Sierra is a gorgeous golden retriever belonging to my Constitutional Law professor, Edward Steinman. Professor Steinman brought her to class for both his classes. She's an absolute sweetheart, quietly napping away while we grapple with the Bill of Rights.
My LLM summer session has started. It's been all great so far. We have about 14 topics to cover and we've managed to cover 2 in our week here so far - Constitutional Law and Contract Law. We've started Intellectual Property so far. The work's intense but I finally have the chance to relax over this Independence Day weekend.
My classmates are great. We have 2 Austrians, 2 Chinese (as in from China), 1 Peruvian, 1 Jordanian, 1 French and 1 former UN Commissioner for Human Rights (what he's doing in our classes I have -no- idea). And there's me, the only common law conversant person among the whole group. We're planning parties already.
My course material has been great so far, save one - I've realised a wee bit of bias against Foreign LLM students in terms of course selection. It probably isn't intentional but it exists. We've one year here - and hence our selection is extremely limited due to prerequisites. We've no GPA so that further limits our course selection. End result - cool courses like internships, externships and writing for the Journal are barred from us.
I'm can't say I'm not disappointed - but at least the option of contributing to the Journal is open to me, and I've learnt a long time ago not to dwell on inabilities but to do the best I can.
5 comments:
wow, your course sounds rocking!
I think the best part of studying in another country is not just the different things you learn in the classroom, but also the diversity of experiences you can have outside of it.
And also the half-way point of both, which is you encounter people you never would've met if you stayed home... that in itself is a whole educational experience.
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I've learnt a long time ago not to dwell on inabilities but to do the best I can
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Well said! Am enjoying your blog posts. I wonder if blogging makes the loneliness a little bearable. Cheers.
Shianux,
Very well said. I'm learning a lot from the approach to law that civil lawyers have - and also their cultural bias. I'm also learning a lot about my -own- cultural bias.
The most important thing I learnt, I think, is that regardless of the approach to law, the foremost thought on any legal student's mind must be -justice-. For that reason, I weep for the retirement of Justice Sandra Day O'Conner.
Ivan,
Blogging does make loneliness easier to bear. Especially when people write back.
Awwwwwwwww she's so pretty! See, you can't do this to me. If you post cute doggie pictures I will feel compelled to go on dogster and surf dogs for the rest of the day! Bad, bad, bad.
Slinky,
I aim to please. Or rather, distract. :D
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