Tuesday, September 26

Proper Law Lectures

I had three hours of lectures today. Legal skills and process, Contract, and Law of Business Organisations. I'm not normally one to complain but anyone not doing single honours doesn't have to do Law of Business Organisations, which I found thoroughly mind numbing. Luckily however my boredom with the subject matter was counterbalanced against the fact that our lecturer is what can only be described as a nutbar.

I was not fortunate enough to sit at the side of the lecture theatre today so instead I had to contend myself with trying not to headbutt the 'desk' (one of those little fold out desks attached to lecture seats just big enough to fit your pad of paper on) as I began to slowly nod my head forwards and suddenly jerk back sitting upright again.

Now that, for three of my modules at least, we have had our first lectures it is time to start preparing for next week's seminars. I have had a look at the mild assignments we have to do and was thoroughly pleased to note that the questions to answer had very little to do with the information given in the lectures. Saying that I am thoroughly pleased might seem to be sarcastic, but in actual fact it is a good thing that I am going to have to spend several hours deciding what type of offence I think has been committed in certain cases, especially as I have no criminal or tort law knowledge whatsoever (we don't even cover them this year). I am glad because, as our lecturers have been only too kind to point out, if we do not learn how to do our own research and get these skills now, one day we will give bad advice to clients, and we will get sued for negligence. I could quite happily do an extra bit of study than lose my house.

That's all for now. Though I would like to send a message to the Cathedral Canal tour company; Your constant going passed of my bedroom window fully laden with passengers of a less than young disposition all wielding cameras whilst I am only half dressed is a practise I'd rather you avoided. Some sort of fog horn attached to your boat so that I might know that it's time to close my curtains would help...

Friday, September 22

Where to begin?

Fresher's week has been possibly one of the most exciting weeks of my life. Ralph Little playing air guitar with a lightsaber on stage at our SU last night was definitely a highlight. It's not all been fun and games however, I've had a few introductory lectures here and there, one this morning that I very nearly didn't get up for, thanks to staying until 2.30 am watching the aforementioned Mr Little and then sitting with my flatmates out in the cold watching one of the apartment courts being evacuated becuase their fire alarm was going off.

Lectures have been quite boring so far, becuase we haven't been learning any law as of yet. I have learnt however, that if I sit mid-way up on the far right of the lecture theatre I can lean against the wall and try to take power naps to nurse my hangover. Tomorrow we are to be shown a demonstration moot put on by some former students which I am looking forward to.

I signed up to the Law Society, where I was given a coupon for discount coffee which is quite handy as I've been drinking nothing but coffee since I arrived on Sunday. After my two hour lecture today on the four main areas of law that I would be learning this year (Legal Skills and process, Contract law, Public Law, law of business organisations) I thought it might be fun to go and buy the two text books that each subject required. I'm now down 170 pounds, but the statute books are coming in pretty handy as a makeshift door-stop.

I shouldn't have been so suprised but after our introductory seminar we were given a small assignment for the next day. It seemed quite easy though I did manage to get most of the questions wrong, though I am putting that down to not having ever studied any law whatsoever. We had some questions in a lecture to discuss amongst ourselves, that I actually got right, becuase I'd been paying attention in the seminars. All the money is worth it, I am learning.

We were informed that we will have to do four to six hours preparation after each lecture for it's corresponding seminar. It sounds worse than it really is, but it works out to about a 9 to 5 week. Which isn't strictly a problem as my evenings and weekends will be free. I don't know if anyone reading this will have seen Lincoln this year but they have built the SU (the biggest in England apparently, it has 3 bars and a nightclub - the biggest dance floor I've seen (one comic who was doing a gig on tuesday commented that the designer had simply decided to "build the biggest fecking bar in the world") directly opposite the the library. I also have to pass two bars to get to my lectures which I find slightly daunting, knowing that it is only my will power and my desire not to become a hobo that will keep me walking past.

There's been no love interests thus far and anyone who remembers a young law student stumbling along with with a young lady holding a loud conversation about the properties of high-heels is a liar.

I'm sure there will be much more to write about. Especially as I have a three day weekend fast approaching.

Edited to add - This blog was actually written yesterday but the site seems to be having problems with posting, so this entry is appearing twice but the copy should hopefully be removed by the system soon.

I have since been to the moot, which though interesting was rather boring at the same time, and it seemed like an awful lot of effort went into putting it on. A little too much work if you ask me. Of course, being someone that knows the right time to do something even when you really don't want to, I have signed up for the mooting society (I've already signed up for the law society). We'll be practising moots, holding mooting competitions with prizes and if your team wins you get to go for national moots. I'm not really looking that forward to it, but it should help develop my skills, and we have an assessed moot to do later in the semestar so it should help a lot.

Friday, September 15

The day that I leave is fast approaching. Since my last blog entry I have bought everything that I need, and sorted every form and detail. I know exactly where I'm going, when I am to arrive and where to head for with my shiny new key; everything. Only one thing remains to be done.

Pack.

I've been putting it off for days, every new item of clothing or dish-cloth has been piled upon the last item that I bought, until as has occurred, half my bedroom is hidden behind the mess. With so much stuff to fit in such a small amount of room in the car I'm having to make some pretty tough decisions; Rubik's cube or Hacy-sac, Chris Rock Dvd or an extra pair of underpants. What with novelty bedsheets and 5 boxes of single serving breakfast cereals I may be close to having a nervous breakdown. There are of course some more serious issues such as if I try to take six pairs of trainers I don't think I'll have space for my guitar.

Being frightfully lazy I wont discover the answer to all these riddles until I try to cram it all in the car early on Sunday morning, when no doubt it shall be raining heavily.


Thankfully the most important item has found a place among the boxes; teabags. I do hope one of my flatmates brings milk...

Monday, September 4

I've not written a blog before, nor an online journal (which I suppose this will be).

I am not yet a Law Student, I begin my course at Law School (at a Uk University, being British myself) in a matter of weeks. I have decided to write a blog as a diary for myself and so that anyone who follows the same path can see what awaits them and no doubt avoid mistakes and pitfalls that I myself may fall in to.

So, at the present I have nothing of value to write as I have only set the blog up now to avoid having to do it at the start of term when I have about a million other things to deal with. Not that I wont make another blog entry or two before I leave. I will for instance have to undergo the joyous task of packing and the life altering decisions of whether to bring my own fabric softener.

I studied for my A-Levels at a Grammar school where I took a healthy dose of daily science lessons combined with more science lessons to create rather too much science for any one person to reasonably be forced to cope with. After two years of this I took a gap year and decided that I wanted to get as far away from the sciences as possible. I then hit upon the idea of Law, not because my parents are Lawyers (mainly because they are not) but because I'm too stupid to complete a degree in Medicine and too soulless to join the clergy.


Having seen the size of textbooks on Law I am seriously considering bringing my all-in-one edition of Tolkien's Lord of The Rings, as a bit of light reading.