Sweet Relief

I turned in a paper yesterday - 30% of my grade in my writing class. With that monkey off my back, the reading load doesn't seem so bad. I should be able to get back on top of things by the time the next paper comes due at the end of November. We're starting to hear rumblings about the end-of-semester tests. There are test-taking seminars on offer and professors are starting to hand out sample questions.

Pet Peeve

At the end of nearly every class, as soon as the professor intimates that he or she is wrapping things up there's a cacophony of slamming books and shuffling papers. That sort of rush for the door was standard operating procedure in high school. It was kind of annoying in undergraduate school. In law school it seems completely out of place. Where are these people in such a hurry to go? Everyone in the class has the same schedule. The worst of it is, the professors usually finish the class with a word about our reading assignment for the next class. That is often completely swallowed up by the din.

The Honeymoon is Over

At some point in the last couple of weeks, all this reading stopped being a pleasure and started being a chore. There's always at least one class in which I'm right on the edge of falling behind. The information is still interesting, but sometimes a body wants to stop and reflect. I can't just sit still and read for three hours at a stretch the way I could in September. I'm afraid the four weeks leading up to Thanksgiving break are going to be a death march.

Free Food

I thought for sure that the free food would dry up after the first couple of weeks, but the gravy train just won't end. Some form of free lunch is on offer about once a week. At least half the time it's pizza, but today it was mexican food from the Hispanic Law Students Association. The HLSA lunch didn't even require sitting through a seminar. Fantastic!

Missing class

I had car trouble and didn't go to class yesterday. These are the times when being a friendless misanthrope has its disadvantages. There are ninety people in my class, and not a soul whom I'd feel comfortable asking for notes.

I didn't really notice until now how much school plays to my introversion. That must be why I like it so much. If you go to class and keep up with the reading, you can do just fine without ever saying three words to anyone. I talk more to this blog than I do to the people I spend all day with. Dear Diary, How embarrassing.

Civil Procedure

Civil procedure meets for two hours on Friday mornings. You would think that issues like jurisdiction and the appeals process would make for pretty dry reading, but procedural issues like that tend to wind up in the Supreme Court, so the opinions have a better than average literary quality. Civil Procedure is probably my most readable textbook.

The professor is very likeable, too. I'd guess he's my oldest professor, and he has an ease with the material that makes for entertaining listening. His classroom talk is full of jokes, asides, and anecdotes.

And that's the last of my classes. There are six in all, for a total of fifteen classroom hours per week. It feels like more.

Legal Research

Legal research is the other practical course. It meets just once a week, for one hour every Wednesday afternoon. Most of the work for legal research happens outside of class. We're assigned a research project every couple of weeks. Basically, we're given some question about the law and a list of library resources to use to get an answer. I've enjoyed learning how to find stuff in the shelves and shelves of highly stereotypical law books in the library, but it's a real nuisance having to write up my research. I suppose the professor has to have something to grade, but I already have my hands full with my RWA writing assignments.