Summer Camp is Awesome

So having an entire week of extremely loosely scheduled orientation really makes law school a lot more like summer camp than anything else.  I'm okay with this.  I'm sure they'll make us pay for our funtimes soon enough.

Last night, hanging out with Tyler for a while, I boarded a bus for an "evening monument tour" with the most fantastically politically incorrect busdriver/tourguide ever.  He had stories about every building we passed and didn't stop talking for an hour, which is okay because they were the kind of stories I can't really repeat and those kinds of stories are usually the best kinds.  We stopped off at Lincoln Memorial right after the sunset and everything about the view was spectacular.  Who am I kidding- everything about EVERYTHING has been spectacular so far.  I mean, I've been waiting impatiently for about six months to be here, and it doesn't disappoint.

The best thing about the first two days of orientation is that no one knows anyone else and so everyone walks around awkwardly looking for someone to talk to.  I've met a whole lot of people and I've actually memorized about twenty names so far (I count that as being able to remember their name on at least two separate occasions), which I think is pretty good.  The guy I sat next to on the bus, Louis (from Queens), and I ended up getting along well enough that we decided to team up in finding a party for the evening.  The group grew until we had about eight people, and there was a party for all the 1Ls on the roof of a nearby building so we ended up going to that.  There was a keg on a roof with a view of the whole DC skyline, so... no complaints.  Met a lot more 1Ls and ended up talking and drinking until about two.

Today I woke up and greeted the day with a run to the Washington Monument and back.  The entire circuit starting and ending at my dorm is about 3.3 miles, which is a perfect distance for me right now.  Afterwards I took a shuttle-bus to Potomac Yards, which is a gigantic shopping center outside of DC where Georgetown apparently takes us when we need to go shopping.  I bought a lot of groceries and used a Barnes and Noble gift card to buy Settlers of Catan, thinking that eventually I might find people to play it with me.  When I got back I learned that my roommate, Ben (who so far has all of the qualities of an awesome roommate), also loves playing Settlers.  Within three minutes we had accosted a few of our across the hall neighbors, Matt and Stephen, and played a couple of games.

Also today Pete came to visit (with the distinction of being the first WM person to visit me) and I got to show him our fitness center.  We warmed up on treadmills in front of the sheer glass enclosure, watching an epic lightning storm outside, and then had a great workout in which he showed me how to use all the equipment I've never used before. Afterwards we went for Indian food at Union Station.

After Pete left there was a "welcome luau party," which meant there was more food and cake and tiki torches, for the 1Ls living in this building.  Again I met a lot of cool people, though by this point a core group of people I really enjoy hanging out with began to emerge.  There was talk of playing more board games up in our room, but enough people were interested that we decided to move the event to the study lounge at the end of the hall and play Mafia.  Mafia is a game that revolves mostly around deception and argument, and so having fourteen aspiring lawyers in one room playing the game made it quite unforgettable.  I now know who I don't want to go up against one on one in a mock trial.  We played til 1AM before calling it a night, which we can do because our actual orientation is, as I mentioned, very loosely scheduled and I have nothing until noon.