Rainy day

It's around 2 PM...rain is falling outside and for once, a cool draft is coming through the window. Herbie Hancock is on and I feel relaxed. My friend and mother called (separately) this morning and it was good to talk to them both. I noticed I've been relaying almost identical accounts of my new experiences.

To sum it up:

1. Class is entertaining, nerve-racking, confusing, but intellectually interesting
a. I have no problem paying attention the entire period because I'm afraid of being
called on and the subject matter is so new/confusing.

2. Reading is also interesting, although there's a lot of it. Civil Procedure seems
to be the toughest sledding so far whereas Criminal Law reads the smoothest thusfar.

Those two elements dominate my days. Throw in exercise, eating, socializing, cleaning and personal hygiene and that's pretty much the extent of my life. It may sound boring, but I assure you it's not (yet).

The major difference between undergrad and law school has been the pace. We had two days of orientation and then classes started. When I say classes started I don't mean we just received a syllabus and were dismissed early. We had reading assignments for our first day of class and in many classes the professor never even bothered to introduce himself or give any background. We immediately dove into the material.

The amount of self-learning is also much greater. In college you could rely a lot more on the professor to teach you the material. I feel in law school you read and learn the material as much as you can before class. Then in class the professor highlights or reiterates things you've read. For the most part, the professor seems to be adding emphasis to certain parts of the reading rather than adding information that was altogether missing.

I've also noticed that people so far in law school are relatively homogeneous. For the most part, it's largely white...and younger, maybe 22-24 age. Everyone seems very intelligent, outspoken, and for the most part, confident and fairly extroverted. People seem very aware of their appearance physically...and a friend mentioned this so maybe my observation is a bit biased...people seem to be taller than the norm.

I just signed up for a Pandora account. I'm a big fan of online radio since I don't own a portable MP3 player and don't download music illegally. I've found if I need to concentrate I can't listen to music that contains lyrics. When I write (like I am now) I hear myself saying what I'm writing...so comprehending lyrics seems to throw that process off.

I find jazz (with its elements of improvisation) to be especially conducive to studying because the reduced predictability and repetitiveness seems to keep me alert.

Still raining...hopefully the sky will run out of moisture soon and this place will dry up a bit.