Exams, Round 3

Exams are going well, but they are... exams. Not finished until Saturday. Until then, here, have some pictures from less exam-y times that I have been meaning to post for the past few days:

Kels had never been to the Jefferson Memorial and she also needed to run 6 miles as preparation for her half-marathon. Jefferson and back is 7 miles, but I told her it was 6. Efficiency!

Goo arranged for a sing-through of Jesus Christ Superstar for Noah's birthday.

Guess who Noah was.

No, really, guess.

Happy Birthday, Noah.

I got to be Pilate.

Afterwards Goo had the entire "cast" over to her house for pot roast prepared three different ways (if one roast fails, the others will live on!). 

One exam, paper, one Journal Note, and one teaching portfolio to go.

Performance on the first two exams was a solid "somewhere between an A and a F" which is to say that even feeling pretty good about the exams gives no indication as to actual performance.

Happy Samiclaus Day

Since housemate Jeff is Dutch, and Swiss, and occasionally British, we get to experience lots of new and exciting cultural traditions. This Sunday it was Samiclaus day (Sinterklaas Day for the Dutch, as Jeff explained it), a day best known to me due to the essay by David Sedaris in which he explains that the Dutch think that Santa Claus is the former bishop of Turkey who summers in Spain and arrives with an entourage of "six to eight black men" and who may or may not kick naughty Dutch children. Jeff pretty much agreed that this version of the story is correct.

What I did not know from the David Sedaris essay was that on Samiclaus/Sinterklaas day it is traditional in Swiss homes to have something called a raclette meal. The raclette involves a special grill with slots underneath the heating element to place slices of special raclette cheese that crisp instead of melt when subjected to broiling. This cheese is then placed on top of tiny boiled potatoes, chicken, peppers, brussel sprouts, and other things- some of which are grilled on top of the heating element of the raclette machine. 

It is indeed a magical meal. For his generosity in setting this up and sharing his traditions with us, I am almost certain that Jeff will not be kicked nor almost-kicked by the former bishop of Turkey this year.

After dinner, people where kind enough to help me with my final project for negotiations by reading a case that I had prepared and acting it out. Since it is finals week (well, week one of two), all emphasis is on finals projects and studying (mostly for evidence).

Monday night I had dinner with Nell, my friend who was with me in China. We talked about how law school was a lot like just spending three years on a very long series of job applications. 

Joshu-Aid

This morning as a study break I went to move Josh into DC with his new roommate Steph W. Jeff, Goo, and Emmanuel also went to help. I followed instructions, for once, and did not lift things (like the couch) with my back, and so I end the day entirely uninjured. While unloading boxes and things from the moving van, we decided that we were really doing charity work for Josh and so we needed some stereotypical charity work photos.

Look how happy we are that she is handing me a box from the van!

We've got to handle certain items with care.

The photos got a little ridiculous at a certain point.

But it was all worth it to make Josh happy.

Once everything was in the apartment, Josh bought us all pizza because he is a swell guy. I am very glad that he is finally within a reasonable number of metro stops.

Kelsey had work today, and apparently deals with the same student problems that I do. Like, for example, how many of them end up mistakenly plagiarizing because somewhere down the line someone told them that it wasn't plagiarism if you don't lift a direct quotation. When she finished work, she came over and we went on a 5.4 mile run (she is training for a half marathon. I am not, but I try to be supportive). As always, DC is a wonderful place to run because the landmarks are all very round-number distances from my house.

And also from each other. This is a mile away...

And we know that because we were here.

The Smithsonian has put up Christmas lights all around the Mall, which made things that much better. We returned and had chicken korma. Then I made flash cards for evidence, because it is imperative that I know all the reasons why we restrict huge swaths of evidence from trial and also how to sneak every piece of that evidence back in under the guise of acceptable evidence. 

And do you know what word that is?

I am now finished with two of my three academic classes. I have my last street law class to teach tomorrow, and then my final evidence class, and then.... nothing. No more classes. Just exams. Three of them. And one negotiation case, and one negotiation paper, and one portfolio for street law, and one Note for journal, and one chapter opener for the government book for street law, inc. And a partridge in a pear tree. 

Today was rough because we had a double-class in ethics in order to make up for a missed class earlier in the semester. I'm all about ethics, but four hours talking about the model code of conduct gets to be a bit much. Also, our professor, who I like very much, sometimes thinks that we are mind readers.

From this morning:

Prof: Now, rule 6.1 deals with pro bono service. What is the one word that sums up the nature of this rule?

Student 1: Voluntary?

Prof: No, that’s written into it…

Student 2: Suggested?

Prof: Well, yes but that’s not what I’m looking for...

Student 3: Urged?

Prof: No

Student 4: Discretionary?

Prof: No

Student 5: Permissive?

Prof: No

Student 6: Optional?

Prof: No. Anyone else? Come on. One word.... Okay. The word I wanted you to come up with was “precatory.” 

Well of COURSE it was precatory. That's the very next word I was going to say, because "precatory" sure was a word I knew before he said it. Yes, sir. It sure was.

Tiny Houses

I've been moderately obsessed with tiny houses for a while now. They exist as the beautifully designed answer to a question that no one really asked: how small of a space can still be called a fully functional home? 

Goo found a newspaper article about a tiny house build-site in Washington DC, so naturally Noah did some computer hacking to find out where it was and Goo, Kelsey, and I drove over to say hi. We expected a large group of people to be gathered, but it turns out we are the only ones creepy and stalker-ish enough to actually do this. Well, credit where credit is due: it was Goo's idea.

We walked up to the fence and a woman who was working on the tiny houses came up to us. This is how I remember the conversation going, in retrospect:

Goo: "We wanted to see your tiny houses."

Woman: "Oh, well we're going to be having an open house later and there are liability issues--" 

Goo: "--did I mention I was Emily Goo?"

Woman: "Oh, why didn't you say so, come on in, NEW BEST FRIEND EVER."

It was something like that. Goo also brought cookies, which seemed to help. Anyway, they let us in and were super cool about letting us tour around their construction zone.

First stop: tiny garden!

Goo shows what will one day be an entire house.

Two of the houses next to one another.

I'm standing in what will eventually be a shower.

And this will be the sleeping area.

Immediately after leaving, Goo had a friend request from the woman and an invitation to some sort of event.

This morning I had the opportunity to go to the US Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces to hear some arguments and chat with the Chief Justice, who is a professor at Georgetown. It was a really cool experience, and I think I'll be taking his seminar next fall because I hear it is awesome.

Tonight I ended up going to a panel that Steph R. organized on human trafficking. I thought that I was pretty well informed about that kind of stuff but was still shocked by some of the information presented. Basically, the entire plot for the movie Taken is true and happening in the US on a daily basis. That's a good summary. 

Exams start after this week, which means the most wonderfully busy time of the year has begun! One portfolio, one case study, one note, one paper, and three exams left to go.

The Story Wherein Kelsey Does Not Ruin Thanksgiving

Wednesday was the first day of Thanksgiving break. The plan was to go to Kels's house to help her pack some things and then go back to my place to be picked up by Mom and Rachel. Since I am writing this in my blog and since you have no doubt grown accustomed to my story set-ups, you already know that the plan did not quite work as expected. In fact, so many things went wrong that it almost seemed right.

First, Kels locked her car keys and house keys in her house. Also in her house were my keys to my house that I had forgotten. Everything was alright, though, because her landlord was just fifteen minutes away and said he would be able to come back because his work had not started yet. Kelsey went to go sit behind her house and wait. Because she was raised in Virginia and is polite, she texted him to advise him of her location:

"Waiting in back of house. Head hung in shame."

He texted back "No problem."

Twenty minutes later, Kelsey slowly came to the realization that her landlord had thought that she was telling him that she had gotten back in the house and that he had likely turned around and gone back to work. A phone call confirmed this, and her landlord informed her that he could not get off work until 3PM. Kelsey then burst into tears and started repeating the mantra "I killed Thanksgiving" over and over again. She had not, but she kept saying this.

Then- hope! I knew that everyone who had a key to my house (where I had a spare key to Kels's house which I had also forgotten to bring) was gone for break, but I did not know that Noah and given Davia his key to hold while he was gone. This provided a window of opportunity and a plan was hatched.

I took Mom's car with Rach while Mom and Kels stayed at Kels's place and drove to the law center, where Davia was working. Davia came out to give me the key and while looking for a place to pull over I scraped the car against the bumper of a mail truck. Davia helpfully asked me, in all sincerity, why I had hit the truck. I think I said something along the lines of "because that's how this day has decided to go and I'm not going to fight it anymore" but I am not sure she heard me. The truck driver came out and said there was no damage to her bumper at all so I could just go.

So I went back to my place and was shocked when I was able to get in without destroying something or ripping off the door-handle. Got my keys, went back to Kels's place, got her keys out and my keys back, and went on our way.

It was great to be back in Maryland for Thanksgiving. Rachel and I ran four miles on Thanksgiving morning so that we could eat more during the day. Well, that's why I did it, at least.

Friday morning we headed back to DC early because we had tickets to see Jekyll and Hyde at the Kennedy Center starring one of the guys who didn't win American Idol. To be fair to Constantine, he was actually the best part of the show. The show itself left me wondering how any producer ever thought that it would be any good. The plot seems written by a fifth grader:

A doctor wants to get his insane father out of the insane asylum and develops (don't ask how) a serum (don't ask what it's made of) to separate (don't ask how) the evil (don't ask what this means) and the good (this either) from man (don't ask where the evil goes once it is separated). Skipping all animal trials or even illicit volunteer trials, the doctor violates every rule of scientific method that has ever existed and injects himself with what appears to be 50 gallons of phosphorescent liquids that also happen to be conducting electricity (don't ask where THAT comes from). This turns the doctor into a terrible monster who takes a different name and takes his hair out from a ponytail in order to become ENTIRELY UNRECOGNIZABLE to people who have known him for his whole life. The doctor, when he is back to being himself, tells no one what is happening and tries to fix it himself by ordering drugs (don't ask why he knows these drugs will work) from the least efficient apothecary on the planet. Then he turns back into the monster and kills everyone BECAUSE SCIENCE. 

Someone looked at this plot and said "sounds great! But when we make it into a musical, let's be sure that there is only one real full company song so that we can fill the rest of the show with solo pieces because audiences love an entire show filled with nothing but one person singing to and with himself. Right? Right?"

I'm being harsh. It was a fun show, it just didn't make any sense.

On Saturday Kels and I went to see Skyfall, or as I like to call it: Home Alone V: Skyfall, because a large portion of the movie was basically a more violent and realistic interpretation of the home invasion sequence from any Home Alone movie. I enjoyed it.

Today I was able to see Brian and Kay as they passed through on their way up to Philly, and then it was off to work in the library. After the library we celebrated Jeff's birthday with some wine, cheese, chili, and cornbread. We almost celebrated with a tart, but it was moldy so we just sang a sad happy birthday song while Jeff held a moldy tart. We also decorated the Christmas tree, because it is Christmas season now and our house will smell like a pine forest for the next month because that's how Christmas is done.

Negotiations (Part 2)

This past weekend I did the second half of my two-weekend Negotiations Seminar. Though three 9-5 days (plus homework) over the weekend was taxing and difficult, the course itself was so good that I would do it again in a heartbeat. My role in the final negotiation simulation of the weekend was that of saboteur to a six-party multi-billion dollar deal. I got to gleefully pretend like I was engaging in principled negotiation tactics while in reality subverting the entire process. Though I didn't succeed in sinking the entire negotiation, I did manage to make two of the parties extremely angry at one another for absolutely no reason. Even after I explained that my job had been to derail the negotiations and that I had purposefully misled both of them against one another, they were still angry at each other. Negotiating is a very serious game.

My final project for this class is going to be a case negotiation that I will need to workshop, so I may bother some of you in the next month or so if you would like to help out.

I lost some time last week to a brief stomach virus. While I am 100% healthy and feeling great now, I had to spend last Tuesday in bed all day. At first I thought it was food poisoning and so I threw out everything that I had eaten that day, but then Kelsey and Josh got the same thing. It was a worse bug than I've had in a while. At one point, around 3AM, I recall being crouched over my trashcan whimpering "I have nothing left to give" to my body, in the hopes that it might cease its noble work of removing the perceived threat from my system by any means necessary. So that was fun.

Everything else about the week went very well. My students were half-overjoyed and half-dejected that I had shaved my mutton chops. Their attachment to the facial hair was unexpected.

Last night, Kels went to go see Twilight with Stephanie R., so Ben and Micah and I had a man-date. We went to the Beergartenhaus on H street and had liters of beer and many plates of delicious sauerkraut. Afterwards, Ben demonstrated his growing ability of drink mixing and created some remarkable cocktails with very uncommon ingredients.