Sunday, December 14, 2008
They Say the First Semester is the Hardest
For two weeks in a row, Hillel did not host dinner, so I took it upon myself to provide food and a vaguely Jewish environment for my friends. Hillel did provide some food and Shabbat items - boneless chicken breasts, matza ball soup in a box, candles, grape drink, and xeroxed copies of kiddush. Greta and I provided challah, and I could not bring myself to use the powdered nonsense provided by Hillel so I made real matza balls and soup (vegetables and hawayaj plus one of the chicken breasts). I sauced and baked one set of chicken, and broiled the other with garlic and olive oil. For Parshat Noach I made rainbow cookies, which took a mysteriously long time to disappear, even with my taking them to lunch at school. The problem with my traditional Shabbat dinner was the same reason that Hillel canceled - there were big Friday night events that conflicted. Therefore, both dinners were slightly faster and did not include as much lingering as I had hoped. The first week was right before late night with Roy, where the UNC basketball team is introduced. Apparently this is a big deal, as evidenced by the full Dean Dome that I was conned into, but I was somehow not as impressed as everyone else was. Maybe it is because I am such a dyed-in-the-wool football man, or maybe because I am not as easily entertained by song and dance routines. It was still fun, but I was perhaps expecting too much. A week later, Friday night was Halloween. Halloween in Chapel Hill is a large party on Franklin Street (the main drag), to the extent that this year the city and the university had a huge campaign to keep nonresidents out of Chapel Hill to reduce the 80,000 person crowds that have showed up in years past. Their effort appeared to be a success, as the reported attendance was only 30,000, and while there was a congested section a block in each direction from Columbia Street, movement in the downtown area was fairly unrestricted.
On the bright side, both of these dinners hosted my new neighbors who are helping me build a shtetl out of our apartment complex. They will be my neighbors at least for next semester and the summer.
As I mentioned earlier, basketball season is upon us, and no, I do not mean that franchise in Charlotte. College basketball is placed on a far loftier pedestal than professional in this little eight mile stretch of land. Thankfully, I have always been of the same opinion. What bothered me was that as we were finishing up our football season, basketball was not only overlapping, but there were actually two games scheduled simultaneously. While schedules for both are set by the television networks, it is beyond unfortunate that fans have to choose which game to watch. It is not clear to me if the university has no say in the possible prevention of this, or if they simply did not want to rock the network's highly lucrative boat.
Apparently, I have survived my first semester of law school. The endless hours of doing homework suddenly seemed moot when you look at the exam and realize that case names are completely unimportant. It is no good omen when your second and third year friends are stressing as much or more as the first years. There is a massive buildup of tension and anxiety by the students, the faculty, and just within the law school itself. However, it seems that this only can be felt by those associated with the school. An undergraduate friend of mine reported studying for her own exams in the law library and finding the experience quite pleasurable. I made the decision to avoid the school completely, going there only to take exams. This decision was made easier by the continual prohibition on parking on campus during reading days and exams (should the world not stop during exams?). Instead I studied at Hillel, where parking was plentiful are the stress was all roommate-related (not my roommate).
Exams were mostly soul-draining as one would expect. Because Shabbat began ludicrously early last Friday, I was able to move my Torts exam up one hour, so that I would not have to push dangerously into bayn hashmashot. This worked out quite well; I was able to take the exam in the judge's chambers and then enjoy the walk across campus in abnormally warm weather and jubilant spirits.
Now that exams are over, it seems like I have very little direction. I have three weeks of break in which I have one new year's trip and one pro bono project to do. I also have to begin the job search. The transition from such rigor and stress to this state of relaxation is something of a bumpy one. I am thinking of reverting to my school schedule so I will at least know when to get up in the morning.
On the bright side, both of these dinners hosted my new neighbors who are helping me build a shtetl out of our apartment complex. They will be my neighbors at least for next semester and the summer.
As I mentioned earlier, basketball season is upon us, and no, I do not mean that franchise in Charlotte. College basketball is placed on a far loftier pedestal than professional in this little eight mile stretch of land. Thankfully, I have always been of the same opinion. What bothered me was that as we were finishing up our football season, basketball was not only overlapping, but there were actually two games scheduled simultaneously. While schedules for both are set by the television networks, it is beyond unfortunate that fans have to choose which game to watch. It is not clear to me if the university has no say in the possible prevention of this, or if they simply did not want to rock the network's highly lucrative boat.
Apparently, I have survived my first semester of law school. The endless hours of doing homework suddenly seemed moot when you look at the exam and realize that case names are completely unimportant. It is no good omen when your second and third year friends are stressing as much or more as the first years. There is a massive buildup of tension and anxiety by the students, the faculty, and just within the law school itself. However, it seems that this only can be felt by those associated with the school. An undergraduate friend of mine reported studying for her own exams in the law library and finding the experience quite pleasurable. I made the decision to avoid the school completely, going there only to take exams. This decision was made easier by the continual prohibition on parking on campus during reading days and exams (should the world not stop during exams?). Instead I studied at Hillel, where parking was plentiful are the stress was all roommate-related (not my roommate).
Exams were mostly soul-draining as one would expect. Because Shabbat began ludicrously early last Friday, I was able to move my Torts exam up one hour, so that I would not have to push dangerously into bayn hashmashot. This worked out quite well; I was able to take the exam in the judge's chambers and then enjoy the walk across campus in abnormally warm weather and jubilant spirits.
Now that exams are over, it seems like I have very little direction. I have three weeks of break in which I have one new year's trip and one pro bono project to do. I also have to begin the job search. The transition from such rigor and stress to this state of relaxation is something of a bumpy one. I am thinking of reverting to my school schedule so I will at least know when to get up in the morning.
# posted by Daniel @ 1:41 PM 
