10 Observations of Law School after the first week

1. Being a 1L isn't like having a full-time job. It's like 1 and a half full-time jobs (this goes up to 2 in November). 

2. There are classes where I'll sound really smart, and others where I'll sound really stupid. As long as that doesn't influence my final grade, I'm okay with that. 

3. They purposely designed the building with the lockers in the basement and the library on the second floor so that we would get at least some exercise in your 1L year (even if you'll never see the sun). Seriously, you have to be in shape to carry that 15-20lb backpack all day. 

4. Speaking of the sun...I will need to take a vitamin E supplement this year because I will not see the sun much until Christmas, and then again until the wedding (I might have to tan so my dress doesn't wash me out). 

5. Being poor is probably going to be good for my waistline. Between the walking, the overall lack of free time, and the extreme lack of discretionary funds, I probably won't eat much. 

6. I'm grateful for my Orrick job - yes for the obvious reasons, but also because I had something to say when we had to introduce ourselves in every class. 

7. The attitude of USC law students is not unlike the attitude of Stanford undergrads. Everyone is trying to be nice and easygoing, but my feeling is they're secretly fretting over the amount of work we already have. 

8. It's probably a wise idea to dress up a little every day, or at least keep something in the car that dresses up your outfit. You never know when you'll be going to a formal event straight from class. This already happened yesterday when I went to an Obama speech viewing party in the Baldwin Hills at a prof.'s house. I was happy that I left my patent leather Franco Sarto flats in my car to wear instead of my Rainbows. 

9. You have to pray that the people in your section don't get on your nerves, because they are the people that you spend ALL of your time with. It's like the closeness you have with people from camp, except that this is 10 months long. 

10. Lastly -- law school isn't something you should do if you have "nothing else to do" after undergrad. This is a ton of work and any previous commitments really have to be set aside for at least the first year. I'm so grateful for the fact that I truly want to be a lawyer, because if I wasn't sure, I think I'd look into getting a refund ;-). But seriously, motivation is what's going to get my through the year.  

I'm sure I'll have more thoughts - maybe when I get through 4 weeks I'll add to this list, but to sum up, I've really enjoyed the first week and I'm looking forward to getting to know my professors and fellow 1Ls. 

Have a good weekend! 

The long awaited pictures

I finally walked around the apartment and took some pictures. It's very messy still and I'm not completely unpacked, but you'll have a good idea what it looks like. Enjoy! 

Tuesday Updates - 8/26/08

Ok, ok, I realize that I failed horribly in my attempt to put out a Monday update. In my defense, I was at school until 7:15, and then I wanted to unpack and hang out with Curtis while he was visiting. So, you get Monday updates on Tuesday :-). 

My last week of freedom:

Well...it wasn't completely free. I was running around last Monday like a chicken with my head cut off trying to get all of the admin stuff done so I wouldn't have to make the drive another day. On Wednesday night my mom and I m

et with the florist for the wedding! We had such a fun time thinking about all of the decorations and bouquets! I was glad we got that done before we started school. My mom and I went to dinner together afterward and that was really fun. 

On Thursday I did a lot of organizing, trying to get ready for the move. On Friday I had my other day of orientation. It was actually really fun because we got to go around with our section so I got to meet the people that I'd be spending a ton of time with. Saturday was moving day - which went quite smoothly actually. We had a pretty large group - my family plus Grandpa, Curtis and his parents, and Louis for a little while. Everything fit in elevator (yay!) and it looks really nice in here. I haven't completely unpacked yet (see the section on law school), but it feels like home :-)

Sunday was a really fun last day - we celebrated my mom's birthday with a yummy breakfast and dinner and cake! I got a little creative with the cake decor, here's the final product pre-candles: 

Then Curtis and I said goodbye and drove to LA. 

Wedding: 

So I mentioned the florist earlier...I also have made a tentative decision on the Save-the-Dates: I think I'm going to try and send them via email - to save paper and postage, and time really addressing them. I hope to get that going over the long weekend. I'm giving myself a deadline of Nov. 1 for deciding on Bridesmaid Dresses, so I'll keep you posted on that. I also need to find a way to get the music component of the day going - if any of you readers are O.C. brides and have a recommendation, please let me know (for live music for cocktail hour and a DJ for the reception). I also have to officially let the church know that I want to have the wedding there - so I hope to do that this weekend. The sanctuary is actually being remodeled right now and won't be done for at least 6 weeks, so we really can't plan a whole lot until we know what the end result looks like! It's ironic that I've been going to this church since I was 6 and they're remodeling it 9 months before my wedding. 

Law School: 

So I started law school yesterday! It's very exciting, and a bit surreal just because it's been a lifelong dream to go to law school. I'll give a brief summary of all the classes I've attended so far (Procedure doesn't start until Thursday)

- Contracts: this was my first class, and so far it's been an overview of the course. My prof. made a really good first impression so I'm hopeful that I'll enjoy the class and be able to understand the material

- Law, Language & Ethics: From what I've read so far, I think we'll get to read a lot of interesting cases. Like for tomorrow we have to read the first half of the D.C. Handgun law decision (where the Supreme Court ruled that the 2nd amendment does not allow for a city/state to impose laws that restrict the possession of weapons), and I'm pretty sure we go over big cases like Dred Scott & Brown v. Board of Education. So, again, I'm optimistic that I will enjoy the class. The concepts seem more challenging than torts or contracts, so we'll see. 

- Legal Research and Writing: Not too much to say, except that this is a really important class in terms of what I'll be doing next summer, the summer after, and as a lawyer. I'm glad USC has such a class :-).  

- Torts: I think I'm going to love this class. We spent almost the entire time discussing 2 hypotheticals, and I even answered one of his questions correctly! 

Overall, I think my impressions of my classes will change in the next couple weeks as we get into more substantive topics, but so far so good!

Studying wise, it looks like I'll be putting in 9-11 hour days at the law school, partly because those books are too heavy to bring home :-) The good thing is it gets better as the week progresses.  

That's all for now! I'll *try* to keep the blog posted! 

Updates coming - I promise!!

I moved into my new apartment yesterday and I officially start law school classes tomorrow, so obviously things have been crazy. I'll try and put some pictures up this week - of my apartment, of the cake I decorated for my mom, and of USC :-). 

Tonight Curtis and I are going to do a little unpacking and celebrating that we're in our new place (well, we're not both living here yet, but we both have keys and we're staying here after we get married). I'll try to keep the blog posted this week! 

Monday Updates - 8/18/08

Ok - so today has been a really big day. So I'll get through the other stuff and then get to the USC orientation stuff. 

Wedding - Hoping to meet with a probably florist this week, I'll keep you posted. 

The past week - as you probably gathered, I got a little bored this week - which was perfect since I'm about to not be so bored. I've been working on this Paint By Numbers project, which is actually almost done, I think I'll try to finish tomorrow. I'd also like to try and do some running before the crazy weekend. 

Last Weekend - Had a good (and very busy) weekend. Curtis and I went to the Spectrum again on Friday night and ate at Javier's which is a relatively new Mexican restaurant there. The food was pretty good but the service was very slow and the drinks were only okay. On Saturday Curtis and I took a load of stuff up to the new apartment and put the table and chairs together. We then got back to Mission Viejo just in time for our families to have dinner together at Curtis', which was very nice and we had a great time. Then on Sunday my family and Curtis went to my Grandparents' for dinner to celebrate my mom's birthday. I had fun spending time with my little cousins and I think they had fun too :-). 

We actually didn't get home until 9:30 because the traffic on the 5 was so bad that we turned around and spent another hour at my grandparents - and the traffic was still bad. So I immediately went home and went to sleep since I had to get up at 6 the following morning for...

Orientation (or, "Pre - " Orientation) - Monday was very long. But I'll be honest, it got me fired up to start school. I had quite the reality check when I bought my books - $890 for 12 books. I'm still sore from transporting them to my car. And yes, that's just for 1 semester. I already have some assignments and some confusion, but overall it was a really good experience and I met a handful of my classmates. 

I have a few funny stories. I asked one of the current students where the cashier's office is, and she looks at the map and goes "oh...it's on the complete other side of campus", as if that was like going to be bad. So i was like, "should I drive" and she said "oh no, it's easier to walk, not sure about parking". And so I head out, and it turns out that it's like, a 10 minute walk to the other side of campus. That is nothing compared to most campuses I've been on. It takes at least 30 minutes to cross the main Stanford campus, and UCLA isn't exactly small either. So, I'm not as concerned about making the walk to the gym after class anymore, since the entire campus is about 3 standard street blocks wide. 

We also had a funny moment with a couple of current students. They asked us who our profs were and I responded. They had really good things to say about 2 of my professors (they didn't know the others), so I was happy. Then someone else provided their professors and she was like "oh..." in that negative way. We all laughed, and were like, "quit now while you still can!". 

I'm sure I'll have more later, right now I'm pretty fried :-). 

My new project!

I started this today. Yes, it is a Paint by Numbers (and a cheap one at that). This is the second one I've attempted, I like doing it because it's a nice distraction without requiring much brain power. I'll post a picture when I'm done, but so far I think it has potential! 

New Poll - Just for fun

With Fall TV approaching, I thought I'd add a poll - please take a moment to answer it :-). If there is another show that you are more excited about - add it in the comments to this post. However please note that I excluded non-fiction shows on purpose.