"It's the beginning of the end..."

2008年9月16日星期二

I attended my law school's orientation today. I was amazed at the wide spectrum of backgrounds and expertise the students here have..and of cos, the experiences of the law profs. The orientation kicked off with a 'parade of the profs' with every one of the professors who was free to give a speech on himself/herself and the area he or she teaches. Every one of those classes sounds interesting to me!! I think I may be going to sit in for some of the classes even though I'm not registered for them. By the way, my law school really specialises in Intellectual Property Law, and it is actually one of the best IP law schools in the states, or in the world. This is cuz of the unqiue setting of the law school - in the pacific northwest, with a lot of technological innovations going on in the area, like microsoft! I managed to get myself on the 'waiting list' of the IP intro class..together with many other J.D students! Haha hope i can get it, although it's gonna be a heavy module with lotsa hours in the library.
Anyway, I was a little bit surprised that I feel excited about law school now. Before today I was always nervous but when I sat in the orientation class today, I was so anxious to start going to classes and know more about what each prof was talking abt..
I made frens with some chinese+taiwan students and one indonesian visiting scholar. There're a lot of japanese LLM students (around 60?) and the students at orientation today all seem to be either lawyers or profs back in their home country. So when many profs made the same comment in their speech that 'i'm sure u're all excellent lawyers and academics in ur home country..and has lots to share in class' I was like o.O I hope I can pull off with the heaty discussions in class.
Class registration was a painfull process cos the 3 classes I'm really interested in all clash with each other - International Commercial Arbitration, Japanese Law, IP Survey. So I gotta sacrifice TWO of these..T-T .
I registered for the following classes as for now, subject to change (and may be crashing other interesting classes too)
1. Internationl law (like public international law)
2. International foreign research (teaches us hands on research skills on legal materials from many different countries across the world, some even on original language texts)
3. International commercial arbitration
4. Legal problems of economic development (focuses on sustainability of legal systems in developing economies)

I'm going to crash/sit-in:
5. IP law
6. Japanese law

I'm now sitting in the big quad in school under a big beach umbrella with some other ang moh and waiting for my law orientation dinner to come near..(and of cos, spying on people as they walk pass me!)
I feel so peaceful and like I'm in a dream! Many people are surprised why I didn't have any problems while settling down in America. Maybe part of the reason is because I've been yearning for this day to come for so many years (ever since sec sch!), and it's like a dream come true. I'm not a bit regretting that I have chosen USA and UW, and is getting excited about the wads coming up. One big thing I really like about American unis (or maybe just UW) is that the school has so many programmes and activities to help international students (or students in general) enjoy their student life here and keep them mentally healthy at the same time. I feel that I'm cared for and have a sense of security and there's always some one to seek for when I have various kinds of problems. For example the international student orientation group ( which is a very large and well organised non profit organisation) organises many activities, at least once a week, to get students together and mix with each other and maybe travel together, to vancouver etc. I signed up for most of their actitivies as I as I can and didnt feel shy or anything like when I was in Sg. Maybe cos everyone is international and nobody knows you so u feel less of a burden to socialise and start a network afresh.
Yesterday I went for a pub quiz ( like mixing around in a pub and getting into groups competing with each other on international knowledge) ..haha I didn't drink at all so I looked kinda uncool in front of the 3 spanish girls who were at our table drinking like everything were free. Haha but they're very nice people and I feel more relaxed mixing with ang mohs than with fake ang mohs (if u get wad i mean LOL).I also chatted with girls from Hungary, Thailand, a PHD from Taiwan etc.
Oh i signed up for this trip to San Juans Island on 27th and 28th Sep --> (http://www.clippervacations.com/packages/overnight_sanjuanisland) for whale watching. It's the last weekend the tour is going on, so I have to quickly sign up before the whales go home! Hope it's fun..if I see a whale I'll post up the pics for sure! As for now, I'm too tired of uploading pics -_-''

Jia you with sch everyone!!
Love,

“Jd dropped by Kynthos at 16:51”

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