The Madness Begins!

Well, today was the day....the first day of law school orientation and the first day of my next 3 years. I woke up bright and early at 5:30 AM and trudged to the gym. I wanted to get the academic year off to a good start. After a hard 30 minutes of cardio, I returned to my apartment, got ready for school, and was on my merry way. Orientation was held at the Harold Washington Public Library located a block from DePaul in the Chicago Loop. The orientation breakfast was disorienting to say the least. There were not enough seats for the 180+ people who showed up, and I ended up finding a place on the floor. I tried not to size up my classmates, but something did stand out. They were YOUNG...still wet behind the ears from college.

Following breakfast, we gathered in the library's auditorium and settled in for a morning of introductory remarks from a number of individuals within the administration. I found out that average age was 23 years old....meaning that most of these people were 10 when I reached legal drinking age...Oy! The morning seemed to drag on, and every speaker seemed to emphasize one facet of the first year of law school...it's HARD! I think that they mean to really scare us, but I am not intimidated yet. I didn't get a chance to speak to too many of my classmates, but I have a feeling that I will get to know my section pretty well. My section consists of one-third of the entering class. After today, we will not gather as an entire class until graduation.

After a catered lunch, the members of my section and I gathered for our first Legal Writing Class. Most of the members in my section seem to be in the IP (or intellectual property-meaning patents, copyrights, and trademarks), and our professor is a current IP attorney practicing in Illinois. We learned about the organization of the American legal system (state versus federal jurisdictions) and we learned about what was expected of us for the coming year. We also received our syllabus for the course, and I was dismayed to find that one of the texts for our first reading assignment was still on backorder at the bookstore and the other text for this weeks reading was the previous edition. I am thinking that the professor might not be aware that the new edition is out and will be sure to address the issue tomorrow. Although the previous edition is on reserve in the library, I don't want to fight tooth and nail against the others in my section just to get my assigned reading done every week.

After legal writing, I went on a tour of the school (lead by an upperclassman) and signed up for a few organizations at the organization fair (IP, Law and Science, and the South Asia Law Students Association). I also signed up to be on the e-mail lists for the ABA and the Illinois Bar Association. While my classmates finished the day by chowing down on pizza, I raced home. I knew that my new computer would be arriving today, and sure enough, it was waiting for me. An Alienware 7700. A laptop with a Pentium 4 processor, dual slot loading DVD-R/CD RW drives, and 2 60 GB hard drives. I was expecting an awesome machine, but what I wasn't expecting was the size of this behemoth! It is a desktop replacement, not thin and mobile by any stretch of the imagination. I do love it, though. BTW, if there are any typos, it's because of me getting used to a new keyboard configuration.....

As much as I wanted to unpack the computer and play with it, I had more pressing matters...namely packing. How I accrued so much stuff in so short a time in a studio apartment is something that begs future examination. Tonight's objective was to pack up my kitchen and the second of 2 large closets (the first having been packed up last night). Finally, with my goals reached, I was able to settle in with my new toy.

Boy, am I tired. I am looking forward to Friday, when I will be moved in and (hopefully) close to completely unpacked.