Professors and . . . Chris

I've been really lucky my first year of law school. I was fortunate enough to get some of the greatest professors that I have ever had in my school career. I thought I would spend some time to tell you about them.

Professor Torts: This guy is my favorite professor. He may not be the greatest lecturer, but I think that this is probably because he has such a dry subject. It could also have something to do with the fact that he picked a book that lays everything out so clearly that by the time we reach class we already know what is going on. He is my favorite because he has such a great dry sense of humor. He is the last person you would expect to say some of the things that he does, so when he says them, they are hilarious. I also like him because he is so available outside of class. I cannot even count the number of times I have been in his office/emailing him and he is always more than happy to grade a practice exam and help me improve!

Professor Property: This guy is a great teacher. He really knows how to explain this subject in such a way that it really makes sense. He is a younger guy, with a kind of awkward sense of humor and social disposition, but that makes him fun. I don't know if I would have gotten through this subject without his diagrams and flowcharts!!

Professor Civil Procedure: Another younger guy. We just switched to him this semester which I am very happy about. I went from hating Civ Pro to loving it. He really knows how to make the subject fun and interesting. Every upperclassman that I have talked to loves him and says that he is a really fair grader. I also likes that he limits the amount of material we can bring to his exam, this means that people who study harder will be rewarded.

Professor Contracts: Should I even go here? It may be against my better judgment! Let's just say she is not on my favorite or good list :) Her teaching style doesn't really mesh with my learning style (or anyones for that matter). I have found that I need to teach myself the subject if I want to succeed (I did far better on the final as compared to the mid-term after I realized this). I guess it is good practice? For what? I do not know!

Professor WRAP: Really dry and a stickler on grammar and citations. This makes class, "hit your head on a wall" boring, but he is helping me improve my professional writing with his feedback on my papers and he is really nice, so I guess I can't complain much.

Well there you have it, my professors in a nutshell.

Now for the tribute this week. In honor of Valentines Day (I know . . . a little late), Chris. I love Chris because . . .

He will always treat me like a princess

He loves eating out just as much as I do

He loves to eat sweets, so I can always justify buying chocolate

He is such a great Uncle

And for so many other reasons . . .

A day in the life

A typical Friday for me starts with a workout at the gym with Jill.

Next we head to school for two hours of property:

After that we have a painful hour of WRAP (our whole section meets and talk about useless things):

Then we take a break in our day to eat some lunch. On this day we also watched some curling (Maureen was on the Olympic team in Torino, so she taught us all about it!):

After our break we try and find an empty classroom for our weekly study group. Once we find a room we do about 4 hours of studying. This day we talked about Civ Pro and wrote some Hypotheticals. We were also successful at using the rooms technology to save us time from having to read the hypotheticals to each other(we were very proud):

After this I typically go home and study some more, but I didn't get a day off last weekend so we made dinner plans and had an excellent night of fun with Jill and Phil:

And their dog Big Margo:

Next week is spring break, I am super excited for shopping, relaxing, and getting some homework done! Hopefully I will get some good posts in as well!

Spoiler Alert . . . GPA Posting ahead

We FINALLY got all of our grades back (our crazy contracts professor took FOREVER . . . even though they were due on Jan. 19th) And I must say that I am very pleased with the results!!

We have 3 classes that are year long classes, so we only got mid-term grades for two of those classes (we don't get a mid-term grade for WRAP). Mid-term grades do not go on our transcript. I did much better than I expected in both classes (especially since I did pretty poorly on the contracts mid-term). And I am excited that I don't have to spend the next semester pulling those grades up!

For the two classes we actually got grades for (Property and Torts) I ended up with a 3.8 G.P.A! Being that I have to maintain a 3.0, I would call that great!!

Huge sigh of relief . . .

Now off to prepare for my negotiation in one hour . . .

To Do List

To Do This Week:

School:

WRAP

-Write 1200 -1800 word advice letter

-Write Negotiation Plan

-Prepare for 20 minute Negotiation

Torts

-Read pp 252 -270

-Read MN Statute 604.01 and 604.02

-Comparative Fault Problems

-Read pp 279 – 280

-Read 2 cases posted on assignments board

Contracts

-Read pp 22 – 68

Property

-Read pp 667 – 675, 682 – 687, 689 – 694, 701 – 706, 709 – 714, 716 – 724, 725 – 735

Civ Pro

-Read pp 73 – 99 (very carefully, i’m on call this week)

Email:

-Librarian to set up appointment for research

Personal:

-Make D’artagnan grooming appointment

-Call US Bank to make sure they allow all of my Spain purchases without thinking my card was stolen

-Read Mediation Handbook and Statutes

Now you know why I don’t have time to blog this week J

SUMMER!

Well I have lots of exciting things planned for this summer, and as they get more cemented I thought I would write about them!

First Up, June 7 - July 9: Clerkship at Leonard, Street, and Deinard. I am very excited about this one. Not only is it an opportunity to see how big law firms work, but it is a pretty flexible clerkship in the sense that we get to pick out interest areas and get assignments in those areas. It is also my first paid internship!! This one is nice because I got chosen for it(so there was no hassle of resume/interviews), each law school in the city gets to pick one student for the program, so there are only four of us, which makes for a nice intimate program. I have already gotten so many opportunities from being a part of this program (connecting with people at the firm, attending events around the city, getting help from their recruiter on my resume, etc) so I am excited to see what the summer will bring!

Next up, July 12(ish) - July 30: Spanish Immersion School in Spain. The only thing about getting the clerkship is that it is at the same time as all of the summer abroad programs at school that I was hoping to go to. However, having a clerkship in my first year is far more important than studying abroad, so it wasn't a hard choice between the two! However, I still wanted a chance to spend some of my last work-free summers in a different country. So I have decided to spend three weeks at a Spanish Immersion school in Spain. They have a lot of different locations for me to choose from, and I am going to do their 6 hours a day program. The program had a lot of good reviews, so it seems like it will be lots of fun, and some good learning time.

Next up, July 31 - August 12(ish): Travel Europe! Chris is going to join me in Spain and we are going to spend about two weeks traveling around Europe. We are thinking about doing a couple days on the coast of France, and then spending the rest of our time in Northern Italy, it should be a really fun time!

Then we come home, go to a friends wedding, and school begins again! It will be one of my busiest summers ever, but probably the most memorable as well!

New Semester, New Goals and Bayler

A week into the new semester and I thought it would be a good time to post my goals for the semester. Some of them school related, some of them not . . .

1. Outline Sooner

this will keep the end of semester scramble to a minimum. I've got an awesome study group that will keep me accountable for this one!

2. Spend more time on WRAP the WHOLE semester

My law school friends will laugh at this goal, as we have already been told by many that we are going to be spending tons of time on WRAP this semester but, at the end of last semester I got lazy with WRAP because I had been doing so well, and that seemed to hurt me a bit in the end.

3. Lose 10 pounds

I have always been an advocate of, "as long as you are healthy it doesn't matter how much you weigh" and I still am. However, I had some health problems last semester that would benefit from me being at my "ideal" weight. I don't think the ideal weight works for everyone, but for me, I see the benefits for my health. In order to do this I have sub-goals

3a. Drink 64 oz. of water per day (this has been made easier by my sweet new water bottle)

3b. Go to the gym at least 4 times per week (having my gym buddy Jill will help keep me accountable)

3c. Track my calories. I joined sparkpeople.com which helps me track what I eat. I have to stay under a certain amount of calories per day, but I like it because I can still eat sweets, if they fit into my calorie amount.

Well I think that about sums up the major goals! I'll post against later in the week when I get all of my grades, I've gotten two so far, and have been very happy with the results. . . so hopefully I will have happy news again at the end of this week!

For my tribute this week . . . Bayler(said in a Southern voice of course)!!

I love Bayler because . . .

He is such a content little guy

they really don't come any cuter than this

The only time he gets upset is when he is hungry

He's got the chubbiest cheeks ever

He's just such a smiley guy!!!

survive and relax

Well, i thought my break would be filled with blogs. I guess I thought wrong! I have been really enjoying these past two weeks of relaxing. It has been nice to spend time with Chris (he took two weeks off), catch up with family (we had four christmas' this year, it was a marathon!), and catch up with some friends.

I have mostly spent my time at the house hanging out and catching up with house things. Actually getting to cook has been nice (tortilla soup is cooking right now, yum!) and very fun.

As for finals, I think that they went well overall. I feel really good about two of them (torts and contracts), pretty good about one (property) and okay about the last (civil procedure). We don't find out our grades until the end of January, so now I am just trying to forget about them and relax until they come.

Surviving finals was one of the most mentally hard things I have ever done. As it came to the end of the two weeks I was exhausted and I felt like I couldn't possibly fit anything else into my brain. It is nice however, to have the first finals season over. Now I know what to expect, how to best prepare, and when to take breaks. Next semester will be a breeze . . . I wish :)

If you didn't know it, I am a person stuck on routine. I find a way that works for me, and I do it that way until it stops working. Pre-finals were no different. The biggest obstacle after you have studied is not to psych yourself out before the final. My goal is to go in with a clear head and to be nervous enough to not get cocky, but not so nervous that it messes with my head. I took some pictures so I could introduce you to my crazy pre-finals OCD self :)

First we start with a good breakfast and some vanilla black tea . . .

next comes one of the most important parts, the ipod. I have a pre-finals playlist filled with songs that make me happy, and songs that make me feel confident. I start it 40 minutes prior to the exam, crank it up, and don't talk/listen to anyone until the professor walks into the room to give instructions. This keeps me from getting stressed/nervous from the idol chatter before the exam, that is about the exam. It also clears my head and gets me ready to go

Finally comes the desk set-up, naked juice just in case I get hungry/thirsty, chap-stick, and four tic-tacs to keep me from biting my nails!

There you have, pre-finals procedure in a nut-shell. I hope everyone enjoyed the holiday season!

-Laura