This week has been great! I've met tons of people, started to get a feel for my neighborhood, and have a better understanding of what to expect in this coming year. If I went into the details of everything that happened, it would probably be a bit tedious to read, so I'll give you a highlight of the day instead...
Monday: My dorm had a luau-themed party on the Tower Green, which is our grassy quad in the middle of the law school. It was delightfully dorky, in a middle school dance sort of way, resplendent with plastic leis (and the obligatory jokes that follow), fruity drinks with absurd straws, kebabs, and a limbo competition. I got to check out the bar scene a bit with a bunch of people I had met, and was a particular fan of Rocket Bar, which reminded me somewhat of Albatross, albeit a little--no, a lot--less nerdy.
Tuesday: The 1L class is divided up into four sections to make class sizes more wieldy, and I am in §2. On Tuesday, students within each section had the opportunity to sign up to do community service projects together, which I thought was an awesome idea. I went to Food and Friends, an organization that prepares and delivers meals to more than 1,400 people living with HIV/AIDS, cancer, and other life-challenging illnesses in D.C., Maryland, and Virginia. It was a good way to get to know some of my peers while promoting the spirit of pro bono (lit., for good) work that is at the heart of Georgetown Law's mission as a Jesuit institution.
Wednesday: Our formal orientation sessions started on Wednesday, with information on registration, financial aid, legal ethics, professionalism, etc., but my favorite part of the day was the Dean's Reception, which was held in the 2nd floor atrium of our main building, McDonough Hall. It was a pretty standard reception, with buffets of finger foods, an open bar, and hoards of people getting to know one another while balancing plates and glasses in their hands precariously, but one table stood out from the rest. It featured humongous piles of jelly beans, sorted by flavor, with scoops available to serve oneself, and buckets of enormous lollypops, literally the size of my face (like the ones you see little kids eating at Disneyland). It was such a non sequitur! It set the mood for the entertainment we got to watch after the reception, the Capitol Steps, a comedy musical troupe with a penchant for political humor. My favorite song was Obama Mia, a parody of Mama Mia addressing the media's obsession with Obama.
Thursday: There was quite a bit going on, including some faculty talks and meetings with our peer advisors, but my favorite part of the day was the faculty-led moot court of Supreme Court case FCC v. Fox Television Stations, Inc., which is about the first amendment and federal obscenity law, and is on the docket for next month. The professors were eloquent, clever, humorous, and impressive, and really got me excited about my own upcoming opportunities to participate in moot court, which brings me back to my high school debating days.
Friday: We got our formal introduction to law school, by section, including myths about the first year, co-curricular activities, and library resources, and then hopped on charter buses over to the main Georgetown campus a few miles away to be welcomed by the President of the university. A reception followed, not unlike the Dean's Reception (minus the giant lollypops), and then buses were available to head back to the main campus around 8:30 pm. I would venture to say that about 75% of the entering class stayed in Georgetown, which is an awesome district filled with shopping, restaurants, and bars catering not only to the Georgetown undergrads, but also to the area's seeming aspiration to be the 5th Avenue of D.C. I really enjoyed bar-hopping with my roommates, because it was our first opportunity to all hang out together and socialize in a non-structured environment. Heather and Betsy are very cool; I'm so fortunate to be living with them!
This weekend will be pretty busy, between working on my assignments for the first day of class on Tuesday, and visiting with Dorcas, who happens to be in town this week. I'm looking forward to everything coming my way, even if I am a bit nervous about the Socratic method. I think the main task at hand is to keep things in perspective, and not lose sight of the reasons that I am here by getting caught up in the drama and obsession that seems likely to plague the 1L class. It shall be interesting...
