No more school,
Yet, way more books,
Is the bar exam as hard as it looks?
I had my last class of law school on Friday. While it wasn't very representative of my classroom experience these past three years, it was delightful: my professor had our fact-finding mission team over to her house for lunch. We debriefed our year-long seminar, and popped open some champagne to celebrate our hard work. The fact-finding mission has been one of the best things about law school, so it was a great way to conclude.
Of course, it's not quite over yet... I'll be working on final exams for the next two weeks. I have an essay due tomorrow for Nonprofit Organizations, an in-class exam on Thursday for Family Law II, and then self-paced take-home exams for Immigration Law & Policy and Law & Development. All told, this is actually the easiest final exam period that I will have had in law school, which is nice.
While my take-home exams aren't due until May 17th, my family arrives on the 14th, so my goal is to finish things before they arrive. I may even be able to finish things sooner than that, depending on my efficiency and diligence. However, I also want to complete the Early Bar Prep work that Barbri has provided us with to work on before our bar review course begins on the 23rd, so I'll be keeping myself busy one way or another.
Despite outlining and paper writing, I've had some fun during the past week or so. I attended the Easter Vigil at Holy Trinity last weekend, which was standing room only and a beautiful service that made me both laugh and tear up. Last Sunday, the CSA had our third annual Easter Brunch, which is always delicious and fun.
On Monday, I had an insightful conversation over dinner (at Busboys and Poets, yum) with a new friend I had met the week prior at the Holy Thursday Mass on main campus. Isn't it a bummer to make new friends right before one is about to move cross-country?
I spent most of Tuesday at a very interesting Immigration Law & Policy Conference that was hosted by the law school, the Migration Policy Institute, and CLINIC (Catholic Legal Immigration Network, Inc.). I loved that my Immigration professor told us to skip class to attend the conference instead. Many of the take-away points were unsurprising: we need comprehensive immigration reform, ICE needs to start using their new PBNDS, and indigent immigrants in the court system should have the right to counsel. However, I did find the session on 287(g) agreements and Secure Communities to be particularly insightful, because they had the Chief of Police from Prince William County, VA, speak about how they implemented 287(g), and its impact on the community.
Friday night was the Poverty Journal's end-of-year banquet, which was at La Tasca. We had delicious tapas and sangria, and then hung out at a nearby bar called Redline. The bar has self-serve beer taps at every table, which was pretty unique. My Editor-in-Chief, Betsy, gave me a splendidly nerdy mug that says "data are plural," which was an issue we had to address repeatedly during our edits this past year. Being Managing Editor was a lot of work this year, but I'm going to miss working on the journal.
Yesterday, Jess and I, along with our friend and fellow Cal alum Mike, went to the ballpark to watch the Giants beat the Nationals. I hadn't been to the Nationals park before, and was very impressed by the layout--we were in the cheap seats for the first half of the game, but I still felt like I had a great view. And, the food was delicious; I had a Ben's chili dog and funnel cake. The best part of the game was at the end when Brian Wilson closed--I was proud to be wearing my number 38 jersey!
Alas, my blogging study break is officially over. Back to paper writing!
