we spent another 3 hours yesterday negotiating intensely. We reached an agreement on most of the issues, but there are a few issues, mostly about money, that we keep bickering about. We are going to meet again tomorrow, hopefully no longer than 3 hours.
I have also started drafting parts of the contract today, since we will be judged on the quality of the contract we produce. It's damned hard to write a good contract! Well, I suppose it's just hard to write in a clear, elegant, and precise way in general.
But still, I really feel like I'm learning a lot, and the whole negotiations proccess, though exhausting, is not un-fun.
An Epiphany of Sorts
I think I'm over my fear of being catagorized politically now. I am fairly certain I'm a liberal, and I can't stand the Bush administration (well the latter I have known for a long time, but the liberal part I have not been certain about until recently). I am comfortable saying this. And I think I should be involved with the American Constitution Society asap.
4/09/2006
New Obsession
I'm now officially obsessed with the V for Vendetta storyline. I ordered the original graphic novel by Alan Moore a few days ago from amazon.com. It came today (along with another book about legal writing that is being neglected on the shelf), and I already read all of it today, instead of doing real work like reading tax or property.
V is such a complex character -- tender, sophisticated, and wise, and yet at the same time cruel, cold, and manipulative. The movie didn't focus on the latter, possibly negative aspects, and many of his possibly questionable motives and actiosn were glossed over and instead made into a tale of redemption through love or something like that.
At the end of the comic book, England was descending into chaos, and V's counterpart Detective Finch walks alone into the fog on a lonely road. The movie's ending, in retrospect, was much too optimstic and Hollywood-like, and therefore not subtle and complex as the original novel.
In other news, ABS and I entered into a weeklong negotiations / contracts competition on Friday at our law school. The competition is open to all 1Ls and involves negotiating in teams of two with another team based on confidential memos that each team receives.
The issue is about a law school negotiating with a university over its proposed relocation to another campus. The law school is demanding a lot of things from the university in return for being forced to move, such as improved student housing, control over the buildings, development of business districts around the school, etc.
... Hmmm... Why does that sound familiar...?
Our teammates are two guys from another section, one of whom has two blogs online. I wonder whether he will blog about the competition and about us? Hopefully they will be rational and easy to deal with.
By the end of the week, the two teams will need to have drafted a contract and worked out the details. We will be judged on the clarity, comprehensiveness, and creativity of our contract and whether we each achieved our individual objectives. It sounds like a LOT of work, but also may be a lot of fun.
:D salmon sashimi!
:( work!
V is such a complex character -- tender, sophisticated, and wise, and yet at the same time cruel, cold, and manipulative. The movie didn't focus on the latter, possibly negative aspects, and many of his possibly questionable motives and actiosn were glossed over and instead made into a tale of redemption through love or something like that.
At the end of the comic book, England was descending into chaos, and V's counterpart Detective Finch walks alone into the fog on a lonely road. The movie's ending, in retrospect, was much too optimstic and Hollywood-like, and therefore not subtle and complex as the original novel.
In other news, ABS and I entered into a weeklong negotiations / contracts competition on Friday at our law school. The competition is open to all 1Ls and involves negotiating in teams of two with another team based on confidential memos that each team receives.
The issue is about a law school negotiating with a university over its proposed relocation to another campus. The law school is demanding a lot of things from the university in return for being forced to move, such as improved student housing, control over the buildings, development of business districts around the school, etc.
... Hmmm... Why does that sound familiar...?
Our teammates are two guys from another section, one of whom has two blogs online. I wonder whether he will blog about the competition and about us? Hopefully they will be rational and easy to deal with.
By the end of the week, the two teams will need to have drafted a contract and worked out the details. We will be judged on the clarity, comprehensiveness, and creativity of our contract and whether we each achieved our individual objectives. It sounds like a LOT of work, but also may be a lot of fun.
:D salmon sashimi!
:( work!
4/08/2006
Public Interest Auction Update
Last night was a huge affair. The theme was movies, and the suggested attire was "Hollywood glam." I did my best interpretation of that. Most people did not dress up, but the few who did still made my once-familiar classmates seem exotic and exciting.
I was outbid on all large items that I wanted at the live auction, such as a weeklong stay at a Colorado cabin, gala dinners with profs, and ritzy romantic dinners at local posh restaurants. Most of these things went for thousands of dollars, many of which to professors.
What I did end up buying were from the silent auction. They are:
- lunch with public interest fellow
- spa gift certificate
ABS, whose only desire was an Arrested Development script signed by the entire cast, got his wish for about $350. He is going to present the script to his boyfriend who loves the show on his birthday. S, who is crazy about 24 and Jack Bauers, got a 24 script signed by the entire cast for $400. When I saw him at the silent auction bidding for this, he had a semi-crazed look in his eye that kept most of the bidders away. The one guy who dared to bid against him gave up when S began raising him by the $50s.
Sadly, no one wanted my scrabble services, or S's Gamecube services, or AK's Pacman services. Ah well.
Here are how much some of the items went for last night:
- Four Red Sox Tickets against the Toronto Blue Jays: $1,000.
- Dream Winter Getaway to Squaw Valley in Colorado: $2,200.
- Sailing with a pair of married professors to a famed vacation island nearby: $800.
- Graduation or end-of-the-year party for 30 at the house of a famed bankrupty professor, where she promised to tell your mother that "not since Oliver Wendell Holmes has there been such a brilliant legal scholar like you," $2,200.
- Weeklong stay in January at a beach home in Australia (their summer time!), to be used any time between 2006 and 2010: $2,800.
- Private viola concert by contracts professor: $400.
- Weekend at cabin in Colorado with roundtrip ticket: $1,200.
- Poker night for 8 at an IP/tech law professor's house, with stakes all paid for: $1,000.
- Bluegrass music with a well-liked lawyering professor who will buy you and your seven friends all the drinks: $900.
- Quebec chateau 5-night getaway for 14 people, plus $250 gift certificare: can't remember what the exact amount was, but pretty sure it was more than $1,800 so. (I thought this was a particularly good deal, but sadly, I didn't coorindate in advance with any of my friends.)
- Bowling with our beloved crim law professor M, with drinks provided, for 8 people: $700. MH, a blonde girl from our section, won that one.
- Romantic dinner at very posh, upscale French restaurant near the Law School, with a weekend night stay at a HiIton nearby: $900.
The faculty spoof video was played, where I had some minor parts. People liked them. After the auction, had a very late night having a late night dinner/snack and chatting, with ABS, chez moi. ABS didn't leave until 3:30, and I didn't go to bed until 4 AM or so and woke up today circa noon. And I think I will arrange my OWN romantic dinner at posh restaurant with Boyfriend soon, since I'm sure I can arrange it for under $900.
:D weekend!
:( work!
I was outbid on all large items that I wanted at the live auction, such as a weeklong stay at a Colorado cabin, gala dinners with profs, and ritzy romantic dinners at local posh restaurants. Most of these things went for thousands of dollars, many of which to professors.
What I did end up buying were from the silent auction. They are:
- lunch with public interest fellow
- spa gift certificate
ABS, whose only desire was an Arrested Development script signed by the entire cast, got his wish for about $350. He is going to present the script to his boyfriend who loves the show on his birthday. S, who is crazy about 24 and Jack Bauers, got a 24 script signed by the entire cast for $400. When I saw him at the silent auction bidding for this, he had a semi-crazed look in his eye that kept most of the bidders away. The one guy who dared to bid against him gave up when S began raising him by the $50s.
Sadly, no one wanted my scrabble services, or S's Gamecube services, or AK's Pacman services. Ah well.
Here are how much some of the items went for last night:
- Four Red Sox Tickets against the Toronto Blue Jays: $1,000.
- Dream Winter Getaway to Squaw Valley in Colorado: $2,200.
- Sailing with a pair of married professors to a famed vacation island nearby: $800.
- Graduation or end-of-the-year party for 30 at the house of a famed bankrupty professor, where she promised to tell your mother that "not since Oliver Wendell Holmes has there been such a brilliant legal scholar like you," $2,200.
- Weeklong stay in January at a beach home in Australia (their summer time!), to be used any time between 2006 and 2010: $2,800.
- Private viola concert by contracts professor: $400.
- Weekend at cabin in Colorado with roundtrip ticket: $1,200.
- Poker night for 8 at an IP/tech law professor's house, with stakes all paid for: $1,000.
- Bluegrass music with a well-liked lawyering professor who will buy you and your seven friends all the drinks: $900.
- Quebec chateau 5-night getaway for 14 people, plus $250 gift certificare: can't remember what the exact amount was, but pretty sure it was more than $1,800 so. (I thought this was a particularly good deal, but sadly, I didn't coorindate in advance with any of my friends.)
- Bowling with our beloved crim law professor M, with drinks provided, for 8 people: $700. MH, a blonde girl from our section, won that one.
- Romantic dinner at very posh, upscale French restaurant near the Law School, with a weekend night stay at a HiIton nearby: $900.
The faculty spoof video was played, where I had some minor parts. People liked them. After the auction, had a very late night having a late night dinner/snack and chatting, with ABS, chez moi. ABS didn't leave until 3:30, and I didn't go to bed until 4 AM or so and woke up today circa noon. And I think I will arrange my OWN romantic dinner at posh restaurant with Boyfriend soon, since I'm sure I can arrange it for under $900.
:D weekend!
:( work!
4/06/2006
Surprise Party / Friends / Snow / Auction
It's late, so my post tonight is going to be kind of more random than usual.
AC organized a surprise birthday for GW, her bestfriend in the section, and invited all of us, including S, JE, CB, the guy GW is dating, and some others. We went out to a sports and games bar in B-Town, played pool and foosball, and had a very good time. On the subway, AC showe us some photos on her iPod from December at the section dinner. I am startled to see how far we have come, and how far away that seemd (only four months ago!).
Also, looking back at these older photos of me, I realized that I have gained quite a lot of weight in the past few months. It's all this eating out that is making my waist thicker and my thighs bigger, and my face rounder. So I made another resolution today to eat less and exercise more.
****************
I am happy and sad tonight. Happy because I have made so many good friends in law school, people that I enjoy hanging out with and talking to. I am not only being inducted into a profession, I am being included in a larger social circle with my future colleagues and friends.
Sad because there are certain people that I wish I were closer with but am not. There are people that you feel you could make a connection with, yet they drift inexorably away from you, because of bad timing, the wrong chemistry, other factors. I wish I could be more casual or more fatalistic about these things.
*****************
It snowed today. Can you believe it? Just last week it was supposedly 70 degrees here, and today fat snow flakes were falling from the sky. I was appalled and amused, and decided that if New England were a woman, she would be my kind of chick.
*****************
The public interest auction is tomorrow night. It should be interesting. I have a lot of stuff that I want to bid on, and some stuff that I want to possess desperately. I looked at the auction listings and some stuff is amusing. Someone in my section is auctioning "an easement to his right foot." Lots of professors are auctioning off dinners and parties and wine tastings and desserts. There are also quite a few spectacular experiences listed, including tickets to NBA games and major league baseball, 7-course wine tasting, Colorado or Quebec vacations, and the like.
There are also a lot more plebian things, of course, like rides to the grocery store and the airport, hula dancing lessons, squash lessons, or just a home-cooked meal by a fellow law student.
I will keep you posted on what I succeed or fail to get.
*****************
:D Got my fingerprinting done and sent off my security clearance forms in, FINALLY!
:( So late and my sleeping schedule is further messed up!
AC organized a surprise birthday for GW, her bestfriend in the section, and invited all of us, including S, JE, CB, the guy GW is dating, and some others. We went out to a sports and games bar in B-Town, played pool and foosball, and had a very good time. On the subway, AC showe us some photos on her iPod from December at the section dinner. I am startled to see how far we have come, and how far away that seemd (only four months ago!).
Also, looking back at these older photos of me, I realized that I have gained quite a lot of weight in the past few months. It's all this eating out that is making my waist thicker and my thighs bigger, and my face rounder. So I made another resolution today to eat less and exercise more.
****************
I am happy and sad tonight. Happy because I have made so many good friends in law school, people that I enjoy hanging out with and talking to. I am not only being inducted into a profession, I am being included in a larger social circle with my future colleagues and friends.
Sad because there are certain people that I wish I were closer with but am not. There are people that you feel you could make a connection with, yet they drift inexorably away from you, because of bad timing, the wrong chemistry, other factors. I wish I could be more casual or more fatalistic about these things.
*****************
It snowed today. Can you believe it? Just last week it was supposedly 70 degrees here, and today fat snow flakes were falling from the sky. I was appalled and amused, and decided that if New England were a woman, she would be my kind of chick.
*****************
The public interest auction is tomorrow night. It should be interesting. I have a lot of stuff that I want to bid on, and some stuff that I want to possess desperately. I looked at the auction listings and some stuff is amusing. Someone in my section is auctioning "an easement to his right foot." Lots of professors are auctioning off dinners and parties and wine tastings and desserts. There are also quite a few spectacular experiences listed, including tickets to NBA games and major league baseball, 7-course wine tasting, Colorado or Quebec vacations, and the like.
There are also a lot more plebian things, of course, like rides to the grocery store and the airport, hula dancing lessons, squash lessons, or just a home-cooked meal by a fellow law student.
I will keep you posted on what I succeed or fail to get.
*****************
:D Got my fingerprinting done and sent off my security clearance forms in, FINALLY!
:( So late and my sleeping schedule is further messed up!
3/31/2006
Itinerary
Itinerary for the past couple of days...
Yesterday, I went to the Texas History Museum with Boyfriend. We first saw a very amusing short film in the Museum's theater about Texas history. It's a fine bit of revisionist history lauding the "Texas Spirit," which is apparently synonomous with everything that is good, kind, and courageous about the human soul.
The movie, which otherwise would have just been a fine piece of Powerpoint work, was made extraordinary by some of the fun special effects in the theater. For instance, when the narration involves a hurricane, there is not only excellent sound effect, but the ceiling actually simulates lightning, and then mist descends from the sky. Then, at another point, the movie involved rattle snakes. And at the moment the snakes on the screen hissed and struck, something under my seat -- under everyone's seat, moved and the theater was filled with startled screams and then amused laughters.
As I said, very amusing. Very well done.
Needless to say, the children in the audience loved it. I did too.
Then, Boyfriend and I went to the IMax Theater and we saw not one but TWO Imax movies, one after the other. We first saw Roving Mars. The highlight of the movie, surprisingly, was not just about being ON Mars (which resembled many of the other deserts that I have seen, including the ones in Israel), but the intricate process of assembling the Mars rover beforehand. It was a fascinating process, and got me very jealous of the engineers that work for NASA. How come they get to engage in such cool, fascinating projects while I get to be stuck being a lawyer?!?! No fair.
Then, in the evening, came home and had an excellent fresh salad with Boyfriend and Boyfriend's brother, a professor at UT. We then amused ourselves by renting a $1 movie (Flightplan, if you are interested to know) from the local supermarket, because it was one of the few action films that was not out of stock. I did not have high hopes for the film, but it was actually quite gripping. As I said though, I don't really have high standards for films. The only thing they have to do is really to entertain.
Today, Boyfriend and I got up and went to his niece's elementary school to have lunch with her. She is a very prococious little sixth grader, and I am very fond of her. It was macaroni and cheese day, which I'm not crazy about, but I did have chocolate milk and a little salad and a piece of fried cod. Afterwards, Boyfriend and I hung out at a little Starbucks. I read property while he worked, and then we went back to the school to pick up his niece. We had planned to go to the arboretum and feed ducks -- we even had a loaf of bread ready. But today it was so humid and hot that everyone was feeling kind of low energy. So instead we stayed in the cool indoors and watched 4 episodes of Monty Pythons.
In the evening, we had a simple Shabat dinner service, then made a similarly excellently salad, had wine from the region of Germany where Boyfriend's great-grand parents are from, and had lamb shanks.
Tomorrow I leave Austin already! Can't believe spring break is almost over and I have to go back to work again... Sigh...
:D Got a cowgirl hat from Shepler's, the famous Western Wear store in Austin.
:( Allergies...
Yesterday, I went to the Texas History Museum with Boyfriend. We first saw a very amusing short film in the Museum's theater about Texas history. It's a fine bit of revisionist history lauding the "Texas Spirit," which is apparently synonomous with everything that is good, kind, and courageous about the human soul.
The movie, which otherwise would have just been a fine piece of Powerpoint work, was made extraordinary by some of the fun special effects in the theater. For instance, when the narration involves a hurricane, there is not only excellent sound effect, but the ceiling actually simulates lightning, and then mist descends from the sky. Then, at another point, the movie involved rattle snakes. And at the moment the snakes on the screen hissed and struck, something under my seat -- under everyone's seat, moved and the theater was filled with startled screams and then amused laughters.
As I said, very amusing. Very well done.
Needless to say, the children in the audience loved it. I did too.
Then, Boyfriend and I went to the IMax Theater and we saw not one but TWO Imax movies, one after the other. We first saw Roving Mars. The highlight of the movie, surprisingly, was not just about being ON Mars (which resembled many of the other deserts that I have seen, including the ones in Israel), but the intricate process of assembling the Mars rover beforehand. It was a fascinating process, and got me very jealous of the engineers that work for NASA. How come they get to engage in such cool, fascinating projects while I get to be stuck being a lawyer?!?! No fair.
Then, in the evening, came home and had an excellent fresh salad with Boyfriend and Boyfriend's brother, a professor at UT. We then amused ourselves by renting a $1 movie (Flightplan, if you are interested to know) from the local supermarket, because it was one of the few action films that was not out of stock. I did not have high hopes for the film, but it was actually quite gripping. As I said though, I don't really have high standards for films. The only thing they have to do is really to entertain.
Today, Boyfriend and I got up and went to his niece's elementary school to have lunch with her. She is a very prococious little sixth grader, and I am very fond of her. It was macaroni and cheese day, which I'm not crazy about, but I did have chocolate milk and a little salad and a piece of fried cod. Afterwards, Boyfriend and I hung out at a little Starbucks. I read property while he worked, and then we went back to the school to pick up his niece. We had planned to go to the arboretum and feed ducks -- we even had a loaf of bread ready. But today it was so humid and hot that everyone was feeling kind of low energy. So instead we stayed in the cool indoors and watched 4 episodes of Monty Pythons.
In the evening, we had a simple Shabat dinner service, then made a similarly excellently salad, had wine from the region of Germany where Boyfriend's great-grand parents are from, and had lamb shanks.
Tomorrow I leave Austin already! Can't believe spring break is almost over and I have to go back to work again... Sigh...
:D Got a cowgirl hat from Shepler's, the famous Western Wear store in Austin.
:( Allergies...
3/30/2006
A for Awesome
I'm in Austin, Texas, enjoying my vacation. The weather is in the 80s and sunny. The city is pleasant and filled with fun activities. I'm reading a lot of tax (but not too much) in nice little Starbuckses, and exploring the city with Boyfriend in the afternoon.
Tonight we saw V for Vendetta. Excellent film. I really, really liked it. There is a lot going on in the movie; at time it feels crowded and over-stuffed, both plot-wise and philosophically. But it is a ton of fun and very moving and features a cast of fantastic actors. Definitely see it if you still haven't done so.
The movie theater we saw it in, Draft House, was also awesome! It is a theater that serves a full dinner and alcohol while you watch the movie. Every chair has a table and candle before it, and it was soooo enjoyable feasting on an excellent pizza and drinking a pale ale while watching the action flick. I can't believe this movie chain hasn't gone national yet!
Tonight we saw V for Vendetta. Excellent film. I really, really liked it. There is a lot going on in the movie; at time it feels crowded and over-stuffed, both plot-wise and philosophically. But it is a ton of fun and very moving and features a cast of fantastic actors. Definitely see it if you still haven't done so.
The movie theater we saw it in, Draft House, was also awesome! It is a theater that serves a full dinner and alcohol while you watch the movie. Every chair has a table and candle before it, and it was soooo enjoyable feasting on an excellent pizza and drinking a pale ale while watching the action flick. I can't believe this movie chain hasn't gone national yet!
3/26/2006
Walking Together in the Dark
Got into a random argument with AR today over IM. Among other things, it was about what an "ideal love" is. AR's ideal is to be completely understood, to completely understand his lover; to share everything and to become one with her.
I thought differently. A while ago I read a quote that I really liked. It was in Chinese, but it was apparently a translation from German. Unfortunately I could remember neither the name of the author or the book itself.
I began googling it nonetheles. Fourty minutes later, with a bit of luck and a bit of ingenuity, I have found the quotation in Chinese. Sadly, I could not find the original text.
The author of the quote is Albert Schweitzer, the humanitarian doctor who on the Nobel Peace Prize in the 1950s. He was a missionary and a philosopher as well, and wrote prolifically.
It was from this unlikely source that I found my very favorite quote of my philosophy on love. It purportedly is from Schweitzer's "Memoirs from My Childhood and Youth." I am doing a rough translation below, and perhaps will take out his book from the library when I have time to read random books.
"It is impossible to completely know and understand someone else. Even if were possible, no one has the right to demand this of others.
"There is not only a shame in the nakedness of the body, but also a shame in the nakedness of the soul. We should respect it. A soul has clothes as well. We should not undress it.
"As with the mystery of God, we cannot read and know the mystery of another soul as a book that belongs to us, but can only love and trust it.
"Everyone is a secret to others. Even lovers are only pilgrims walking side by side in the dark, not knowing whether they are walking towards the same city. What we can do is to seek the light within ourselves, and feel the companionship and comfort of those walking besides us. We do not need to gaze into the eyes and search into the soul of others."
I thought differently. A while ago I read a quote that I really liked. It was in Chinese, but it was apparently a translation from German. Unfortunately I could remember neither the name of the author or the book itself.
I began googling it nonetheles. Fourty minutes later, with a bit of luck and a bit of ingenuity, I have found the quotation in Chinese. Sadly, I could not find the original text.
The author of the quote is Albert Schweitzer, the humanitarian doctor who on the Nobel Peace Prize in the 1950s. He was a missionary and a philosopher as well, and wrote prolifically.
It was from this unlikely source that I found my very favorite quote of my philosophy on love. It purportedly is from Schweitzer's "Memoirs from My Childhood and Youth." I am doing a rough translation below, and perhaps will take out his book from the library when I have time to read random books.
"It is impossible to completely know and understand someone else. Even if were possible, no one has the right to demand this of others.
"There is not only a shame in the nakedness of the body, but also a shame in the nakedness of the soul. We should respect it. A soul has clothes as well. We should not undress it.
"As with the mystery of God, we cannot read and know the mystery of another soul as a book that belongs to us, but can only love and trust it.
"Everyone is a secret to others. Even lovers are only pilgrims walking side by side in the dark, not knowing whether they are walking towards the same city. What we can do is to seek the light within ourselves, and feel the companionship and comfort of those walking besides us. We do not need to gaze into the eyes and search into the soul of others."
3/25/2006
Week From Hell Is Finally Over...
Last Sunday, it had seemed that my Ames brief was closed to being done. Who knew that I would then proceed to spend more than 40 hours on it, including pulling 3 (well, 2.5) all-nighters?
Who knew that the damned thing would take so much time?
Who knew that there were still so many cases that I hadn't read, including two cases that ended up being extremely relevant, and on which I basically relied the entire brief?
Who knew that J and I were wrong about who our opponent team was the entire time, and didn't even realize that we had picked up the wrong brief until 11PM the evening before the brief was due. Thankfully our Lawyering professor was forgiving, although not too pleased.
Who knew that bluebooking and making a Table of Authority and Table of Content would take me and my partner like 8 hours?!??!
Who knew that my Internet was going to go down at 3:30 AM on Thursday morning (less than 6.5 hours before the brief was due and 1 minute before J emailed the master file for me to bluebook and proofread). Who knew that I would have to then put on clothes and trek 2 completely deserted and creepy blocks to AC's dorm room to complete my brief there?
(AC was so sweet. She was done with her own brief but hung out with me. She gave me chocolates and was in general so pleasant and helpful. She finally fell asleep around 5 AM and then snored a little. She was the best companion on a very stressful night.)
Well, so that's why I hadn't posted at all for the past week. On Monday, Tuesday and Wedneday I basically didn't sleep, and instead just took sporadic naps during the day. I only went to 2 classes today the entire week. The rest of the time was spent either napping, frantically reading, or frantically writing. With some meals thrown in in between.
On Thursday night (after our briefs were due), I crashed and slept 13 hours. My sleeping schedule is now completely messed up.
This reminds me a bit of my college days, in an unpleasant way. I hope to never do this again.
(Except, well, I'm becoming a lawyer and apparently this is what I'll be doing for the next 40 years or so.)
My only consolation was that ABS and S, for the most part, stayed up with me on those nights, so at least it wasn't as lonely as it could have been.
The sad part is that after all this, I still don't feel my brief was that good. I think I just completely lost perspective at the end. I began obsessing over the minutiae instead of paying more attention to the bigger picture of justice and equity. Instead of enumerating all those "factors" in hardly binding authorities I should have been more eloquent in advocating for our client. I should have addressed the human drama a bit more in my brief, instead of making it into a dry and boring piece of writing. But alas, it's hard to be eloquent at 4:30 AM.
But, I'm glad it was over. Spring break began yesterday and many people left in the morning. A record low of 33 people attended contracts. (I wasn't there to witness this sad spectacle, as I was sleeping and then having lunch in the Square with S and AR.) Later, I heard from J that the contracts professor called a series of 15 people, none of whom was there, before he reached someone who was actually present. Amazingly, in the 3 weeks that I have been absent from contracts, he hasn't called on me once yet.
On Friday, I visited DPP and his mother who was in town visiting, and the three of us played scrabble together. DPP won in the end, and his mother came in second. I was soundly beaten, alas, because of a few very bad strategic plays. I blamed it on the lack of sleep, but that was just a convenient excuse. :)
This weekend, I'm taking care of ABS's cat. ABS is in Chicago visiting his Boyfriend C, and today I got to spend some quality time with the kitty. Definitely the high point of my day...
:D Leaving for warm Austin on Monday!
:( Need to re-orient myself and do some major studying in the next few days, so the spring break won't be that relaxing after all...
Who knew that the damned thing would take so much time?
Who knew that there were still so many cases that I hadn't read, including two cases that ended up being extremely relevant, and on which I basically relied the entire brief?
Who knew that J and I were wrong about who our opponent team was the entire time, and didn't even realize that we had picked up the wrong brief until 11PM the evening before the brief was due. Thankfully our Lawyering professor was forgiving, although not too pleased.
Who knew that bluebooking and making a Table of Authority and Table of Content would take me and my partner like 8 hours?!??!
Who knew that my Internet was going to go down at 3:30 AM on Thursday morning (less than 6.5 hours before the brief was due and 1 minute before J emailed the master file for me to bluebook and proofread). Who knew that I would have to then put on clothes and trek 2 completely deserted and creepy blocks to AC's dorm room to complete my brief there?
(AC was so sweet. She was done with her own brief but hung out with me. She gave me chocolates and was in general so pleasant and helpful. She finally fell asleep around 5 AM and then snored a little. She was the best companion on a very stressful night.)
Well, so that's why I hadn't posted at all for the past week. On Monday, Tuesday and Wedneday I basically didn't sleep, and instead just took sporadic naps during the day. I only went to 2 classes today the entire week. The rest of the time was spent either napping, frantically reading, or frantically writing. With some meals thrown in in between.
On Thursday night (after our briefs were due), I crashed and slept 13 hours. My sleeping schedule is now completely messed up.
This reminds me a bit of my college days, in an unpleasant way. I hope to never do this again.
(Except, well, I'm becoming a lawyer and apparently this is what I'll be doing for the next 40 years or so.)
My only consolation was that ABS and S, for the most part, stayed up with me on those nights, so at least it wasn't as lonely as it could have been.
The sad part is that after all this, I still don't feel my brief was that good. I think I just completely lost perspective at the end. I began obsessing over the minutiae instead of paying more attention to the bigger picture of justice and equity. Instead of enumerating all those "factors" in hardly binding authorities I should have been more eloquent in advocating for our client. I should have addressed the human drama a bit more in my brief, instead of making it into a dry and boring piece of writing. But alas, it's hard to be eloquent at 4:30 AM.
But, I'm glad it was over. Spring break began yesterday and many people left in the morning. A record low of 33 people attended contracts. (I wasn't there to witness this sad spectacle, as I was sleeping and then having lunch in the Square with S and AR.) Later, I heard from J that the contracts professor called a series of 15 people, none of whom was there, before he reached someone who was actually present. Amazingly, in the 3 weeks that I have been absent from contracts, he hasn't called on me once yet.
On Friday, I visited DPP and his mother who was in town visiting, and the three of us played scrabble together. DPP won in the end, and his mother came in second. I was soundly beaten, alas, because of a few very bad strategic plays. I blamed it on the lack of sleep, but that was just a convenient excuse. :)
This weekend, I'm taking care of ABS's cat. ABS is in Chicago visiting his Boyfriend C, and today I got to spend some quality time with the kitty. Definitely the high point of my day...
:D Leaving for warm Austin on Monday!
:( Need to re-orient myself and do some major studying in the next few days, so the spring break won't be that relaxing after all...
3/20/2006
Controversy!
A few days ago I received an email inviting me to go to a "Town Hall meeting" about the Law School Parody that my friends and I saw a few weekends ago. Apparently, the parody offended some people, including some students being mocked about their romantic relationship or their body type, and two black girls who were unfavorably portrayed as "ghetto."
I don't recall this at all from parody, but ABS told me that the black girls stuff was near the beginning (recall that I was about 15 minutes late). Also, since I was pretty much drunk almost all of the time there, my sensitivity-radar wasn't operating at normal levels.
My main gripe with the parody was that it was too long, and that it wasn't that funny. The problem mainly came from the fact that the parody parodied many students, and since I attend a fairly large law school, and no one here can be said to know the entire student body, most of the audience won't "get" at least 80% of the jokes. So for any given joke involving students, perhaps 5-10% of the audience will laugh. The other will not understand what's so funny. The whole thing just seemed kind of lame and unnecessary.
On top of it, people got offended by it, which made it even more not worth it. I can kind of relate. I was not parodied in the parody, but if they had done it, I'm not sure how I would feel about that. If they mocked me in an unfair way, or had presented something inaccurate about me (as some of these people apparently felt) perhaps I would be pissed off as well.
In any event, I thought this would be an interesting meeting to attend, so I went with ABS in the afternoon to the meeting. A LOT of people were there. I think someone must have sent out some rallying email. Almost the entire black student's association was there. The parody cast and crew were there. I think some conservative student groups were there as well. Then there were curious spectators like me. They filled up a very large lecture hall and people had to stand in the back because there were no more seats.
A very prominent black professor moderated the discussion. There was a palpable tension in the air, and there were some ugly moments of shouting at each other. On the whole though, the comments and the dialogue were civil. The parody producers and writers apologized profused, though their apologies were always followed by some super-defense "BUT... blah blah blah..." A few black students spoke very eloquently. One black guy totally got an Obama thing going on.
I made a comment too about how I feel like the parody has the potential of messing with people's reputation, especially since we are a large community and people don't necessarily know the students being parodies personally.
Others made the point that in certain other law schools mocking students in the parody is just not allowed. You can only poke fun at professors. I think I kind of agree with that. I think it smacks of meanness when you poke fun at students, who don't necessarily consent to being protrayed in this way. Some people also suggested an "opt-out" registry for students who don't want to be parodied, or for the writers to ask the students for their permission before writing a parody about them into the show.
Freedom of speech, predictably, came up as a defense. As well as the defense that the parody is just a big joke and a great tradition and people should just let it be, in the name of tradition and humor.
i disagree with that on so many levels, which I will not recount here.
A few people became very emotional during the discussion, and nearly cried. I guess this is a really emotional topic for everyone.
There was also quite a few predictably self-congratulatory "well, at least we are engaging in a soul-searching racial dialogue" "at least something good came out of this" talk. I am very non-plussed by this kind of thinking. I don't think discussions are good for their own sake, unless they solve something or at least lead somewhere. Just pointing out "oh jeez, there's a lot of racial discrimination around the school." is not really that helpful and is even a bit cliched at this point. Not to mention that a lot of the discussions are even less than that. The question is what do we plan to DO about it? How do we make the parody less hurtful and more constructive? How do we respond to the members of the student body who feel insulted? How do we write the parody in the future? How do we build the law school community in other ways that will make all members feel welcome? These are the really pressing issues that need answers. Feeling superiority about one's awarness of racial discrimination is really not that helpful. But unfortunately most people stop at that.
In any case, I thought this was a very interesting evening and two hours very well-spent. I hope we have similar events in the future where we can build on the dialogues of tonight and come to some real solutions.
:D Coffee, dinner, and a lot of catching up with SF, his girlfriend L, DPP, his wife LR on Saturday evening.
:( Ames brief almost due. Still a lot of work to be done on it.
I don't recall this at all from parody, but ABS told me that the black girls stuff was near the beginning (recall that I was about 15 minutes late). Also, since I was pretty much drunk almost all of the time there, my sensitivity-radar wasn't operating at normal levels.
My main gripe with the parody was that it was too long, and that it wasn't that funny. The problem mainly came from the fact that the parody parodied many students, and since I attend a fairly large law school, and no one here can be said to know the entire student body, most of the audience won't "get" at least 80% of the jokes. So for any given joke involving students, perhaps 5-10% of the audience will laugh. The other will not understand what's so funny. The whole thing just seemed kind of lame and unnecessary.
On top of it, people got offended by it, which made it even more not worth it. I can kind of relate. I was not parodied in the parody, but if they had done it, I'm not sure how I would feel about that. If they mocked me in an unfair way, or had presented something inaccurate about me (as some of these people apparently felt) perhaps I would be pissed off as well.
In any event, I thought this would be an interesting meeting to attend, so I went with ABS in the afternoon to the meeting. A LOT of people were there. I think someone must have sent out some rallying email. Almost the entire black student's association was there. The parody cast and crew were there. I think some conservative student groups were there as well. Then there were curious spectators like me. They filled up a very large lecture hall and people had to stand in the back because there were no more seats.
A very prominent black professor moderated the discussion. There was a palpable tension in the air, and there were some ugly moments of shouting at each other. On the whole though, the comments and the dialogue were civil. The parody producers and writers apologized profused, though their apologies were always followed by some super-defense "BUT... blah blah blah..." A few black students spoke very eloquently. One black guy totally got an Obama thing going on.
I made a comment too about how I feel like the parody has the potential of messing with people's reputation, especially since we are a large community and people don't necessarily know the students being parodies personally.
Others made the point that in certain other law schools mocking students in the parody is just not allowed. You can only poke fun at professors. I think I kind of agree with that. I think it smacks of meanness when you poke fun at students, who don't necessarily consent to being protrayed in this way. Some people also suggested an "opt-out" registry for students who don't want to be parodied, or for the writers to ask the students for their permission before writing a parody about them into the show.
Freedom of speech, predictably, came up as a defense. As well as the defense that the parody is just a big joke and a great tradition and people should just let it be, in the name of tradition and humor.
i disagree with that on so many levels, which I will not recount here.
A few people became very emotional during the discussion, and nearly cried. I guess this is a really emotional topic for everyone.
There was also quite a few predictably self-congratulatory "well, at least we are engaging in a soul-searching racial dialogue" "at least something good came out of this" talk. I am very non-plussed by this kind of thinking. I don't think discussions are good for their own sake, unless they solve something or at least lead somewhere. Just pointing out "oh jeez, there's a lot of racial discrimination around the school." is not really that helpful and is even a bit cliched at this point. Not to mention that a lot of the discussions are even less than that. The question is what do we plan to DO about it? How do we make the parody less hurtful and more constructive? How do we respond to the members of the student body who feel insulted? How do we write the parody in the future? How do we build the law school community in other ways that will make all members feel welcome? These are the really pressing issues that need answers. Feeling superiority about one's awarness of racial discrimination is really not that helpful. But unfortunately most people stop at that.
In any case, I thought this was a very interesting evening and two hours very well-spent. I hope we have similar events in the future where we can build on the dialogues of tonight and come to some real solutions.
:D Coffee, dinner, and a lot of catching up with SF, his girlfriend L, DPP, his wife LR on Saturday evening.
:( Ames brief almost due. Still a lot of work to be done on it.
3/17/2006
The Ames Games
It's not fun, writing your Ames brief at 2:32 AM, when you could be sleeping, or watching TV, or playing Monopoly online, or reading for contracts. Yes, even reading for contracts if better than writing an Ames brief on an exceedingly complex area of law that I had no idea about just a few weeks ago, and still frankly have not that much idea about.
Well, I should really go back to work now.
Well, I should really go back to work now.
3/15/2006
Contorty! (Or 19th Century Common Law)
So, gone are the springlike weather and the 60-something degrees temperature. I was woken up today by the sound of wind howling between tree and houses. It sounded like trucks were constantly driving by the house. A little frightening, actually.
Temperature has dropped to below freezing, with a wind chill that made walking to school and walking back really unpleasant. (IH and I have now developed the habit of walking to school together, since he lives half a block from me. Doesn't this remind you of middle school? Hehe...)
In the early afternoon, in spite of the blue sky, we also had some flurries. Gotta love this New England weather.
For no reason at all, I stayed up 'til 2:40 or so last night. So I had expected this morning to be painfuil. Surprisingly, I woke up without an alarm at 9:30 and made it to property without any problems. I'm glad that I went too, since today's discussion was really interesting. We are talking about an area where property rights and contract rights kind of overlap. I love these interfaces between two supposedly different areas of law, like contracts and torts, or property and torts, or torts and contract. It's really quite artificial to separate these subjects anyway, since they all kind of run into each other and have the same principles. Both torts and contracts, for instance, are about duty. And both contracts and property are about entitlements and rights. You can have "tortious interference with contract" that sounds a lot like trespassing upon somone else's property. You can have unwaivable contract duties that look more and more like torts.
I once joked with ABS and S that instead of three artificially separate 1L courses of contracts, torts, and property, we should just have one humungous class that meets 4 hours a day called "contorty".
S objected that property doesn't get equal representation in the name, and suggested "contorterty."
ABS said the mega-course should just be called "19th Century Common Law."
Tax was boring as ever. S sent me an article by Alvin Warren that our professor suggested that we read since it supposedly illuminates a lot of stuff that we talked about yesterday. I read it and it was actually compreehnsible, and I was getting more of a grasp on this stuff. But then came class time and we were once again swimming in a sea of incoherent terms, phrases, sections, and numbers.
I find it so hard to focus on that class. My mind wanders at the slightest distraction. I spent at least 10 minutes cleaning out my inbox without even realizing that I was ignoring my professor. Then I spent another 10 minutes finding the ideal font for my class notes.
Ay...
:D Have two cartons of ice cream in the freezer. Cherry vanilla, and peaches and cream!
:D:D Best friend from college SF coming to visit me in C-Town from NYC this weekend! I'm very very very excited.
:( Have to work on Ames brief, b/c J scheduled conference with our Lawyering professor this Friday.
Temperature has dropped to below freezing, with a wind chill that made walking to school and walking back really unpleasant. (IH and I have now developed the habit of walking to school together, since he lives half a block from me. Doesn't this remind you of middle school? Hehe...)
In the early afternoon, in spite of the blue sky, we also had some flurries. Gotta love this New England weather.
For no reason at all, I stayed up 'til 2:40 or so last night. So I had expected this morning to be painfuil. Surprisingly, I woke up without an alarm at 9:30 and made it to property without any problems. I'm glad that I went too, since today's discussion was really interesting. We are talking about an area where property rights and contract rights kind of overlap. I love these interfaces between two supposedly different areas of law, like contracts and torts, or property and torts, or torts and contract. It's really quite artificial to separate these subjects anyway, since they all kind of run into each other and have the same principles. Both torts and contracts, for instance, are about duty. And both contracts and property are about entitlements and rights. You can have "tortious interference with contract" that sounds a lot like trespassing upon somone else's property. You can have unwaivable contract duties that look more and more like torts.
I once joked with ABS and S that instead of three artificially separate 1L courses of contracts, torts, and property, we should just have one humungous class that meets 4 hours a day called "contorty".
S objected that property doesn't get equal representation in the name, and suggested "contorterty."
ABS said the mega-course should just be called "19th Century Common Law."
Tax was boring as ever. S sent me an article by Alvin Warren that our professor suggested that we read since it supposedly illuminates a lot of stuff that we talked about yesterday. I read it and it was actually compreehnsible, and I was getting more of a grasp on this stuff. But then came class time and we were once again swimming in a sea of incoherent terms, phrases, sections, and numbers.
I find it so hard to focus on that class. My mind wanders at the slightest distraction. I spent at least 10 minutes cleaning out my inbox without even realizing that I was ignoring my professor. Then I spent another 10 minutes finding the ideal font for my class notes.
Ay...
:D Have two cartons of ice cream in the freezer. Cherry vanilla, and peaches and cream!
:D:D Best friend from college SF coming to visit me in C-Town from NYC this weekend! I'm very very very excited.
:( Have to work on Ames brief, b/c J scheduled conference with our Lawyering professor this Friday.
3/14/2006
Things That Make You Go "Mm?"
Hm, well, the tax class today made no sense to me whatsoever, in spite of having diligently done the reading and thinking that I understood everything. Having no finance or accounting background, I seriously fear that I'm at a disadvantage to other people in class. The professor tries to argue that consumption tax is the same as a wage tax (or was it income tax?) and then used a lot of examples and charts to illustrate his point, none of which made sense to me. Hmm... should I be worried?
Anyway, just thought I'd gripe.
:D the beautiful, gorgeous, lovely 60 degree sunny weather! Spring is (temporarilty) here!
:( too many commitments, too little time.
Anyway, just thought I'd gripe.
:D the beautiful, gorgeous, lovely 60 degree sunny weather! Spring is (temporarilty) here!
:( too many commitments, too little time.
3/12/2006
O the Absurdities of Law School
This morning, randomly remembered this funny scene from the Parody:
[After law students woke up and found themselves on a desert island, they began debating what they should do first: finding water, or drafting a constitution?]
[Suddenly, a silver-haired professor appeared carrying stone tablets. It's Professor F., a very famous conservative professor at the school. Some law students (namely those in suits and ties and wanted to draft a constitution first) immediately ran over and knelt down before him. Prof F began giving his commandments.]
[I can only remember a couple of them:]
"Thou shall talk about the exam immediately upon its completion, and point out all the issues that others missed, and thou saw!"
"Thou shall advance the theory that there is no correlation between knowledge and grades, if thou did poorly on an exam, but if thou received a good grade, thou shall speak of how thou want to become a - PROFESSOR!"
[And finally, my favorite one:]
"Thou shall, in the fairest month of May, spend 14-16 hours a day for a week writing a case note and subciting an article, neither of which will be ever published, the reward of which is... MORE SUBCITING!"
:D Getting up relatively early. Interesting article on wrongful death in the NYT. Future research project?
:( Have to read a week's worth of tax now.
[After law students woke up and found themselves on a desert island, they began debating what they should do first: finding water, or drafting a constitution?]
[Suddenly, a silver-haired professor appeared carrying stone tablets. It's Professor F., a very famous conservative professor at the school. Some law students (namely those in suits and ties and wanted to draft a constitution first) immediately ran over and knelt down before him. Prof F began giving his commandments.]
[I can only remember a couple of them:]
"Thou shall talk about the exam immediately upon its completion, and point out all the issues that others missed, and thou saw!"
"Thou shall advance the theory that there is no correlation between knowledge and grades, if thou did poorly on an exam, but if thou received a good grade, thou shall speak of how thou want to become a - PROFESSOR!"
[And finally, my favorite one:]
"Thou shall, in the fairest month of May, spend 14-16 hours a day for a week writing a case note and subciting an article, neither of which will be ever published, the reward of which is... MORE SUBCITING!"
:D Getting up relatively early. Interesting article on wrongful death in the NYT. Future research project?
:( Have to read a week's worth of tax now.
Overcoming Lipsticks
As ABS and I wandered around Best Buy yesterday, the thought struck me that I may HAVE to go into corporate law because there were simply too many cool gadgets there on the shelves that I wanted. A tiny camcorder, the new X-Box 360, palm pilots and hot new cell phones and iPod nanos and iPod accessories and new computer games and softwares...
Nevermind that if I do corporate law, I probably wouldn't have time to actually use any of this stuff that I would be able to afford to buy. There's a peculiar satisfaction that comes from mere possession and not neccessarily use; just the possibilty of use is often enough. Anyone who has seen my large collection of lipsticks knows that this is definitely true for me. At last count I have more than 25 different shades of lipsticks. And since the last count I probably bought another half a dozen. And I don't use them, at all. I probably only use 2-3 of them ever. The other ones are sitting in my purse or standing in my medicine cabinet collecting dust.
There is something pathological about my fascination and need to buy new lipsticks. I'm sure any amateur psychologist would have a field day analyzing this. But the more pressing issue at hand is other things in my life that are similar to my lipstick habit (do I have a new clothes habit? A cool electronic gadget habit? A anti-aging lotion habit? A fancy red wine habit? Am I hopelessly consumerist?) It's scary to think that material things could determine my career and force me to choose certain paths and slave away just so that I can have more and more THINGS, and turn my house into a museum for the possessions that I have but never use (just as my bathroom is sort of a shrine of my lipsticks now).
So, new goal for 2006: weaning my lipstick addiction by fall OCI.
Nevermind that if I do corporate law, I probably wouldn't have time to actually use any of this stuff that I would be able to afford to buy. There's a peculiar satisfaction that comes from mere possession and not neccessarily use; just the possibilty of use is often enough. Anyone who has seen my large collection of lipsticks knows that this is definitely true for me. At last count I have more than 25 different shades of lipsticks. And since the last count I probably bought another half a dozen. And I don't use them, at all. I probably only use 2-3 of them ever. The other ones are sitting in my purse or standing in my medicine cabinet collecting dust.
There is something pathological about my fascination and need to buy new lipsticks. I'm sure any amateur psychologist would have a field day analyzing this. But the more pressing issue at hand is other things in my life that are similar to my lipstick habit (do I have a new clothes habit? A cool electronic gadget habit? A anti-aging lotion habit? A fancy red wine habit? Am I hopelessly consumerist?) It's scary to think that material things could determine my career and force me to choose certain paths and slave away just so that I can have more and more THINGS, and turn my house into a museum for the possessions that I have but never use (just as my bathroom is sort of a shrine of my lipsticks now).
So, new goal for 2006: weaning my lipstick addiction by fall OCI.
The Nice Side of Global Warming!
Both yesterday and today, it was in the 60s. And sunny. Not bad for mid-March.
It's been a busy but fun couple of days. Yesterday, because of the spring-like weather, ABS and I decided that there was no way in hell we would go to contracts. Instead I took Boyfriend's car and we drove to this mall at the other end of town, where he tried (unsuccessfully) to buy the new game Intergalactic Civilization and I bought new batteries for my cell phone and new earbuds for my iPod. (Note: the earbuds from Apple, which cost me $40.95 and looked really cool from the outside, are HORRIBLE. The sound fidelity is really really bad, and they keep on falling out of my ears. Don't get them if you can help it. I'm returning mine.)
The day started out very promising, but by mid-afternoon both ABS and I were a little down, because we had both applied to be resident tutors at these undergraduate residential colleges, and neither of us got results that we wanted. (ABS did not get into the colleges that he wanted most, in spite of high hopes and lots of very positive signals sent by the Masters, etc. I on the other hand, missed most of the deadlines and only ended up applying to one of the twelve, so it was less of a surprise for me to not get any offers. Oh well.)
We did have a nice meal at the Cheesecake Factory in the mall. I have very fond memories of the Cheesecake Factory back in my working days of traveling all over the U.S. My favorite item on the menu is the Jamaican Blackened Shrimp. It's a bit pricey now that I have to pay for it myself, but YUM.
Afterwards, we drove back, ABS still upset so I dropped him off at his apartment and drove home myself. I decided to skip indoor soccer since was scheduled to go out drinking at a firm reception and then to the law school parody at night. Around 6:45 or so J and I met up at the law school with AR, with whom I hadn't hung out in a while, and we headed over to the firm event held at a popular student bar in the Square. It was crazy warm in the bar because of the balmy weather. A whole bunch of people from our section, including S (whose brother is visiting this weekend), IH, AK, AHH, N, RE, etc. Since we didn't have a lot of time, J and I downed as many vodka cranberries and buffalo wings as we could in 50 minutes or so, and then headed back to the law school for the Parody.
The Parody was all right; funny in parts, a bit too long (3 hours!). This year the theme is "Our Beloved Law School on a Stranded Island" with a Law and Order type story mixed in. Lots of "in" jokes where you need to know the people who are being parodied to find funny. My favorite are some professor parodies. Another scene involved a law firm who is interviewing law students on the island "campus." Their cue to the bodyguard for throwing out interviewees is "What can I tell you about the firm?" which I found hilarious. There were also very good parodies on John Roberts, Sam Alito, and Harriet Miers.
There were also a lot of pop songs with changed lyrics, some of which are very clever. Our dean also made a cameo appearance at the end of the parody, heroically (as usual) saving everyone stranded on the island. Although in my opinion, the parody could have been about 30 minuts shorter, it was a very good time for everyone.
After the Parody, we decided to go the bar near my house and have some drinks. A cast member joined us, along with a First Year Lawyering instructor, W, who teaches the other half of our section. W and I got to talking, and it turned out that he spent a year in my undergraduate college, and lived in the graduate student dorms, and had a whole bunch of friends in common with me. He apparently also knew my ex, E, really well, which is a little freaky. I was drunk and think that I revealed a little too much about my personal life (What do you expect when you have drinks with your students after they've already downed at least 4-5 drinks for the night?).
I slept horribly, but woke up miraculously without a headache. J, AC, and I, and our various SOs and spouses, scheduled to go to dim sum this morning at our usual spot in Chinatown. The restaurant was really crowded for some reason, but we got a seat easily and had a very satisfying meal. After that, J and her husband went home, AC and her boyfriend went shopping, and Boyfriend and I walked around in down town, enjoyed the nice weather, and even sat for a while at the wharf on the harbor. It was such a beautiful day. Was very happy that we did this, and went home.
I have been reading property ever since. We are now reading this incredibly complicated section on estates and future interests, with many arcane and barely intelligible phrases and categories. The section that I have been reading this evening, the Rules Against Perpetuties, is so confusing and poorly written that I'm advancing at about 2-3 pages per hours, and have to review my hornbooks just to figure out what the hell the rule is saying. Not fun.
:D rice noodles with shrimp at dim sum! (It's a very hard to describe dish, but one of my favorite!)
:D:D almost done with property reading for the whole week!
:( totally screwed-up sleeping scheules, AGAIN.
It's been a busy but fun couple of days. Yesterday, because of the spring-like weather, ABS and I decided that there was no way in hell we would go to contracts. Instead I took Boyfriend's car and we drove to this mall at the other end of town, where he tried (unsuccessfully) to buy the new game Intergalactic Civilization and I bought new batteries for my cell phone and new earbuds for my iPod. (Note: the earbuds from Apple, which cost me $40.95 and looked really cool from the outside, are HORRIBLE. The sound fidelity is really really bad, and they keep on falling out of my ears. Don't get them if you can help it. I'm returning mine.)
The day started out very promising, but by mid-afternoon both ABS and I were a little down, because we had both applied to be resident tutors at these undergraduate residential colleges, and neither of us got results that we wanted. (ABS did not get into the colleges that he wanted most, in spite of high hopes and lots of very positive signals sent by the Masters, etc. I on the other hand, missed most of the deadlines and only ended up applying to one of the twelve, so it was less of a surprise for me to not get any offers. Oh well.)
We did have a nice meal at the Cheesecake Factory in the mall. I have very fond memories of the Cheesecake Factory back in my working days of traveling all over the U.S. My favorite item on the menu is the Jamaican Blackened Shrimp. It's a bit pricey now that I have to pay for it myself, but YUM.
Afterwards, we drove back, ABS still upset so I dropped him off at his apartment and drove home myself. I decided to skip indoor soccer since was scheduled to go out drinking at a firm reception and then to the law school parody at night. Around 6:45 or so J and I met up at the law school with AR, with whom I hadn't hung out in a while, and we headed over to the firm event held at a popular student bar in the Square. It was crazy warm in the bar because of the balmy weather. A whole bunch of people from our section, including S (whose brother is visiting this weekend), IH, AK, AHH, N, RE, etc. Since we didn't have a lot of time, J and I downed as many vodka cranberries and buffalo wings as we could in 50 minutes or so, and then headed back to the law school for the Parody.
The Parody was all right; funny in parts, a bit too long (3 hours!). This year the theme is "Our Beloved Law School on a Stranded Island" with a Law and Order type story mixed in. Lots of "in" jokes where you need to know the people who are being parodied to find funny. My favorite are some professor parodies. Another scene involved a law firm who is interviewing law students on the island "campus." Their cue to the bodyguard for throwing out interviewees is "What can I tell you about the firm?" which I found hilarious. There were also very good parodies on John Roberts, Sam Alito, and Harriet Miers.
There were also a lot of pop songs with changed lyrics, some of which are very clever. Our dean also made a cameo appearance at the end of the parody, heroically (as usual) saving everyone stranded on the island. Although in my opinion, the parody could have been about 30 minuts shorter, it was a very good time for everyone.
After the Parody, we decided to go the bar near my house and have some drinks. A cast member joined us, along with a First Year Lawyering instructor, W, who teaches the other half of our section. W and I got to talking, and it turned out that he spent a year in my undergraduate college, and lived in the graduate student dorms, and had a whole bunch of friends in common with me. He apparently also knew my ex, E, really well, which is a little freaky. I was drunk and think that I revealed a little too much about my personal life (What do you expect when you have drinks with your students after they've already downed at least 4-5 drinks for the night?).
I slept horribly, but woke up miraculously without a headache. J, AC, and I, and our various SOs and spouses, scheduled to go to dim sum this morning at our usual spot in Chinatown. The restaurant was really crowded for some reason, but we got a seat easily and had a very satisfying meal. After that, J and her husband went home, AC and her boyfriend went shopping, and Boyfriend and I walked around in down town, enjoyed the nice weather, and even sat for a while at the wharf on the harbor. It was such a beautiful day. Was very happy that we did this, and went home.
I have been reading property ever since. We are now reading this incredibly complicated section on estates and future interests, with many arcane and barely intelligible phrases and categories. The section that I have been reading this evening, the Rules Against Perpetuties, is so confusing and poorly written that I'm advancing at about 2-3 pages per hours, and have to review my hornbooks just to figure out what the hell the rule is saying. Not fun.
:D rice noodles with shrimp at dim sum! (It's a very hard to describe dish, but one of my favorite!)
:D:D almost done with property reading for the whole week!
:( totally screwed-up sleeping scheules, AGAIN.
3/10/2006
Random Thoughts About Friends
Here are some ultra random thoughts about friends.
This semester, since everyone has an elective, you definitely see the cohesiveness of our sections disintegrate. Not quite fully yet, but people are definitely off doing their own things more and more.
J and I don't hang out as much as we used to. Partly this is due to our schedules, and our different study styles. J pratically lives in the library, and works very hard (probably much harder than me). But also, we don't have lunch as often b/c this semester I almost never eat at the student cafeteria, whereas J eats there a lot.
We still hang out a lot over the weekend, but we are not as inseparable as we used to be. Perhaps it's a good thing. But I should make more of an effort to eat with her.
On the other hand, ABS and I hang out more and more. We are both contemplative, intellectual (yes, if you can believe it, we both kinda enjoy thinking about legal problems, though I know I don't show this side of me too much in these posts -- perhaps I will eventually), academically inclined, and have very similar temperaments. We are both quirky and irreverent in the same way, and can laugh about little things for hours. Of all the people in the section, he knows me best, and I feel the most relaxed with him.
One thing I do worry about is that we have simliar life goals, or at least similar enough so that we'd be competing for many of the same things. I worry that we will eventually become competitors in something and this will sour our friendship. I also worry that next year we won't be as close as this year, and won't be able to hang out as much. The other day, we tallied up everything we want to do next year and estimated how much time it would take. The conclusion, we'd be working like 70 hours per week!
I have grown apart from S, and IH and AHH and others. Partly it's because they are all a lot younger than I am, and partly I think I am tiring of the constantly drinking constantly drunk life style. I'm discovering my interests in law, and more and more I like spending time thinking about that. I also think that at this point, the "cliques" in the sections have formed enough and everyone is more socially secure that they are now letting their true selves show a bit, and also have less patience with people who don't exactly jibe with them, whereas before they would be more willing to compromise... I think I am definitely this way myself. I am constantly aware of how young (read: immature) S and his friends are. It's not necessariliy a bad thing. In fact often I'm pretty immature myself. But I feel like I"m going through a more contemplative stage right now, and have less patience for some of the antics they pull.
I do miss those times in the beginnign when S and I would have these long conversations though. I suppose all friendshps go through these phases and perhaps the pendulum will swing the other way eventually.
This semester, since everyone has an elective, you definitely see the cohesiveness of our sections disintegrate. Not quite fully yet, but people are definitely off doing their own things more and more.
J and I don't hang out as much as we used to. Partly this is due to our schedules, and our different study styles. J pratically lives in the library, and works very hard (probably much harder than me). But also, we don't have lunch as often b/c this semester I almost never eat at the student cafeteria, whereas J eats there a lot.
We still hang out a lot over the weekend, but we are not as inseparable as we used to be. Perhaps it's a good thing. But I should make more of an effort to eat with her.
On the other hand, ABS and I hang out more and more. We are both contemplative, intellectual (yes, if you can believe it, we both kinda enjoy thinking about legal problems, though I know I don't show this side of me too much in these posts -- perhaps I will eventually), academically inclined, and have very similar temperaments. We are both quirky and irreverent in the same way, and can laugh about little things for hours. Of all the people in the section, he knows me best, and I feel the most relaxed with him.
One thing I do worry about is that we have simliar life goals, or at least similar enough so that we'd be competing for many of the same things. I worry that we will eventually become competitors in something and this will sour our friendship. I also worry that next year we won't be as close as this year, and won't be able to hang out as much. The other day, we tallied up everything we want to do next year and estimated how much time it would take. The conclusion, we'd be working like 70 hours per week!
I have grown apart from S, and IH and AHH and others. Partly it's because they are all a lot younger than I am, and partly I think I am tiring of the constantly drinking constantly drunk life style. I'm discovering my interests in law, and more and more I like spending time thinking about that. I also think that at this point, the "cliques" in the sections have formed enough and everyone is more socially secure that they are now letting their true selves show a bit, and also have less patience with people who don't exactly jibe with them, whereas before they would be more willing to compromise... I think I am definitely this way myself. I am constantly aware of how young (read: immature) S and his friends are. It's not necessariliy a bad thing. In fact often I'm pretty immature myself. But I feel like I"m going through a more contemplative stage right now, and have less patience for some of the antics they pull.
I do miss those times in the beginnign when S and I would have these long conversations though. I suppose all friendshps go through these phases and perhaps the pendulum will swing the other way eventually.
:D and :(
I realized that I forgot to put thsi at the end of my posts. So here's one for today:
:D free dinner, free drinks, and free dessert from Atlanta firm at restaurant bar near my house. Had beef stew, shrimp, several white Russians, and a huge ice cream sundae. Yum. And yes, I guess this is how they convince you to become slaves.
:( slacked off too much and didn't do very much work.
:D free dinner, free drinks, and free dessert from Atlanta firm at restaurant bar near my house. Had beef stew, shrimp, several white Russians, and a huge ice cream sundae. Yum. And yes, I guess this is how they convince you to become slaves.
:( slacked off too much and didn't do very much work.
3/08/2006
What Is Legal Brilliance?
Just had dinner with ABS, where we talked about our professors (as usual) and who among them are really brilliant. Had some thoughts there and then some additional thoughts on the way home.
I certainly don't think our contracts professor is brilliant. He repeats on and on about logic and its greatness, and argues very aggressively with anyone who doesn't agree immediately how wonderful logic is. Don't get me wrong. I think logic is great (after all, I did study philosophy in those hazy days when I was an undergrad). But the bottom line is, logic is a tool. It's a procedure. It may affect HOW we think but not WHAT we think about, and at the end of the day you are still left with important questions such as WHICH legal rules to apply and WHY, and WHAT are the useful objectives a legal system should try to achieve. Our contracts class talks almost nothing about that. We don't even talk about the legal rules themselves very much, beyond asking endlessly whether they are logical and whether they've been consistently applied. It's a very impoverished way of thinking.
Although I liked both my crim law professor from last semester, and my property professor from this semester, very much, I don't think they are brilliant either. They are certainly intelligent, but they seem too safely entrenched in the legal profession, and they tackle small, safe legal problems and seem to lack a grander vision. The work they do is useful -- there are certainly a lot of doctrinal wrinkles to iron out in any given field, and these wrinkles don't always present great problems but often medium and small problems. Still, you get the sense when you read their work that they lack a grand, unifiying vision, something like what Coase had when he wrote his article about reciprocal costs and duties; or on a smaller scale, what Weintraub had when he wrote his opinion that argued that assumption of risk is really just another form of contributory negligence and can therefore be analyzed in the same way; something that is transformative for the field and changes (or expands) the way we look at legal problems.
My torts professor is a legal historian and an extremely popular teacher. I am more on the fence about whether he is brilliant. He wrote some extremely influential books that influenced how a generation of legal scholars looked at American legal history, and which generated a lot of debate and criciticms. He certainly had a unifying legal vision. Perhaps he IS brilliant. I didn't get to personally experience his brilliance much since I didn't have time to read his books to judge for myself. Perhaps I will this summer.
But then, I was bothered by this thought: does one need to be kind of iconoclastic to be brilliant? It seems like all the professors that ABS and I agreed are brilliant are kind of that way, like Professor K, who wrote some seminal doctrinal work in his younger days and then wrote a series of critiques about hierarchies in law schools and how law schools are designed to instill that hierarchy in the students; and Professor H, who started out as a law and econ person but who now has become one of its most ardent and persuasive critics. Does this mean a conservative professor, like Professor F, who believes that the basis of law should be morality, cannot really be "briliant", in the sense that he won't really be transforming a field in a new and exciting and unexpected direction?
Anyway, need to think about this some more.
I certainly don't think our contracts professor is brilliant. He repeats on and on about logic and its greatness, and argues very aggressively with anyone who doesn't agree immediately how wonderful logic is. Don't get me wrong. I think logic is great (after all, I did study philosophy in those hazy days when I was an undergrad). But the bottom line is, logic is a tool. It's a procedure. It may affect HOW we think but not WHAT we think about, and at the end of the day you are still left with important questions such as WHICH legal rules to apply and WHY, and WHAT are the useful objectives a legal system should try to achieve. Our contracts class talks almost nothing about that. We don't even talk about the legal rules themselves very much, beyond asking endlessly whether they are logical and whether they've been consistently applied. It's a very impoverished way of thinking.
Although I liked both my crim law professor from last semester, and my property professor from this semester, very much, I don't think they are brilliant either. They are certainly intelligent, but they seem too safely entrenched in the legal profession, and they tackle small, safe legal problems and seem to lack a grander vision. The work they do is useful -- there are certainly a lot of doctrinal wrinkles to iron out in any given field, and these wrinkles don't always present great problems but often medium and small problems. Still, you get the sense when you read their work that they lack a grand, unifiying vision, something like what Coase had when he wrote his article about reciprocal costs and duties; or on a smaller scale, what Weintraub had when he wrote his opinion that argued that assumption of risk is really just another form of contributory negligence and can therefore be analyzed in the same way; something that is transformative for the field and changes (or expands) the way we look at legal problems.
My torts professor is a legal historian and an extremely popular teacher. I am more on the fence about whether he is brilliant. He wrote some extremely influential books that influenced how a generation of legal scholars looked at American legal history, and which generated a lot of debate and criciticms. He certainly had a unifying legal vision. Perhaps he IS brilliant. I didn't get to personally experience his brilliance much since I didn't have time to read his books to judge for myself. Perhaps I will this summer.
But then, I was bothered by this thought: does one need to be kind of iconoclastic to be brilliant? It seems like all the professors that ABS and I agreed are brilliant are kind of that way, like Professor K, who wrote some seminal doctrinal work in his younger days and then wrote a series of critiques about hierarchies in law schools and how law schools are designed to instill that hierarchy in the students; and Professor H, who started out as a law and econ person but who now has become one of its most ardent and persuasive critics. Does this mean a conservative professor, like Professor F, who believes that the basis of law should be morality, cannot really be "briliant", in the sense that he won't really be transforming a field in a new and exciting and unexpected direction?
Anyway, need to think about this some more.
3/06/2006
So Much Going On!
Had a pleasant week and weekend... Last Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday I skipped contracts with ABS. Now, lest you think that I am totally irresponsible, (which I fully admit and just not in this instance), I should say in my defense that in all three days, I used the time during contract to read and discuss contracts with ABS.
Frankly, with our professor going off on tangents regarding the greatness of logic and the stupidity of Oliver Wendell Holmes (yes, I'm not kidding. Holmes is like my prof's mortal enemy), the time is MUCH better spent learning contracts on our own. More and more of my classmates are doing the same. From the report of J, only about 25 students (out of 80) showed up to the Friday class. This is the same class where the prof spent about 30 minutes arguing with two people who he thought disagreed with him, one of whom, it turned out, didn't even disagree with him that much. So glad that I didn't have to suffer through that. It really sounds like that class is spiraling out of control. In the meanwhile, none of us are learning any contracts. I can literally say everything we've learned this semester in five sentences.
I could, but I don't want to bore you. :)
Spent a lot of time this weekend reading for my next week's classes and playing online monopoly at games.com. This is seriously one of my greatest discovery ever. You can play 8 differnet types of original board games online with your friends! I'm totally addicted to monopoly and played at least 8 games on Saturday. Saturday evening I took it easy.
On Sunday, J and I met up bright and early and met our Lawyering professor and went over our Ames brief. The message we took away from that was: our brief sucked and it needed a lot of work. Yikes. Back to the drawing board on that one...
Afterwards, J and I had a very nice lunch with her husband and went our separate ways
On Sunday evening, I had dinner with ABS at our favorite Vietnamese restaurant on the Square. I walked home, half-watched the Academy Awards, half-read tax, and half... played monopoly. :) I did finish the reading for tax for next week, but don't guarantee that I understood or remembered everything.
And speaking of the Academy Awards, I was disappointed that Brokeback Mountain didn't win Best Pictures, though I'm sure Crash was a great film. I didn't see ANY of the five movies nominated, although I do plan to rectify that this summer.
Boyfriend has been here for the entire past week. I really love it when he's here, and love vegging with him in the evenings. When the weather gets warmer I do want us to do more activities around C-town and B-town.
There has been many, many firm receptions in the past week, all of which I have signed up for and I have missed, because of the suddenly freezing weather and Boyfriend visiting. I do regret a bit about missing all that fancy food and all that alcohol (although I'm sure it gets old real fast -- at least for now, I'm still somewhat intrigued by the whole concept that someone is willing to give me these things for nothing!). This is another one of those things I plan to do when the weather gets warmer...
Frankly, with our professor going off on tangents regarding the greatness of logic and the stupidity of Oliver Wendell Holmes (yes, I'm not kidding. Holmes is like my prof's mortal enemy), the time is MUCH better spent learning contracts on our own. More and more of my classmates are doing the same. From the report of J, only about 25 students (out of 80) showed up to the Friday class. This is the same class where the prof spent about 30 minutes arguing with two people who he thought disagreed with him, one of whom, it turned out, didn't even disagree with him that much. So glad that I didn't have to suffer through that. It really sounds like that class is spiraling out of control. In the meanwhile, none of us are learning any contracts. I can literally say everything we've learned this semester in five sentences.
I could, but I don't want to bore you. :)
Spent a lot of time this weekend reading for my next week's classes and playing online monopoly at games.com. This is seriously one of my greatest discovery ever. You can play 8 differnet types of original board games online with your friends! I'm totally addicted to monopoly and played at least 8 games on Saturday. Saturday evening I took it easy.
On Sunday, J and I met up bright and early and met our Lawyering professor and went over our Ames brief. The message we took away from that was: our brief sucked and it needed a lot of work. Yikes. Back to the drawing board on that one...
Afterwards, J and I had a very nice lunch with her husband and went our separate ways
On Sunday evening, I had dinner with ABS at our favorite Vietnamese restaurant on the Square. I walked home, half-watched the Academy Awards, half-read tax, and half... played monopoly. :) I did finish the reading for tax for next week, but don't guarantee that I understood or remembered everything.
And speaking of the Academy Awards, I was disappointed that Brokeback Mountain didn't win Best Pictures, though I'm sure Crash was a great film. I didn't see ANY of the five movies nominated, although I do plan to rectify that this summer.
Boyfriend has been here for the entire past week. I really love it when he's here, and love vegging with him in the evenings. When the weather gets warmer I do want us to do more activities around C-town and B-town.
There has been many, many firm receptions in the past week, all of which I have signed up for and I have missed, because of the suddenly freezing weather and Boyfriend visiting. I do regret a bit about missing all that fancy food and all that alcohol (although I'm sure it gets old real fast -- at least for now, I'm still somewhat intrigued by the whole concept that someone is willing to give me these things for nothing!). This is another one of those things I plan to do when the weather gets warmer...
2/28/2006
New Camera
Not sure if I mentioned this, but when my parents were here a few weeks ago for Chinese New Year, I accidentally poured water on my old Kodak digital camera and destroyed it.
This made a little bit sad since I quite liked my old digital camera (you've seen the wonders it can do from the pictures I posted here). But every cloud has a silver lining, and in this case the silver lining is that I GET TO SHOP FOR A NEW DIGITAL CAMERA!
Anyway, after some extensive research last week (guess what I spent the more boring parts of tax doing?) I finally decided to get a Canon Powershot sd550. It had pretty good ratings from cnet, and my friend AC has one of the older versions and loves it.
So FedEx just delivered my brand-new camera! It's a nifty little thing, looks sturdy, shiny, and tiny. I already love it. Will be sharing random photos here again soon.
:D new camera, of course!
:( a ton of reading to do for tomorrow, my busiest day of the week.
This made a little bit sad since I quite liked my old digital camera (you've seen the wonders it can do from the pictures I posted here). But every cloud has a silver lining, and in this case the silver lining is that I GET TO SHOP FOR A NEW DIGITAL CAMERA!
Anyway, after some extensive research last week (guess what I spent the more boring parts of tax doing?) I finally decided to get a Canon Powershot sd550. It had pretty good ratings from cnet, and my friend AC has one of the older versions and loves it.
So FedEx just delivered my brand-new camera! It's a nifty little thing, looks sturdy, shiny, and tiny. I already love it. Will be sharing random photos here again soon.
:D new camera, of course!
:( a ton of reading to do for tomorrow, my busiest day of the week.
2/27/2006
Goals for March!
Man, can't believe that February is almost over! We have already spent 1/6th of the new year! And I feel so ... unaccomplished.
It's time to set some goals for the third month!
In the month of March, I would like to...
- go to the gym at least 4 times to exercise
- watch at least one movie and read one non-law-related book.
- read 1-2 law review articles per week for fun.
- go to at least 4 extracurricular law lectures and learn something that my classes are not teaching me
- cook at least 3 homecooked meals and enjoy with Boyfriend.
- spend at least two weekend days doing a fun activity with Boyfriend in B-town. (hmm... I have always wanted to visit the Aquarium...)
With spring break in 3 weeks this shouldn't be all that hard to accomplish. I'll be back at the end of the month to let you know whether any of this is in fact done.
Also, thansk to my friend AC, whose lively, sparkly blog inspired me to be a better blogger, I am introducing -->
":D" and ":(" for each post, starting today.
:D nearly done with Ames brief while everyone else is about to pull all-nighters.
:( having to walk home twice in 0 degree windchills
It's time to set some goals for the third month!
In the month of March, I would like to...
- go to the gym at least 4 times to exercise
- watch at least one movie and read one non-law-related book.
- read 1-2 law review articles per week for fun.
- go to at least 4 extracurricular law lectures and learn something that my classes are not teaching me
- cook at least 3 homecooked meals and enjoy with Boyfriend.
- spend at least two weekend days doing a fun activity with Boyfriend in B-town. (hmm... I have always wanted to visit the Aquarium...)
With spring break in 3 weeks this shouldn't be all that hard to accomplish. I'll be back at the end of the month to let you know whether any of this is in fact done.
Also, thansk to my friend AC, whose lively, sparkly blog inspired me to be a better blogger, I am introducing -->
":D" and ":(" for each post, starting today.
:D nearly done with Ames brief while everyone else is about to pull all-nighters.
:( having to walk home twice in 0 degree windchills
Zero degree wind chills!
Who knew that the distance between my apartment to the law school would be so long and so painful? I can't wait 'til spring!
At least my thighs are not aching so badly anymore. That went away in my very short sleep last night.
I was up 'til nearly 5 am last night trying to finish my section of the Ames, because I promise my partner J that I would have it done by today (it's due Tuesday). IH and I were discussing whether it's a good thing or not that one is Ames partner with one's friend. (IH's partner is this girl that he hardly knows in class). IH thinks that it's better to work with someone you don't know that well since then it's less bad if your work style is not in sync and you have a fight over the work. I did find that since I'm working with J, I'm much more circumspect about slacking off and really try to get things done early, as is her style. This gives me more pressure, but at least it helps me getting things done (and yes, I do need all the help I can get these days.).
Anyway, I'm impressed that I actually got up this morning to go to property. Now must go on with my busy day ahead now.
At least my thighs are not aching so badly anymore. That went away in my very short sleep last night.
I was up 'til nearly 5 am last night trying to finish my section of the Ames, because I promise my partner J that I would have it done by today (it's due Tuesday). IH and I were discussing whether it's a good thing or not that one is Ames partner with one's friend. (IH's partner is this girl that he hardly knows in class). IH thinks that it's better to work with someone you don't know that well since then it's less bad if your work style is not in sync and you have a fight over the work. I did find that since I'm working with J, I'm much more circumspect about slacking off and really try to get things done early, as is her style. This gives me more pressure, but at least it helps me getting things done (and yes, I do need all the help I can get these days.).
Anyway, I'm impressed that I actually got up this morning to go to property. Now must go on with my busy day ahead now.
2/26/2006
Perfect for Cold Weather...
Just made a pot of congee with chicken soup and preserved duck eggs (aka thousand year eggs). Yummm... makes me miss my childhood in China (and my freshman summer in Chinatown!)
Worked all day, including attending a mass subcite session at the library this afternoon. Still sore from the indoor soccer, can you believe it? (Yesterday I was so sore I could hardly move. I needed my arm's help to life my thighs. How pathetically out of shape I am...). Doing my Ames court brief now. It will be a long night...
Worked all day, including attending a mass subcite session at the library this afternoon. Still sore from the indoor soccer, can you believe it? (Yesterday I was so sore I could hardly move. I needed my arm's help to life my thighs. How pathetically out of shape I am...). Doing my Ames court brief now. It will be a long night...
2/24/2006
I Can Hardly Lift My Legs...
Yikes, just played indoor soccer with another section, and now I'm so exhausted that I barely had enough strength to walk home. I was hit once by the ball which broke the skin on my lips, which looked really heroic but actually didn't hurt that much.
We lost, 5-6. The other team was ALL large white guys and our team had several tiny women, so I think we actually did pretty well. Still, not having exercised for the past two weeks, and not having played soccer since, um, eighth grade, means that I probaby won't be able to walk tomorrow.
We lost, 5-6. The other team was ALL large white guys and our team had several tiny women, so I think we actually did pretty well. Still, not having exercised for the past two weeks, and not having played soccer since, um, eighth grade, means that I probaby won't be able to walk tomorrow.
Overheard in Property
My property professor looks like a Dilbert cartoon -- all squares and circles in his face and a bit nerdy. He also mumbles a lot and is not terribly expressive. So who would have thought that he would be so damned witty?
The past two weeks haev been particularly good classes for quotes. So I am collecting some of his more memorable ones below (my classmates helped collect most of these.)
Professor: "What if a state court said, 'We don't like due process much, so all these things that used to be called property are now called schmoperty?'"
Professor, on organ donation: "A brain donation would be the most--you can't even, well, think about it."
Professor, telling us about a barber who sold Lance Armstrong's hair: "If I were Armstrong, I'd be creeped out by that. I just felt the need to interject that. Oh, there are no more hands anymore."
Student: "If I cut off my finger, I can put it in my freezer."
Professor: "Put it in soup or something."
Professor: "Maybe it would be different if the mail was more like Harry Potter, and it sort of flew in and started screaming."
Professor: "That's the only data point we have. That gopher flushing is not beneficial."
I, along with 95% of my classmates, love property class.
The past two weeks haev been particularly good classes for quotes. So I am collecting some of his more memorable ones below (my classmates helped collect most of these.)
Professor: "What if a state court said, 'We don't like due process much, so all these things that used to be called property are now called schmoperty?'"
Professor, on organ donation: "A brain donation would be the most--you can't even, well, think about it."
Professor, telling us about a barber who sold Lance Armstrong's hair: "If I were Armstrong, I'd be creeped out by that. I just felt the need to interject that. Oh, there are no more hands anymore."
Student: "If I cut off my finger, I can put it in my freezer."
Professor: "Put it in soup or something."
Professor: "Maybe it would be different if the mail was more like Harry Potter, and it sort of flew in and started screaming."
Professor: "That's the only data point we have. That gopher flushing is not beneficial."
I, along with 95% of my classmates, love property class.
2/23/2006
Hopefully Not Sick, Definitely Addicted
For the past two days, I have been waking up with a sore throat. It goes away about 20 minutes after I get up. Still, I'm worried that I may be coming down with something.
I got the security clearance forms from my summer employer today. I have to go down to the local precinct to get my fingerprints taken! Fun. The forms themselves (there are seven or eight of them) are also quite long, and require a lot of info. Harder than applying to law school! Well okay, maybe not quite as hard...
I am falling behind on my contracts reading, mainly because since the professor talks about logic and not contracts every day anyway it all feels kind of pointless. Still it's not good to fall behind too much even if we don't end up discussing anything interesting in class.
Property and tax are as interesting as ever though. In property we are now talking about property rights issues with web domain names. Really really interesting stuff. In tax we are discussing illegal income and whether they are taxable, which is actually pretty relevant to our Ames court research this semester.
One huge impediment to my doing work for the past week or so has been the Olympics, which is absolutely mesmerizing. I would turn the TV on, promise myself that I would read with the TV in the background, and just start watching and can't staop. Whatever it is, you name it: curling, luge, bobsled, speedskating, ice dancing... I will just watch and watch until it's midnight and I have done no work. I console myself with the thought that in a week I will have a ton of free time to catch up with what will be a mountain of reading.
Must watch the finals for figure skating now! And read contracts!
I got the security clearance forms from my summer employer today. I have to go down to the local precinct to get my fingerprints taken! Fun. The forms themselves (there are seven or eight of them) are also quite long, and require a lot of info. Harder than applying to law school! Well okay, maybe not quite as hard...
I am falling behind on my contracts reading, mainly because since the professor talks about logic and not contracts every day anyway it all feels kind of pointless. Still it's not good to fall behind too much even if we don't end up discussing anything interesting in class.
Property and tax are as interesting as ever though. In property we are now talking about property rights issues with web domain names. Really really interesting stuff. In tax we are discussing illegal income and whether they are taxable, which is actually pretty relevant to our Ames court research this semester.
One huge impediment to my doing work for the past week or so has been the Olympics, which is absolutely mesmerizing. I would turn the TV on, promise myself that I would read with the TV in the background, and just start watching and can't staop. Whatever it is, you name it: curling, luge, bobsled, speedskating, ice dancing... I will just watch and watch until it's midnight and I have done no work. I console myself with the thought that in a week I will have a ton of free time to catch up with what will be a mountain of reading.
Must watch the finals for figure skating now! And read contracts!
2/21/2006
Today
Finally done with the subciting from hell tonight. Still haven't read for property and tax for tomorrow yet. Property is lagging a bit as we talk about water rights in class. Our property prof confessed on Friday that it's because the co-editor of his casebook is a big expert in the area, so "may have gone overboard a bit with the details."
Tax is quite confusing these days. Not having an econ and finance background means I have to look up every other words, and read each paragraph 4-5 times to understand what they mean. However, we only have 6-7 pages to read per day, so it's not so bad.
I have been addicted to watching the Winter Olympics in the past few days. It's the perfect pastime as I subcite, though of course it means that my subciting is much slower than it otherwise would have been. It certainly makes a bit more bearable. I have a new favorite sport: ice dancing. It's like ballroom dancing except 1,000 times more graceful, fast, and difficult. The Russians won tonight and they deserve it, but I love the performance of the Americans.
Okay, need to go off to read property and tax now. The tax professor has been calling people one by one down the row, and tomorrow he will definitely reach me. I'm scared.
Tax is quite confusing these days. Not having an econ and finance background means I have to look up every other words, and read each paragraph 4-5 times to understand what they mean. However, we only have 6-7 pages to read per day, so it's not so bad.
I have been addicted to watching the Winter Olympics in the past few days. It's the perfect pastime as I subcite, though of course it means that my subciting is much slower than it otherwise would have been. It certainly makes a bit more bearable. I have a new favorite sport: ice dancing. It's like ballroom dancing except 1,000 times more graceful, fast, and difficult. The Russians won tonight and they deserve it, but I love the performance of the Americans.
Okay, need to go off to read property and tax now. The tax professor has been calling people one by one down the row, and tomorrow he will definitely reach me. I'm scared.
2/19/2006
Brrrrrr...
It's SO COLD tonight! Just went out with AC and a whole bunch of people from our section to the Square, and walking back home was torture. My jaw and thighs were completely frozen by the time I got home.
Went to lunch with ABS and his friend L today, then subcited with him in the library in the afternoon. It's the second round of subciting (actually third round for me) and this time all my citations were in German. I stupidly told the editors I understood German, and of course this made my job 100 times harder. I am barely mastering my legal vocabulary in English, and now I need to do them in German? Ha.
In the evening was at this section outing that AC and I organized. Quite a few people showed up despite the cold. We drank and talked and watched the Winter Olympics on the bar TV and danced a bit. Around 1 I walked home with J and her husband.
In other news, I have decided to take the summer internship in N-Town to avoid the astronomical rent in NYC and being apart from Boyfriend. I called and emailed the organization on Thursday, and now am completely looking forward to my summer in my "hometown."
Class-wise, contracts is unbearable and stupid as ever. I might have to resort to teaching myself contracts if the prof doesn't stop talking about LOGIC on and on and on. It's not even about real logic, just putting the court's holdings in symbolic form. How stupid is that? I am a little angry that what could have been such a great class is now turning into such a big joke.
But property and tax have both been really fun, and I am really enjoying them. I have a lot of reading to do though for this weekend, so I should go to sleep right now. Good night!
Went to lunch with ABS and his friend L today, then subcited with him in the library in the afternoon. It's the second round of subciting (actually third round for me) and this time all my citations were in German. I stupidly told the editors I understood German, and of course this made my job 100 times harder. I am barely mastering my legal vocabulary in English, and now I need to do them in German? Ha.
In the evening was at this section outing that AC and I organized. Quite a few people showed up despite the cold. We drank and talked and watched the Winter Olympics on the bar TV and danced a bit. Around 1 I walked home with J and her husband.
In other news, I have decided to take the summer internship in N-Town to avoid the astronomical rent in NYC and being apart from Boyfriend. I called and emailed the organization on Thursday, and now am completely looking forward to my summer in my "hometown."
Class-wise, contracts is unbearable and stupid as ever. I might have to resort to teaching myself contracts if the prof doesn't stop talking about LOGIC on and on and on. It's not even about real logic, just putting the court's holdings in symbolic form. How stupid is that? I am a little angry that what could have been such a great class is now turning into such a big joke.
But property and tax have both been really fun, and I am really enjoying them. I have a lot of reading to do though for this weekend, so I should go to sleep right now. Good night!
2/16/2006
Decisions, decisions
Wow, what a hectic couple of days! After the storm over the weekend, on Tuesday (Valentine's Day) I flew to NYC to interview for two more jobs, (one at a well-known office), and got offers from both of them. Now it's decision time regarding whether I want to stay in N-Town (more low-key, relaxed, and cheap) or go to the Big City and the office with the bigger name recognition (but not necessarily more interesting work, and certainly a lot more expensive.)
I have a few more hours to decide, and then I have to get back to the folks in N-town. Sigh...
In the meanwhile, really haven't had much time to do anything else. After having a pretty successful day of interviewing, I ended up being stuck at the airport for 3.5 hours while the planes were mysteriously delayed and didn't even get home until nearly 2 AM. Was cranky and pissed off that I didn't spend more time with Boyfriend on Valentine's Day, but Boyfriend calmed me down and cheered me up with a nice present.
And today, miraculously went to 2 out of my 3 classes and actually listened better than normal. Hung out with ABS at our usual haunt on campus after contracts (I skipped tax. he he.) and looked through the course catalogue for courses that we both wanted to take next year. There were so many! Next semester I want to take more policy-oriented courses like family law and human rights law. We'll see...
I have a few more hours to decide, and then I have to get back to the folks in N-town. Sigh...
In the meanwhile, really haven't had much time to do anything else. After having a pretty successful day of interviewing, I ended up being stuck at the airport for 3.5 hours while the planes were mysteriously delayed and didn't even get home until nearly 2 AM. Was cranky and pissed off that I didn't spend more time with Boyfriend on Valentine's Day, but Boyfriend calmed me down and cheered me up with a nice present.
And today, miraculously went to 2 out of my 3 classes and actually listened better than normal. Hung out with ABS at our usual haunt on campus after contracts (I skipped tax. he he.) and looked through the course catalogue for courses that we both wanted to take next year. There were so many! Next semester I want to take more policy-oriented courses like family law and human rights law. We'll see...
2/11/2006
One Down, Many More to Go
Interview yesterday went well. I was nervous beforehand, but immediately calmed down when I saw my interviewer who looked very friendly. We chatted about why I wanted to work for his office, and about general things like Germany and China. At the end of the interview, he offered me a job. I asked for a week to decide.
With this newfound confidence, I now have to tackle the many interviews I have to face next week!
With this newfound confidence, I now have to tackle the many interviews I have to face next week!
2/09/2006
News
I should be asleep, since tomorrow will be a busy day, but I also think I should post something before I go to bed.
So, it's been a week full of news and developments. Since it's going to be another one of those megaposts, I'm going to use subheadings again.
School
Two out of three of my classes are definitely less than thrilling. The worst of them is contracts. The professor goes at a snail's pace, talks endlessly about elementary symbolic logic (like, HELLO! We all rocked the LSAT! Why are you talking about necessary and sufficient conditions as if it's the first time we've heard them?!). Every class is simultaneously infuriating and soporific, and never fails to make me sorry that I came at all.
So far we've gone through three cases. Today we spent the ENTIRE class talking about a very simple case about consideration. Half the class was IMing, the other half probably asleep.
Tax is, well... tax. Although the first few classes were really dead, I think it's getting better. So far we have been talking about what income is, a question I've never given much thought to. But apparently the concept is incredibly slippery. For instance, is gift income? Does employee discount count as income (the percentage that you would have paid had you not been an employee?) What about fringe benefits like free meals and lodging, if you are a live-in nanny. Does it matter if you are not a live-in nanny but the employer pays for your housing? What if you won the lottery or a trip to Hawaii? Anyway... you get the idea.
Property is by far the most interesting. Boyfriend and I spent a pleasant Sunday afternoon walking around in B-town and we talked the whole time about property cases. I gave him fact patterns, and he tried to guess what the court decided, and what he would have decided. And then I told him the answer. It was surprisingly fun, and helped me review too.
Jobs
Well, did I ever mention that I applied for around 30 domestic jobs and another 30 International jobs. Well, in retrospect that was, ahem, a little crazy. Replies are now coming in, and I'm a little overwhelmed. I'm leaving tomorrow afternoon to go to an interview in H-Town for a job that I really want (skipping contracts for Friday). Living in H-Town this summer would make my life so much easier in terms of housing!
On Monday I have two more on campus interviews (both of which I probably won't get because they are uber-competitive, but I signed up for them anyway since I want to take a shot and thought it would be god experience for next year. Then on Tuesday I'm going to take the train for 4.5 hours to go south for another interview, at a job that I moderately want but certainly wouldn't hate if I happen to get it. Then on Friday another interview, and another two next Monday. Add to that a couple of phone interviews with international employers and I'm swimming in interview land, which is not as much of a good thing as I had thought it would be... Yikes!
Grades
Yes, they are now posted online, waiting for me to log in and view, which I'm not inclined to do for a while. Why? I guess I don't feel the need to yet, and I don't feel like obsessing over them (why didn't I get a good grade in torts? what did I do wrong?!?). I also honestly feel like good or bad, nothing good can come out of me knowing them. I'm still going to work just as hard (or not as hard :)), and will apply to exactly the same jobs and the same organizations and journals. So I just can't imagine why I'd want to know them now, other than pure curiosity.
My classmates though have looked at them. And grades talk has already begun! Perhaps I'll succumb to peer pressure soon, but this is also why spending a few days out of town would be good for me. Great timing, Buttercup!
Career
Did I just write that as a subheading? Gee. I don't really have anything profound to say under career, except that I'm more interested in becoming a litigator. The Circuit court sat a session in my law school today, an apparently very rare (so says my First Year Lawyering teacher again and again) and very cool event. I really enjoyed hearing the attorneys present their arguments and the judges grilling them. Heck, I even enjoyed readng the briefs they submitted, and really look forward to writing my own briefs for Moot Court this semester.
Obviously, this is after ONE semester of law school, but it's nice to have a goal and a direction, for once.
Boyfriend
The Israel trip has really gotten me and Boyfriend closer. I'm very happy with the way everything is right now.
Miscellaneous
My new obsession is this Vietnamese restaurant in the Square. I have been begging my various friends to go nearly every day. ABS, who introduced me to the restaurant, caves some of the time, while people like J and I shake their heads in disbelief.
I love having all these nice restaurants within walking distance. I think I have probably eaten out 6 days out of every week, an so far I have been to every restaurant within a mile radius multiple times. It's definitely more expensive than eating at home, but I'm already so in debt that all this eating is hardly making a dent. :)
Went to the only mall in town with S today after tax. It reminded me of the first time I've been to that mall with DK and S during the first week of law school. What a fun and disorienting time that was, and how much we've changed! At that time I thought I knew a lot about law. I was wrong, just as I was wrong about so many other things (how I'd feel; how I'd relate to others in law school; what I'd spend my time doing (hint: NOT reading.))
It's all well and good. And I'm going to bed now.
So, it's been a week full of news and developments. Since it's going to be another one of those megaposts, I'm going to use subheadings again.
School
Two out of three of my classes are definitely less than thrilling. The worst of them is contracts. The professor goes at a snail's pace, talks endlessly about elementary symbolic logic (like, HELLO! We all rocked the LSAT! Why are you talking about necessary and sufficient conditions as if it's the first time we've heard them?!). Every class is simultaneously infuriating and soporific, and never fails to make me sorry that I came at all.
So far we've gone through three cases. Today we spent the ENTIRE class talking about a very simple case about consideration. Half the class was IMing, the other half probably asleep.
Tax is, well... tax. Although the first few classes were really dead, I think it's getting better. So far we have been talking about what income is, a question I've never given much thought to. But apparently the concept is incredibly slippery. For instance, is gift income? Does employee discount count as income (the percentage that you would have paid had you not been an employee?) What about fringe benefits like free meals and lodging, if you are a live-in nanny. Does it matter if you are not a live-in nanny but the employer pays for your housing? What if you won the lottery or a trip to Hawaii? Anyway... you get the idea.
Property is by far the most interesting. Boyfriend and I spent a pleasant Sunday afternoon walking around in B-town and we talked the whole time about property cases. I gave him fact patterns, and he tried to guess what the court decided, and what he would have decided. And then I told him the answer. It was surprisingly fun, and helped me review too.
Jobs
Well, did I ever mention that I applied for around 30 domestic jobs and another 30 International jobs. Well, in retrospect that was, ahem, a little crazy. Replies are now coming in, and I'm a little overwhelmed. I'm leaving tomorrow afternoon to go to an interview in H-Town for a job that I really want (skipping contracts for Friday). Living in H-Town this summer would make my life so much easier in terms of housing!
On Monday I have two more on campus interviews (both of which I probably won't get because they are uber-competitive, but I signed up for them anyway since I want to take a shot and thought it would be god experience for next year. Then on Tuesday I'm going to take the train for 4.5 hours to go south for another interview, at a job that I moderately want but certainly wouldn't hate if I happen to get it. Then on Friday another interview, and another two next Monday. Add to that a couple of phone interviews with international employers and I'm swimming in interview land, which is not as much of a good thing as I had thought it would be... Yikes!
Grades
Yes, they are now posted online, waiting for me to log in and view, which I'm not inclined to do for a while. Why? I guess I don't feel the need to yet, and I don't feel like obsessing over them (why didn't I get a good grade in torts? what did I do wrong?!?). I also honestly feel like good or bad, nothing good can come out of me knowing them. I'm still going to work just as hard (or not as hard :)), and will apply to exactly the same jobs and the same organizations and journals. So I just can't imagine why I'd want to know them now, other than pure curiosity.
My classmates though have looked at them. And grades talk has already begun! Perhaps I'll succumb to peer pressure soon, but this is also why spending a few days out of town would be good for me. Great timing, Buttercup!
Career
Did I just write that as a subheading? Gee. I don't really have anything profound to say under career, except that I'm more interested in becoming a litigator. The Circuit court sat a session in my law school today, an apparently very rare (so says my First Year Lawyering teacher again and again) and very cool event. I really enjoyed hearing the attorneys present their arguments and the judges grilling them. Heck, I even enjoyed readng the briefs they submitted, and really look forward to writing my own briefs for Moot Court this semester.
Obviously, this is after ONE semester of law school, but it's nice to have a goal and a direction, for once.
Boyfriend
The Israel trip has really gotten me and Boyfriend closer. I'm very happy with the way everything is right now.
Miscellaneous
My new obsession is this Vietnamese restaurant in the Square. I have been begging my various friends to go nearly every day. ABS, who introduced me to the restaurant, caves some of the time, while people like J and I shake their heads in disbelief.
I love having all these nice restaurants within walking distance. I think I have probably eaten out 6 days out of every week, an so far I have been to every restaurant within a mile radius multiple times. It's definitely more expensive than eating at home, but I'm already so in debt that all this eating is hardly making a dent. :)
Went to the only mall in town with S today after tax. It reminded me of the first time I've been to that mall with DK and S during the first week of law school. What a fun and disorienting time that was, and how much we've changed! At that time I thought I knew a lot about law. I was wrong, just as I was wrong about so many other things (how I'd feel; how I'd relate to others in law school; what I'd spend my time doing (hint: NOT reading.))
It's all well and good. And I'm going to bed now.
2/05/2006
2/01/2006
Delinquent
Wow! I haven't posted forever! I'm becoming one of those delinquent bloggers who only posts like once a month!
Will try to be better in the future.
Well, since there are so many things to record, I'm going to be methodical, and do something I've never done before. Use subheadings!
新年快乐
First thing first: happy Chinese New Year! We are now in the year of the dog. The Chinese restaurant across the street has been giving out "red pockets" with dollar bills inside every since last week. Last night ABS and I went there and they are STILL giving them out. Sweet.
Celebrations
My parents drove up to spend Chinese New Year's with me this weekend. They got here on Friday and stayed until Monday morning. It was a very successful trip. We had a lot of good food (some I made, some they brought from my favorite Chinese restaurant at home), drank 1.5 bottles of wine, walked around B-town when it was in the upper 50s here on Saturday, went to the Harbor, and played a lot of games. Fun fun fun.
On Sunday I also went to a Chinese New Years dinner at AC's boyfriend J's house in B-town. S, JW and her husband N, and J's roommate were also there. We made dumplings (well, AC made the filling and I helped her put the fillings and skins together in a package). AC also made congee (with pork and preserved ducks eggs -- yum! so typically Chinese and reminds me of childhood). I made a brownie with chocolate ganash.
Sadly, my part of the dinner was cut short when my parents locked themselves out of my apartment (while I was with my friends they decided to go to B-town to sightsee, but weirdly the keys that I made for them didn't work). So I hurried downed some dumplings and congee and took a cab home.
Parents and I spent a pleasant evening home, however, having my frozen dumplings from costco (they are actually surprisingly good. You should try them); having wine, and playing games.
School
Now, on to this semester. Grades are not yet out, and I'm determined not to look at them once they ARE out. Let's see how long this resolution lasts.
This semester, we have new classes with new professors! We are taking property, contracts, and my elective which is tax. Incidentally, my elective starts today, and I haven't read the reading assignment yet. Does not bode well for my semester.
For property we have this visiting professor from our rival school, who is so nerdy it is endearing. He is using his draft casebook. I groaned when I heard this, because I didn't feel like being guinea pigs for some professor who hasn't completely worked out the kinks in his book, but the book has been surprisingly good and really enjoyable to read, perhaps even more so than our torts book which I love.
I had also expected property to be boring, since in my readings before law school property invariably involved arcane categories of land conveyance like "fee simple", "fee tail", and other such nonsense that no one is really interested in nowadays except estates lawyers. But this guy's casebook is very philosophical. So far we are talking about questions like "what is property?" "what does property entail?" "How does one acquire property?" and things like that, with interesting cases to illustrate the competing phiosophical views (strangely, most of them involving capturing wild animals and fishing).
Contracts have been boring so far, and I have been playing games nearly nonstop in that class (I know. It's bad of me and I should stop doing that.) On Friday S, AK, AHH, and I played monopoly on games.com, and I hardly heard a single word the professor said. I don't think I missed that much, however, since we haven't even been talking about contracts at all, only how to read cases. I hope we get to the substantive parts soon.
Jobs
Now, here's the real bane of my existence. Since I was in Israel, I hadn't had time to look for jobs like the rest of my classmates. Many of them already have summer jobs now while I'm still starting my search. This is not fun, especially given that I have no real sense of what I want to do (only had, um, one semester of law school), where I wnat to be (both Boyfriend and I are very flexible), and what kind of organization I want to work for. My vague sense is that the Department of Justice and the USAO are a safe and prestigious jobs, very competitive, etc. But there are also so many interesting organizations out there. So anyway, I have just sent out 27 resumes to various DOJ and USAO departments, and my next wave of applications will be non-profits legal organizations. My third wave will be international organizations, which has a much more flexible deadline and seems much easier to get (since we are essentially working for free for them).
Anyway, won't bore you with the minutiae. Will just keep you posted on what turns up, and where I will end up this summer.
Will try to be better in the future.
Well, since there are so many things to record, I'm going to be methodical, and do something I've never done before. Use subheadings!
新年快乐
First thing first: happy Chinese New Year! We are now in the year of the dog. The Chinese restaurant across the street has been giving out "red pockets" with dollar bills inside every since last week. Last night ABS and I went there and they are STILL giving them out. Sweet.
Celebrations
My parents drove up to spend Chinese New Year's with me this weekend. They got here on Friday and stayed until Monday morning. It was a very successful trip. We had a lot of good food (some I made, some they brought from my favorite Chinese restaurant at home), drank 1.5 bottles of wine, walked around B-town when it was in the upper 50s here on Saturday, went to the Harbor, and played a lot of games. Fun fun fun.
On Sunday I also went to a Chinese New Years dinner at AC's boyfriend J's house in B-town. S, JW and her husband N, and J's roommate were also there. We made dumplings (well, AC made the filling and I helped her put the fillings and skins together in a package). AC also made congee (with pork and preserved ducks eggs -- yum! so typically Chinese and reminds me of childhood). I made a brownie with chocolate ganash.
Sadly, my part of the dinner was cut short when my parents locked themselves out of my apartment (while I was with my friends they decided to go to B-town to sightsee, but weirdly the keys that I made for them didn't work). So I hurried downed some dumplings and congee and took a cab home.
Parents and I spent a pleasant evening home, however, having my frozen dumplings from costco (they are actually surprisingly good. You should try them); having wine, and playing games.
School
Now, on to this semester. Grades are not yet out, and I'm determined not to look at them once they ARE out. Let's see how long this resolution lasts.
This semester, we have new classes with new professors! We are taking property, contracts, and my elective which is tax. Incidentally, my elective starts today, and I haven't read the reading assignment yet. Does not bode well for my semester.
For property we have this visiting professor from our rival school, who is so nerdy it is endearing. He is using his draft casebook. I groaned when I heard this, because I didn't feel like being guinea pigs for some professor who hasn't completely worked out the kinks in his book, but the book has been surprisingly good and really enjoyable to read, perhaps even more so than our torts book which I love.
I had also expected property to be boring, since in my readings before law school property invariably involved arcane categories of land conveyance like "fee simple", "fee tail", and other such nonsense that no one is really interested in nowadays except estates lawyers. But this guy's casebook is very philosophical. So far we are talking about questions like "what is property?" "what does property entail?" "How does one acquire property?" and things like that, with interesting cases to illustrate the competing phiosophical views (strangely, most of them involving capturing wild animals and fishing).
Contracts have been boring so far, and I have been playing games nearly nonstop in that class (I know. It's bad of me and I should stop doing that.) On Friday S, AK, AHH, and I played monopoly on games.com, and I hardly heard a single word the professor said. I don't think I missed that much, however, since we haven't even been talking about contracts at all, only how to read cases. I hope we get to the substantive parts soon.
Jobs
Now, here's the real bane of my existence. Since I was in Israel, I hadn't had time to look for jobs like the rest of my classmates. Many of them already have summer jobs now while I'm still starting my search. This is not fun, especially given that I have no real sense of what I want to do (only had, um, one semester of law school), where I wnat to be (both Boyfriend and I are very flexible), and what kind of organization I want to work for. My vague sense is that the Department of Justice and the USAO are a safe and prestigious jobs, very competitive, etc. But there are also so many interesting organizations out there. So anyway, I have just sent out 27 resumes to various DOJ and USAO departments, and my next wave of applications will be non-profits legal organizations. My third wave will be international organizations, which has a much more flexible deadline and seems much easier to get (since we are essentially working for free for them).
Anyway, won't bore you with the minutiae. Will just keep you posted on what turns up, and where I will end up this summer.
1/24/2006
More photos from Israel
Here are some more photos I downloaded yesterday from my digital camera.
The Negev Desert in the dusk. The sheer size of it overwhelms you.
The Dead Sea, also in the dusk. And the mountains in the distance.
Roman Ruins outside the Old City in Jerusalem.
Remnants of Roman columns in the Jewish Quarter of the Old City.
Excavated temple ruins, purportedly built by King David.
The Western Wall in the Old City, the holiest site for Jews. Jews come from all over the world to pray to it.
Prayers and soldiers at the Western Wall.
The Via Dolorosa. Retracing the foodsteps of Christ.
A peak of the Holy Sepulchre, where Christ was buried, in the Christian Quarter of the Old City.
The courtyard of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. The church seems a little run-down and perpetually under construction apparently because the four denominations that control it could never agree on anything. They quarrel endlessly and get nothing resolved. One Israeli described how they are in the Supreme Court every other day over some minute details about the Church. The latest episodes: where should the second entrance to the Church be located (there's currently only one small entrance to the church. A second door needs to be constructed for safety reasons. Thus far they have not come to an agreement); to which denomination does the shadow of a tree belong to and who has the right to sit there; A ladder has been sitting against the wall for 17 years because they could not agree on to whom the ladder belongs.
When you think about it, it's kind of ironic that when the Christians quarrel in court, it's the Jews who get to arbitrate.
Interior of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre.
Jerusalem from a distance: the white city on the hills.
The Negev Desert in the dusk. The sheer size of it overwhelms you.
The Dead Sea, also in the dusk. And the mountains in the distance.
Roman Ruins outside the Old City in Jerusalem.
Remnants of Roman columns in the Jewish Quarter of the Old City.
Excavated temple ruins, purportedly built by King David.
The Western Wall in the Old City, the holiest site for Jews. Jews come from all over the world to pray to it.
Prayers and soldiers at the Western Wall.
The Via Dolorosa. Retracing the foodsteps of Christ.
A peak of the Holy Sepulchre, where Christ was buried, in the Christian Quarter of the Old City.
The courtyard of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. The church seems a little run-down and perpetually under construction apparently because the four denominations that control it could never agree on anything. They quarrel endlessly and get nothing resolved. One Israeli described how they are in the Supreme Court every other day over some minute details about the Church. The latest episodes: where should the second entrance to the Church be located (there's currently only one small entrance to the church. A second door needs to be constructed for safety reasons. Thus far they have not come to an agreement); to which denomination does the shadow of a tree belong to and who has the right to sit there; A ladder has been sitting against the wall for 17 years because they could not agree on to whom the ladder belongs.
When you think about it, it's kind of ironic that when the Christians quarrel in court, it's the Jews who get to arbitrate.
Interior of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre.
Jerusalem from a distance: the white city on the hills.
Thoughts about Israel Trip
I'm still arranging my thoughts, but here are a few of them I thought I would write down:
This was one of the most meaningful trips I have ever taken. I have always longed for places with a lot of history and historical significance. Before I visited Israel, I have always felt that Germany was my spiritual home. I have always been drawn to countries that have suffered, because I feel like the suffering gives the culture depth. Well, few countries have suffered more than Israel, and few people are more aware of their turbulent history than the Jews. You can argue about causes and effect, but I love the depth and weight the sense of history gives to their national character.
Every Israeli I have met has been thoughtful, intellectual, and filled with opinions and knowledge about the state of their country. Talking to them has greatly enriched my trip.
Everyone in the U.S., including my parents, reacted to my decision to go to Israel with a horrified "but aren't you scared?" I guess I have been disarmed first by the fact that Boyfriend's brothers and father go to Israel twice a year. Terrorism was of course a concern, but the chances of one being injured or killed in one of them is so remote that it's probably more rational to worry about being killed or injured in a car accident. (And trust me, Israelis do drive like maniacs. More on this later.)
At no time in Israel did I feel unsafe. If anything, the security was far superior than the U.S. since it was clearly their number one concern. Outside every supermarket, cafe, and restaurant there are armed security guards checking bags. Boyfriend and I received a nearly 1.5 hour grill before we boarded the plane with El Al. We were so used to the thorough security that the "lax" procedure America alarmed us.
Some other observations:
- Israel is filled with stray cats! They are simply everywhere, even when you eat at restaurants. They would just come up and wait for you to give them food. Where are all the stray cats in America?
- Israelis also never put their dogs on leash. Their dogs are always extremely well-behaved and never chase squirrels or run up to other dogs. I have seen many, many times the owner leaving an unleashed dog outside a cafe or restaurant, and the dog literally just sits and waits. Amazing!
- I love the mandatory army trainings. Not for what it represents (militarism, necessity to protect country from terrorism, etc), but for what it does to people. Israeli women are tough and confident, and the men are very masculine. Apparently, for the male citizens they have to do 1 month of service every year until they are 45 or 50. I'm sure this is very disruptive for them, but the sense of responsibilty and stake in their own community you get from them are incredible.
- There is so much varied and beautiful landscape in such a small place that I'm amazed that Israel is not one of the most toured places on earth. The beaches at the Red Sea, the Mediterranean, and the Dead Sea rival any beaches I have been to in Europe, Florida, or California. And they are completely empty at this time of the year, in spite of the temperate climate. The desert in southern Israel is simply breathtaking. And the northern parts, like the Golan Heights and the Sea of Galilee, are beautiful as well with their lush rolling hills, crystal lakes and waterfalls, vineyards, and a ton of historical sites as well.
- And Jerusalem! My God, I could spend 3 months there and not get bored! In fact, I want to be back there already! There are ruins literally every where, some labelled, some not so well-labelled. Boyfriend and I walked down the path where Christ carried his cross to his site of crucification, the famed "Via Dolorosa". We visited his tomb. We visited the Western Wall. We walked by 2000-year-old walls and 1,700-year-old churches and Roman columns and tombs and ruins of temples built by David and churches with every kind of significance to Christians. In the Old City there was literally a ruin at every step. It must be an archaologist's dream come true.
- Jerusalem really does shut down on Shabbat. Not even gas stations are open! I was impressed.
- Tel Aviv, on the other hand, has an insane nightlife. The part of town Boyfriend and I went to on Saturday was so crowded that it was almost unpleasant to walk in the shopping centers and the stores.
- Israelis are insane drivers! This is one thing that I didn't like so much about them, because since we rented a car and had to drive, it put some unnecessary stress on our trip. They speed; they tailgate; they go through dangerous mountain curves at 70 miles per hour and attemtp to pass you; they honk their horns as soon as the light turns to sound their impatience. Added to all this is the narrowness of many streets and even highway lanes, and I was left to wonder why my parents are worried about terrorist attacks when they should be worried about crazy Israeli drivers.
- Artificial palm tree forests in the desert! Every single one of those trees are neatly lined up, like soldiers! I have always associated palm trees with the leisurely, lazy beach culture of Florida or California. Who knew that palm trees could look so... disciplined?
Those are all the thoughts I have time to write down for now. This has been a perfect trip in every way, and one thing is clear: Boyfriend and I are definitely going back to Israel before long.
This was one of the most meaningful trips I have ever taken. I have always longed for places with a lot of history and historical significance. Before I visited Israel, I have always felt that Germany was my spiritual home. I have always been drawn to countries that have suffered, because I feel like the suffering gives the culture depth. Well, few countries have suffered more than Israel, and few people are more aware of their turbulent history than the Jews. You can argue about causes and effect, but I love the depth and weight the sense of history gives to their national character.
Every Israeli I have met has been thoughtful, intellectual, and filled with opinions and knowledge about the state of their country. Talking to them has greatly enriched my trip.
Everyone in the U.S., including my parents, reacted to my decision to go to Israel with a horrified "but aren't you scared?" I guess I have been disarmed first by the fact that Boyfriend's brothers and father go to Israel twice a year. Terrorism was of course a concern, but the chances of one being injured or killed in one of them is so remote that it's probably more rational to worry about being killed or injured in a car accident. (And trust me, Israelis do drive like maniacs. More on this later.)
At no time in Israel did I feel unsafe. If anything, the security was far superior than the U.S. since it was clearly their number one concern. Outside every supermarket, cafe, and restaurant there are armed security guards checking bags. Boyfriend and I received a nearly 1.5 hour grill before we boarded the plane with El Al. We were so used to the thorough security that the "lax" procedure America alarmed us.
Some other observations:
- Israel is filled with stray cats! They are simply everywhere, even when you eat at restaurants. They would just come up and wait for you to give them food. Where are all the stray cats in America?
- Israelis also never put their dogs on leash. Their dogs are always extremely well-behaved and never chase squirrels or run up to other dogs. I have seen many, many times the owner leaving an unleashed dog outside a cafe or restaurant, and the dog literally just sits and waits. Amazing!
- I love the mandatory army trainings. Not for what it represents (militarism, necessity to protect country from terrorism, etc), but for what it does to people. Israeli women are tough and confident, and the men are very masculine. Apparently, for the male citizens they have to do 1 month of service every year until they are 45 or 50. I'm sure this is very disruptive for them, but the sense of responsibilty and stake in their own community you get from them are incredible.
- There is so much varied and beautiful landscape in such a small place that I'm amazed that Israel is not one of the most toured places on earth. The beaches at the Red Sea, the Mediterranean, and the Dead Sea rival any beaches I have been to in Europe, Florida, or California. And they are completely empty at this time of the year, in spite of the temperate climate. The desert in southern Israel is simply breathtaking. And the northern parts, like the Golan Heights and the Sea of Galilee, are beautiful as well with their lush rolling hills, crystal lakes and waterfalls, vineyards, and a ton of historical sites as well.
- And Jerusalem! My God, I could spend 3 months there and not get bored! In fact, I want to be back there already! There are ruins literally every where, some labelled, some not so well-labelled. Boyfriend and I walked down the path where Christ carried his cross to his site of crucification, the famed "Via Dolorosa". We visited his tomb. We visited the Western Wall. We walked by 2000-year-old walls and 1,700-year-old churches and Roman columns and tombs and ruins of temples built by David and churches with every kind of significance to Christians. In the Old City there was literally a ruin at every step. It must be an archaologist's dream come true.
- Jerusalem really does shut down on Shabbat. Not even gas stations are open! I was impressed.
- Tel Aviv, on the other hand, has an insane nightlife. The part of town Boyfriend and I went to on Saturday was so crowded that it was almost unpleasant to walk in the shopping centers and the stores.
- Israelis are insane drivers! This is one thing that I didn't like so much about them, because since we rented a car and had to drive, it put some unnecessary stress on our trip. They speed; they tailgate; they go through dangerous mountain curves at 70 miles per hour and attemtp to pass you; they honk their horns as soon as the light turns to sound their impatience. Added to all this is the narrowness of many streets and even highway lanes, and I was left to wonder why my parents are worried about terrorist attacks when they should be worried about crazy Israeli drivers.
- Artificial palm tree forests in the desert! Every single one of those trees are neatly lined up, like soldiers! I have always associated palm trees with the leisurely, lazy beach culture of Florida or California. Who knew that palm trees could look so... disciplined?
Those are all the thoughts I have time to write down for now. This has been a perfect trip in every way, and one thing is clear: Boyfriend and I are definitely going back to Israel before long.
1/22/2006
Some Photos from Israel
Negev desert, inside the world's largest crater. This one was taken from atop a mountain
The bibilical mountain of Sodom, which was destroyed by God, and where Lot's wife turned to salt. (Sodom apparently means "salt" in Hebrew, though in English it sadly has other connotations).
The Red Sea at Eilat, the city at the southernmost tip of Israel in between Egypt and Jordan. The distant lights belong to Egypt.
The white and salty beaches of the Dead Sea, where the salt content in the water is 40 times that of normal sea water. It was the low season so Boyfriend and I were the only people on the beach.
The Dead Sea. The mountains in the distance belong to Jordan and mark the Israeli-Jordanian border.
Israeli flags flying in the Old City in Jerusalem.
Arab women buying and selling vegetables at the Arab Market at the Damascus Gate in the Old City.
Arab children posing for the camera in the Muslim Quarter in the Old City.
Beautiful streets inside the Old City.
The bibilical mountain of Sodom, which was destroyed by God, and where Lot's wife turned to salt. (Sodom apparently means "salt" in Hebrew, though in English it sadly has other connotations).
The Red Sea at Eilat, the city at the southernmost tip of Israel in between Egypt and Jordan. The distant lights belong to Egypt.
The white and salty beaches of the Dead Sea, where the salt content in the water is 40 times that of normal sea water. It was the low season so Boyfriend and I were the only people on the beach.
The Dead Sea. The mountains in the distance belong to Jordan and mark the Israeli-Jordanian border.
Israeli flags flying in the Old City in Jerusalem.
Arab women buying and selling vegetables at the Arab Market at the Damascus Gate in the Old City.
Arab children posing for the camera in the Muslim Quarter in the Old City.
Beautiful streets inside the Old City.
Last Day in Israel
Today is my last day in Israel. I'm flying out of the country at 7 PM.
I had an amazingly meaningful time here. Out of our 9-day vacation, Boyfriend and I spent 1 day in the mountainous Negev Desert, two days in Eilat (the southern touristy city by the Red Sea, neighboring Egypt's Sinai Peninsula and Jordan), one day by the Dead Sea, one day visiting his various relatives in the vincinity of Tel Aviv, and then remaining time in Jerusalem.
And today, we hope to spend the afternoon in Caesaria, an ancient Roman town on the Mediterranean Sea.
So far, my favorite has been Jerusalem. Boyfriend and I spent nearly every day wandering around in the beautiful Old City, with all its houses built in the yellow-white stones . I'm not exxaggerating when I say that every inch of the Old City is covered in history. There are ruins everywhere, some labeled (like the Roman Columns in the Jewish Quarter), some unlabeled (like the over 20 different layers of the city wall that was built and rebuilt over the past 2,000 years.
The Arab markets were particularly fun, and lined all the major and many minor streets and alleys in the Old City. Boyfriend and I spent considerable time walking through them, not because we particularly wanted to buy anything (I for one was terrified of haggling with these aggressive and sophisticated sellers) but because to get anywhere we seemed to have to go through their streets).
We also went to the Western Wall (of course), and the Via Dolorosa (re-traced Jesus's steps) and the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. We wanted and tried several times to go to the Temple Mount, but it was open only at very limited times during the year, and we were never able to make it.
We also spent considerable amount of time in the German Colony, wtih nice cafes and restaurants. Locals told us that nearly all of the cafes on the streets were subject to either deadly bombings in the past few years or unsuccessful bombing attempts. It's amazing that the street was as lively as it was.
On Shabbat, everything really did shut down in Jerusalem. Not even gas stations were open. However, in the considerably more liberal Tel Aviv, we were able to find coffee shops and stores that were open even on Saturday morning. And then, after Shabbatt on Saturday evening, all the stores were open once again and the streets were filled with cars and shoppers.
Our flight is going to reach London this evening and we are spending 12 hours there, then flying tomorrow morning. I'm missing my first day of classes at school, but I don't feel to bad about it since I sourly needed this vacation after the hellish Christmas break I spent studying for torts, crim, and civ pro.
And this has been such a meaningful experience. I really hope to come back someday, and soon.
I had an amazingly meaningful time here. Out of our 9-day vacation, Boyfriend and I spent 1 day in the mountainous Negev Desert, two days in Eilat (the southern touristy city by the Red Sea, neighboring Egypt's Sinai Peninsula and Jordan), one day by the Dead Sea, one day visiting his various relatives in the vincinity of Tel Aviv, and then remaining time in Jerusalem.
And today, we hope to spend the afternoon in Caesaria, an ancient Roman town on the Mediterranean Sea.
So far, my favorite has been Jerusalem. Boyfriend and I spent nearly every day wandering around in the beautiful Old City, with all its houses built in the yellow-white stones . I'm not exxaggerating when I say that every inch of the Old City is covered in history. There are ruins everywhere, some labeled (like the Roman Columns in the Jewish Quarter), some unlabeled (like the over 20 different layers of the city wall that was built and rebuilt over the past 2,000 years.
The Arab markets were particularly fun, and lined all the major and many minor streets and alleys in the Old City. Boyfriend and I spent considerable time walking through them, not because we particularly wanted to buy anything (I for one was terrified of haggling with these aggressive and sophisticated sellers) but because to get anywhere we seemed to have to go through their streets).
We also went to the Western Wall (of course), and the Via Dolorosa (re-traced Jesus's steps) and the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. We wanted and tried several times to go to the Temple Mount, but it was open only at very limited times during the year, and we were never able to make it.
We also spent considerable amount of time in the German Colony, wtih nice cafes and restaurants. Locals told us that nearly all of the cafes on the streets were subject to either deadly bombings in the past few years or unsuccessful bombing attempts. It's amazing that the street was as lively as it was.
On Shabbat, everything really did shut down in Jerusalem. Not even gas stations were open. However, in the considerably more liberal Tel Aviv, we were able to find coffee shops and stores that were open even on Saturday morning. And then, after Shabbatt on Saturday evening, all the stores were open once again and the streets were filled with cars and shoppers.
Our flight is going to reach London this evening and we are spending 12 hours there, then flying tomorrow morning. I'm missing my first day of classes at school, but I don't feel to bad about it since I sourly needed this vacation after the hellish Christmas break I spent studying for torts, crim, and civ pro.
And this has been such a meaningful experience. I really hope to come back someday, and soon.
1/13/2006
Done with Finals, and in the Promise Land
60 hours ago, I was typing furiously into my laptop as everyone around me finished up their torts exam. The proctor called time. We saved the file into our flash memory drive and handed it in. And then I was the first one who jumped up and hugged C, who sat in front of me.
"It's over! It's over! It's over!!!"
Now, I am in Israel, in a Kibbutz hotel in the middle of the desert, watching the sunrise over the enormous crater
We flew into Tel Aviv via London, and with the help of 2 exedrin PMs I was able to sleep for both legs of my trip. The first leg of the trip to London was the most pleasant flight I had ever taken. There were so few people on the plane that each of us had the entire row of seats -- 5 of them -- to ourselves, and I was able to lie down and even stretch out.
London-Heathrow was deserted as well. The second flight was delayed for a bit, so I used that time to call my parents with Skype (Boyfriend recently got this service and loves it. The quality of sound is amazing and it is so cheap). My dad sounded very worried about me and kept on telling me to not get kidnapped. He also read somewhere in the newspaper the previous day that 300 pilgrims in Mecca was trampled to death, and since in his mind (and really, in mine, as well), the entire Middle East was this vague glob of land, he was worried that it might affect me.
I promised that I would call him as soon as I got into Israel.
The Ben Gurion Airport at Tel Aviv is beautiful. Gorgeous. I think it's new, since not even Boyfriend's father who's here like 3 times a year has seen it yet. The entire building is paved in golden and tan marble slabs, with enormously high ceilings and water fountains in the middle of the hall. All steel and marble and glass.
We got our rental car and started driving south. Soon we were in the middle of the desert. I had never really been in a desert before. There was an endless stretch of yellow and gold and white. In the distance there are rolling golden hills of sand, and still further you can see the green shadow of the mountain. At first, we could still see factories and scattered farmland from the road, but soon there was nothing but sand and the occasional gas station.
Soon we were driving inside the sandstone mountains, up and down, up and down. When we were at the top, the view down across the sandy plans was breathtaking. There were very few cars on the road, and the highway stretched endlessly before us into the next curve. Our car was so small and the sandstone mountains were so enormous. The clouds had interesting shapes and curled above the mountains and the plain.
I took over 100 photos, and will post some here as soon as I download them into my laptop.
The only scary parts: Israelis are CRAZY drivers. They tailgate and go 10-20 km above the speed limit. While I was driving, it occurred to me that the chance of some crazy Israeli driver driving me off the road is much higher than perishing in any terrorist attack. I told my dad this and he did not seem relieved.
We got to Mitzpeh Ramon, a small town in the middle of the desert, 4 hours later. I immediately collapsed upon getting into the hotel, around 4 in the afternoon, and slept for the next 10 hours. Today, we are going to drive south some more until we reach the beaches of Eliat.
I am reading Amos Oz's book "A Tale of Love and Darkness". It's about growing up in Jerusalem in the 40s and 50s. It's the perfect travel companion to a trip to Israel, and I am very much looking forward to visiting Jesusalem.
"It's over! It's over! It's over!!!"
Now, I am in Israel, in a Kibbutz hotel in the middle of the desert, watching the sunrise over the enormous crater
We flew into Tel Aviv via London, and with the help of 2 exedrin PMs I was able to sleep for both legs of my trip. The first leg of the trip to London was the most pleasant flight I had ever taken. There were so few people on the plane that each of us had the entire row of seats -- 5 of them -- to ourselves, and I was able to lie down and even stretch out.
London-Heathrow was deserted as well. The second flight was delayed for a bit, so I used that time to call my parents with Skype (Boyfriend recently got this service and loves it. The quality of sound is amazing and it is so cheap). My dad sounded very worried about me and kept on telling me to not get kidnapped. He also read somewhere in the newspaper the previous day that 300 pilgrims in Mecca was trampled to death, and since in his mind (and really, in mine, as well), the entire Middle East was this vague glob of land, he was worried that it might affect me.
I promised that I would call him as soon as I got into Israel.
The Ben Gurion Airport at Tel Aviv is beautiful. Gorgeous. I think it's new, since not even Boyfriend's father who's here like 3 times a year has seen it yet. The entire building is paved in golden and tan marble slabs, with enormously high ceilings and water fountains in the middle of the hall. All steel and marble and glass.
We got our rental car and started driving south. Soon we were in the middle of the desert. I had never really been in a desert before. There was an endless stretch of yellow and gold and white. In the distance there are rolling golden hills of sand, and still further you can see the green shadow of the mountain. At first, we could still see factories and scattered farmland from the road, but soon there was nothing but sand and the occasional gas station.
Soon we were driving inside the sandstone mountains, up and down, up and down. When we were at the top, the view down across the sandy plans was breathtaking. There were very few cars on the road, and the highway stretched endlessly before us into the next curve. Our car was so small and the sandstone mountains were so enormous. The clouds had interesting shapes and curled above the mountains and the plain.
I took over 100 photos, and will post some here as soon as I download them into my laptop.
The only scary parts: Israelis are CRAZY drivers. They tailgate and go 10-20 km above the speed limit. While I was driving, it occurred to me that the chance of some crazy Israeli driver driving me off the road is much higher than perishing in any terrorist attack. I told my dad this and he did not seem relieved.
We got to Mitzpeh Ramon, a small town in the middle of the desert, 4 hours later. I immediately collapsed upon getting into the hotel, around 4 in the afternoon, and slept for the next 10 hours. Today, we are going to drive south some more until we reach the beaches of Eliat.
I am reading Amos Oz's book "A Tale of Love and Darkness". It's about growing up in Jerusalem in the 40s and 50s. It's the perfect travel companion to a trip to Israel, and I am very much looking forward to visiting Jesusalem.
1/06/2006
One Down, Two to Go
Today I took my first law school exam, in criminal law. It was an eight-hour take home exam done on my laptop. All of the eight hours were spent furiously typing into my computer, with no lunch and no breaks. And I still ran out of time in the end.
The exam was very much like all the other practice exams I took in the past. Perhaps too much so, which made me wish I studied harder, took more pracrice exams, and read the professor's analysis more carefully. Still, I am relieved that it's done.
And I feel just fine about how I did. Of course, that doesn't mean anything with a forced curve. I carefully avoided looking at all at either my answers, the crim law books, hornbooks, or outlines after the exam. Put them all away immediately upon coming back home.
After turning in the exam, went for a few hours around the Square, getting a haircut, and just puttering around. Had dinner with J and her husband. J apparently did not heed my advice, went back and read her exam, realized some stuff she's missed, and freaked out.
I was taught the hard way about how nothing good could come out of obsessing over exams after the fact. Better to put everything out of my mind and just let go. Let... go...
In other news, I am going to Israel for a 10-day vacation with Boyfriend right after exams! I'm soooooo looking forward to it. We are flying the day after my torts exam, next Thursday. I purchased a travel book to Israel today while I puttered around at the Square.
Came home and tried to finish my outline for torts, which wasn't very successful. Did one little page on Intentional Infliction of Emotional Distress before I got totally bored. I think I'm going to go to sleep now and NOT dream about my first ever law school exam!
The exam was very much like all the other practice exams I took in the past. Perhaps too much so, which made me wish I studied harder, took more pracrice exams, and read the professor's analysis more carefully. Still, I am relieved that it's done.
And I feel just fine about how I did. Of course, that doesn't mean anything with a forced curve. I carefully avoided looking at all at either my answers, the crim law books, hornbooks, or outlines after the exam. Put them all away immediately upon coming back home.
After turning in the exam, went for a few hours around the Square, getting a haircut, and just puttering around. Had dinner with J and her husband. J apparently did not heed my advice, went back and read her exam, realized some stuff she's missed, and freaked out.
I was taught the hard way about how nothing good could come out of obsessing over exams after the fact. Better to put everything out of my mind and just let go. Let... go...
In other news, I am going to Israel for a 10-day vacation with Boyfriend right after exams! I'm soooooo looking forward to it. We are flying the day after my torts exam, next Thursday. I purchased a travel book to Israel today while I puttered around at the Square.
Came home and tried to finish my outline for torts, which wasn't very successful. Did one little page on Intentional Infliction of Emotional Distress before I got totally bored. I think I'm going to go to sleep now and NOT dream about my first ever law school exam!
1/01/2006
HAPPY NEW YEAR!!
A prosperous and happy 2006 to all my readers and friends. Wherever you are, I hope you are having a great time and an even better time in the coming 12 months!
And my 1,000th reader on New Year's Day! How special!
And my 1,000th reader on New Year's Day! How special!
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