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Thursday, August 30, 2007

My First Week of Law School


Monday - It's the first day! Having come to school last last night to drop off books, I feel good about my locker situation...until I realize that not all of my binders will fit in my locker. Hmm. My first class is Property, and the professor lets us go early, so the stuff I read for today isn't necessary to know until Thursday. Sweet! Already, I identify the "chatch" in my class who insists on asking lots of drawn out questions that have little to do with anything. Hmmm....I'll be keeping and eye on that guy. Next is Torts which is exciting merely because it's in a different room than all my other classes...except this room is identical to the other.

Tuesday - Today I go insane sitting in the tomb that is the library. Seriously, does it have to be THAT quiet? I try to study, but the quiet makes me nuts, so I go across the street to the food court to grab some coffee. What do I discover? Free wirelss at the food court, and just enough noise to not make me go insane. I think I'll be here a lot this year. I go to Contracts, which seems to be taught by a good professor, and "chatch" again attempts to make himself look smart. Later, I have a later afternoon Legal Research and Writing course where I learn that I really suck at citations. Visions of plagiarism and honor-code violations dance through my head. I finally make it home to realize that my computer power cord isn't in my bag. Hmm...it must be in my locker. I also realize that the binders aren't working and decide to switch to folders.

Wednesday - Hit the bookstore first thing to get some colorful folders and then to school. Guess what? The power cord isn't in my locker...and my computer literally dies on me. I take notes on paper, so it's not a HUGE deal, but a new power cord is $50 and will take a few days to get to my house. I ask security if they've seen it, and I ask the library. No luck. I go to Torts again and then to Civ Pro where I learn to start thinking on my feet but take few notes. Frustrated about my computer, I try to study at the library, but can't, and as I'm getting ready to leave, I look at the place I was sitting yesterday, and there is my computer power cord! Right there in the middle of a well-populated table. After assuring the girl sitting there I wasn't stealing it, I took it and bolted. Hooray!

Thursday - Only having two classes today, I feel pretty ready. I'd already read the Property assignment, thinking it was due on Monday, so I was good there. I'd read Contracts the night before, so I'm good...so I thought. I get to school at 9 for my 11am class with the plan to do a little studying. I look in my bag and realize that when I changed from binders to folders, I hadn't moved the syllabi and notes, so my Property notes were still at home in a binder. Sigh. With two hours to spare I opted to head home and get them. Once I make the 25 minute trip home, I grab the syllabus and take a peek as I go back out the door, only to realize an additional 15 pages is to be discussed today. Shit. I left my book in my locker, and I'm 25 minutes away. I speedwalk back to the train, take it to the city, speedwalk to school and get to class with 20 minutes to spare. My seat neighbor blessedly gives me the rundown of the case and I rely on Wikipedia (for shame!) to give me the rest. I'm sweating bullets until the teacher announces that we'll go over that next week. WHEW! In my 2nd class, I immediately get tagged by the teacher to brief a case - my first time being called out. I stammered through a little of it, didn't know the answer to a couple of questions, but for the most part got my point across. He even said "Ms. Beach is onto something here" or something like that. Woohoo! "Chatch" tries to ask his questions again and is kinda rude to the professor. I can't stand people that don't respect authority...

Friday - Resting slightly on my laurels, I deflate when I realize that none of the professors I have today know I got called on yesterday, so I'm fair game. "Chatch" manages to make me laugh once again by being rude to the Torts professor today. He provides my seat neighbor and I endless amounts of entertainment. My last class of the week is Civ Pro, and I manage to understand a rather complicated case about jurisdiction and the state of Oregon, which, let's face it is weird anyway, cause you can't even pump your own gas there! Happy that it's a three day weekend, I head out to lunch with a friend, come home and take a nap, and..what else? Study for next week!

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