"Who here has never taken European substantive law?"

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So today was the big day - law school orientation! Before leaving this morning, I absolutely dreaded having to go. I felt like a 5 year old about to set out for kindergarden all over again, but this time my parents weren't there to see me off. How depressing... good news is that EVERYONE there felt exactly the same way, so nobody put up any walls to making friends, & everyone was very nice & sociable. However, as always, it was easy to pick out the people that I probably WON'T make friends with (& how ironic is that the girl I'm speaking of was very clearly American.... She was so annoying, yuck!) Regardless, I hung around with 3 girls who are from Sweden & are super nice. Their English is amazing so there wasn't really any language gap. The one girl even lives in my building, so that'll be nice! There were people here from all over the place - Italy, Belgium, Germany, Sweden, Slovenia, you name it.

We got our course materials, & needless to say it was a little overwhelming. There are course "readers" & course "textbooks" but I'm not exactly sure what the difference is between the two & why I need both, but oh well. Free time is surly going to be few & far between even though I only have class on Mondays & Wednesdays. Since I'm only taking 2 classes this period, each class has 2 sessions - one lecture & one "tutorial". The "tutorial" revolves around a learning style called PBL (Problem Based Learning) which is essentially where we're given a fact pattern, have to identify the legal issues in it, & brainstorm how to advise a client. It's very pragmatic, & apparently students retain up to 80% of information presented during these types of gatherings (as opposed to 10% retained from lecture). I suppose it's because you have to be constantly involved, & there's really not any time that you can be passive. We had an experimental PBL session at the end of orientation. The fact pattern was about a Dutch brewer that wanted to sell his beer in Germany but was restricted for various reasons... Essentially, I had no clue what was going on because I never had European law before. The instructor asked "who here has never taken European substantive law before?" & I (the dumbass that I am) raised my hand super high (thinking "yes, this will save me from having to participate because I don't know what European competition laws are!") BOY WAS I WRONG! Immediately the instructor goes, "So, as a newcomer to this, what are your initial instincts telling you is unfair here?" I was shocked, & the words that came out of my mouth were absolute BS & probably made no sense, but I relied on the fact that English is my native tongue so maybe some of these Europeans wouldn't understand what I was saying anyway.... haha yah right. Well, I learned my lesson, that's for sure! The good news is that in each class, we'll be instructed on the European substantive law & it won't just be thrown at us like that. (Or at least I sure hope or else I'm not going to pass!) Only time will tell... Maybe I'll just make friends with the smartest European in my classes & have them teach me about European law, haha.

That essentially sums up my day. It was LONG but kinda nice to be on a schedule again. Classes begin February 1 so pretty soon I'll have no life again. I guess it's an international adage that law school ruins lives. haha.

Tonight's a pub crawl for exchange students. I better enjoy it while it lasts...

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