1L
Three weeks into my 1L year
"God damn it!" I wake up to the inceasant noise every morning, murmurring to nobody, "couldn't you stop that for one fucking day, spare yourself a moment, if not for me, then for this god damn rain?" The colosseum is being taken down. Dynamite is scheduled for mid october. Out of my window stands the skeleton of what-used-to-be the symbol of the city's revival program, only to be succeeded by something more grandoise, at least one would hope. Demolition begins at 7 am sharp, rain or shine, but work does not seem to carry beyond lunchtime. They are not in a particular hurry - indeed dynamite is going to pick up the slack however they do it.
Up I rise, not just awaken by this noise, Kingsfield holds class 5 days a week at 8:30, rain or shine as well. That is, unless he is in court, unless he is giving a speech somewhere, unless he is in Italy on vacation, unless it is a combination of any or all the above. The image of Kingsfield may give you too many ideas than it should. He is rather old, white haired, surrounded by a sense of reverrence. But he is also amicable, kind and full of wisdom. I still think of him as Kingsfield though. The classroom strikes too much assemblance - tiered seats, long tables, solemn students - all too familiar to be mistaken. And he is the focal point, center of attention and commands power simply with his presence.
Professors seem to walk straight off a dusted portrait - for their looks, the way they dress, and their distant manner mien. Students however are quite the contrary. My small group has started its own assessment of our class, not necesarily objectively - and I would argue it is sorta wishful thinking - by saying this is the best small group. Indeed, we have a star-lit line up of professors - calabresi, resnik, brilmayer, and our favorite small group leader balkin. You really could not ask for any better than this! Besides, the group is composed of people with distinctive personalities and yet amicable in nature and fun to be around with. Let's have a quick rundown.
There are the party dudes: Kwame and Matt and to some extent me.
There are the party chicas: Jess, Moon and Mytili to some extent Claire and Jami too
There are the conservatives: Bridge and Adam and me to some extent
Crazy marxists: only me!
Ubber-liberals: Shanor (she would disagree though) mm.. perhaps moon and mytili too, jami sometimes and mike, and brian
quiet but could be fun: lindsay, and brian and michael
very intelligent and something will come out of: Brian, matt
i love to stare at: ceara for sure
you get the idea - different personalities and political views are the ingredients for interesting debates in class and balkin as you would infer from the name balkanization is but good at igniting debtes, setting traps to corner individuals.
It is such a privilage to not have any particular agenda, not worry about job perspective, but to only be around some intelligent and interesting people, learn something cool and controversial.
I am glad that I decided to come here. The only regret is that mango cannot be here together with me.
(to be continued)
