Banquets and Breakfasts!

This past weekend my law school celebrated its 25 Anniversary, so to celebrate there were a lot of events over the past weekend. I personally went to a BBQ on Friday night which was fun and I got to meet some alumni and other professors. Saturday night was the big night where the school was throwing a banquet with Justice Alito as the main speaker. Chase and I went and since it was business attire we both wore our suits which was fun to be dressed up. Justice Alito was a great speaker and had some funny stories about his time in law school. Apparently his 1L year his con-law professor spent the whole time trying to get them to quit law school. This morning former Attorney General John Ashcroft had breakfast with my honors 1L class and that was also fun. He had a lot of good insights into political life and life in general. School is going well, pretty boring and also stress inducing because I have midterms coming up on the 7th and 13th of October and a big paper due on the 3rd of October. It also has been raining a lot here which is kind of a downer, but I took this picture last week of the golf course after I woke up. It's cool in the mornings here the lake is all steamy.

(John Ashcroft)

One Month Down!!!

I made it through one month of law school!! YAY!!! It's getting a little harder to make myself sit down and do all the work, but I'm still going, with the help of lots of coffee :) It was a pretty calm week this week, no earthquakes or hurricanes or my car breaking down, so that was nice. Next weekend is the law school's 25th Anniversary celebration so I'm getting excited about that. They have a lot of events going on, but I'm attending a BBQ on Friday night and then a banquet on Saturday where Supreme Court Justice Alito will be speaking. I'm excited for both of those and I get to wear my suit to the banquet, so I get to feel all lawyerly again which is fun. I always feel like I'm playing dress up or something when I'm in my suit. I feel like I'm a lawyer imposter lol. I'm adding a picture of the swamp road that I took really quick while driving the other day. Also, I've decided that it has rained more in the past month here than it does in a whole year in Phoenix. Well... sorry this is so quick and random! I kind of feel like my brain is jello right now. Oh! I forgot to add that we're dog sitting two dogs... so there are 4 dogs in the house plus roughly 9 wiener dogs next door.... This is the best preventative measure to my wanting a puppy ever.  So. Much. Barking...

Just Keep Swimming

My friend Nick had, Just keep swimming, as his facebook status and that's pretty much how I'm feeling about law school. I'm settling into my daily routine of: wake up, make lunch/ eat cereal/ make coffee, get ready, go to school, go home, do hw, eat dinner, maybe work out, shower, do hw, basically everyday.  We joke around some in class and during our breaks to help relieve the stress, but basically I think every one is getting a little stressed/ burnt out. Also, I'm getting worried because I have no clue how to tie together some of the things I've been learning for finals at the end of the semester, but I'm probably just being a little too forward thinking right now.  

I did have a great weekend this past weekend though, I try to spend friday getting some hw done, and then just relaxing till Sunday afternoon. Since I had Monday off, I got two full days of relaxing which was really great! I got to get out and have some fun. I went to a night club with Chase and some of my friends on Saturday which was a really cool place in Norfolk (Granby Station if you want to google it). The next day Chase and I went to the zoo and were supposed to watch fireworks at the beach, but they never came. Instead we got to hang out with some of my other friends on the beach so that was fun too.

Also I wanted to include a little description about what VA Beach has been like. It's a lot noisier than PHX... there are Navy Jets flying around in the sky all the time because OCEANA base is here. They're cool to look at, but they fly ALL the time, not just in the hours when you're awake. Also the next door neighbors foster wiener dogs, and they really really really enjoy barking, so that's special...lol.  Also, the roads make absolutely no sense, so even though I've been driving to school the same way everyday for the past 4 weeks (incl'ding orientation), I still have random moments when I have no clue where I am. Everything here is soo green though, so it's quite the scenic view on my way too school, there are actually like trees and naturally occurring bodies of water, so I still haven't gotten used to that and enjoy looking around. Although, I've been trying a new route home to avoid traffic and the road is next to what to me appears to be a giant swamp. The water was like 3 inches deep the other day in the middle of the road, so that was bizarre, and I feel like I'm any second going to accidentally move my car slightly off the road and be in the swamp. The water comes up to the edge of the road. I'm not really sure who constructed the road nor why they would build it directly in the middle of a swamp... but it seriously needs a swamp water blocker of some kind. You must be thinking after reading this far into my ramblings... why do you choose to drive on this swampy road? Well.... It saves me like 20 min at least of sitting in traffic, so I've chosen swamp over traffic, I do not like either of the options. Also, I am greatly enjoying living here, aside from how it may seem with the swamps, jets, and wiener dogs. It's awesome being so close to the ocean and having actual nature, even more so I'm pumped that there will actually be seasons changing soon!  Soo that's about all the babbling I have time for today, gotta get back to the books! 

Update! 9/16/2011
I decided to throw caution to the wind and take a picture of the swamp while driving... It's not great but at least you can picture it a little better now!

Two weeks down!

Made it through my second week of law school! Yay! I'm starting to get more into the rhythm of things, especially having Mondays off... we had this past Monday off because of the hurricane and this upcoming one off for labor day... I'm getting better at taking my notes based off what the teacher is looking for, so that's a good improvement for when I get socratically called on! I'm enjoying the weekend off and luckily don't have too much homework. Starting to really miss everyone back home, it's weird not hanging out with everyone over the weekends or being able to make plans to meet up. I've made some good friends out here though, and we're having a much deserved night out tonight.