apparently it really has been a long time since i’ve written. is it april already? i had an epiphany in administrative law today that there is exactly a month (!!!!!) until that final. eek! there is still ice on the ground and it snowed a bunch the other day. this semester has been a bit crazy, and it’s already getting down to crunch time. it doesn’t feel like it because of the weather but the locals i’ve run into at the soro market have assured me that this is the longest winter they’ve had in a while. however, the big black bunnies that frequent campus have been hopping around and munching on the now exposed grass. the really huge mounds of snow/ice are gone but now we have tons of mud. therefore, i am escaping back to atlanta for part of the summer and then returning back to exile here in soro. soro is really gorgeous during the summer though and it got really hot in august. it’s weird to already be thinking about summer when i am still wearing my coat and boots around though. i feel like i have a million and a half papers to write and my administrative law final to worry about and my take home energy final…just one more month! that’s all for a quick update…for now : )
Archive for the 'Sahiti Karempudi' Category
Literally. And it’s physically painful. Let it snow again!
Everyone is now studying very diligently for finals. I was really really good this semester about keeping up with my reading every week, so I don’t have that much to go over before finals. I have a take home final for Energy which I pick up tomorrow, Firestone’s Environmental Law final on Monday, and my Extinctions paper due next Thursday. That’s wonderfully spaced out : D
I’m really excited about next semester! I’m doing an “independent research project” with Sarah about research and development in energy for Professor Dworkin, with the opportunity to get published! That was one of my goals, so I’m glad that is working out!
I went to an Academic Success program this morning on preparing for finals and found it extremely lacking. I asked the woman in charge if them if next semester she could prepare programs for MSELs because she only discussed things that would apply to 1Ls. However, I guess it won’t really matter next semester because the only class we’ll all have in common is the second half of Legal Writing and Research. I’ll be taking Administrative Law next semester too. Other than that, I’m still trying to figure out my schedule.
On a personal note, I’ve had kind of a rough week. Sorry if I’m in a bad mood!
Classes are now over. In an attempt to change it up a bit, I am at Dartmouth studying in one of the libraries. Apparently Dartmouth is not applying their endowment to heating the libraries and I am freezing cold (but productive and awake!)…tomorrow I will bring a blanket.
This obviously did not work for me last night. I tried to go to bed at midnight, but couldn’t fall asleep until around 4:30 am. Needless to say, my plan to wake up earlier and do work for environmental law did not pan out. What I am realizing more and more about law school is that to really get the full experience you need to be outgoing with the professors. Talking to them, getting to know them, and more importantly, having them know you is really helpful. My department at Emory was about 60 kids, and there were no grad students, so we were treated with the same courtesy usually saved for grad students. Weekly, we had a waffle brunch (Waffle Thursdays) prepared by Dr. Hickcox, and after our seminar class, we were taken out to dinner on the department’s bill. Those experiences instilled the need to get to know my professors on a personal and professional basis. It is only by doing this that you will get other opportunities, like the opportunity to write a paper to eventually be published, and to get a research position with a professor.
Yesterday I wore a sweater, two jackets, and two shirts to combat the cold. Today I downgraded to a light sweater and a puffy jacket and I feel just fine. I have to say that buying my Uggs was the best investment that I could have made because my feet still stay warm : ) However, as everyone likes to remind me…it will get much much colder than this : ( I can’t even begin to imagine.
Ok…I haven’t been keeping up with this too well, and for the silliest reason: I kept forgetting my username and password. Whoops! I’ll try to update more now that classes are ending, finals are starting…I’m sure hilarity will ensue.
We got our first big snow!! And by big I mean HUGE. I haven’t seen real snow in over a decade so imagine my shock when classes are canceled today and there’s about 8 inches of snow on the ground. I opened my door and then took a nice little tumble down my front steps which had started to resemble a small mountain. This was the first one of many such tumbles down the front steps.
Classes are drawing to a close. The memos for Legal Writing were due last week, so that’s one class down. I have a paper and a presentation due for Environmental Ethics tomorrow, so that’ll be another class down. That leaves my Energy take home final, the open materials Environmental Law final, and my paper for Extinctions. More than the finals themselves, I’m worried that the pressure I put on myself will do me in. I’ve already inadvertently started getting on my “finals sleep schedule”. This entails staying up until 3 or so studying or finishing random things around the house, but sleeping in to a luxurious 11 am. This schedule works really well for me, but I don’t particularly recommend it to anyone else. I really like staying up late though : )
As for classes…I can’t believe they are almost over! Where did the time go? How are we in the last week of class?
And on a random note…I think I’m going to reduce my coffee intake and switch back to tea. I’m enjoying a nice warm cup of vanilla black tea right now and it’s the perfect anecdote to the cold weather outside : )
And a special super duper thanks to Pete for shoveling my front steps after I took yet another tumble down those front stairs!
So it’s been a while since I’ve posted. My excuse is that I had my password saved on Internet Explorer which has decided not to work on my computer anymore. I have now switched to Firefox like everyone else. My computer is currently in the process of falling apart. It will now not work without having the power cord plugged in and it has decided not to really connect to wireless anymore. Needless to say, I rely on good ol fashioned pens and paper in class. It’s starting to get cold outside. I checked weather.com and it’s supposed to snow next weekend! I haven’t seen real snow in many many years so it’ll be a real shock. Especially considering I’ve never experienced a real fall (the leaves are actually supposed to fall?!) and had to sweep up all the leaves on my front stairs. I had a stressful week when 3 different assignments were due (a memo, a paper for Energy, and an outline for Extinctions) but the stress has passed, and a whole new wave of academic concerns is about to come up. Another memo (the pressure is on now because there was only one A out of both classes on the last one), the Ethics paper and presentation, the Extinctions paper, and, of course, finals. I only have two finals this semester, Energy and Environmental Law. Energy is a take home and Environmental Law is an open materials final. Not to say that I’m not thoroughly enjoying my classes…I definitely am. Each class and each professor has their own quirks that are great. If only I could list quotes from Professor Firestone…he makes me laugh more than any other professor I have. Out of all the classes I am taking this semester, I only truly dislike one of them. One out of five is not bad at all. I’ve been going out of town a lot on the weekends while I still can before it gets too cold for me to travel comfortably. I’ve made my last trip for a while (minus Thanksgiving…I’m going home to California) and I have an undetermined trip to Boston to visit my friend Kate from college (she’s in grad school there). By that time, I’m sure I’ll need to escape back to a big city, and away from other law school students to study for finals. Thursday night I went on an adventure with my friend Sarah and scoped out potential places to study for finals. It’s scary that its the first week of November and we already have to start worrying about finals!!!
This post was all over the place! I’ll be posting more often now that I remember my password : )
Austin, Texas
Home to the first Whole Foods Market and more than 300 days of sunshine a year (and you thought this city was all about the music) Austin spreads out among 205 parks, 14 nature preserves, and 25 greenbelts. Talk about green. The city plans to meet 20 percent of its energy needs with renewable energy and energy efficiency by 2020. Factor in county laws protecting the region’s natural watershed from development, a recycling center that dates back to 1970, a dozen outdoor farmer’s markets, city buses that offer free rides on ‘high ozone’ days and an innovative “pay-as-you-throw” trash collection program that rewards residents for being less wasteful and Austin easily earns a spot on the Green List.
Burlington, Vermont
In this small city on Lake Champlain, community pride and responsibility drive the urge to be green. More than one-third of all energy used in the city comes from renewable resources, an impressive statistic in chilly New England. Burlington laws don’t allow the use of pesticides on public parks, land or waterways. Challenged by their local leaders to come up with environmental priorities and solutions to existing problems, residents formed an extensive network of citizen-based groups that take on everything from environmental programs to clean up toxic sites to watchdog groups to monitor pollution in Lake Champlain. With local agriculture a mainstay of the region, schools are switching to locally- and organically-grown foods. The idea of sustainability is becoming part of the school curriculum so, as Burlington’s children grow and take their places in the community — any community — they can take a greener way of thinking along with them.
San Francisco, California
To the superlatives the City by the Bay has acquired over the decades — steepest, foggiest, most expensive — add greenest. With bus, subway and ferry services that reach throughout the Bay Area, avid bikers and devoted car poolers, San Francisco has a good track record for getting people out of their cars. In fact, more than half the city’s residents use public or alternative transportation to get to work. With Golden Gate Park, the newly-decommissioned Presidio, beaches, extensive bike paths and access to the Pacific and the Bay, the city has an abundance of recreational options. Prevailing winds from the water help keep pollution at bay. The city is also a leader in green building, with more than 20 building projects registered for official green certification. And city residents are willing to tax themselves. Voters said yes to allowing the city to sell $100 million in revenue bonds to support renewable energy.
http://promo.realestate.yahoo.com/the_top_ten_greenest_cities.html
Last night, on the recommendation from a friend, I watched the 1970s movie The Paper Chase. Lo and behold, the professor today asks in Energy Policy: “Who here has read or seen The Paper Chase?” I, in a brave but stupid move, enthusiastically assert that not only have I seen it! I saw it last night! I, in my enthusiastic daze, did not fully anticipate where this was heading. Now, let me enlighten you, because I hadn’t heard of this movie either. The Paper Chase is about students at Harvard Law School and their relationship with a very difficult and unforgiving professor. This does not sound promising for class. As I sit second row, center (I used to sit front row center but felt like a putz and moved up one row), and right in the line of sight of the Professor, which was combined with my childly enthusiastic assertion that I had recently seen the movie, I was CHOSEN. The chosen one for this particular experiment. And the experiment was: let’s play The Paper Chase! And by play I mean live it. I had also foolishly asserted to my friend last night that my life was already like this movie (I assure you that it is not…if it was I wouldn’t have time to watch the movie or write in this blog or sleep). Now I really had the opportunity to live this movie (although our professor is FAR from the infamous Kingsfield of the book/movie/tv series).
The method starts out the same: What is the case? What is this case about? And so the Socratic Method proceeds through the case and the dissents.
The beginning of this story is more interesting than the outcome. I am watching Vertigo tonight and am a bit frightening of the implications this has for any classes tomorrow.
I have been engaged in an epic battle with a fly. This fly has decided that he (or she) would like to live in my apartment. No thank you, I already have a roommate. Now this fly has outsmarted me on every turn (thank you Emory education). I have chased it around my apartment with everything, including a spatula. Alas, he still remains. He even watched the Emmys with me tonight, and we shared a good giggle about Al Gore’s Emmy win and the multiple “foibles of Bush” montages. I marched out (relatively) early this morning to invest in fly paper. I even discussed it with the person at the register (with whom I have weekly conversations about the weather and he continues to give me good advice/scare the hell out of me) and he said that the fly paper would definitley do the trick. To no avail. Mr. Fly has outsmarted me yet again. I’ll give him a warm place to stay again tonight. After all, it is 30 degrees outside.
Ah relaxation after a day of classes. I just got out of Environmental Law, which I sincerely enjoy. It is a challenging class with a challenging professor, which is part of the appeal. It is nice to have a professor that is definitely willing to challenge you and get you to think further and extend your line of logic. It is a class that you must pay attention in and keep on your toes. I sit in the front right hand corner, and boy do we like raising our hands. We had a nice little tag team event of answering one question today, with each of us answering a different part and bailing out the person next to us when they didn’t know the answer. It is great to know that the stereotype of the cuthroat law school student doesn’t apply here. Everyone is willing to help out with the answer, but not at your expense. I really really enjoy this class, and it’s somewhat validating that I can follow the logic in the class and not get too confused. : D
On an even more personal note, I think I am coming down with a nice little head cold. The weather here is constantly changing. On Saturday it was over 90 degrees and we almost melted at the men’s rugby game (congrats to VLS for winning!) and the next day it was 55 and raining. The drastic changes have done a number on my sinuses, which are killing me. But, MSELs don’t have classes on Fridays this semester (!!!) so that gives me a three day weekend to medicate and get better.
On another side note, it was Lisa’s birthday yesterday so Happy 21st to her!
