Second Semester

I'm pretty much the worst blogger ever.

In other news, second semester has begun. I really like all of my professors and classes so far. Schragger (Property) is just over the top and hilarious. And Sinclair (Evidence) sounds exactly like Tom Hanks in "Apollo 13." (Is that Tom Hanks's normal voice? Every movie I've watched with him lately has some kind of crazy accent, so I can't remember what he actually sounds like.)

I signed up with Tricia to take Salsa dancing classes on Sunday evenings. I am the least coordinated person in the world, so it will probably be pretty entertaining for everyone else in the class.

1 down, 3 to go

Civ. Pro. = done forever. It wasn't so bad. I think.

Except for the part where I finished the 90 minute question in less than 60 minutes. I'm not sure if that's a good thing or a bad thing...

Which Federal Rule of Civil Procedure Are You?

YOU ARE RULE 8(a)!You are Rule 8, the most laid back of all the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure. While your forefather in the Federal Rules may have been a stickler for details and particularity, you have clearly rebelled by being pleasant and easy-going. Rule 8 only requires that a plaintiff provide a short and plain statement of a claim on which a court can grant relief. While there is much to be lauded in your approach, your good nature sometimes gets you in trouble, and you often have to rely on your good friend, Rule 56, to bail you out.
Take this quiz!








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33 hours until my first law school exam...

It's hard to believe, but as of today, I am officially done with Civil Procedure and Torts classes (well, except for the exams). It seems impossible that a semester has gone by so fast. I was concerned about the length of semesters after spending four years on the quarter system, but I don't even feel burned out at this point. Of course, I might once exams are finished, but that remains to be seen.

At UVA (I don't know about other schools), the students clap for the professor at the end of the last day of class while he/she is leaving the room. I think that's kind of neat. There's just such a different atmosphere/feeling to law school than there was in undergrad. I like it.

So I also fully finished my CivPro outline this afternoon, which is exciting. I have that exam Monday, followed by Torts on Thursday, Criminal Law the following Monday, and Contracts the following Thursday. I think it will be nice to have exams so spread out. Hopefully, it will allow me to really focus on one at a time. I'm hoping to get the rest of my outlines done by Friday so that I can devote the rest of the weekend to CivPro.

Speaking of CivPro, at the PILA Auction, Steve, Laura, Taylor, and I bid together on dinner with Professor Collins at Zocalo and we won. We are going out to dinner with him this Saturday night, and I am so excited. The other day in class he mentioned some stories that would only discuss "over a beer" and Laura and I are determined to get those stories.

The Buckeyes are back in the National Championship game. Not sure how I feel about that. Of course, it's great to participate in three NCs in six years. I just really don't want a repeat of last year. I hope it's at least close. I don't think Tressel and the team would let it be a complete embarrassing blowout, though. Anyway, Stef wants me to go down to New Orleans with her for the game. Haven't decided for sure yet -- need to talk more details with her.

Okay, now that my coffee is kicking in, that's enough of a study break. Now to the torts outline...

There hasn't been a whole lot of blog-worthy stuff that's happened lately, so I haven't been updating much. But there are a few things going on at the moment.

First, I just got my lottery results for Spring Semester. During the Spring, we are required to take the second half of Legal Research and Writing, plus Constitutional Law and Property Law. We also get two electives. The ones I was able to get into are Evidence and International Law. So that should be a pretty good (but difficult and busy!) spring.



Tomorrow night is the PILA (Public Interest Law Association) Auction. Apparently, it's basically like law school Homecoming. Harmon (my criminal law professor) is one of the auctioneers, so that should be entertaining. I'm going out to dinner with a small group of people beforehand, so it will be a fun evening.

It's hard to believe that it's almost Thanksgiving, since it was still 80 degrees until about two weeks ago. And, since Thanksgiving is right around the corner, that means so are finals! YIKES. I really need to get on outlining.

Soon we can start applying for summer jobs, also. I'm thinking that I'm going to wait to send resumes until after finals are done. What good is it to worry about finding a job if you tank your exams?

I also was just appointed as Secretary for the Legal Assistance Society (LAS), which is the umbrella organization for such pro bono projects as Migrant Farmworker Project, Virginia Income Tax Project (helping the poor complete their tax returns -- I can't wait to help with that one in the spring!), Domestic Violence Project, etc. So that should be a good way to meet more people and get more involved with various projects, especially since the MFP season has ended.

I think that's about it for the news around here. Back to studying Contracts...

I can't wait until next year, after I've worked for the summer. Then I'll have some money and and can go to see Wicked on Broadway.

I'm seriously obsessed with the soundtrack.

There are a town and a county in Virginia called Goochland...

...and maybe I'm immature but I find that hilarious. It's such an awkward name for a town. I think if I met someone and they told me they were from Goochland, I would probably laugh at them.

There's a lot that's happened since my last update and I probably can't even remember all of it.

CASA training finished on Thursday night and I did my two hours of court observation last week. It was really awkward to be in there observing because one of the two cases I saw was VERY personal. There was some really damaging evidence towards one of the parties and I was thinking that if I were those people, I wouldn't want anyone else in there hearing my whole life's story. But I'm kind of glad training is over because it gives me back Tuesday and Thursday evenings. I told them that it probably would be best to wait until January to put me on a case since exams will be coming up sooner than I realize. That way I can focus on getting through my first semester and then start adding on CASA duties.

I went on a trip with the Migrant Farmworkers Project a few weeks ago. MFP is an extension of the Legal Aid Justice Center here in Charlottesville. Apparently, Charlottesville/Albemarle is a really big apple picking area. MFP goes around to the migrant farmworker camps to talk to workers and tell them about their rights. We make sure the conditions are acceptable and the orchard owners are complying with minimum wage, health, and safety laws. If we see any problems, we report back to Legal Aid. They can then represent the farmworkers in a suit against the owner to make sure that he complies with the laws. All the workers we talked with last night were from Mexico. Most planned to head down to Florida in a few weeks to pick oranges. They ranged in age from 20 to probably early 50’s. It was really interesting to talk to them. One of the workers said he thought it was so nice that we students would take the time to come talk to them. He said that for one, they don’t get much in the way of visitors, and for two, since some of them may be undocumented, they are too afraid to ask or complain about anything because they don’t know that they DO have rights. He was so happy that someone was taking an interest in him and he was so happy that we all spoke Spanish. Of course, they have their little community of other workers there, but most people don’t notice or take an interest in them, so he was so happy we came. It was quite an experience. Unfortunately, the season here ends in November, so we won’t have a lot of opportunities to go out to talk to people, but we try to hit as many of the camps as we can.

I'm going to be applying for a fellowship to work in South Africa for the summer. There will be a variety of different places where we can work. The two fellows who went last summer said that legally, South Africa is a very interesting place to be right now because they have one of the most progressive constitutions in the world. It's only about 11 years old, and they're still trying to figure out how to implement it and what it all really means. They are also dealing with reparations for apartheid. I'm not sure whether I'll really have a high chance of getting selected because the agencies get to set the criteria for who they want, and they may want people who have human rights experience already. But I'm going to apply regardless, and we're supposed to know by December 1.

Mom and I flew out to Columbus on Skybus this weekend to go to the Ohio State-Kent State game. I went over to Block "O" during halftime and I got to see a whole bunch of people. We also went out to dinner with Stef after the game. It was nice to get to go back to visit, even if it was only a 20-hour trip.

Other than that, life has mostly been school, school, and more school. Today will be another busy day. And with that, I should probably finish getting ready for class...

It's already autumn!

I'm going to try and rip off a quick post here before I have to leave for class.

The Green Bay Packers are 3-0, the Ohio State Buckeyes are 4-0, and Tenacious D Softball is 1-1. The win came by default, though... we were playing the Law Republicans and there were no girls on their team, so they had to forfeit. But we decided to just give them a few of our players so we could play anyway. They ended up beating us 18-9, I think. Good thing they had to forfeit. I got on base twice... both times by being walked. I think I only scored one run, though, because the other time I got on with two outs and then someone hit a pop fly. Our next game is tomorrow, but I don't think I'll be able to play because it's from 4:30-5:30 and I have CASA training at 6. I don't think I should be going to CASA all dusty and smelling like B.O.

Speaking of CASA, it's going really well. We have 5 training sessions left, and then we get sworn in by the judge! I think he's supposed to be coming to our training tomorrow night to talk to us. That should be really interesting. I'm excited about getting started on a case, but I'm nervous, too. It's such a big and important responsibility! I know we have supervisors to give us advice, but I just can't believe that just normal people off the street could so quickly become court advocates. That seems crazy to me. Ooh and I met a new Puerto Rican friend at CASA. He is from San Juan and grew up there. He came to the states for college (Harvard), then worked for a few years, and then now is here at law school.

That reminds me... it surprises me how old some of my peers are! They look like people who would have come straight from college, but I look at their Facebook profiles, and they're 2004 graduates! THEY WERE BORN IN THE '70s! It just completely surprises me everytime I see someone who I think is maybe 24 or 25 and they're 28, 29, or 30! I guess it's so weird for me because I'm at the opposite end of the age spectrum, so even though 28 is not old AT ALL, it's just so surprising that they're 7 years older than me when I thought they were the same age.

Yesterday, a small group from our section went out to King Family Vineyards in Crozet for a wine-tasting and polo match. It was really neat. I'd never seen polo before and I'd never been wine-tasting before. I now know why people say things like, "This wine has a woody flavor," because one of the wines DID TASTE LIKE WOOD. I seriously thought I was drinking liquified tree bark. I didn't like that one very much. I thought the chardonnay was pretty good, but the other people there, who are the wine connoseuirs (sp?) of Section D said it was a bit too oaky. I really liked the dessert wine. It tasted like sugary apricots.

I think I'm going to be cold-called in Criminal Law today. I saw Harmon's seating chart in class last week and she uses Post-it flags to mark the people who are next in line. I think one of the flags was on my seat. Tomorrow, I'm heading up a group with five other people to go out to lunch with Professor Harmon. She is just so awesome. Five-foot-nothing, but if you get on her bad side, she is the most intimidating person you could ever meet. The more we learn in Criminal Law, the more I think that might be the direction I'm headed, so tomorrow will be a great opportunity to sit down with her and learn more about her experiences. She worked for a while as a federal prosecutor in New York, I believe, and she dealt a lot with sex crimes, apparently.

Human Rights Project is offering foreign language classes in the evenings in October and November. I'm interested, but do I really want to take on something else? I'd like to learn either Portuguese or Arabic. I'm also signing up to tryout for the Extramural Moot Court Team, but the tryout isn't for a few more weeks. (Moot Court = Mock Trial) They were asking for someone to tryout also for a competition that they're going to in March... IN VIENNA. Austria is at the top of places I want to visit, but it was a week long competition that came the week after spring break. So basically, go on spring break, come back on Monday, and then leave Friday for Austria. I wanted to sign up to try out for that so badly, but I don't think that missing a week's worth of classes is a good idea for a 1L. Maybe if they continue to go to that competition, I could do it next year.

Saturday is Foxfield... It's a big event at UVA (undergrad, too) and this weekend is the law school's weekend. Foxfield is a horse race... and apparently the goal of UVA Law students is to go to Foxfield all three years and to never see a horse. You are supposed to show up around 10:30 AM and start drinking. You're also supposed to wear ridiculous outfits (sundresses, seersucker, etc.). Knowing me, I'd probably be one of the few people to go to UVA Law and see a horse every year.

Fall break is coming up in a few weeks and I really want to go out to Columbus. Nathan is going to be there because he'll be on fall break, too. I don't know if I can afford the gas, though. And, I'd have to ask Carolyn if I could stay at her house, but I don't think that's a good idea, because if I wanted to go out with people at night (since they'll all be in class during the day) then I'd be coming in late. I just don't want to pay for a hotel. Ugh. I don't know.

Anyway, time to leave for class.

Tomorrow is the first day of classes at Ohio State.

I love it here at UVA, and I love Charlottesville.

But I REALLY miss my Buckeyes in Columbus. I actually feel sad that I'm not going to be walking across the Oval tomorrow...

Oops... I've been slacking!

I didn't mean to wait so long to post, but it's amazing how quickly time goes by. Let's see... where did I leave off?

Well, it ended up turning out that I got selected for BOTH the PCASA program AND the Hunton Williams Pro Bono Partnership. I hardly expected to get picked for either one, let alone both! I asked Dean Emery what I should do, and she said that as a 1L, I probably wouldn't want to do both. So I decided to go with the PCASA program. Tuesday night was the first night of training, and we learned a bit more about what sorts of things we would have to do. I'm excited because apparently there are a few families who speak Spanish who have been on a waiting list to get served because no one in the PCASA office can speak Spanish and as a non-profit, they can't afford to hire interpreters. Generally, training is supposed to be Tuesday and Thursday evenings, but because of Rosh Hashanah, there was no training tonight. Instead, we're pulling a double training shift on Saturday morning/afternoon. I'm really excited about the program.

Oh, and my memo... Well, we got them back on Wednesday. I did pretty well, but definitely not as well as I thought after I finished it. It turned out that my biggest problem was in the logical organization of the memo. When doing your analysis, you're supposed to use the IRAC formula: Issue, Rule, Analysis, Conclusion. According to the comments on my memo, I was tending to mix-up the R and the A. We have to write another memo this week. It's actually going to be TWICE as long, so I need to really focus on making sure I have the correct organization this time.

My section had softball practice tonight. I got up to bat 4 times, and each time I hit the ball on the first pitch. That's pretty amazing, considering that at the last practice, they probably had to throw me 15 pitches before I actually hit the ball. Anyway, the first time I went up to bat, I was thrown out at first. The other three times, I got on base! It was pretty exciting. Knowing me, though, that will be the end of my lucky streak and I'll strike out during every game we play. Tomorrow morning is our first game.

I'm reading Catch-22 in my spare time. It's hilarious. I was worried that I wouldn't like it, but I really do. It's so funny. I'm super tired, so I think I'm going to shower and crawl into bed.