Only 3 weeks left!

I can't believe it...we only have three weeks of class left. The quarter system is so weird!

So we are definitely over the halfway mark and it has been an eventful last two weeks. As you know, the Presidential election was last week and it was an absolutely crazy week around the law school. In case you didn't know, Obama used to teach at my law school so the professors were pretty excited about the election overall. We had a huge election party at the law school, which was super fun. We had tons of law students stick around the law school all day on Tuesday and had lots of food and drinks for everyone to enjoy. A lot of students spent the day at various polling sites, working for the Obama campaign for the most part (my roommate was one of them). And a lot of our students went down to Grant Park to watch Obama's acceptance speech. I felt so honored to be in the city where Obama is "stationed."

There have been some changes, however, since Obama was elected. I live a few blocks up the street from him, so it has been kind of strange because they blocked off the street even further up, so you are no longer allowed to drive through the street I live on. In addition, since he works out in my building, it's a big ordeal every morning when he comes into the building. During the summer, he would have about two Secret Service guys come with him and they would just hang out in the hallway. Now, he brings an entire motorcade and we have to get waved by the metal detector before we go into the gym if he's there. So many of my classmates had seen him and I was pretty upset because I've lived here twice as long as most of them and still hadn't seen him...until Thursday :)

My roommate and I decided that we were just going to get up early and go down to the gym and hope that he would come at his usual time. We stayed there for an hour before he got there, but we finally got to see him! He smiled at me twice! I was super excited about it.

Also, I got to go to my first NBA game on Thursday (it was a very eventful day). Our school got a group discount on tickets so my friends and I got $20 tickets to see the Bulls. It was so much fun! (picture album link below)

I have had a really great time these last two weeks. School has continued to be challenging, of course, but I am still loving it. I'm still trying to come to terms with the fact that we have finals in about a month. I really don't know what to expect, but I will be making out my practice test schedule within the next couple days, so hopefully once I get a chance to look at old exams I will have a better idea of what to expect.

It's starting to get colder here and it gets dark at around 4:30 everyday. That has taken quite a toll on a lot of us. The darkness tends to drain any energy we have left after class (when you feel like it's 8 o'clock at night and then realize it's only 4). It also affects people's moods. The drizzly, cold, dark weather is just a little depressing at times. But we're all doing a pretty good job of keeping each other encouraged and upbeat. I think the fast-paced quarter system helps with that, too, because we're always busy.

So overall, things are still good. We got the first drafts of our memos back, too, so we all have that to work on this weekend. We have to turn in a second draft on the 24th, and everyone has a lot of work to do. We have to keep reminding ourselves that we're just learning to become better at what we're doing and to not be offended by how many comments we got on our work.

I'm still working on trying to prepare for the job search. I revised my resume and cover letter, so all I have to do now is wait until Dec. 1. After having met with my adviser and my Bigelow fellow and other older students, I am thinking more about the options I have for a job for next summer. They keep telling us that we shouldn't work for a firm the summer after our 1L year, that we should try something else because it could be the only time we have a chance to do something random and fun. We'll see. I kind of want the money from a firm, but I also think it would be fun to do something different like work in one of our clinics. If you think about it, I would love prayers of wisdom for that.

Well, I'm off for the night. As always, I would love to hear from everyone. Until next time...


Pictures:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2263012&l=9f0e5&id=9606378