Wednesday, August 27, 2008

Halfway Through the First Week

I've been way too busy lately to post much of anything. I will give some general updates since my last post and then talk about my first week so far.

I heard back from FAMU that their waitlist was closed. I didn't pursue it very much after thinking about the accreditation situation. I sincerely hope they do end up getting their full ABA accreditation, but I decided to stick with Barry. I have a decent scholarship and with my Stafford loan, my tuition will be covered. The only thing that I know is going to cost extra is the cost of commuting, but I knew that anyhow. Part of the reason I was interested in FAMU Law was because it is a Black college and I thought it would be interesting to attend there. The other reason was it was much cheaper. I do believe things work out for a reason and so I'm happy with my decision to go to Barry.

So after spending a little over $800 on a bunch of heavy books, and having Orientation pretty much canceled due to Tropical Storm Fay, I can now say I am a law student. I'm glad that all of this is not totally new for me (being a Legal Studies graduate). I feel for those students that it IS all new to. Of course, classes, reading, studying I know will be different, and of course the grade for each course coming down to one final three hour exam (insert Gilligan's Island theme music).

Let's see... my first class was Contracts on Monday. That was the only class I had on Monday. It kinda sucks that I'm having to drive 120 miles roundtrip for one class. I also have one class on Friday, so there's another 120 mile roundtrip for one class. I have two classes on Wednesday; Contracts again and Criminal Law (which is the one class I have on Friday). Tuesday and Thursday are my busy days. I have Civil Procedure first thing, then Legal Research and Writing, and finally around 3:30 in the afternoon, I have Torts.

This driving thing is for the birds. After 2 days of driving, I was already sick of traffic. It doesn't seem to matter what time of day it is for some roads, either. Today I mapped out and found a different way to get to the law school. It involves taking many different roads (versus a fairly straight shot), but it took 30 minutes off my commute simply because I didn't have to sit in traffic and take 30-45 minutes just to go 5 miles. What a waste of gas that is. Another thing is that the person I was going to carpool with backed out. I have no idea why. So now it's going to cost me about $80 a week just in gas. I'm thankful I get decent gas mileage. I have to take all those different roads just to stay off the toll roads. Otherwise I could have added another $5 a day to my commute cost, which would have been another $25 a week. You really have to watch using some of the online directions and maps because they seem to like to put you on the toll roads. I'm wondering if they are in cahoots. Anyhow, if my drive continues to be like this morning, then it won't be as bad.

Since I am commuting and I'm in the section that has three 8:00 a.m. classes, that means I have to leave my house at 6:00 a.m. Yikes. So far this week I am fairly tired. I believe it's a combination of having to get up so early and also that I haven't slept well since school started. It's probably just me being nervous. I can tell my eyes are tired from all the reading I've done. And yes, there is a ton of reading. On the good side, I'm ahead in some of my classes because I wasn't sure how much the professor would cover. Some professors list reading assignments by weeks so it's just a general idea. But every single professor warns against not being prepared to discuss the cases assigned so I've ended up reading further ahead.

Each course seems like it will be interesting in some way. So far, Contracts has been the most arcane to me, but then it wasn't one of the courses I took at UCF. I'm already spending quite a bit of time at the library. I have time between classes on my busy days and I'm on campus for the day, so I might as well study. I have to work on the weekends, but I basically will be getting paid to study (and give out a few parking tickets as well). I think it's just going to take some getting used to having to get up so early and the fact that I have a lot more work to do now. Today I am exceptionally tired. I didn't get to sleep before 2:00 a.m. and I had to be up by 5:00 a.m. At least I'm ahead on most of my stuff for tomorrow so I plan on getting in bed early tonight. If I have time, I may go fly my radio control airplanes some before it gets dark.

I would love to get out and socialize some and get to know some of my classmates, but I am so broke it's not funny. I wanted to meet up with them before Orientation, but couldn't. Next week there's going to be some sort of Bash at the bowling alley. I have to work, though and it's hard to justify driving 120 miles to go bowling. I'm more inclined to do social activities on the days I already have to be in Orlando for class anyhow. I still plan to do some Fantasy Football this season because I really enjoy it. And of course flying RC planes is fun, plus it's something I get to do with hubby (who I'm sure isn't going to want to hear about law when I'm home). I'm also interested in some of the organizations on campus or possibly trying to get on Trial Team, etc. But for right now, I am just trying to get my feet wet and get the hang of all this reading and time management stuff (which is tough enough for us ADD types).

Well, I'm starving and I still have a 60 mile drive home so I'd better get going before it gets to be rush hour. I don't know how often I will post, but I'm hoping to make time to write something at least weekly about how my journey in law school is going or about any other topic that I might want to talk about. I won't promise that I won't get into political ranting because I can get really fired up about some things, but I hope to keep this blog mostly law school related. We shall see...