4 weeks down...what a fun week!

Week 4 is complete and class is starting to get a little more complicated. However, last week was one of the best weeks so far in law school. I found out that I was elected by my peers to serve as one of the 1L representatives for LSA (Law Students Association--it's the organization that plans activities throughout the year for the students and keeps track of all the student organizations). In addition, I get to serve as one of the 1L representatives for our BLSA chapter (Black Law Students' Association) in the winter quarter. So, I've gained a couple new responsibilities and I'm very excited about that. In addition, we had our first big all-students party this week, called Party of the First Part. LSA hosts this party every year after the 1L's turn in their memo assignment. Basically, they rent out a bar/club and we all just get to go hang out. I have lots of fun pictures, which can be found at the following site...

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2257109&l=f6e91&id=9606378

Also in that photo album are pictures from our BLSA Mentor/Mentee outing to Dave & Busters. Dave & Busters is a super fun arcade-style place for both kids and grown-ups. Of course, Adrian absolutely loved it and we had to add extra money to his card because he didn't want to leave.

On the more serious side of last week, classes are getting a little tougher. Reading assignments are getting longer and professors are expecting more out of us. In fact, one of our professors got pretty upset in class and gave us a lecture on Friday about how we need to step it up. (that was no fun) In addition, I am continually trying to keep my outlines (very very important tools that law students make to help us when we get to exams) up to date, which is very taxing because the material is so intertwined that it's sometimes difficult to figure out the best way to organize it so that it will be easy to use during exams. In addition, we get a lot of notes in class that aren't easily outline-able, so it is a challenge to figure out how to fit those in as well. Fortunately, there have been a lot of books published (generically called "Hornbooks" but they're published by lots of different companies) that have outlines of the basic concepts covered in law classes. They have different ones for each type of class and are super useful for getting the "big picture" view of it all. I'm really fortunate that Adrian has already been through it all and has been able to recommend the best Hornbooks to me so I don't have to fight through trying to figure out what's best.

I am getting to the point where I'm pretty much always tired, but my daily dose of black tea seems to be helping a ton for waking me up in the mornings (anyone wanting to send a care package can feel free to stock me up on black tea, sweet 'n' low, apples and South Beach cinnamon raisin cereal bars.) :) I have also found that if I stay at school to finish my reading assignments, I get a lot more done in a shorter amount of time than if I try to do it at home. I think my new strategy will be to just stay at school and knock out as much as I can.

So, things are definitely settling in. I hope you all have a chance to look at the new pictures and send me a reply!