Habe Ich Recht?

Passing the California bar exam...

2007-11-17T12:52:00.000-08:00

Well, I know what that's like. Because I did it. (!!!)

I found out at 6pm last night that I passed the bar. This was after spending several nervous hours and several hundred dollars at the mall because I just couldn't wait at home anymore. SP looked up the results for me on the computer and told me when I was in the car on the way home, at a stoplight. I screamed. I laughed. I fist-pumped. I "whohooed." And then I cried. They were tears of happiness and relief -- the end of a long, sometimes terrible journey was here. I thought back to all the stress, self-doubt, anger, and work, and was just relieved that it was all behind me and that I NEVER HAVE TO TAKE A LAW EXAM AGAIN.

Of course, now I'm thinking about tomorrow, and preparing my heart for hearing who among those I know did not pass. I am very mindful of how that could have been me, and my heart is breaking today for those who worked so hard, only to be disappointed.

I'm finding it hard to concentrate and focus today at work, which is understandable I guess. I'm going to just enjoy this as long as I can, and be proud of all that I have accomplished.

More Mnenomics; Last Night At Home Before the Exam

2007-07-22T21:58:00.000-07:00

At the request of my hockey teammate Amy, here are the other hockey mnenomics that I came up with to remember the bar stuff.

*****************************************************
First Amendment (Speech) Rules: There are three separate ways to analyze a statute to determine whether it unconstitutionally inhibits free speech (I promise if you have studied for the bar exam these make sense):

Method #1 -- Facial Attack
Federov's Overt Velocity Proves Unsettling
Facial Attack
Overbreadth
Vagueness
Prior Restraint
Unfettered Discretion

Method #2 -- Restraint on Specific Content of Speech
Sadness Pervades Selanne's Upcoming Retirement
Specific (content)
Protected Speech
Strict Scrutiny
Unprotected Speech
Regulation (by government) Lawful

Method #3 -- Content-Neutral Regulation of Speech
Nabokov Tries Pushing Mountains, Mostly Fails
Neutral (content)
Time
Place
Manner
Middle-Tier
Forum Types

*****************************************************
Mnenomics for Trusts

Tucker Probably Can't Produce Hat Tricks
Types
Private Express
Charitable
Pour Over Wills
Honorary
Totten

(PS -- I am obviously a fan of neither Tucker nor the Leafs)

Raising Stanley, Selanne's Ducks Enjoyed Raucous Celebrations
Restrictions
Spendthrift
Support
Discretionary
Equity
Resulting
Constructive

*****************************************************

General Evidence Issues (as opposed to hearsay exceptions, which I listed in an earlier post):

Roy Left, Logically Fuming -- Nobody Cared About Bad Defense
Relevance
Legal
Logical
Foundation
Notice
Competency
Authentication
Burden
Determination

For Mean, Reckless Play, Every Player Hates Pronger
Form
Method
Response
Purpose
Exclusions
Privilege
Hearsay
Parol Evidence

*****************************************************

That's all I've got. I probably should have done more, but oh well.

I am feeling pretty much "oh well" at this point. I am tired, worn out, and calm after this day of napping, shopping at the mall, and going to to dinner and drinking wine.

I am ready to go and "get 'er done" as they say. My gosh, I'm sick of talking about it, thinking about it, and worrying about it. I need to just rest and be calm, because I'm pretty well-prepared. I won't get the top score, but I should do okay.

Tommorrow, we're off to the hotel. Let the adventure begin!

Apparently, I rock!!

2007-07-20T07:35:00.001-07:00

My friend Sue named me a Rockin' Girl Blogger. Sue and I go way back to my San Diego days when we worked together. What an honor that she chose me as a Rockin' Girl!

This was just the boost I needed with two days left to go before the exam. 7:30am and I've been at it for an hour already -- I have a lot of nervous energy and am a bit panicked because there is still so much I don't know. But it's getting too late to concern myself with all by now.

I went to the gym yesterday for the first time in ages and ran for 40 minutes. I barely thought about the test at all while I was doing that, and by the end I felt a billion times better. I'm going back today for more. My brain is pretty full at this point and I think I just need some time to absorb what I've learned and to let the rest go as much as possible.

Ready for it to be here and be over so I can get my life back.

6 days away

2007-07-18T20:30:00.000-07:00

So this time next week I will be 2/3 done. Small comfort, considering there is still so much I don't know. I keep thinking about the PMBR guy on the Property CD who kept saying "You can't know everything!" Indeed. But I just feel like there is so much I still don't know, and I effectively only have a few days of studying left.

I am taking people's general advice and quitting studying on Sunday afternoon. I have to go to the mall and get a new watch. I will also need to go to decompress at that point because I will pretty much be a wreck by then. I keep reminding myself how much luckier I am than a lot of people, and I don't have to pass the bar to keep my job. But I have spent every day for the last two months studying for this thing, and it would be a major bummer to fail it.

I have had a pretty good studying day today though. I really did a lot with wills and trusts and finally feel like I can handle an essay. Of course that means I probably sacrificed a bunch of other things. But the time left is so limited that I can only do and learn so much more at this point.

I have barely done anything with the California distinctions in evidence and civ pro, and I think I will be reviewing them briefly this weekend in hopes that will suffice. I do have short outlines with each subject that have the distinctions in those comment bubbles, but I've barely looked at those outlines since I made them a few weeks ago because there was so much else to get done.

I'm in a constant battle to assure myself that I've done enough. I did not really put in 12-15 hours days every day on studying for this thing, like I have heard some people say that they do. It's just too boring. I studied on my own between 4 and 8 hours a day, and I heard every BarBri lecture except one. I have done over 1600 MC questions at this point, and will probably do less than 2000 by the time the studying is over (I've seen websites that suggest doing 3000 -- that's not going to happen here). I have written a bunch of essays, and will have done 5 performance tests by the end of this week. I never run out of time, and by now I am writing concise essays that address all the issues in most subjects in 45 minutes.

That is going to have to do. I think preparation is important, and I have devoted two months to preparing. But I have also spent two months trying to convince myself that I'm smart enough to handle whatever comes my way with a reasonable amount of grace and coherence, and with as little panic as possible.

You can't know everything. Let's just hope that by Tuesday I'll know enough.

Barristers Bid Farewell to Wigs

2007-07-13T10:38:00.000-07:00

Interesting article in the UK Times online about doing away with wigs for English barristers.

I kind of like the idea of trial lawyers have a uniform, like a wig and a gown, to lend solemnity to the whole occasion. So I am sad about this change. But I'm sure the government is happy to be going away with the wig allowance. I knew they were expensive but I didn't realize they were $5K expensive!

I have been thinking a lot about my Comparative Law class from last semester. Not only did we talk a lot about the English legal system, including barrister wigs, but we also briefly covered Chinese law, and one of the assigned readings was the Chinese constitution, which I think is one of the biggest pieces of propoganda fluff ever committed to paper. I was thinking about that yesterday, when I saw in the NY Times the confession of the Chinese equivalent of the USDA, who was executed recently for taking bribes. It's a fascinating piece of writing by this condemned man who, probably, based on a few other articles I've read about it, really had the country's best interests at heart and just got greedy. In China they don't mess around with that kind of stuff -- you do something like this, you pay the ultimate price.

I bet Duke Cunningham, the former Congressman from San Diego (only in San Diego could a guy like that get elected to so many terms) sure is glad that he lives in America and not China.

Bar studying, of course, continues. I feel at this point like I need to learn the law, make up more mnenomics, and keep pushing forward. But I also kind of feel like reviewing the law is a colossal waste of time at this point because I need to do a million more essays so that I have seen as much as possible and don't panic. They kept telling us in Barbri that the graders really don't care if you know the law or not, but I'm sure they want you to at least know the elements so you can spot issues. If you don't know the minimum contacts test elements for personal jurisdiction, how can you expect to get any points for a PJ answer? So I am pressing on with trying to stuff my brain with as many elements as I can, and then trying to remember them when I do practice essays.

I am also really looking forward to playing hockey this week. I have not really exercised at all and feel fat and lazy. An hour on the ice should cure some of that, at least.

Making up hockey mnenomics makes bar studying (kind of) fun

2007-07-11T11:39:00.000-07:00

Okay, only kind of fun. But I came up with some cool ones to remember all the hearsay exceptions. These are rules in evidence that allow hearsay (out-of-court statement offered to prove the truth of the matter asserted) to be admissible anyway. Hearsay is generally inadmissible if it is being offered for truth because it is not reliable (no chance to cross-examine the declarant or otherwise confirm if the declarant was making up the statement).

***********************************************************************
Non-Hearsay Under the Federal Rules:
Niedermeyer Notices Incoming Crosby, Inhibits Attack
N = Non-admission
N = Not offered for truth
I = Inconsistent statement (prior) under oath
C = Consistent statement prior to rebut charge that witness is lying
I = ID (prior)
A = Admission by Party Opponent

Hearsay Exception -- Declarant is Unavailable to Testify
Unusual Flopping Dominator Stops Pucks Specially
(U stands for unavailable)
F = Former Testimony
D = Dying Declaration
S = Statement Against Interest
P = Personal/Family History
S = Statement offered against party procuring witness unavailability

Hearsay Exception -- Declarant Availability Immaterial
There are a lot of these, so 2 separate phrases needed:

#1 -- Senator Emery Prefers Punching Rival Backstops
S = State of Mind
E = Excited Utterance
P = Present Sense Impression
P = Physical condition (medical diagnosis/treatment)
R = Recorded Recollection
B = Business Records

#2 -- Palffy Always Left Rearguards Flailing
P = Public Records
A = Ancient Documents
L = Learned Treatises
R = Reputation
F = Family Records

***********************************************************************

At this point, it's about whatever makes the boredom a little less, whatever makes the rules a little easier to remember, and whatever it takes to survive with the bar exam a mere 13 days away.

Supreme Court Term Ends, Bar Studying Continues

2007-06-28T08:45:00.000-07:00

An excellent (and short) article in the New Yorker by Jeffrey Toobin about the Supreme Court. Their term ended today. They've caused us to have to bid a sorry farewell to certain abortion rights, free speech rights, and affirmative action programs. Since I am studying right now for the bar I have not had time to read opinions, but I will after the studying ends and I've had a few stiff drinks.

I get so sad when I think about the Supreme Court now -- especially Justice Ginsburg. I can just see her sitting there, tiny and fuming (or maybe just sad, at this point), wondering how everything has gone so wrong.

Yes, this is what we got with a 2nd Bush term, and it's not going to change anytime soon. The anti-choice and homophobic zealots on the right must be absolutely salivating at this point. They probably figure it will only take another one or two years for Justice Kennedy to complete his switch to the dark side. Then anyone who's interested in equality and rights for anyone except white guys and corporations can just go and sit in the corner and cry in their beer. That day is not very far away.

Thank goodness the Republicans do not have strong candidates for the 2008 election. If we get another Republican in office then it's REALLY all over. Either Justice Stevens or Justice Ginsburg will probably be the next to go, and there are plenty of judges currently on the federal bench who will have no problem taking a SCOTUS appointment if it means acting as a puppet for a conservative administration. So much for separation of powers and judicial independence.

I'm just depressed. And on top of that it's almost 9am and I haven't started bar studying for the day yet. I try to do three essays a day, as well as doing some MC questions, without watching too many Will & Grace reruns that are stored in my Tivo. I am pretty familiar, at least generally, with the law in a lot of areas at this point. It's just a matter of practicing as much as possible at this point, and memorizing more and more while getting the techniques down.

I still hate Bar/Bri, especially for subjecting us to what was quite possibly the worst lecture in the history of legal studies -- last night's Remedies fiasco. I have a brilliant 60-page Remedies outline from my class last Spring. I could have stayed home and read that a few times and learned infinitely more.

I just want it to be over so I can get my life back.

Bar Exam Studying -- Writing an Evidence Essay

2007-06-13T00:15:00.000-07:00

Ugh.....

I just attempted to write my first essay for Evidence. I find Evidence essays really hard to write and organize. There appears to be a few different ways you can do it. I tend to talk about relevance of the evidence offered generally, than the form that this evidence takes, whether it is proper for it to be presented in that form, and if so whether there are any exceptions to admissibility of the evidence.

Of course Bar/Bri's sample answers do it totally differently, and they would admit a lot of stuff I would keep out. It makes me feel like my approach is totally wrong, which is very frustrating. It's hard enough to organize an evidence essay without thinking you're on the right track and doing it in a way that makes sense to you, only to read the sample answer and see that you totally messed up.

Bar/Bri has not been everything I hoped it would be. Granted, I know that most people who take Bar/Bri pass the bar exam. But they expect it to be a real review, and that you already know everything and just need a few hours of lecture to be able to answer really hard questions. I don't learn that way. I'm just not smart enough to pull that off. I do things much more slowly, a lot with open book in the beginning, to give myself a chance to process it all and make sure I am not learning rules the wrong way. I feel like a total Bar/Bri failure because I can't do their schedule all the way as quickly as they want us to. I know other people are having this experience as well. But it's just discouraging.

And now I have to deal with having written a totally crappy Evidence essay and without a real stand-by method to use in the future. I'm going to have to figure out how to do it. But not tonight. It's 12:30am and I'm tired so it will have to wait until the morning.

Bar Exam Blues

2007-06-03T11:06:00.000-07:00

Very dark days in the BP/SP household. I hate studying for the Bar Exam because Bar/Bri gives you more work than you can do, which so overwhelms and discourages me that I don't feel like doing any of it. Very depressed and low right now with the exam just over 50 days away.

However, other people's blogs can sometimes make you feel better. This one (written by someone in Indiana who passed the bar last year -- all her bar related posts are in the site linked above) is excellent. I felt better after reading it.

So apparently your grade on the bar exam does matter (to some)

2007-06-01T12:42:00.000-07:00

I realize that by posting this, readers who don't know me will now know where I went to law school. But I can't resist.

Apparently PEPPERDINE alum Land Murphy got the highest score on the Texas Bar exam. Land was the legend of the law school when I was a 1L and he was a 3L. I think he ended up getting one of the higest GPAs in its history, or something (but that distinction might go to some other smart guy who went to Pepperdine -- it's hard to keep straight all the rumors that float around that place). I don't know.

He seems to be equally prolific at taking bar exams as law school exams.

What I think is funny/interestng about this story is that he was a bit concerned about some of the essay questions and THOUGHT HE MIGHT END UP FAILING. This just shows what a self-esteem-killer the legal education and qualification process can be. Even if you have genius-level grades and kick everyone else's butt, self-doubt is never very far away. I'm glad he told that story actually, because it shows SELF-DOUBT HAPPENS....even to the best of us.

I don't mean to make light of Land's accomplishment. I know from 2 weeks of doing Bar-Bri that the bar exam is really really really really hard. It will be the most difficult thing I will ever undertake. So to get the highest score in the state is an amazing accomplishment.

Of course I will never get a good enough score to have a story published about me and it on the law school website ("Well, not with that attitude you won't..." would be SP's response to that remark). But that might be a good thing -- too much pressure. The older I get, the more I realize that MORE pressure is really the last thing I need -- I impose plenty of it on myself without any outside help.

Justice Ginsburg

2007-05-31T14:49:00.000-07:00

Fascinating article in the NY Times today about the new (and improved, I think) Justice Ginsburg. Are Alito and Roberts the final straws as far as she is concerned? It's an interesting idea that she is no longer willing to play nice and conciliatory, as she was when Rehnquist was CJ, and has become more and more alarmed at the behavior of the new guys on the block, so much so that she has delivered TWO oral dissents from the bench this term (more than during any other term).

I have written about the abortion decision dissent before in this blog (the post was called, if memory serves, "Enough Already"). Now, this week, she is again pointing out that laws designed to protect women are not necessarily enforced in a way that best protects women's interests anymore. This latest ruling (disclaimer -- I have not read the opinion, only news reports about it) apparently denied the right of a woman who worked for Goodyear to file a sex discrimination claim against them. Apparently she was routinely discriminated against (earning less than her male co-managers for many years), but according to the Court her claim was not filed in a timely matter, and the aim of the law is not to protect women, but to protect businesses from having to defend against stale claims. Since when do businesses need MORE protection from punishment for being involved in discriminatory behavior, especially blatant gender discrimination?

So here's a big shout-out to the Court's might minority -- Justices Ginsburg, Souter, Stevens, and Breyer. It was Ginsburg's dissent, but the fellas joined her in it (as they did in the abortion case), showing a very decent understanding for women's concerns and not giving in to the government or big business. I'm sure it has been really a hard decision for someone like Justice Ginsburg, who according to news articles puts a premium on decorum and tact, to issue her dissents orally. But thank goodness she did it, and thank goodness she didn't have to stand alone in doing so.

Update from the Esq.

2007-05-26T15:28:00.000-07:00

Haha, I promise that is the last time I will refer to myself as "Esq." Yes, I graduated from law school on Friday, May 18th. What a wonderful day! Lots of friends and family were there to wish me well, and I had some lovely time off during which I read some non-law books and watched a lot of TV. Of course that was too good to last.

Now I am in the beginning of the hell known as BARBRI. For the uninitiated, this is a very expensive program that everyone who wants to pass the bar exam subjects themselves to during the summer after graduating from law school. I go to classes and do homework every day -- just like law school. UGH. I answer practice test questions, make outlines, memorize rules, and try not to waste too much time (like I am now by writing in my blog), just like in law school. This will be my life for the next two months, until the test itself. SUPER UGH.

Yes, the California Bar Exam -- the days of reckoning for me are July 24-26, 2007. That's right. California is the only state in the nation with a 3-day exam (even NY only has 2 days). This is probably because of all the California-specific subjects they test us on, of which they have added TWO for the first time for the upcoming test (California Evidence and California Civil Procedure --- we have to know that in addition to the federal rules in both of these subjects).

I am trying to get into a routine. I get up and try to be at my desk studying by 8:30am, study through the morning, then have a break for lunch, a shower, and short nap. Then back to it for a few more hours. Then fight the traffic out to Woodland Hills to sit in a tiny conference room at the Holiday Inn from 6pm until 10pm, watching lectures on a large TV. The indignity! Over $3K paid for the privilege and we have to watch the classes on TV. Oh well, I only want to take the exam once so I need to pass it in July. Which I hope I can. The brilliance is you just have to pass. No one cares what your grade is (unlike in law school). How refreshing. But it's a hell of a lot of work and I foresee very little fun from now until 6pm on July 26th. At least SP promised me a trip to Vegas after it's all over.

Another update -- I will be working as a reference librarian in the law school library starting on 8/1. I accepted their job offer a few weeks ago and can't wait to start making $ again. This means, of course, I need to get a library degree. There are some (mainly) online programs, and I applied to one. We'll see if I get in there and how that will all work out. Because of the horror stories of blogging about one's employer, I will continue to keep this blog as anonymous as I have before (although those who know me will know it's, well, me).

My final bit of news -- grades. I have spent 5 semesters bitching about my sucky law school grades, straight B's and C's with 2 A's thrown in by a fluke (yes, 2 A's in 5 semesters). Somehow, however, the stars aligned for me this semester and I got all A's and made the Dean's List, including the highest grade given in my Comparative Law class. How that happened I will never know. I personally think all the other 3Ls in my classes stopped working hard, but because I am a freak I did (could) not. I also know I changed my strategy a bit this semester and pounded the practice essays after finishing my outlines early. They told us to do that during first year, of course. But I am stubborn and it took me 3 years to believe them that that actually works. TRUST ME PEOPLE, IT DOES. I am far from a stellar law student, but I managed to run the table my last semester of law school. Keep the faith, keeping working hard, don't give up or doubt yourself, and it can happen for you too.

These Girls Are Golden

2007-05-01T14:48:00.001-07:00

So my hockey team won last Friday, 7-0. But it wasn't just any victory. It was game 3 of the best 2-out-of-3 series against the Silver Team for the championship of our league's Winter season. These girls brought it (as indicated by the score and the 5 different goal scorers). I have never been prouder of them, or to be a part of a hockey game, than I was last Friday.

I'm hoping that victory translates into success here in my last few weeks of law school. One final (Remedies) done, two more (Corporations and Comparative Law) to go, and I have to turn in a paper in my International Litigation class. Then it's over. Not that I need to do well at this point -- as long as I pass, I graduate. But I want the satisfaction of knowing I did my best all the way to the end.

Graduation is going to be one great day.

Enough Already

2007-04-18T23:44:00.000-07:00

Okay, NBC has had the pictures and video from the VA Tech psycho for a few hours now, and that crazy guy is sneering at me from practically every news Web site. Why glorify him? He was just a sad, sick, twisted person. My heart is still breaking for the people this lunatic butchered. But I don't think it's necessary to plaster him and his deranged rantings and "justifications" for what he did all over the media. What a nightmare, all the way around.

Although I suppose by blogging about it I'm contributing too. I'm just really tired of seeing his beady hate-filled eyes staring at me whenever I get on the Internet.

The worst, I fear, is yet to come.

Speaking of ENOUGH ALREADY, SCOTUS handed down an abortion rights decision today that, the way I see it, is just step #1 toward the eventual elimintation of a woman's right to choose abortion. And don't think for one minute that they'll stop there. I see a Bush Court as being generally hostile toward the rights of women, other disadvantaged and minority groups, animals, etc. I see them also generally being overly protective of the rights of the executive, corporations, etc. That is not something to celebrate unless you're a rich, white, conservative man, which most of the people in my world (except for my father) are NOT.

I wish I'd been in the Court to hear Justice Ginsburg deliver her dissent directly from the bench. It must have been so powerful to hear. Obviously she was a passionate voice of reason in the middle of the madness.

Prince William

2007-04-14T13:58:00.000-07:00

Hmmm....

So apparenly Prince William broke up with his GF.

Now, if you were this Kate, and you had the chance to marry Prince William, wouldn't you find a way to work things out?

Just asking.....

I mean, maybe he's a jerk, or self absorbed, or plays around. Who knows? What I do know is he's hot, British, and richer than God. I, for one, would find a way to hold onto that guy.

But of course such concerns are merely hypothetical, since I'm married to the wonderful SP. :-)

Ah, Wolfowitz....

2007-04-13T10:36:00.000-07:00

Paul Wolfowitz, chairman of the World Bank and former Bush administration honcho, is in trouble.

So he was screwing some underling at the World Bank and got her a hefty promotion and pay raise. That's nothing new under the sun. Although if it had been a Democrat appointee, he would have been drawn and quartered by now.

What was much more interesting to me was the following quote from the end of the article:

"He (Wolfowitz) acknowledged the need to reorganize his personal office, where aides have been criticized for a lack of expertise in development economics and for ties to the Republican Party."

Gee, nepotism among the Republican brother/sisterhood is alive and well, not only in our government but also at the World Bank! We've already seen the disastrous consequences of appointing people of questionable competence and experience (who dedicate themselves to ferociously defending the president and the Republican party line) to high-level government posts, just because they're right-wing Christian conservative freaks. See, e.g., Monica Goodling.

I never liked Paul Wolfowitz anyway. He seemed just a bit too eager to get into Iraq. I never believed that stuff about uranium from Africa, or whatever, and I never thought that Saddam had WMDs. Anyone with an ounce of sense could figure out that it was a devastated country, run by a madman, that could never have organized itself enough to put together strong enough weapons to do any real damage. But, hey, if the President and his lackeys, I mean advisors, say it's true, it must be.

So I hope this gets Wolfowitz fired, so he can go and crawl under the same rock that Donald Rumsfeld is hiding under these days. Now, if only we could find some serious skeletons in Karl Rove's closet!

Bumming

2007-04-05T20:49:00.000-07:00

Why I'm bumming:

1. I have a major paper due in one month. I just hit a major snag in the research that may force me to change my whole strategy for one of my arguments (it's a motion to dismiss). I was on a roll and I feel like I've taken 20 steps back after researching all afternoon/evening.

2. I have my first final in 25 days. TWENTY FIVE.

3. It won't let up until my last final on May 9th. I didn't think the last semester of law school was supposed to be this hard/stressful.

4. Yesterday I heard some news about a girl I know who graudated from a top-10 law school last year. She went to undergrad where I'm going to law school now (which is not top-10). This girl always struck me as a bit of an overachiever....we played hockey together a while back and she was amazingly talented at that. Apparently she was also amazingly talented at law school because she graduated with honors, passed the bar like it was nothing (I cannot begin to articulate how much I fear the bar at this point, feeling like I won't be smart enough to pass it is pretty much a daily occurrence for me these days), and is now going into a great job. UGH. It made me feel like a total loser. She breezed through law school and pretty much all I've done is struggle. SP and I chalked it up to a lot of things (relative non-youth, long commute to school each day, not being single, not living on campus, etc.). but the thing is I think I've worked pretty hard in law school, basically for average results. Maybe that makes it worth more. I don't know. All I know is I'm done, and tired, and worn out, and I still have a month to go, and no matter what I do I'll never do it as well as this girl I know.

5. I have to read about 30 pages of corporations for tomorrow. F*ck.

Nose/School Updates

2007-03-27T19:58:00.000-07:00

1. Nose

I got my stitches out yesterday and my nose looks pretty good. Where the stitches were looks like a cat scratch at this point. Considering I had a huge hole there only two weeks ago, I say it's major progress. It still feels tender and a bit odd (parts of it are still numb, etc.). But overall I'm happy with where it's at. It was so lovely to actually wash my face with soap last night.

2. School

Major bummer of a remedies midterm today. 30 MC questions, many of which made me feel like a big fat idiot. I had a 40 page outline and still have major gaps in what I know. Totally discouraging. But at least it only counts toward my grade if it helps me.

Corporations midterm Friday. Right now I'm just avoiding studying for it because I have no f*cking clue what's going on in there most of the time. I have a start to an outline, and I have learned some stuff, but the thought of actually going and taking a test on Corporations law at this point fills me with such dread that I feel like I have to go lie down. Seriously.

God, I can't wait until law school is over.

Major paper due in 4 weeks. I've done a little research but that's it. I need to make significant progress this weekend because I won't have time to work on it when I'm studying for finals.

Feeling lazy, tired, and a bit overwhelmed.

Doctors

2007-03-16T14:05:00.000-07:00

I forgot to add this to earlier posts. The doctors who treated me were excellent, although both were quite businesslike and busy. But if I had questions they would answer them, and they didn't sugarcoat anything that would be happening.

If you are in the Los Angeles (S.F. Valley) area and have the need for the type of treatment I received, I recommend them.

Dermatologist:
Dr. Martin Kay
Kay Aesthetic Dermatology
Burbank, CA
http://www.martinkay.yourmd.com/

I found Dr. Kay because he is a member of the American Society for Mohs Surgery and is listed on their Web site.

Surgeon:
Dr. Sam Carvajal
Glendale, CA

Dr. Carvajal is not online. I was referred to him by Dr. Kay.

On the Road to Recovery

2007-03-16T13:39:00.000-07:00

So I went back to the plastic surgeon today and he took the "stent" (rolled up piece of gauze) out of the one side of my nose. That was gross. But the aftermath absolutely NOT gross. All I have on my face is a stitched-up cut. When you look at my nose from straight ahead, the nostrils look completely in proportion. It is like a miracle. Of course, when you look at it from underneath, the nostril opening on the surgery side is very depressed, so it is obvious from that view that there was trauma. But since I'm shorter than everyone except, well, kids, I'm not too concerned about that. The doctor said that he could do a procedure to fix that, which would involve shaving off some of the scar tissue that is developing inside that nostril. OUCH. He saw my look of panic and patted me on the shoulder, saying, "Later, later. Let's see how it does after the swelling goes down. Maybe we can even wait a few months for that."

There still is a lot of swelling, but all things considered it looks a million times better than I thought it would at this point. I think even the doctor was surprised how well it was healing and how well the skin had re-shaped itself around the stent. I am totally awestruck by my body's ability to heal itself and to recover from the kind of physical trauma I've been subjected to this week. There is still a risk of infection, and I still need to be vigilant. But the doctor said I should return as much as I can to normal life. He even told me I should go and watch my Golden Girls play hockey tonight, even though he said I should not play for a few weeks until I've healed more. He thought it would be good for me to go and see them and to be in a supportive environment like that.

So a week that started out terribly has turned out to be pretty positive in the end. I am still a little sore, and I still have a big gash on my nose. But I am healthy, I no longer have skin cancer in my nose, and I'm on the road back to normal life.

A Visit to the Plastic Surgeon

2007-03-14T18:17:00.000-07:00

So Mohs Surgery is now two days behind me, and today was the day to see the plastic surgeon. He was a no-nonsense kind of guy -- he came in and took the bandage right off, then told me my options. He said if it was his wife, he'd recommend option #1 -- stitch up the wound, which would probably leave a little scar, but would mean the site was closed and I wouldn't have to have a big bandage on my face. Risks -- mainly infection, exacerbated by the fact that it wasn't happening within 24 hours of having the surgery (this was not my fault -- I had an appt for yesterday but his office rescheduled it because he was in surgery). Option #2 -- wait a little while for the wound to heal more, then do a skin graft. Downside of that = mainly appearance (skin would look obviously different) and having an open wound for another two weeks. So we decided to agree with him that option #1 was best.

We had to wait about 20 minutes, and then we went into a little outpatient surgery room. I do not have words to describe the pain I felt next as he did six injections of anesthetic into my nose. I thought the injections on Monday during the Mohs surgery were bad. I have never felt pain like that in my whole life, and I wouldn't wish it on my worst enemy. SP said I was pretty much howling through it. I didn't mean to -- I wanted to be tough but it felt like he was driving ice picks into my nose. Holy motherf*cker.

But soon enough I was numb, and then he started sewing me up. He was done with that relatively quickly, which was good because I was shaking like a leaf after the pain from the injections and just wanted him to finish so I could get the hell out of there. He seemed surprised when he was done, because it was not as bad as he thought it would be. In fact, once he rolled up some gauze and inserted it in my nostril (which was fun, AND it gets to stay up there until I go back to him Friday), the injured nostril had almost the same shape as the normal nostril. He was happy about this, and so was I. It didn't look quite as bad as I expected it to, which was a relief. But it is obvious that I was injured and it was sewn up.

I'll tell you what really got me. The doctor was talking about how great and resilient skin is, and how it has a wonderful capacity to heal itself. That got me thinking about everything my nose and skin have been through over the last week. It really is a miracle to think that I could recover from something like this and not look like the Bride of Frankenstein, but according to the doctor, the scar should be minimal, and the nostril on that side should only be slighly disfigured compared to the other one. I was getting very worked up over this, because I was thinking about how tough I am on my body all the time. I don't eat well, I don't exercise as much as I should, and most of the time I look in the mirror and end up hating my fat stomach, big butt, ugly face, etc. But that is the wrong way to look at things, I think. Any body that can recover from trauma like that which I have gone through this week is pretty incredible.

Now, of course, there are no guarantees. The doctor today was pretty concerned about the infection that could set in -- he said if that happens the stitches will come out, they'll wait for it to heal some, and then do the skin graft thing. He was emphatic in saying that we really don't want that. He put me on some antibiotics, and he put some neosporin over the top of the stitches, but that was it. Now it's up to me to heal the best I can from it.

I have been home about 6 hours now since this happened. I have some pain now, even though I took a vicodin (didn't work today as well as it did yesterday), and the site itches some as well. But it is on the road to recovery. I have had a hell of a week, and I have to be prepared for the possibility that it may get worse before it gets better. But I am still here, my nose is still attached, and I am on the way to recovery.

So far, it's been one unbelievable spring break.

Mohs Surgery -- The Day After

2007-03-13T20:13:00.000-07:00

Well, I was supposed to go and see the plastic surgeon today, but his receptionist called me this afternoon and postponed the appointment until tomorrow because he was "in surgery." Hmmmm.... I guess that meant someone was worse off than I am, and I should be grateful all I need fixed is a little nose cutting, but I only have a few days before spring break ends and I'm supposed to go back to school. Hopefully I can get the surgical repair done by them. I am also very worried because I will probably have to get numbed up again for him to do whatever he will be doing, and it hurt so much last time that it makes me want to puke to think about going through with it again, especially considering how sore and injured my nose is right now.

SP changed the bandage today and I just couldn't bear to look at it. He said it looks bad but not too bad, whatever that means. Poor guy, I keep asking him to describe it and he can't really. Anyway, apparently it is not bleeding anymore, which is good, but there is a lot of stuff oozing from it. I keep thinking to myself, "That's good, that means it's trying to heal and feel better." I guess, anyway. All I know is it feels very wet and uncomfortable under the bandages.

I am also feeling quite tired, even though I haven't done much today. I think so much of that is the stress and trauma, as well as the fact that I took one vicodin last night and another this morning. Plus there was a big accident involving a truck that wiped out the center divider on the freeway near our house last night (early this morning), and we slept with the window open because it's been summer-like warm around here the last few days, so there were a ton of helicopters flying around out there, which started probably around 4am and lasted a few hours. That's LA for you!

I have to say I like vicodin. The one I took this morning was especially nice -- I felt very calm and relaxed for the first time since I went through this, and slept pretty blissfully for a while. I can understand how it can be addictive, though. It was also weird for me to feel like I had a hangover (dizzy head and yucky stomach) once it wore off a few hours later. I was not expecting that.

So now I wait and see what is next for me. My appointment is for 10am tomorrow. I am really hoping he can do whatever he needs to do tomorrow and just get it over with, so I don't have to wonder how bad it's going to be anymore.

Mohs Surgery

2007-03-12T20:32:00.000-07:00

Today I had Mohs surgery. This is a special type of surgery that is done on people who have basal cell skin cancer in visible areas. I have had a spot on my nose for a while that just wasn't healing. I had a biopsy on it a few months ago and it came back as "inconclusive." It was a basal cell, as it turns out. So it all got removed today.

Mohs surgery is very intense. They do it under local anesthesia. Initially, they do 4 injections, which he did right into my nose. That was some of the most intense pain I have ever experienced, I have to say. It was all I could do to not start crying. The doctor said that noses are all veins and nerves and hair follicles and oil glands. That means doing this type of surgery on the nose is very difficult. The injections are painful because of all the nerves, it bleeds a lot because of all the blood vessels, and the cancer itself grows down into the tissue, rather than as a raised bump. Because there are so many things in the way like the oil glands and hair follicles, it weaves its way through all that stuff, and often you have to take out quite a lot of tissue to get everything.

That was the perfect storm that I faced today, and it was not pretty. I was in the doctor's office a total of about 5 hours. They numb, take some off, then treat it and look at it under a microscope. If they determine they didn't get it all, they repeat that process as many times as it takes to get all the cancer out. For me it was 4 times altogether. When he came in before the last time and said he hadn't gotten it all, I almost started crying. I figured he would take half my nose off before it was over. The good thing about Mohs is that the layers they take off each time are small, and they do that to minimize the tissue that gets removed. However, SP was with me in the doctor's office, and he saw it after the last section was removed, and he told me I probably won't want to see it because it's a sizeable hole.

The doctor said he didn't feel comfortable doing the plastic surgery to repair the damage himself, and referred me to a special plastic surgeon that specializes in head/neck stuff. I see him tomorrow. I am on spring break from law school this week, so I really want to get everything done ASAP. But that is hard to do when it comes to medical procedures. I hope that this guy will be able to fix it.

Now that the anesthetic has worn off, the pain is quite intense. The doctor gave me some vicodin and I took one. I have never taken vicodin before so I don't really know what to expect. All I know is I took it 20 minutes ago and it still hurts quite intensely.

I have learned a few lessons here:

(1) I put off having this taken care of for WAYYYYY too long. An inconclusive biopsy doesn't mean you should be complacent. Get it taken care of.

(2) Always wear sunscreen. In fact, if you're fair, blonde, and blue-eyed like I am, just avoid the sun altogether. I think about all the sunburns I had as a kid growing up in San Diego. It's just not worth it.

(3) I'm tougher than I thought I was in terms of dealing with pain. Those injections hurt like a mother. And it hurts quite a bit now. But I can handle it and be tough.

More later as the next phases of treating this thing happen. Thank God I have spring break this week and don't have to leave the house if I don't want to.

What gets me off the couch and to the rink every week....

2007-02-25T09:45:00.000-08:00

I want to expand on something I didn't really cover in "Our Zammer" (below).....

It's important that people understand why I keep going back to the rink every week.

Susie told all the nurses and orderlies in the ER the other night that all the girls in the waiting room, clogging up the aisles in our gold jerseys, were "her family." I have never thought of a hockey team as a family before, but with this team it's really true. It surely took me by surprise how much our girls have pulled together to create the Gold family.

It will be very strange and sad to not see Zam skating out there with us over the next days and months. But everyone feels that, not only one or two people. The best thing is we can talk to each other about it, and hugs and sympathetic ears are never too far away. We all help each other through our hard times.

When I started playing hockey 10 years ago this month I certainly never expected all of this. And it's still the best workout on earth.

If I didn't have something like this, I would never have survived law school, to put it plainly. So when I get my JD in a few months, it will belong as much to the people in my life as it does to me.

Our Zammer

2007-02-25T09:00:00.000-08:00

On Friday night, our beloved Gold teammate Susie, AKA Zamboni (because she slides around on the ice all the time) did a little too much sliding....straight into the boards, left foot first. The result = 3 broken bones in her leg and a dislocated ankle. Our girl was AMAZING. She was incredibly calm and composed (no screaming or crying), even though the pain must have been unimaginable for her. The game ended with that as the paramedics took her off the ice and to the hospital. She had surgery yesterday to repair some of the damage, and a bunch of us went to see her after in the hospital. She was FANTASTIC, cracking jokes about the paramedics having to cut off her pants, and just generally being her loveable Zammer self the whole time we were there. The paramedics who came are called to the rink to rescue the injured fairly often, and they told her she was a hell of a lot braver than a lot of the men they treated in the past.

That's our Zammer.

Other news -- we're a ways into the semester now, my last one! I have been having a lot of problems getting motivated to do reading and outlining. Most of the time I just want to sit on the couch and watch TV. My classes aren't bad (Remedies, Corporations, Comparative Law, and International Litigation). I'm just feeling really DONE and burned out.

SP and I did have a nice time at the law school dinner a few weeks back. It was at the Regent Beverly Wilshire. We sat with my friend KK and her husband.

My hockey team won our division at the women's tournament in Las Vegas at the end of January -- it was the second year in a row for us winning the title, and we beat the same team (Houston Harpies) both times. So far this year's championship trophy has seen some good times. We took it to dinner and bowling a few weeks back....

....and it was during the bowling that SP got a perfect 300 game, in the dark no less! It was incredible! We were all so happy for him.

That's about all that's new. I'm ready for graduation. May 18th is the big day!

Vacation is FLYING BY

2006-12-27T11:07:00.000-08:00

So I am into my last week of vacation here at home before we head out on our cruise next week, then back to school the week after that. The time has just flown by.

I started the reading for next semester yesterday -- Remedies. I read the first 20 pages or so of the casebook. My Remedies professor is the same one I had for Civil Procedure, and the one case in the first part of the reading was one I remembered from that class, about Indians in Utah getting reimbursed after the gov't sent all their horses and burros to the glue factory (the Indians were allowing their animals to graze on public land and the gov't confiscated the animals because this was considered this to be trespassing by the Indians). Very sad case, really. The DC judge came up with a rather arbitrary damages figure, and the AC remanded because the figure was reached too arbitrarily. It will be interesting to focus on the remedial side of the law, rather than the substantive and procedural, for a change next semester. People sue to get legal relief, and the rules of how that relief is established should be interesting to learn more about.

Anyway, it's strange to be back in law school mode (kind of).

I have taken the time recently to do somewhat large-scale cleaning and clear-out projects here at home since I haven't had this large a block of time off in a while. I have thrown a lot of accumulated stuff (junk) away over the last few weeks, and I have LOVED IT. SP and I are both not overly neat, as well as mildly pack-rat-ish. Actually, we're both more lazy than anything, and so things pile up after a while. It's great to get rid of stuff. We are also finally getting the final repairs done to our house after the burst-pipe plumbing disaster we had to deal with the day before Thanksgiving. The painters are here today and painting the newly-drywalled walls in our dining room and garage. I CAN'T WAIT until that work is all done and I can get my normal house back. Tomorrow and Friday are really the last two days I have at home to finish the cleaning before we head out of town so I will have to do a full-court-press once the painters are out of here to get it all done and not leave anything for when we come back.

Also, SP and I have a new Tuesday night thing --- the local British pub (Robin Hood British Pub in Van Nuys) has a trivia quiz every Tuesday night, and we have gone the last few weeks for Bangers/Mash, cider, and trivia. I am starting to look forward to this almost as much as Friday night hockey games. SP and I have committed ourselves to going every Tuesday night, even after law school starts getting busier for me, because I don't go out and do fun stuff enough during the semester. This is just one part of my continuing attitude adjustment related to law school. It's been my life for 2.5 years now and I'm tired of it consuming everything else I do. It's time for a bit of fun, even if it takes a little more planning on my part to ensure that I still get everything done.

On Holiday (Sort Of)

2006-12-22T12:09:00.000-08:00

I have been out of school on break for almost two weeks now. I have been back to campus a few times (including today) to work in the library. I love the library. I have worked here since the end of my 1L year and it makes me happy.

After I graduate in May, I will be studying for the CA bar exam, which I will take in July, and then I will come back to the law school to work as a reference librarian in the law library. I will be taking classes to get my Masters in Library Science while working here. After years of sucky jobs, I will finally be doing what I dream of --- combining legal stuff and library stuff and getting paid for it. I can't believe my good fortune. The law school I attend and where I'll be working is a very pleasant, low-key place. The people in the library are fun and chill and SOOOOO excited that I agreed to take the job. Well, duh. All in all it's win-win for everyone.

I have decided to not look at my grades from this past semester until after I come back from my cruise (my dad booked me, SP, my brother and his family, and himself on an 8-day cruise to Mexico for the first week of January, yay dad!). I also decided I will not look at them (the grades) myself, but will have SP do it and tell me what they are.

Stupid law school --- I hate getting my grades because they're always mediocre. It's just too much stress for me and I feel like a failure every semester. Law school is the biggest bloody ego-buster on earth. Anyway, both SP and I are very happy with this new system that we came up with.

Other than that I have eaten my way through the break so far, and have been watching a TON of TV. I have quite a good TV routine in the mornings -- two episodes of Changing Rooms starting at 8am, then I can see both the American and British versions of What Not To Wear later in the morning. God, I love those shows. I need to get my ass off the couch, though, and in the gym. I have gone too seldom since the break, which will be painfully apparent to me tonight at my hockey game.

Update (a long time coming)

2006-12-14T15:23:00.000-08:00

Well, hello.....

After the semester from hell exams are finally over. Today, my 35th birthday, is the first day off I have had in, well, let's just say a long time. I slept in, went to the gym, and went to Trader Joes. That's it. I might drink a beer and watch a hockey game in a little while. LIFE IS SWEET when finals are over.

I have some things to say about the semester but I don't feel like it right now.

I have had so many nice people call and email to wish me a happy birthday. A lot of times I feel like my life is kind of shitty but it is SOOOOO not. I am really blessed.

So, apparently, I'm one of those scumbag liberals. And I want the terrorist to win. Yeah, yeah, some things never change.

Your 'Do You Want the Terrorists to Win' Score: 100%

You are a terrorist-loving, Bush-bashing, "blame America first"-crowd traitor. You are in league with evil-doers who hate our freedoms. By all counts you are a liberal, and as such cleary desire the terrorists to succeed and impose their harsh theocratic restrictions on us all. You are fit to be hung for treason! Luckily George Bush is tapping your internet connection and is now aware of your thought-crime. Have a nice day.... in Guantanamo!

Do You Want the Terrorists to Win?
Quiz Created on GoToQuiz

Law School and the Necessity of Laptops

2006-09-10T15:55:00.000-07:00

I succumb very easily to the temptations of the internet. No, I'm not talking about porn. I'm talking about the NY Times, ESPN, and a million other Web sites. And when I'm on the computer I'm obsessive about checking email. It's such a reflex action for me to click the little mail button on the Yahoo toolbar.

Knowing what I know, and based on my experience of not having a laptop in class in Germany, my laptop stays home these days. WOW. I am so much more focused in class, and I love writing notes. I feel like I listen better, hear better, and am not mesmorized by the screen.

So while I cannot control what others are doing (and they're doing almost everything on their laptops), I have disconnected. What an unplugged relief.

It's Hot

2006-08-09T15:10:00.000-07:00

The current temperature in my house is 84 degrees. That means it's well over 90 outside. I refuse to turn on the air conditioner because all I can think about these days is our fossil fuel crisis and how maybe the planet will live one day longer if I just stop turning on the damn air conditioner. But it's hot.

We have a guest coming from Germany tomorrow and, as I discovered upon my return from Germany, my house is in a shambles because I was gone for so long. Obviously no one else takes cleaning as seriously as I do. It looks better since I have been doing a bunch of work on it after I got back. But it's not ready for prime time. And it's very hot.

Our niece who watched our cats while we were gone decided to put all of their poop in the fireplace, rather than throwing it away in the trash. I guess she figured she would burn it before she left. Only she didn't. We tried, but apparently cat poop does not burn. I figure my niece's creative decision making will end up costing me hours of extra work and hundreds of extra dollars. But hey, at least I'm not in Germany anymore.

It's hot.

HOME

2006-08-06T05:12:00.000-07:00

After what seemed like the longest London to L.A. flight ever, I arrived back home yesterday afternoon. My lovely hockey teammates were waiting for me at the airport in their GOLD JERSEYS. God, I love them. I was so happy to see them. And I was so happy to be back at home. Of course I have been up all night because I haven't been able to sleep very well in what seems like 2 years, and besides there is just so much to do. My house, after almost 5 months away, is pretty much a disaster. But so far I have cleaned and scrubbed the kitchen so at least one room is clean. There is stuff everywhere. I also have some law school prep work to do, so I am working on that as well. I am just happy to be back and to not be in Germany anymore.

I will write more in this blog later, including a Germany post-mortem. I may actually keep it up in the future as a place to write about the rest of my law school experience and as a forum for me to say what's on my mind.

HOME IS SWEET.....

Classes done, only a few days left

2006-07-30T23:02:00.000-07:00

So I passed all my finals. What a relief after all those months of thinking to myself "What if I'm not smart enough to do this?" Apparently I am. Personally, I think they did take it a bit easy on me, but that's understandable because, let's face it, although my German is good, it's not fluent to the point where language is not an issue when I'm talking about the law. I showed them all I learned something here, and for them (and for me, honestly) that was good enough to pass.

So now there's only a few days left. That's right -- it is now Monday and our flight back to the U.S. leaves from Munich on Saturday morning. After a brief layover in London we will be rounding the last turn, so to speak. Whoo, baby. A lot of emotions all wrapped up in this, some surprising, some not.

Before we go, however, SP are taking the opportunity to spend some time together. We went to Nuremburg on Saturday, which is north of Augsburg but still in Bavaria. To be perfectly honest, I didn't care for it much. Quite possibly, our biggest mistake had to have been going to the Nazi rallying grounds and Nazi Documentation Center Museum before actually having a look at the city. I would not recommend going about it this way. The Documentation Center is a very well-done and informative museum that mainly educates people about the National Socialists' rise to power through their sickeningly clever use of propoganda. It serves a very important purpose. But it made me absoutely sick to walk through there and hear the pictures, see the video, and hear the audio of the Nazi rallies that happened in Nuremburg.

Hitler loved Nuremburg because to him it seemed like a quintessentially German city. I could understand that. But I don't see how anyone who really knows and has thought about its past could really live there. All I could think about as we walked through the town (it was a warm Saturday afternoon, Karstadt was having a huge sale, and there were bands playing and booths set up stelling stuff --- essentially, everyone was in a good mood and spending money) was about how the Hitler Youth and the SS and all the other Nazis used to have their parades through those wide streets. I honestly felt nauseous most of the time I was there walking around there.

There were some things that were nice, including the St. Lawrence Church. But all in all Nuremburg was a sad place to me, and, honestly, a disappointment. I just felt tired and worn out when I left there.

Sunday was a little better. We went to the Augsburg Zoo and the Botanical Garden. Having grown up in San Diego, I know something about world-class zoos. While the Augsburg version is not near the class of San Diego's, it was very nice. They had a lot of different types of animals, including elephants, giraffes, lions, etc. What was really cool was how close visitors could stand to the exhibits. In American zoos you are kept so far back from the animals you sometimes need binoculars. Not here. I could practically reach out and touch the monkeys (but I didn't --- they're dirty and have sharp teeth).

I have mixed feelings about zoos. Are we exploiting animals by having them, and is it cruel to keep them locked up like that? Possibly yes. But there were a ton of little German kids there yesterday, seeing the animals up close and learning about their lives as real creatures. To me, an experience like that is a lot more likely to make kids care about animals and ensure that they're treated humanely than any TV show. That's human nature for you. So I think well-managed zoos are very important (although I still don't like seeing the animals locked up like that).

The gardens were also nice and quite large. It was nice to sit in the shade under some trees because it was very hot and we had a long day of walking around in the sun.

So now I'm wrapping up a few last things here in Augsburg. On Thursday night we move out of our apartment here at the university and into the luxury of the Kempinski Munich Airport Hotel. I am very excited about this. SP and I have been sleeping in a tiny twin bed in this miniscule un-air-conditioned student apartment, and I haven't had a decent night's sleep in weeks. This hotel is supposed to be very nice and luxurious. The best thing about it is that we will be right there to catch our 7am flight on Saturday.

We will have some time to see a few more things in Munich before we leave, but mainly it will just be preparing to go back home. I will be somewhat sad to leave Augsburg when it's all said and done. I had some good times here --- I met some nice people, I learned some interesting stuff, I spoke a lot of German, etc. But that is outweighed by this overwhelming need to just get out of here and go back home. It's time to get back to real life.

A day of highs and lows

2006-07-27T08:14:00.000-07:00

Good news = I passed my CISG exam this morning without a problem, and I attended my absolute final class here in Augsburg (even though I already has my Transnational Litigation final, I wanted to know more about recognition and enforcement of foreign judgments, so I went to the lecture). It's really hit me. All I have left is some studying and a 15-minute oral exam in International Criminal Law tomorrow and then I'm done here. What a relief. After all the worrying I think I'm actually going to survive and pass all my classes. This meant I was feeling pretty good this afternoon. I even took a nap to celebrate (it was 90 degrees in Augsburg at 2pm today -- too hot for studying, just right for napping).

Bad news = Floyd Landis. As you can probably tell from my earlier posts, I am a big sports junkie, and I love European sports like soccer and the Tour de France especially. I was so proud of Floyd in that weird way patriotic people can be -- I don't know the guy, but he's American and he made America look good that day. And now it looks like he failed a drug test taken on the day he made his monumental comeback in the Alps in Stage 17. I felt physically sick when I read about this, just gutted. I hope to God it is just an analysis error and he wasn't on something that day. I guess we won't know the full story until later. But what a disappointment.

Exam Update

2006-07-26T09:05:00.000-07:00

Well, I have done three exams so far. Here are the basics:

1. Monday = EUROPEAN AND WTO LAW. This was done in a group of 9 altogether -- eight Americans and one Italian. We answered questions one at a time for about 45 minutes in a room that must have been over 100 degrees F. Oh, by the way, there's no A/C in Germany, and they have had a heat wave here over the last few weeks, which makes studying practically impossible. Anyway, everyone passed. I had to answer two questions, both about cases we'd read for class, and I did so successfully. Good thing I'd done the reading.

2. Tuesday = LEGAL PHILOSOPHY AND THEORY. This was my first law exam ever in German and I was very nervous. I did a crapload of work for this class, trying to be prepared as possible. Even though it was only 15 minutes, it was just me and the professor one-on-one, so there was nowhere to hide. To my utter amazement, it went very well. Only at the end (when the professor was trying to get the difference between rules and principles out of me) did I falter even a little bit because I never really understood the whole thing about principles. But I hung in there, answered everything in German, and did my best, and it worked out very well. I think he was surprised at some of the stuff I knew, honestly. It gave me a lot of confidence for the rest of this week.

3. Wednesday (today) = INTERNATIONAL CIVIL PROCEDURE (AKA TRANSNATIONAL LITIGATION) AND INTERNATIONAL PRIVATE LAW. These courses are related, and taught by the same professor, so I had a combined exam that covered both of them. I was alone since I was the only person taking both classes (as far as I knew). I expected to have a half hour exam that covered a number of topics fairly thoroughly. This did not happen. The professor was surprised to see me when I arrived in his office, and after I reminded him that I was there to have my exam (which we'd scheduled a few weeks ago...he is one of the busiest people I have ever met so it's understandable he didn't remember right away), we got started. He asked me a few questions, a couple of which were so general that I didn't understand what he was asking and had to ask him to clarify (that was embarrassing and a bit demoralizing for me). His questions covered the basics of the procedure determining international jurisdiction (if the accused is a resident of the EU, this is covered in an EU regulation 44/2001), and of evaluating which law is applicable under Germany's international private law rules (which are covered in the Einfuehrungsgesetz des Bundesgesetzbuchs, or EGBGB, for those keeping score at home). And then, all of a sudden, he announced it was over and I'd passed. I was quite surprised by this because I'd studied a lot for this class and was prepared for it to be more difficult and in-depth. Oh well, I guess I would be the biggest dork in the world if I complained about an exam being too easy.

So three exams down and two to go. Tomorrow is a group exam for the Convention for the International Sale of Goods, and then on Friday I have my last exam in International Criminal Law.

It is very difficult for me to motivate myself to keep studying at this point because it is so hot and I'm so tired of studying. But I'm more than halfway done, and I only have 10 days left in Germany, so I'm determined to make the rest of my time here really count.

Of course I am also very homesick right now, even though SP is here. I'm just missing home and its familiarity. I am so tired of everything being so different all the time and having to deal with it, analyze it, and figure out what it all means. I have never been a roll-with-the-punches type of person, and being here in Germany really challenges me in that way all the time.

I am also missing my cats, Gah-Boy and Katie. I have not seen them in over four months and my heart is heavy. It's time to go home.

Legal Philosophy and the Hurricane Katrina "Murders"

2006-07-24T09:23:00.000-07:00

I wrote the following as a way to solidify my understanding of certain legal philosophy rules in preparation for my exam in that class tomorrow. Yes, it is in German (and probably not very good German). I will try to get around to translating it at some point because I have some strong opnions on the case of the murder charges related to medical care rendered during Hurricane Katrina....

To sum it up, I think it presents some very interesting issues of what law is, what it should be, and how it should be enforced.

More later on what's been going on. I had my first exam today and it went okay. It's about 90 degrees in my apartment every day, which makes it very hard to study. Less than two weeks and I'm home!!!

*******************************************************************************

Ein Artz und zwei Krankenschwester wurden letzte Woche in Louisiana verhaftet und von Mord angeklagt. Letztes Jahr, während des Hurricans Katrina, sind die drei hintergeblieben in einem Krankenhaus, um für die Patienten, die nicht evakuiert werden könnten, zu sorgen. Jetzt sagt der Generalbundesanwalt von Louisiana, daß die drei vorsätzlich und methodisch vier Patienten von einer Überdosis von Morphin getötet (ermordert) haben.

Dieser Fall erhebt interessante rechtsphilosophische Fragen. In America, wie überall, Mort ist widerrrechtlich (und, würde jeder sagen, soll es so sein). Aber soll diese Handlung wirklich Mord sein? Wollen wir wirklich solche Leute, die sich selber entschlossen haben, hinter in einer Katastrophe zu bleiben, um für kranke, bedürftige, schwäche Leute zu sorgen, bestreiben?

Die Naturrechtlichetheorie sagt, daß naturliche menschliche Vernunft bestimmte rechtliche Werturteile vorgibt. Solche Werturteile sind allgemeingültig, unwandelbar, und erkennbar. Naturrecht sagt, daß ansichtbar ungerechtes Recht nicht gefolgt werden muß, und, daß Richer solchen Recht nicht anwenden müssen.

Direkt dagegen steht Positivismus, der sagt, daß das Recht, das von der Regierung gegeben wird, muß auf jedenfall gefolgt wird, egal wie Leute sich über das Recht fühlen. In einem Positivismusrechtssystem, dürfen Leute nicht widerstandlich gegen unrechtliches Recht stehen, und Richter müssen alle Rechte anwenden, sogar “ungerechte” Rechte.

Der Hauptvorteil von Positivismus ist Rechtssicherheit. Man weißt ganz genau, was das Recht ist und was nicht. Durch diese Trennung von “Recht” und “Moral,” kommen keine subjektive Gefühle, entweder von Richtern selbtst oder von anderen, die das Recht anwenden müssen, im Frage, als sie rechtliche Frage beantworten.

Ein größes Problem mit Positivismus ist aber, daß es kein bestimmtes Recht für jede mögliche Handlung geben kann. Ich weiß nicht, wie genau Mord rechtlicht beschreibt und bestimmt in Louisiana ist, aber in den meisten Gesellschaften, Mord ist, im großen ganzen, eine vorsäztliche Tötung. Wenn es wirklich wahr ist, daß die Angeklagten vorsätzlich Patienten Überdosen von Morphin gegeben haben, um sie zu töten, dann es kann auch rechtlich gesagt werden können, daß sie Mörderinnen sind.

Ist solche Entscheidung aber allerdings “gerechtlich”? Gerechtigkeit ist die Gesamtheit der moralischen Rechte und Pflichen, die Menschen gegeneinander haben. Naturrechtliche Maßstäbe (die von Vernünft etwickeln sind) können tatsächlich benutzt werden, um zu bestimmen, was “gerechtlich” ist. Werden, oder wollen, vernünftigte Leute diese Handlung “Mord” nennen? Oder gibt es in diesem Fall einfach zuviele abschwächende Umstände, die diese Handlung entschuldigung können? Es kann sein, daß viele “vernünftige” Leute sagen würden, daß was in New Orleans in diesem Fall passiert ist, kein “Mord” genannt werden soll.

Es soll gesagt werden, daß viele andere Ärtze gesagt haben, daß was da gemacht worden ist, obwohl medizinisch-ethisch nicht total richtig war, in den Umständen vollig verstandbar ist. Für mehr als fünf Tagen hatte das Krankenhaus keinen Strom und wenig frisches Wasser. Es war unheimlich heiß und schwül. Einige Teilen von dem Krankenhaus waren überflutet. Die Leute im Krankenhaus könnten nicht leicht irgendwo anders transportiert werden könnten, und leider sind wenige Rettungsleute angekommen, um die Patienten weg zu liefern. Insgesamt, es war ein Unglück der größten Proportionen. Die Angeklagtinnen, meinen die Kommentatoren, haben sicher alles mögliches gemacht, was sie machen können, um die Patienten so bequem wie möglich zu machen. In vielen medizinischen Fällen soll das auch heißen, daß Patienten Medikation gegen Schmerz bekommen.

Einige Leuten haben auch spekuliert, daß der Bundesanwalt in Louisiana, der politisch konservativ ist, wollte die Drei anklagen, um Solidarität mit konservativen Wählern zu zeigen, um wiedergewählt werden.

Die Tatsachen hier sind aber ganz klar...vier kranke Leute, nach die Nachwirkungen des Hurrikans Katrina, sind im Krankenhaus tot gefunden worden, und eine Ärtzin und zwei Krankenschwester sind für ihre Mord angeklagt. Diese Situation ist viel zu schwer, um einfache Lösungen finden zu können. Mit sicherhiet sollen Rechten gefolgt werden (unsere Gesellschaft erwartet und braucht das), aber einige Handlung sollen auch tiefer analyziert werden, um wirklich herauszufinden, ob sie eigentlich anders sind, als sie in Erscheinung treten.

Why law school is like hockey....

2006-07-16T05:53:00.000-07:00

Bear with me.....

I have been playing ice hockey for about 10 years. Whenever beginner hockey players ask me what they can do to get better, I always tell them it's all about the skating. In hockey, you have to get to the point in your skill level in which skating is basically a non-issue. I'm not talking about NHL-level skill.....I'm talking about knowing how to do basic skating moves without having to think about them. Once skating is a non-issue for you, then you can focus all your energy on playing the game itself.

It just came to me, but law school is just like this. I have been thinking a lot about how I'm going to tackle law school when I get home in the fall. I want to leave that place knowing that, in at least one class, I did as much as I could possibly do (and more than just about anyone would be willing to do). In other words, I gave everything I had and left it all on the ice (to expand on the hockey metaphor).

Even in the classes I have enjoyed the most and worked hardest in in the past (Constitutional Law Individual Rights, Constitutional Law Fed/State, Criminal Procedure), I never felt at the end like I did absolutely as much as I could have done.

Even for those classes, in which I knew the law pretty well, knowledge of the law was not, for me, an absolute non-issue. I still had to think hard to recall rules while I was sitting there in the exam. That is a waste of time, and it affects your ability to get the most out of the legal rules when conducting your analysis.

It's just like hockey. The bottom line is if you're still struggling with skating, it's just too hard to do other stuff during the game. All you can focus on is getting from one end of the ice to another when you need to, and getting to the bench when you need to come off. You don't have any energy left to focus on strategy, working together with teammates to set up plays, positioning, passing, shooting, etc. This makes your arsenal severly limited, and it means that unless everyone else is a beginner too, it will be hard for you to come out a winner.

The problem with law school is that it's filled with smart people who do as much as they can as quickly as they can to overcome their "rookie" status. The top people already figure out the "skating" element of the class (the law) long before they actually sit down and take the exam.

Learning how to skate effectively enough to make it a non-issue takes a long time. That's why time management, and doing steady work on learning the law throughout the semester is so necessary. This is very hard when you're tired, or when the law is difficult, or you want to go out for drinks. But it's necessary.

Maybe I'll have more luck next year if I approach learning the law like learning how to skate. Nothing else I've tried has produced the results I'm looking for so far.

Wrap-Up Thoughts REALLY Starting...

2006-07-16T00:52:00.000-07:00

So in less than three weeks from now I will be sitting on my patio with the paper, drinking wine and enjoying SO MUCH being back on my own turf. It has been incredibly hot in Los Angeles over the last little while apparently, but since I have been in the land of no-air-conditioning and 80% humidity lately, I think I'll be ready.

I have been working on my outlines for my classes but to be honest I am very unmotivated. I will have one written exam (European and WTO law), three oral exams (Legal Philosophy and Theory, International Criminal Law, and a combined International Civil Procedure and International Private Law exam). The written exam will be in English, while all of the oral exams will be in German. I still do not know what the exam format will be for my Convention for the International Sale of Goods class.

I know SP hates it when I talk about going home and being DONE with here, but it's how I feel and he always wants me to be honest with him.

We had a little scare earlier this week -- to make a long story short, it was widely presumed at home that one of our two cats (not Gah-Boy, but our little tiny Katie) was missing. Full panic set in, and we spent a sleepless night worrying about her, until our niece (who is housesitting for us) called and told us that Katie had finally made an appearance. Apparently Katie had hidden herself so well that no one could find her. This seems to be par for the course with Katie (she has always been skittish and wary of strangers, to me it's part of her charm), but it made my heart sick to think about losing her. Now more than ever, I just want to go home and see both my little buddies.

So now I'm off to the gym and then I will come back and finish my Legal Philosophy outline. I will do another post later that summarizes what we've learned in that class so far. Even though I am working on the outline right now, all it seems to be a far-flung collection of ideas and principles. I'll need a more focused understanding of it to do well on the exam.

Germany 3 -- Portgual 1 ... Germany Wins 3rd Place

2006-07-09T03:42:00.000-07:00

So we went to the Irish Pub last night to see the Germany-Portugal game. It was so much fun. The beleaguered goalie Oliver Kahn played last night in goal for Germany, and it was nice that he got the victory.

(See my original post about the German team's goalie selection process for more information about this gut-wrenching event that happened in April.)

So now Germany is in 3rd place, and the final game tonight between Italy and France will signal the end of the World Cup. Thank goodness.

We had a lot of fun at the pub last night. I hadn't had any beer in a while. SP doesn't drink, so I don't drink much when I'm with him. But I had quite a lot last night. German beer is just so outstanding.

Now I am editing a paper for my friend AB. It's about the "Weisse Rose" student political movement that took place during World War II. I've learned a lot by reading it. I'm not sure if I'm the right person to review a paper in German, because I know that I'm missing some of the grammar and other stuff. But it was nice that she asked me to look at it, and I'm spending a lot of time on it to make sure that I catch as much as possible. That is my way generally with editing. It always takes me twice as long as I think it will. I have looked at a few English papers for people since I've been here as well, and I always try to be thorough. There can be a point where you're just being an a-hole, rather than being helpful, I think. I'm never sure if I've crossed that line. That makes editing tough for me, because I don't want to be an a-hole.

Of course this means that I'm not doing my own work, but all in good time. I want to get started today on my outline for European Union law. There's a whole analysis schematic for what they call "the four freedoms" that I really want to memorize today if possible. Once I get it all down on paper I'll write more about it here. The EU class is very interesting because I didn't know anything about it before I started it. They have some good and nice ideas about how to govern a union of culturally, politically, and socially disparate entities over here. It makes me want to learn more about it.

I also have been having some ideas about American jurisprudence lately and I'm thinking I might want to write something about it. After seeing how judges are selected to serve on the high court over here in Germany, I am thinking that we in America could learn a thing or two from their system. I have been reading all the post-mortem type articles about the Roberts Court's first official term, and what has been striking to me is the decidedly strict alliances that are developing among the justices. I think it's weird that the justices, who I thought were supposed to view each case from a neutral perspective, so often vote along lines of political ideology, and that there's essentially only one "swing justice" left on the Court anymore. I am a liberal but even the fact that the "liberals" on the Court do this really bugs me. Anyway, I have more to say about this than time permits at the moment, but I will talk more about this later once I've formed my ideas and opinions about it more fully.

Back to work. Only a little while left!!!!

Four Weeks Left

2006-07-08T09:08:00.002-07:00

Sorry, it's been a while now. Germany plays tonight in the 3rd place game. I have never seen so many long faces as I did after their loss to Italy on July 4th. As of right now, the Americans are the only team in the tournament who did not lose to Italy. How's that for irony?

So, yes, there are only 4 weeks left for me over here. SP arrived Monday and I was so happy to see him. It's a bit crowded with the two of us in my tiny room but we work together so well that it certainly can't be considered to be inconvenient to have him here. Mainly it's just been nice. Just like at home, now I have someone on my side all the time, here with me to talk about stuff with, get ideas and opinions from, and just share the day-to-day. To me, that's the nicest part about marriage.

Anyway, my classes are ramping up. I only have three weeks left before my exams. I will have a written exam (in English) in European and WTO Law. Three of the others will, I know, be oral (and in German) -- Legal Philosophy, International Criminal Law, and a combined exam for International Civil Procedure and International Private Law. I still don't know about my Convention for the International Sale of Goods class. I will write more about what each of those classes have entailed later. It has been immensely interesting and rewarding for me to be in these classes -- I have learned a lot, my German has improved immensely, and it is a big accomplishment for me to be able to say that I'm not hopelessly lost in any of the classes. As part of preparing for the exams themselves, I will be writing about each of the subjects here later, explaining what we've covered in each.

And after all that is done, it will be time to go home. Whohoo! I have been thinking about my house so much, and all the work I want to do there. I have a ton of projects that I want to accomplish at home, and some interesting ideas about how I can make it nicer there for us. I miss my house a lot and am ready to get back and enjoy living there again. But first things first -- I need to study enough for my exams to pass. Not a given, but not impossible either.

There's light at the end of the tunnel.

I heart Steve Perry

2006-06-26T23:33:00.000-07:00

So, yes, I admit it. I'm a child of the '80's. Since I graduated from high school in 1990 I suppose it's inevitable that I love '80's music. Knowing this, SP sent me a link to a video of one of my favorite Journey songs, Separate Ways.

Steve Perry is looking pretty damn sexy in this one, I have to say. :-)

I was in a bad mood until I watched this. My dad arrived in Germany last night for a visit. He is a staunch conservative/kool-aid drinker. We argued about politics for over an hour in a biergarten last night, and I was still mad this morning when I woke up.

I tried, I really did. I tried to listen, be polite, and understand his point of view. I mean, he came all this way, so I felt the least I could do was hear him out on these issues that are obviously so important to him. Ugh. He insisted on calling Germany part of "old Europe" in a demeaning way (that gets annoying after awhile), saying that Americans aren't coming to visit here because it's "full of Muslims" (who are ruining things at home too because "they want special treatment and don't want to assimilate or follow our laws"). He also thinks I'm a big idiot for not going along with the President's agenda. One example: "You've got your terminology all wrong, you know. It's not the Iraq war...it's a presidential act, AUTHORIZED BY CONGRESS, to combat terrorism." Give me a break. There were no Al-Queda terrorists in Iraq before we went there. Get a clue. He also likes telling me he used to be a liberal democrat when he was young, until he "woke up." It was like having dinner with Rush Limbaugh.

He thinks that the main reasons the liberals are so pissed is because of the (stolen) election in 2000. What he doesn't get is that I'm so much more pissed about being lied to about Iraq and the waste of human lives, resources, and money that's happened since we invaded them. I'm much more pissed that the conservatives control the White House, the Senate, the House, and the Supreme Court, with no end to that in sight. I'm much more pissed about conservatives calling my patriotism into question because I don't fall lock-step into place behind the President. I'm much more pissed about Cheney, Rumsfeld, and Bolton.

Anyway, it's making me angry to talk about it now. It's much nicer to watch old Journey videos and have a giggle at Steve Perry.

My dad is only here for a few more days, and then I won't see him again for a long while. I feel bad because it was really nice of him to come all the way over here to visit me. But I so detest his politics that it makes me not want to talk to him anymore.

I guess I should try to be more like my hockey buddy NB. Her partying skills are legendary, as evidenced by a quote on her facebook page: "I don't know much about Republicans or Democrats, I only know that I really like parties." Maybe apathy is the answer when reality just pisses you off too much.

Ziggy

2006-06-26T06:46:00.000-07:00

It's been a while since I wrote. Germany is still in the championships, as is England. AB and I were in Berlin over the weekend and it was total madness up there in terms of happy drunken Germans celebrating Germany's win on Saturday.

My husband SP arrives one week from today. I am really excited about finally getting to see him after so many months.

Sometimes he calls me and he holds up the phone so our cat, Ziggy, can say hello too. Ziggy is very vocal and meows all the time. SP and I nicknamed him "Gah-Boy" awhile back. This is because he's kind of stupid (Ziggy, not SP). Ziggy is not the first creature that we have ever called "Gah-Boy"...that distinction goes to our delightful commander in chief ("The Original Gah-Boy").

So here is a picture of SP and Gah-Boy (the new, not the original). This is my favorite picture. I have a copy of it on my desk here and whenever I feel sad I look at it, knowing my two favorite guys are waiting for me at home.

USA OUT

2006-06-22T09:02:00.000-07:00

So apparently the USA is out of the World Cup. They had to win against Ghana and it looks like they couldn't manage it.

At least that's what I'm gathering since GERMAN TELEVISION DECIDED NOT TO SHOW THE GAME against Ghana. Italy v. Czech played at the same time and German TV went with that game instead.

It's annoying that we couldn't watch the Americans play, even if they did lose. And try as I might, there was no online streaming of the match that I could find. Furthermore, German radio (at least where I live) doesn't broadcast any of the games. So I have to depend on Yahoo gamecast. Pretty stupid to be here in Germany and not even be able to catch the game (neither sight nor sound) live.

Law School Grades

2006-06-22T01:11:00.000-07:00

So a bunch of students from my law school in CA have showed up in Germany to take part in the University of Augsburg's Summer Program. I was very happy to see them all, and a bunch of us went to dinner last night. As it inevitably does whenever there are two or more law students involved, the conversation turned to law school grades.

It's one of the great unexplained mysteries of the universe why law students are so obsessed with grades. Actually, unexplained goes too far -- partially explainable is probably a better way to say it. How I see it is that a lot of law students probably have similar personalities to mine (that's why we're in law school) -- passionately competitive, generally hardworking, with a slight inferiority complex that leads to putting more weight on other's evaluations of us than is usually merited AND unnecessarily comparing ourselves to others and never matching up.

So yes, we were talking about grades last night. To qualify, none of us were (are) top-10% people. So we collectively marveled at those who can do it, while wondering how we can be so average after working so hard (harder than we've ever worked).

Platitudes may be trite, but they're comforting and probably mostly true -- we are smart but we don't know how to take those kinds of tests, etc.

But I thought more about grades this morning (after hanging out with this crew last night). Germany has given me some perspective on grades because law students here aren't nearly as fixated on them as Americans are. It's as much of a product of the system over here as anything else, but they also take time to have coffee in the afternoons and to go out for drinks at night, all in a leisurely way (no pounding 6 drinks in an hour to get as drunk as possible as quickly as possible). In Germany, owntime is seen as as high a priority as studying.

I don't think this is bad. I've had a lot of downtime here and I've enjoyed it very much. I'm ready to go back and tackle third year by the end of this. I have also, with the distance afforded by this experience away from home, can look at grades a little differently. Even though mine are not the best (strictly average, I admit it), those mere numbers represent a hell of a lot of hard work. I think about everything I KNOW now, after the hell of first year and the one very difficult semester of second year I did at home (I loaded up there to be able to take it easy over here). It's a lot. We law students are asked to process a ton of information very quickly, and to be able to use that information, quickly and completely, in a high-pressure, too-short exam situation. This is no easy task, and those who can do it well enough to earn top grades are blessed with a remarkable gift. I don't have it, nor do most people. But that doesn't mean what we others accomplished should be seen as any less remarkable.

So CELEBRATE your law school grades. I'm learning how (it's a process -- some days I still think I'm the biggest idiot), and it can be liberating. It's okay if they prevent you from getting that clerkship or big-firm job. You're going to graduated from LAW SCHOOL for pete's sake. How many people can realistically accomplish that?

Bells

2006-06-18T01:18:00.000-07:00

You might think that church bells sound kind of nice, kind of cool, kind of European.

Maybe that's true if you're spending a few days in Florence in a beautiful hotel room that looks out over the Arno. Remember Helena Bonham Carter flinging open the shutters in A Room With A View, bells tolling in the background as the river rushes beneath her? She had all that lovely long hair and a lacy dressing gown, and she was filled with wonder at the fact that she was in Florence, on holiday. At that moment all the romance of Italy was just outside her open window, and she didn't even care if her cousin Charlotte was being a royal pain.

That scene from that move used to be my main image of church bells, and it made me love the whole idea of them. Bells ringing every day, as they had been for years and years! The romance of it all!

But I am here to say that if you lived 500 feet away from two churches, both of which ring their bells a minimum of 3 times a day, you'd hate them too.

USA 1 -- Italy 1

2006-06-18T00:40:00.000-07:00

The Americans finally showed some balls last night with their draw against Italy. It was incredibly impressive.

There was elbowing, blood, cleats to the ankles, red cards, sweating, grass stains, amazing saves, hot looking Italians (hello Luca Toni), and shirt exchanges at the end.

Wake up girls! What's not to love about the World Cup?

Contradictions

2006-06-16T01:40:00.000-07:00

I just realized that some of the statements in my various posts over here seem fairly contradictory. Bear with me. I'm still working out how I feel about being American (34 years gone and I still haven't really figured it out). Germany has had that effect on me every time. It shows me, in an interesting and peculiar context, the best and worst things about America, and I'm left trying to figure out what it all means.

I also realize that if any hard-core right-wingers stumble on this site, they'll be mad and think I'm unpatriotic for what I'm saying. Nothing could be further from the truth. I feel it's my patriotic duty as an American to not drink the Kool-Aid, to ask questions, and to try understand the role of the United States in a larger global context. In many ways America is still the best country in the world, and more often than not, I'm glad that I'm American and love my country. But I have to admit I'm totally disillusioned at this point -- by the partisanship, the in-fighting, the anger, the fearmongering, and the blatant xenophobia.

Frankly, based on my view in this time and space, America's not "gettin' 'er done" right about now, and I don't like it.

Us against the world??

2006-06-16T00:59:00.000-07:00

Okay, I realize I haven't written much about law, studying, classes, etc. But it seems like I've barely ever been in class since I've been here since they have so many holidays. It is my understanding that yesterday's Catholic Corpus Christi thing was the ABSOLUTE LAST ONE. Considering I'm paying American tuition to go to school here, I figure each class is costing me around $500. What I haven't figured out yet is if it's worth it....

Anyway, on to more serious matters -- WORLD CUP SOCCER. Yes, apparently the American team has eschewed the FIFA-designated hotels in Mannheim for their upcoming game in Kaiserslautern, and have chosen instead to stay at the massive U.S. airforce base nearby. The U.S. players themselves are thrilled about this, because they can eat American food and hear American being spoken all the time, so it's just like being at home. The coach, apparently, chalked up their decision to stay at the base as a matter of security.

OK, this is what I hate the most about the travelling American. I'm sure the Mannheim hotels are not only perfectly secure, but also have good food, cold drinks, and comfy beds...all you need, really, to go and play a soccer match. But these whiny American players come over here and stay at an American military post instead. None of the other teams are doing that. Of course I could go into the whole thing about how weird it is that we still have such a large military base in Germany but it's probably better not to go there. The point is, these guys are in Europe to play in the World Cup -- the biggest competition in their whole sport. Not only were they timid, hopeless, and, frankly, totally sucky in their first game, but all they keep talking about is how unsafe they feel here and how much they want it to be like home.

To me, this is evidence of a larger American problem. Anyone who knows me knows where my political sympathies lie, so this won't be a surprise to them. But honestly, I totally and completely chalk up the current sensitivity of Americans directly to the current political climate in the United States, which has been orchestrated by Bush and his band of unmerry men. The U.S. soccer team, which BARELY REPRESENTED on the field (sorry, I mean pitch) and then scurried back to whatever fortress they're calling home after, is running scared, just like so many Americans these days. The obvious mentality: Europe is dangerous, Europeans and other foreigners are dangerous and just want to hurt you because they hate everything America represents ("freedom and democracy"), so it has to just be us against the rest of them.

Over the last 5 years, Americans have been fed a steady diet of "you need to be afriad, very afraid..." and "America is the best and all the other countries suck." That's how the current batch of yahoos have managed to stay in power for so long -- playing on people's fears and xenophobic tendencies. It is actually quite genius of them for the purpose of meeting their goal of staying in charge, but I think it has had some disastrous results for America and Americans in general. It has made us a laughingstock everywhere else. If they thought about it for two seconds, they'd realize why people everywhere else hate us -- it's because we have become a ridiculous shadow of our former selves.

Think about it this way -- if I had watched a soccer game in a German bar between the U.S. and the Czech Republic 5 or even 10 years ago, I can guarantee I would not have been the only one rooting for the Americans. There would have been plenty of German voices cheering together with mine. Last week, AB and I were THE ONLY ONES. All the goodwill in the world has been pissed away. Americans, wake up! Foreigners are not stupid, and they don't like being patronized or having their intelligence insulted, and they (quite justifiably in my mind) don't have the patience to deal with all of our fears and sensitivities. In fact, our act has grown stale just about everywhere, and I can't say I blame them.

Frankly, I don't see this situation changing until the current crop of guys are finally out of office and there's a real mentality change among the American population in general. Of course we wil probably have a long wait for all of that to happen. We also have a lot of damage to rectify in terms of our reputation abroad. I don't see that being an easy task.

The Americans I know here (the ones who are studying here and are actually trying to speak German, not the people who come over here and don't even try to say two words in German because "everyone speaks English here") are trying to do some work toward this end. I have had to be very conciliatory since I've been here whenever the subject of politics comes up ("Yes, I know our government is lame...at least I didn't vote for them..."). There is not enough of that kind of humility going on right now, not enough acceptance of how things are elsewhere, not enough graciousness, and not enough attempts at mutual understanding. It's not easy, but it has to be done.

I sang karaoke tonight...

2006-06-15T16:45:00.000-07:00

Yes, I did. Shania Twain. The Germans didn't know what hit them. My friends who were there said I did a good job but I don't know. It was about 100 degrees in the bar so I didn't have all my wits about me.

Germany 1 -- Poland 0

2006-06-14T14:11:00.000-07:00

Wow. That was one of the best soccer matches I have ever seen -- the only bummer was that Poland had to lose in stoppage time at the end. Lots of end to end action, and the Polish goalie Artur Boruc absolutely stood on his head.

Hmmm...can goalies stand on their heads in soccer? That might just be a hockey expression. I guess it's another way to say "played out of his mind." You get the idea.

Mr. Borac, by the way, is quite a hottie. Football is loaded with hotties, that's why watching it is so much fun.

Germany was lucky to win tonight.

Okay, I apologize

2006-06-14T04:27:00.000-07:00

I realize the tone of my last entry was just a tad bitter. It reflected how I felt at the moment, and it made me feel (momentarily) better to write it. But now I see the error of my ways. I owe it to the Germans to be nice, cheerful, and friendly as long as I am a guest in their country. Americans are already viewed as angry, arrogant, insincere bastards just about the entire world over. Who am I to perpetuate the stereotype?

So I'm sorry.

The USA Still Rules, and You All Can Just Piss Off...

2006-06-14T01:55:00.000-07:00

Oh yeah, having tons of fun in Germany right now. The World Cup has started. The US team, which is apparently ranked 5th in the world, got their asses handed to them by lovely Pavel Nedved and the lovely Czech Republic boys the other day. Yum-yum. AB and I were in a bar in Augsburg watching the game, and every other person was cheering against the Americans. Nice. Gotta love that.

It's becoming more and more apparent that Germans are both bitter and insecure. Why, I don't know. Everywhere I go Germans are giving me dirty looks, or staring at me like I'm from Mars, or laughing at me. Honestly, ES REICHT JETZT. But maybe I'm just paranoid.

I asked a German friend if I look either American or weird and he said neither applied to me, and that Germans just have an annoying staring habit. Hmmm...

And, yes, Thursday is ANOTHER holiday in Bavaria. That same German friend (apparently I only have one) explained that it has something to do with Corpus Christi and in small Catholic villages they carry around some kind of ersatz Christ body thing and people are all excited. Whatever.

Tonight -- Germany against Poland. They're totally hyped up for what they obviously think will be an easy victory, since Poland was at the losing end of a similar ass-handing against Paraguay (Uraguay?) as the one that the "Amis" experienced against the lovely Czechs. Oh man, it would be sweet if Poland could pull off the upset. There are a lot of foreigners here who would be very happy about that.

Peace, y'all. Why ya gotta hate?

Pfingsten

2006-06-05T12:38:00.000-07:00

So we are currently in the middle of a long weekend here in Germany to celebrate the religious holiday of Pfingsten, which is apparently the same as Pentecost in English.

However, it's not really the same thing, because when the Germans celebrate a religious holiday, everything shuts down. Almost everything is closed right now (except a few restaurants and the movies) and will be until Wednesday. Of course Sunday is a closed-shop day anyway, but the beauty of Pfingsten is that it lasts two days beyond Sunday -- there's Pfingsten Monday and Pfingsten Tuesday. This means that all the shops are closed FOR THREE DAYS IN A ROW.

Man, I love Germany.

This also means that the university did not hold classes today (Pfingsten Monday) and won't hold classes tomorrow (Pfingsten Tuesday). So no Philosophy for me this week. We also did not have Philosophy last week because the professor was in China. So I haven't thought much about philosophy in a few weeks. It will be tough to go back.

After last week's train experience, I decided to forego travelling for a weekend and stayed on campus. Mostly I've been doing reading and watching movies the whole time. After staying in and doing work most of the day today, I decided to go out for a run (the gym was also closed today for, yup, Pfingsten Monday). Germany stays light until at least 9pm in the spring so I left for my run at 8pm, knowing that it would be light when I came back. In a way I almost wish it had been dark. Every single group of people I ran past started laughing as soon as I ran by.

I'm not kidding. I also know I'm not being paranoid because it happens all the time. I mean I know I'm no raving beauty but I don't think I look that funny in my running clothes and baseball cap. I don't run with a limp, I'm not really gasping for air, and my shoes are not untied. Of course there was no one else out there running because people don't really do that here, so when they see someone huffing down the sidewalk it must look hysterical to them.

I'm amazed no one runs here. How they stay so skinny without exercise is beyond me (we Americans have a theory it's because they smoke so much). But really, going out for a jog on the normal sidewalks here (which are lovely and wide ... Los Angeles could learn a lesson about how to do sidewalks and bike lanes from the Germans) is not fun. Strange looks, snorts, and snickers. Good thing I can just put on my iPod and (kind of) drown them out.

Another reason it will be nice to end this madness and just go back home...

Happy Pfingsten! (Ugh.)

Latest Update

2006-06-03T11:58:00.000-07:00

Wow ... can it really be June 3 already? For those who have tuned in lately to find no updates, my heartiest apologies. I can only say that I have developed something of a social life here now, and have been busy hanging out with friends, traveling, and soaking up the German culture. Oh, yes, I have also been doing some studying. Here are some highlights from the past few weeks.

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Traveling

I have been on a few trips lately. My American buddy AB and I went to Oberammergau in the Bavarian Alps a few weeks ago. I think this is mostly known for hosting a famous passion play. It is a nice little town in its own right, although there's not much to do there and a weekend may have been a bit too long to devote to it.

Oberammergau is apparently home to a lot of Catholics who are into woodcarving. There is even a woodcarving school there. It lies kind of in a valley, between a few tall Alpine mountains (which we rode in a gondola to the top of ... both of us had to overcome a pretty serious fear of heights for that to be fun, but we pulled it off).

Scenery-wise, Oberammergau is quite lovely, but there's not much going on there after, say, 7pm on any night of the week. Since AB and I like going out, this was kind of a problem for us. But we did stumble into the one local bar that had any kind of activity at all, and the bar owner was nice enough to turn on the feed of an NHL playoff game for me (Carolina v. New Jersey). I was so happy to see hockey again and I hadn't realized how much I missed it. It was so interesting to watch hockey over here because there was a fight during the game and the German bar patrons, who had not shown any interest in the game up to that point, all got very quiet and focused on the TV. Then the laughter started. They apparently thought it was hilarious that these two guys were duking it out in the middle of a game. I guess the German Hockey Bundesliga doesn't see many fights (or these people didn't watch many sports).

My friend MA came from Los Angeles for a 10-day visit toward the end of May, and she and I took advantage of the warmest day I have experienced since I've been here (more on the weather later) to go down to Lake Constance (in German, the Bodensee) to the lakeside town of Lindau. Wow. Lindau is one of the most beautiful cities I have ever been to, and I would certainly place it in my top three or four cities in all of Germany. We sat in the sun over a long lunch, wandered around down by the lake, peeked in tiny shops, looked at their beautiful churches, and generally had a relaxing day. It's the kind of place that bids you to slow down and take it easy, which is a rarity in Germany. I can't wait to go back there and see it again.

MA and I, joined by AB, also took a 3-day trip north. We took the train to Cologne, stayed there for two nights, then went on the train down to Koblenz, where we hopped on K-D line boat for a 6-hour ride down the Rhein to Bingen. The trip did not start out all that promisingly. Cologne is definitely a more rough-and-ready type of place than anywhere I've been in Bavaria, and we saw a lot more obvious drug users and homeless people there than we were accustomed to. We also had terrible weather for our full day there (rainy and cold the whole time). However, we enjoyed the Cathedral (one of my favorite buildings in the whole world) and the Chocolate Museum (interesting, and yummy).

This is one of the pictures I took of the Cathedral -- I thought the sky looked cool at this moment.

Luckily, the weather cleared up after that, and we didn't get any rain at all on our trip down the Rhein. To me, that is Germany. I have done various portions of that trip about 5 times now, and I never get tired of it. Bingen is also a lovely little town, next to the Rhein, with vineyards all around.

Our train trip home from Bingen was terrible. I hadn't gotten us reservations, and even if I'd tried I don't think I could have gotten them. The train was jammed full of people because it was Sunday of a holiday weekend, and everyone was in a foul mood, pushing and shoving and generally being belligerent. So stressful! It made us generally grumpy and bewhildered as to why people here have to get so upset over the littlest things. Germans definitely are a lot less likely to laugh things off than Americans are, and they generally have much less patience when it comes to crowds.

This weekend is also a holiday weekend (no one has more holidays than Germany, I'm convinced), but I'm staying in and doing homework, now that MA has gone back to America and it's still freezing and yucky outside. It's the beginning of June and I'm still wearing a coat and scarf! I hope the weather is better by the time the World Cup starts next week.

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Classes

Classes are going better for me. I do quite a bit of reading here, although certainly never as much as I do for law school at home. I am starting to understand more and more of the lectures, and I have personally gone and met with some of the professors. They couldn't have been nicer to me, and I really appreciated how complimentary they were of my efforts so far. It meant so much to me to hear their encouragement and their reassurances that they were there to help me and not to make it impossible for me.

I don't often go to office hours in law school at home but I think I will start going more when I get back. I actually have a few ideas about how I can leverage my experience in law school here to help myself be more successful when I go back. I like the orderly German way of analyzing issues and coming up with conclusions. I think they're much more focused on teaching you the methodology of analysis here than they are in the states. I think that if you have a definite and distinct process of analysis, I think it's a lot easier to keep the rules straight in your head. So I'm going to try to add a little German-ness to my approach to law school at home, and I hope it will help.

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Social Life in Augsburg

Augsburg is generally growing on me. I have been here now for two and a half months, and I know my way around the city pretty well. This would not be a top destination for me if I was a tourist, but it's a nice place to live, I think. I have a nice group of American and German friends that I hang out with. I go out much more here than I do at home -- at least 3 or 4 nights a week. I think there are a few reasons for this:

1. I use public transportation rather than drive, which means I can stay out longer and don't have to stop myself at one beer if I don't want.

2. Speaking of beer, it's delicious here and I really like drinking it and chatting with friends.

3. I'm not as busy with schoolwork here as I am at home. There are also, frankly, fewer expectations placed on me here.

4. I am living alone here, and going out with friends is better than sitting alone in my room.

5. I don't have a TV here.

Don't get me wrong, I would much rather be at home in my lovely house with my lovely husband and my lovely kitty-cats. I also would love to have my car, just in case I need it. But I have established a nice situation here for myself that will work for me for a little while longer. I certainly am feeling less homesick all the time and more used to the life here and having everything be in German. But when the time comes to go home I will definitely be ready.

Gas Prices

2006-05-13T06:40:00.000-07:00

I know I haven't written much about law lately, but since I got my internet access in my apartment I have been online looking at news a lot. I have some thoughts about gas prices. According to an article in today's NY Times, "Full Tanks Put Squeeze on the Working Class," apparently having to fill the tank is putting the hurt on a lot of people.

Okay, I'm not even in America right now, and I'm sick of this discussion. I say ENOUGH ALREADY to those who are complaining about gas prices. People, get a clue! Are people totally ignorant about the current global fossil fuel and warming crises, or are they so self-absorbed that they just don't care? I'm all for ANY phonomenon that causes people to think twice about driving places in their cars, and while I think its totally inexcusable and disgraceful that the oil companies are the ones who are racking up the SILLY profits here, at least there's SOME mechanism in place that will, one way or another, get people to think about how they can save fuel.

This NY Times article is rich. Apparently this crisis is hitting people especially hard in the Miami area, where people are being forced to give up trips to the mall, the movies, and to visit friends/family because all that requires gas that they need to make their 60-mile daily round trip commute to work. Still others have been forced to subject themselves to daily 2-hour commutes on public transportation as a result of giving up driving to work altogether.

The tone of the people in these articles is distinctly disparing: the woman who now relies on public transportation calls it "a nightmare" and says she's losing sleeping time due to her new commuting schedule. However, the woman who has to commute 60 miles back and forth each day to work scoffs at the idea of carpooling, refusing to leave her "aging Toyota 4-Runner" at home because it will force her to sacrifice her autonomy (specifically, "I don't want to depend on nobody.")

On the one hand, reading this article makes me want to shout, "Are you kidding me?!" But, on the other hand, I understand what these people are going through, really, and I do feel badly for them. Making lifestyle changes in which you are denied former conveniences is really difficult, and it is unfortunate that lower-income people are feeling the hurt the worst in this situation. However, for the good of everyone, I really can't see rising gas prices as a problem or crisis or anything negative. For so long in America people have treated gas like we have oceans and oceans full of it and it will never run out, buying SUVs and motorhomes, going to car races and monster truck rallies, clogging up our freeways and polluting our air. Its a desperate situation, and, well, they call for desperate measures.

I know that the cost of EVERYTHING goes up when gas prices rise. I really do appreciate that. But we in America have SO MUCH as it is, and there is so much waste in America as well. Can it be all bad that we are forced to consider conservation and frugality in our daily lives? My instincts tell me no. I know those are difficult concepts for most Americans to appreciate, but my goodness, we have to do something!

It is very interesting to think about this problem while sitting over here in Germany. I have been in a car a total of 4 times in the last 7 weeks, each trip lasting about 10 minutes (3 times in taxis going home late after the trams stopped running, and once when my friend Dani dropped me off after she and I met for a drink). Other than that I have exclusively walked or used public transportation. Don't get me wrong, I miss my car EVERY DAY. It's like a drug, really, and I have definitely felt the pain of not having it. But for once I feel like I'm really doing something positive, rather than just wishing I was.

Gas prices in Germany are astronomical, and I really think it's better that way...according to my calculations, they pay about $6.38 a gallon for gas (1.30 Euro for a liter, and there are 3.8 liters in a gallon, and 1 euro equal about $1.20). As a result, people here walk, ride bikes, ride trams and trains, and have smaller cars (I have maybe seen 5 big SUVs since I've been here). Granted, it's much easier to be in Germany without a car since the transportation infrastructure is so outstanding. But seeing what they have done here shows that IT IS POSSIBLE.

I want to say something too about my husband SP. He commutes each day from our home in the San Fernando Valley to the Westside of Los Angeles on the bus. He almost never uses his car. I know a lot of people who say they want to do something to help the environment, but SP really walks the talk. SP is a professional and works in an office. His company pays for his bus pass each month. While he's on the bus he listens to music or plays games on his phone. He will NEVER drive if he doesn't have to. And I'm proud of him because he's much better about it than I am.

It's time to stop seeing public transportation in the U.S. as something to be suffered. Politicians in America owe it to us to study the systems in Europe and come up with plans to make something similar at home. We can't continue down the path we're on. There's too much ozone asthma, too much smog, and too little consideration. It will be difficult for many people to adjust but we've had our fun and now it's time to be responsible.

Higher Education Mentalties -- US and Europe

2006-05-12T23:08:00.000-07:00

The NY Times ran a really interesting article about the state of higher education in France today.

A note about the NY Times -- You need to register to access NY Times articles. Basic registration is free and allows you to look at most articles from the past 7 days. But don't even get me started about the Times Select program. To have to pay for their excellent editorial content, while they still have an ad on every page, is totally ridiculous to me, and I have refused to sign up for it on principle. Of course I really miss it and might change my mind someday.

As I was reading the article, I found some points very interesting because they showed some similarities between French and German universities:

France = "The...[University of Paris' Nanterre campus] library is open only 10 hours a day, closed on Sundays and holidays. Only 30 of the library's 100 computers have Internet access."

Germany = The library here is also closed on Sundays and holidays. In fact, everything in this town except restaurants, movie theaters, and gas stations is closed on Sundays and holidays. There is generally more internet access here though, and most of the campus is covered by wireless LAN.

France = "The campus cafeterias close after lunch...[and] by late afternoon every day the campus is largely empty."

Germany = Same deal here. The Mensa (student cafeteria) closes at 2pm, and the campus is mainly deserted after 6pm and throughout the weekend. This may be a problem unique to Augsburg though, since it (unusally for Germany) has a campus design (all the buildings in one location), and is located relatively far from the center of town (about 8 tram stops away).

France = "The practice in the United States of private endowments providing a large chunk of college budgets is seen as strange in France. Tuition is about $250 a year, hardly a sufficient source of income for colleges. But asking the French to pay more of their way in college seems out of the question. When the government proposed a reform in 2003 to streamline curriculums and budgets by allowing each university more flexibility and independence, students and professors rebelled. They saw the initiative as a step toward privatization of higher education that they feared would lead to higher fees and threaten the universal right of high school graduates to a college education. The government backed down."

Germany = There are only a few private universities in Germany as far as I know -- the first one was the University of Witten, and more have cropped up over the years. But it is certainly more common that universities are run by the government. Tuituion is similarly low here, but that will be changing next year, when the rates apparently will rise significantly. Students everywhere are opposed to fee hikes, and German students generally are no exception, but the German students I have talked to about it are resigned to paying them because they know that they're needed. Still, I went to a private college in the U.S. for undergrad, and I am going to one now for law school. I have consistently paid $20-30K a year for the privilege, taking out a lot of loans just to cover the bills. When I tell Germans about this, they look at me like I have two heads. No one can believe I'd even bother paying so much for a university degree. I think the feeling here is similar to that in France -- there is a lot of competition for jobs here, and most people see a university degree as somewhat helpful, but certainly no guarantee of finding work after graduation.

(Note -- here is an interesting article in English about German university fees that looks like an online supplement to a book. Note it is from 1996 and might be a little out of date, but what I'm reading here seems to echo even current sentiments.)

France = "Officials, entrepreneurs, professors and students alike agree that too many students are stuck in majors like sociology or psychology that make it difficult to move into a different career in a stratified society like France, given the country's troubled economy."

Germany = I am seeing a similar tendency over here. It seems that an awful lot of people are studying economics, sociology, and languages here in Augsburg. Not that those things aren't valuable in themselves, but I am not seeing a lot of practical science being studied here that would be more useful in finding a job. Maybe it's different elsewhere in Germany though. That said, a lot of American students are also studying those types of subjects as well. But I don't think competition for jobs is as fierce in the US as it is in Germany.

All in all, it was interesting (and to be honest somewhat enjoyable) to read an article that looks at the differences in higher education from an American perspective. There is a critical tone to the article that I don't really disagree with (although proponents of the French system would probably say that the NYT reporter was unduly negative). I continue to maintain that each type of system has its advantages and its disadvantages. It's fun and interesting to think critically about the differences in any event.

Classroom Settings -- Here and There

2006-05-04T04:58:00.000-07:00

So I have now gone to five lectures -- 2 each in Legal Philosophy and International Civil Procedure, and 1 in Internation Criminal Law (that class was cancelled this week because the professor had a conflict). Here are some interesting differences I've noticed between law school classroom settings in Germany and in the U.S.

1. Classroom Noise level

I can't believe how loud German students are WHILE THE PROFESSOR IS LECTURING. It's like the professors are so intent on making their points that they don't care about any extraneous noise going on in the class, and the German students are sometimes jabbering away like they're sitting in a cafe rather than in a classroom. This makes it very difficult for foreign students to hear/understand the professor, and every American student I know over here complains about this. My friend AB told me that in the really large lecture halls it's worse because it sounds like the kids in the back of the hall are practically partying like it's Friday night, making so much noise that no matter how close to the front you sit, you can't hear the professor over the students. This absolutely would not happen in an American college classroom (the professor would merely ask the student to leave), and every German I have ever met who has not studied in America is shocked by this.

I have a couple of theories about this noise thing:

(a) German university students just finished high school, in which they had to write very difficult exams to earn their leaving certificate (Abitur). To me there appears to me to be a feeling of invincibility among kids who just got their Abitur and got a spot at university, so they feel like they don't need to work hard, pay attention, etc. in the beginning. They think they already know a lot, and what they don't know they'll just figure out later (in time for the exam).

(b) Compared with American students, German students pay very little to attend university, and they just don't appreciate the value of what they're getting during a lecture.

Both of these might also explain why lecture attendance among German students is viewed with a very cavilier attitude -- they feel like they shouldn't have to go if the professor is bad/boring because they can just learn it on their own. In my law school, attendance is mandatory and the professor passes around a sign-in sheet. Germans see this as too much hand-holding, but I have no problem with making attendance mandatory.

2. Laptop Computers

Yesterday I was shocked to see a kid using a laptop in my philosophy class. Of course, it was the type that looks like a clipboard and you write on it, and not a standard notebook computer with a screen that sticks up. Honestly, I think the Germans do this right. One of my biggest pet peeves about American law school classrooms is the amount of internet surfing, online gambling, instant messaging, and game playing that goes on during the lectures.

Apparently I am not alone in this feeling. Some college and law school professors ban laptops in their class, not only because of the "availability of distractions" problem, but also because they feel that taking notes on laptops turn students into zombies who can't remember anything that was discussed during the class. I agree with both of these points. In fact, I am considering abandoning my laptop when I go back to law school for my third year and just using regular pen and paper to take notes. I think I would be a lot less distracted and a lot more engaged in the class (which will be made easier by sitting as close to the front row as possible, another one of my plans for next year).

I guess the bottom line is that there are plenty of ways to be distracted in class. The professor has a job to do -- deliver informative lectures that, if possible, are also mildly entertaining; in short, whatever he/she can to keep students interested in the material. I think this is one of the most important aspects of professorship and it, rather than writing scholarly articles, should be the main criterion for judging a professor's effectiveness. But the students have to meet him/her halfway and pay as much attention as possible. Germany has it partially right (no computers) but then so does the U.S. (no talking). A combination of both elements would, I think, ensure maximum effectiveness for everyone.

Immigration Protests in Los Angeles

2006-05-01T14:49:00.000-07:00

So I am reading in the LA Times about immigration protests in Los Angeles that are happening today. What is really moving is to look at the pictures and see everyone carrying American flags.

This is what it's all about, people. The vast majority of illegal immigrants are not in the country to take what they can from America without doing any work. I think most of them are probably law-abiding, hard-working citizens who want a better life for themselves and their families, and they know there is work that they can do in America, so they do what they can to come to the States and do that work. It's hard for me to understand why there is so much backlash against these people. I think America is better for these people risking their lives to come there, and doing the work that no one else wants to do. The idea that these people should be charged as FELONS is absolutely ridiculous. They provide a critical service to our country, and it's time for Americans to stop hating them so much.

I feel weird getting all patriotic and AMERICAN about this, because I'm in Germany now and they just don't do that here. But I am very moved by what I'm hearing about the protests in America. These people are just pursuing their dreams and a better life. How greedy and selfish of Americans to punish them for doing so.

Augsburg Mozarthaus & Bench Dancing at Plaerrer

2006-04-28T23:20:00.000-07:00

So on Friday I didn't have any classes, and I devoted myself to a few hours of reading philosophy. Wow, that is hard. After that I deserved some fun, so AB and I went to the Mozarthaus (where our friend AO works), and we toured that for a while. It's the house that Mozart's father was born in, and it is very tastefully done and impressive. We then did a little shopping, came back and dropped the stuff off, and then went back to the Plaerrer, which is the fair we were also at last weekend.

We were there early, so we could sit in the small beer tent and eat chicken and drink Thorbraeu (one of the local Augsburg breweries) Pils. Yummy. Then we went next door to the big beer hall, where things were just getting started. A group of very fun and interesting Germans ended up sitting next to us, and we spent a happy couple of hours clinking glasses with them and laughing. We also engaged in the favored celebratory activity of drunken Germans -- dancing on the benches. Apparently you are not allowed to dance on the tables, but if the mood takes you and you need to get higher up and shake your booty, you can do so on the benches. A German told me that it's common that people get so carried away during bench-dancing that they break the bench and they have to pay 20 Euros (no word on if they get to take their broken bench home though). What was really funny is that AB is only about 4'11", and the guy next to her (who drank two liters of beer in about 45 minutes and spent the rest of the time looking at her with a dreamy smile on his face) must have been about 6'3", and when she stood on the bench he was still taller than her. Darn, it was cute. I took a lot of pictures of them. The group also included some hockey players who knew EVERYTHING about the NHL -- I was so happy to talk puck. And there was a lovely and sweet girl in their crowd too, the girlfriend of one of the guys. She was having a night off from being with her two kids and she took every advantage.

It was one of the most fun nights I've had since I've been in Germany, I must say. I was feeling a little down in the dumps that day so it was perfect to drink some beer and do some bench dancing.

LA Gold Lady Kings

2006-04-27T08:50:00.000-07:00

This doesn't really have anything to do with Germany, but I have to give my girls some props. Here is a picture of my hockey team, which I talked about in an earler entry.

They won the championship in the Los Angeles Lady Kings Winter Season a few weeks ago. I miss them very much and was sad I couldn't be there during the playoffs to help them bring home the hardware. But I was cheering from over here. They also had a fun celebration party last weekend, and I got an early-morning wakeup call from them on Monday (the party, which had started at 3pm on Sunday, was still going strong by 10:30pm over there, which was 7:30am Monday here).

It's too bad my hockey girls aren't here with me. They're impressive partiers, and we would be tearing it up (after I finished all my reading and homework, of course).

International Civil Procedure

2006-04-27T04:47:00.000-07:00

Today I had two hours of INTERNATIONAL CIVIL PROCEDURE (Internationales Zivilfahrensrecht). Whew. The professor, Prof. Behr, is great -- he talks relatively slowly, uses a lot of inflection and pauses for emphasis, and imparts on us his own brand of humor. He did come up with one classic today:

"Foreign judgments are just about as valuable in Germany as toilet paper, just not as soft."

(For those who don't find that funny, at least now you know that I pay attention in class and understand what they're talking about.)

What this means is that if a U.S. judge in a tort action decides that a German defendant needs to pay monetary damages to an American plaintiff, and the German defendant is no longer in America but is now back in Germany, if the American plaintiff goes to Germany and tries to get a German court to force the German defendant to pay the award, the American plaintiff will probably be told "not our problem" as the German court throws out the case. Bummer. But I did learn that "full faith and credit" is also alive and well over here. Say a judge in Hamburg awards monetary damages to a plaintiff, to be paid by a defendant in Augsburg. If the Augsburg guy won't pay, the Hamburg guy can go to an Augsburg court and the Hamburg court's judgment will be recognized as valid. It's the same deal in America.

So as they were talking about civil procedure I had to go way back in the memory bank to remember what I learned about jurisdiction, venue, standing, etc. As it turns out, not a lot. Should be a fun few months. At least I have my computer here with all my first year outlines, and I can go back to them and try to remember what we talked about.

We American law students do have an advantage over the German law students in a situation like this in that we learn civil procedure during the first year of law school, whereas German law students learn it right before they take their first "Staatsexam" (kind of like the bar exam in America). So because I have already had civil procedure at home, the concepts are not overly foreign to me.

In Germany, it works like this: law students study for a few years, then take the first Staatsexam, then work in an internship for a while, then take the SECOND Staatsexam, then they're done (if they've passed everything). They wait to have civil procedure until right before the students start their internships, because they'll actually be using it when they're working as interns for lawyers. I think it might be harder to become a lawyer over here because there are two big exams involved, although in America we have to go to school for longer (undergrad and then law school). In Germany law is an undergrad subject, so students, in effect, can become lawyers after only 5 or 6 years. Still, it seems really difficult and I'm glad I am becoming a lawyer in America.

Classes, My Room, New Friends, Plaerrer

2006-04-26T12:29:00.000-07:00

Well, I finally started class on Tuesday. So far I have been to two lectures:

1. Rechtsphilosophie und Rechtstheorie (Legal Philosophy and Theory) -- I think in this class we will attempt to answer such high-level questions as "What is law?" and "What makes a law good?" This is not going to be an easy class because the concepts are fairly complicated, and the professor speaks incredibly quickly. But I think the ideas are interesting, and I think it will be a good challenge for me. I have yet to come across a class in American law school where we think about law in this way, so I am glad I am able to take this here.

2. Internationales Strafrecht (International Criminal Law) -- I did not do very well in Criminal Law during my first year of law school (although Criminal Procedure was one of my best classes -- it all has to do with the professor, I think). So I'm really looking forward to getting another crack at it. The professor made it clear that we have to know something about German criminal law in order to answer questions in the class, so I bought a copy of the Strafgesetzbuch (Criminal Code) and I also found an English translation of it online. This should be very helpful. I am very excited about this class, and I've already started familiarizing myself with the code. It's interesting to see the differences between what's a crime in Germany and what's a crime in America. The professor was pretty funny and engaging, and I talked to him after and he was really nice. He even said I could come and see him if I was having any problems. That is interesting to me because I think generally that German law professors are less willing to meet with students than American law professors (although I might be wrong about that).

So I have one more class this week -- Internationales Zivilfahrensrecht (International Civil Procedure). I already know the professor for this class (I met him a few weeks ago) and he seems really nice and funny so I'm definitely looking forward to this one.

I wanted to take a translation class (translating legal texts from English to German). But I somehow get the feeling that the professor may not want me in there because when I emailed him he replied wondering why I would want to take his class, which (in his view) for me would be like taking a class for foreign students at home. I kind of disagree with this because I think translating from English to German would be a very valuable exercise for me. The professor also made it clear that I would not get credit for it because there would be no exam at the end. Ugh. Seems like more work/hassle than it's worth.

My room is becoming a nice little space. I got my internet and landline connection today, and I'm listening to the radio from home now (and of course writing this at my own desk). I am SOOO HAPPY about this. I also have decorated it a little. I originally didn't want to spend any $$ to decorate it, but I figured that I will be here for a few months, and I'll probably be spending a lot of time here. So I bought a nice little rug and tablecloth, and I'm enjoying hanging out here more and more.

I met some people who live in my apartment building -- some nice American girls and a Polish guy. The Polish guy looks like a young Morrissey, who, if you don't know, is a British singer who was the frontman for the band the Smiths. If you grew up in Southern California in the late '80's, as I did, you will know who the Smiths are.

Anyway, it is nice to have friends. One of the American girls, AB, and I have been getting along really well and doing a lot of fun stuff together, including going to the Augsburg Plaerrer festival. Plaerrer is like a county fair, Bavarian-style. It is not big, but it includes a couple of huge beer garden tents where you can drink a lot of beer and watch the Germans jump up and down on the benches and sing. It's a ton of fun. AB is from Vermont, and it's fun to hear about her life there.

It's late and time for bed.

Update -- April 18, 2006

2006-04-18T05:24:00.000-07:00

I finally have internet access on my laptop when I'm here at the university, which means that I can upload the blog entries I've created over the past few weeks. I have uploaded each one as a separate entry, and in the post title I included the date it was created. This means the earlier ones are at the bottom of the page ... oh, you'll figure it out. Enjoy.

Another Friday Night in Munich (From Sat. 4/15/06)

2006-04-18T05:18:00.000-07:00

So after staying the night in Straubing, I left late Friday morning to go to Munich to meet some of the people from the Neuschwanstein tour. We had arranged to meet at the Hofbrauehaus at 7pm. This meant I had quite a few hours to kill beforehand, so I went and saw a movie for the first time in a year and a half. The only one that was just about to start when I showed up at the 18-screen theater was “Ice Age II.” It was surprisingly cute and entertaining, and it was fun to sit in the theater and hear all the little kids around me laughing at the silly jokes.

Then I had some dinner and finally it was time to head to the Hofbrauehaus. Roland, Al, and I were waiting in front when Laura came out and said they already had a table inside. “They” meant, in addition to Laura and Amanda, the tour guide from the Dachau tour they’d done that day (A French-Tunisien guy who was friendly and very striking in a French-Tunisien way), and two more American girls who were studying in Scotland and in Munich for the weekend.

So we drank the big beers and ate food and talked about a lot of different stuff. Unfortunately, one of the young American girls in our group was apparently not used to drinking, and as it turned out she had a bad night ahead of her. I have learned to let my drink last me awhile, since the beer here is strong and I usually need to be coherent enough to navigate a significant amount of public transportation to make my way back to Augsburg. Plus, drinking to the point of incoherence is not really that fun for me, and makes me feel more uncomfortable than good at this point in my life.

Anyway, this young girl had apparently not learned this lesson yet. She finished 3 of the huge beers within the span of just over two hours (I finished about ¾ of one, and that was enough for me). By the time we decided to move on to Roland’s favorite Irish pub, she was not looking too great. Of course she had not eaten, and she refused all offers of food at the pub. Within 45 minutes of our being there she had been copiously sick and her friend was forced to apologize repeatedly on her behalf and steer her back to the youth hostel.

Ugh. I hope she has learned her lesson and will not do that to herself again. I’m sure she won’t want to touch a drink again soon in any event. I suppose we have all been there, and everyone in our group was exceedingly nice about the whole thing. I hope she is okay now.

We stayed quite late at the pub, and I missed my train back to Augsburg, so I spent an uncomfortable night on the floor of Amanda and Laura’s hotel room. Luckily I had clothes, toothbrush, etc. with me since I’d come directly from Straubing, and I ended up wearing three layers of clothes, plus my winter coat, gloves, and hat, and I was still freezing and barely got any sleep.

Hockey in Straubing (From Sat. 4/15/06)

2006-04-18T05:17:00.000-07:00

On Thursday I left for Straubing, which is in Eastern Bavaria (northeast of Munich). I was going there to watch a hockey game between the German national team and the Swiss national team. Straubing is a real hockey town, even though it’s kind of in the middle of nowhere (Eastern Bavaria is mainly rural, with lots of farmland and small villages). The Straubing Tigers play in Germany’s second national hockey league (Zweites Bundesliga), which I guess is something like the minors, except the main difference is that if you win the second league championship, you get an automatic promotion to the first league for the following season.

Straubing is currently in the final championship playoff round of the second league against a team from northern Germany. I found it incredible that it’s possible that a team from this relatively tiny town in Bavaria could field a hockey team that would play against teams from Berlin, Duesseldorf, Cologne, etc. next season.

But I was not in town to see Straubing’s team – I was there to see the Germans and the Swiss. It was an interesting experience to see a hockey game over here. Unbeknownst to me, I had bought a “standing ticket,” which meant I could stand anywhere in the arena and watch the game. As a matter of fact, most of the spectator area was devoted to standing places, and there were very few actual seats. I decided to go over to the area devoted to the Swiss supporters because barely any had made the trip, and my view was relatively unobstructed there.

The German fans were in good voice – there was lots of singing and chanting during the game. And even though the Swiss fans numbered no more than ten, they were still very loud and active. There were also lots of flags in the crowd, and plenty of people were drinking beer and generally enjoying themselves.

It was not the best hockey experience in the world for me, unfortunately. First, going to a hockey game alone is not a lot of fun when everyone else seems to be in groups. Also, because the rink is open to the outside on one entire side (it basically had 3 walls and a roof), it was quite cold in there, and even though I had my winter coat and my gloves I was quite chilly. Also, it is quite a strain physically to just stand there in the cold on concrete for such a long time. Furthermore, the level of the hockey itself was something of a disappointment after having watched the NHL the whole past season. The players were working hard, but it was clear they were not used to playing together, and both teams were weak defensively (evidenced mainly by bad giveaways by both teams in their own end). The goalies kept the game close, but that was enough to completely captivate me given the circumstances, and I left with about 10 minutes left to go in the third period. As it turned out, the Swiss goal I saw in the first period (kind of a broken play leading to the puck being slipped past the German goalie … not exactly spectacular) was the only goal of the game. So I was glad I’d gone, but I was also glad I’d left when I did. Hopefully both teams will get better before the world championships in May.

Neuschwanstein Castle Tour (From Sat. 4/15/06)

2006-04-18T05:16:00.000-07:00

On Wednesday I took a tour of Neuschwanstein Castle in southern Bavaria. This is the castle on which the Disney castle is modeled. I went with an English-speaking tour group and met some fantastic people. The tour itself was interesting – the castle was built by Bavaria’s crazy king Ludwig II in the mid 1800’s, and he was fascinated with Wagner operas, so the castle’s interior decorating reflected this interest. A lot of beautiful woodwork and painting was done on the inside, and there were some weird themed rooms, including a “grotto” reading room that looked like the fake inside of a cave that you’d see at Disneyland.

The castle is high on a hill, so we had to hike up a long path to get there from the base (the weather was not great and buses were not allowed to go up there that day). So we hiked up the hill, went on the very quick ½ hour tour, and then our tour guide Roland (from England) took us on another hike out to a bridge from which the best pictures can be taken.

I do not like bridges, and this one was especially scary for me. It was built across a very deep valley between two hills, and if the bridge broke it would be a long way down. It was covered with snow, and almost everyone on the tour had managed to make the hike out there so there were 15+ people marching across it. NOT GOOD. I went out on it about a quarter of the way, took a very fast picture, and scooted back to the firm ground. Everyone else went across and of course nothing happened, but under the circumstances the fact that I’d even gone on the bridge at all was a victory for me.

Roland took us down an uncleared footpath down the hill from the bridge and back to the bus. Of course we were met by a snowplow making its way up the hill as we were about midway down, and the path was only wide enough to accommodate the plow and not us. So we had to wait in knee-high snow off to the side for it to pass. Luckily the group was very good-natured and everyone had a laugh at this (no one got mad). Eventually we made it back to the bus and then to the train for the 2-hour ride back to Munich.

Once we got back to Munich, Roland took a group of us to his local bar, which is an Irish pub. We had a great time listening to this fun band that played Johnny Cash songs and enjoying some drinks and food. For me it was a welcome change to my day-to-day life here thus far. The group who went to the pub included two American girls, Amanda and Laura, who are college students in Massachusetts and are studying over here this semester (Amanda in Regensburg, north of Munich, and Laura in Paris). They are SO fantastic and I loved hanging out with them. I have not met anyone as warm as these two since I arrived in Europe, and we clicked instantly. It made me so happy to know that Amanda is only a few hours away from me and will be here until July. Also, Laura will be in Paris until May and I hope to get to go over and visit her. Also at the pub was an interesting Canadian guy, Al, who travels during the winter and works in the summer directing boat traffic on water-runways in British Columbia. Al has been all over Europe and to a few places in the Middle East during this trip. He lives a very spare life, staying at youth hostels, eating sparingly, and saving money wherever possible. I couldn’t travel like that but he seems to be enjoying himself. There was also a couple from Philadelphia, both software engineers, who had met performing in an a cappella singing group. They were here visiting his daughter, who is an exchange student in Freiburg. Lovely people, who I enjoyed talking with immensely.

Soccer Part II (From 4/9/06)

2006-04-18T05:14:00.000-07:00

(Note -- This will make more sense if you read the original "Soccer" post first -- see below.)

So Saturday afternoon I went to the bar around the corner to watch the soccer match. It was a crazy scene. Except for the bar owner’s wife, I was the only other woman in there for a while. Then a couple of old ladies wandered in but they were there to drink coffee and had no interest in the television. Otherwise it was a group of older men who smoked like chimnies and drank like fish, the bar owner (who I guessed to be in his mid- to late-forties, either Turkish or Italian but had lived here a long time), and me, sitting at the bar, watching the TV.

I felt a little strange at first. They didn’t talk to me much except to ask me who I thought would win (and I said I didn’t know as I was American and had just arrived from California). They all thought that was pretty funny/interesting. Then one guy asked me if I knew the offsides rule. I don’t know why soccer-watchers use THAT as the test as to whether or not one knows about soccer, because it’s one of the easiest rules to understand in all of sports. So I told him that since I had watched and played soccer for many years, I did indeed know how offsides worked. He said, “Oh, you play? The American women are quite good.”

Now it was funny about this particular man (as if the others weren’t also somehow funny). He was sitting closest to me, and when he came in the bar owner greeted him with an informal “you.”

(German language lesson sidetrack … German has two forms of “you”: formal (“Sie”) and informal (“du”). If you are both grownups, you don’t call either other “du” unless you are very close friends, married, or related, basically. A bar owner “dutzing” a customer (yes, there is actually a verb for calling someone “du” rather than “Sie” ) is pretty unusual in any event.)

Anyway, this customer had on a really weird-looking gray suit (everyone else there was in jeans and sweaters), and he said that he had been living in Spain for the last two years. I am almost wondering, based on my understanding of the things he was talking about, if he had gone and worked in Spain in a soccer capacity, like for a team down there or something. I don’t know, it’s just a feeling. The television was quite loud, and this man tended to mumble AND had a little bit of a Bavarian accent, so I didn’t catch everything he said. He was also the only one who wasn’t drinking beer (he had a glass of red wine and a mineral water). I don’t think he was really a dirty old man (he didn’t leer at me or anything), just more politically incorrect, especially with his jokes about black people. But I chalked it up to his being old-school German.

As for the game itself, the poor snubbed goalie Oliver Kahn did not have a good outing. Of course it didn’t help that the only goal its team could manage to score was an own-goal. Bayern Muenchen lost 3-0 to the second place team in the league, thereby jeopardizing their chances of winning the league championship.

I suppose all of this was even sadder for me yesterday after I’d put away a liter of strong German beer (my God, that sounds like a lot … it was actually only two beers but they’re served in big tall glasses). I was feeling quite emotional about the whole thing as I was leaving all my new friends in the bar at the end of the game. But the thing is that it was just a soccer match, and today is another day. They’ll have another game next weekend and maybe “Olli” will have the outing of his life and redeem himself. In any event I’ll have to watch it then, and find something else to occupy myself with during the rest of the week.

One last thing about soccer and then I promise to stop. They have an interesting way of broadcasting games over here. There appears to be one main soccer show. That show is meant to cover all 8 or so games that are going on throughout Saturday afternoon (they all start around 3:30). What they do is show a few minutes of one game, and then they switch to another, and often the signal for when to switch is when you hear a DIFFERENT announcer in the background shouting “TOR IM FRANKFURT!!!” (This means “Goal in Frankfurt!!!”). Then they switch over to Frankfurt (or wherever the goal was scored) and show the replay, then they show that game for a little while, until another announcer shouts “TOR IM STUTTGART!!!” Then, well, you know the drill… The most interesting thing about that whole switch is in the few seconds while the broadcast is switching, everyone in the bar is speculating who scored in that other game and what the score is now (and what’s really funny is most of the time they’re wrong).

This broadcast style would never fly in America. Could you imagine? You’re in a sports bar, watching football with about a million drunk Raiders fans (or Jets fans or Redskins fans or ________ fans). If they were to switch AWAY from the Raiders (Jets, Redskins) to show another game, and not show the pathetic effort by the Raiders in its entirety (I’m a Chargers fan, so I couldn’t resist that one), people would be throwing things at the TV and beating the crap out of each other. All hell would break loose, and it would be hilarious. Unless, of course, you got hit in the head with a flying beer bottle, then the game would probably be spoiled for you.

Antenne Bayern Dings-bums Contest (From 4/8/06)

2006-04-18T05:12:00.000-07:00

Oh yeah, this one is more fun than a whole barrel of monkeys. Antenne Bayern is a radio station that plays 80’s, 90’s and the best of today (whoever came up with that phrase should’ve copyrighted it, there must be a million radio stations worldwide that use it to describe their playlists). I think Antenne Bayern broadcasts throughout the state of Bavaria. I only get about 5 stations 100% crystal clear on my little clock radio, and Antenne Bayern is one of them, so I listen to it fairly often (when I’m not watching my Friends DVDs anyway).

They’re having this crazy contest where you have to try to guess the thingamajig (dings-bums) that they’re describing. Believe it or not, in the current contest, the callers have been having trouble figuring out the identity of the dings-bums, and the prize money currently stands at 58,000 Euros.

How much is that? SP told me to calculate dollars from Euros, I should add 20%. 10% of 58,000 is 5,800, doubled that is 11,600. 11,600 + 58,000 = um…wait for it…$69,600!! (Math was never my strength.)

Wow, that is a hell of a lot of money.

How they give clues is they have this little guy (Niels) with this high squeaky voice come on and talk about it. It’s obviously a man trying to sound like a kid, and it’s totally hilarious to listen to him. So far the little guy has given the following clues:

1. Playgrounds need a lot of dings-bums.
2. They also have dings-bums at public swimming pools.
3. People should not bring dings-bums home with them.
4. Dings-bums are very heavy.

I have only heard three guesses so far (I always tune in at seemingly the wrong time) – benches, trees, and tires. Those are all wrong. So if you have any ideas send them to me and if there is a particularly good one I’ll phone in your guess. If it’s the winner we split it 50-50. But don’t ask me to calculate how much that is.

(Post Script from 4/18/06 -- after about a million guesses of "benches" some lady phoned in with the winning answer (bike stands) and took home 61,000 Euros...sheesh)

Soccer (From 4/8/06)

2006-04-18T05:11:00.000-07:00

It’s official … Germany is even more soccer-mad than usual right now. Most Americans probably do not know that soccer’s official championship tournament, the World Cup, is in Germany this year. But I know, and I even tried to get tickets through their special lottery system (no dice). Matches will take place throughout Germany during the month of June. It should be fun to watch the Germans whip themselves into a total frenzy over all of it.

Germans discuss and speculate about the chances of their national soccer team the same way Canadians do about their national hockey team. The simlarities are striking – front page news coverage every day, leading stories in the regular radio news, etc. The similarities don’t end with news coverage these days either. The German team manager for this go-around of the World Cup is Juergen Klinsmann, who was a famous and successful player back in the 1980’s and 1990’s for the German national team and one of the most successful teams in the German professional league, Bayern Muenchen (Bavaria Munich).

I guess it’s similar to when the Canadians chose Wayne Gretzky to manage their national team before the 2002 Olympics – they felt they couldn’t lose that tournament, and Wayne represented all that was glorious about Canadian hockey, so he got the call to bring home the gold (and he did, by the way).

Anyway, the German media has lately been on red alert regarding the issue of who would be the goalie for the national team in the World Cup. Apparently, it had been whittled down to a two-man, very public fight between Jens Klehmann (sp?), who currently plays on one of the top teams in the English Premier League, Arsenal London, and Oliver Kahn, who has been Bayern Muenchen’s goalie, as well as the goalie on the national team, for something like a million years. I remember from when I was here in 1996 that Oliver Kahn was the main goalie for the German team then as well, and I can’t believe it that 10 years later he’s still considered one of the main men for the job.

Well, as of Friday night the decision had been made: Jens Klehmann would be the number one goalie. This was the leading story in the radio news on Friday night and into Saturday.

All I can think of as I hear the story again and again is how sad Oliver Kahn must feel right now. He is obviously very famous and successful so he probably avoids newspaper reading, radio listening, TV watching, etc. Who knows, maybe he was too busy going on 10-mile runs over the last little while, trying to whip himself into shape to show he’s still the best. But I feel very sorry for him and think it’s kind of cruel that the team having snubbed him is the country’s top news story. Pain is one thing but public pain is so much worse because you know everyone’s talking about it and everyone will remember it. Look, even I’m writing about it in my blog. Even though it’s probably only read by about four people, I’m still using it as a starting point for a public discussion.

The interesting thing is that Kahn’s team, Bayern Muenchen, is scheduled to play a match this afternoon. I’m considering going to the pub to have a meal and a helles (that’s the standard pilsner-type beer served here – I went running this morning so I’ve earned it) and watching the match since I don’t have a TV. Assuredly it will be on most bar TVs throughout the country. It will be very interesting to see him play (the radio said he was scheduled to start for Bayern this afternoon).

So if anyone who is reading this knows Oliver Kahn, please tell him that I’m sorry to have talked about his misfortune in such an open forum, but I’m just trying to educate Americans about soccer (an uphill battle, to be sure). And tell to keep his chin up.

Update -- Sunday, April 16th

2006-04-16T05:12:00.000-07:00

So here I am with all of the Godless people at one of the only places in Augsburg that is open today (Easter Sunday) -- the internet cafe near the train station. I have about 10 blog entries on my laptop, ready to be uploaded, but I still don't have an internet connection in my apartment (and won't until the guy comes and installs it on 4/28). But I'm going to try to post them soon some other way so please stay tuned.

On a non-Germany note, CONGRATULATIONS TO THE L.A. GOLD LADY KINGS, champions of the 2005/2006 Lady Kings women's hockey league! Unfortunately, I was not there to help them win their playoff games (I had to leave to come to Germany the week before the playoffs started), but I was cheering from over here. Special props to my favorite defense partner, DR, who showed what she was made of by playing great even though I was not there to team up with her.

More to come, stay tuned!

Munich

2006-04-03T12:45:00.000-07:00

I wrote the following on Saturday night and have just gotten around to posting it now. Enjoy...

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I have not been able to write in my blog for a few days because I don’t have an internet connection in the hotel in Munich. Specifically, I don’t want to pay 22 Euros a day to access their wireless LAN. So this will serve as what the Germans call a Zusammenfassung (compilation) of all of my observations during my weekend here.

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Munich Itself

Wow. No one ever told me how amazing Munich is.

Before I arrived here, my favorite German city was undoubtedly Cologne. I spent a lot of fun and interesting weekends there the last time I lived over here, and I drank enough Kolsch (beer brewed in Cologne served in tall skinny glasses) to have it be one of my favorite drinks. I loved arriving in Cologne by train and seeing the amazing Koelner Dom (Cologne cathedral, located directly next to the train station) grow larger and larger in the train window. The people there are great and I found it generally to be an oasis of friendliness and cheerfulness in the reserved north of Germany.

I’m not sure if it’s a Catholic thing, a beer thing, or what. (Cologne is one of the only primarily Catholic cities in north Germany, whereas Catholocism predominates over Protestantism in Munich and throughout Bavaria.) Munich and Cologne have similar atmospheres, but Munich is really a “Weltstadt” (city of the world, roughly translated). The center of Munich is comprised of a huge pedestrian zone, with tons of stores, a produce market, statutes, churches, and cafes where people sit outside at all hours of the day and drink beer. Everything is easily accessible either on foot or through the massive underground train system. People are dressed fashionably and well, the dogs are well-behaved, and everyone seems generally happy and relaxed.

I don’t think there is any other place in the world like it, and I have become completely and totally captivated during this weekend that I’ve been here. Of course, what I have mostly done is walk around with my friend JS (who met me in Munich on Saturday after catching a ride here with a friend from Stuttgart). We went to the Hofbraeuhaus and had beer. We walked around, then went to the Englischer Garten and drank more beer. It was a gorgeous spring day, basically the first of the year for these people after a very long winter, and they were so happy to be out and about.

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Bayerischer Rundfunk Orchester (Bavarian Radio Orchestra)

The reason I came to Munich this weekend was to see an all-Mozart program by the symphony orchestra here in town on Friday night. I enjoyed it very much even though (and SP, a huge Mozart fan, won’t like this) I would rather see a mixed program and not just Mozart music alone. Oh well.

The orchestra was directed for this concert by Riccardo Muti, who is a famous director in the classical music world. Wow, what a hottie (even though he struck me as quite the diva). He is Italian, and has long black hair and looks very young and fit, even though the program said he started directing in the late ‘60’s, which means he must be in his late 50’s or early 60’s. He was very refined and his directorial movements were obviously quite practiced and expressive…it was easy to tell he’s been in this game a long time. I did enjoy it quite a lot. I especially liked it in the symphonies when the bassoon and the flute played together and you could hear them above the strings. Those instruments make a nice combination of sounds.

The whole orchestra played well, although it was disappointing that it had so few women…I suppose it might still be hard for women to crack the top orchestras. I’m not sure. All the first violins were men except one, as was also the case with the cellos and the entire wind section (only the second oboe was a woman). It might also be a German or European thing, but I have a feeling it is similar in American orchestras.

Of course, what was really fun was that the concert was simulcast over the radio and internet, which means that while I was listening to it in the hall, SP was listening to it on the computer at work. That’s fun.

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Television

So by the time Saturday night rolled around JS had left, and I was tired from all the walking so I just hung out in my room. I really didn’t mind because Saturday night is a good night for television in Germany.

To me, one of the most fun shows on German television is Wetten, dass…? It is on ZDF (channel two) on Saturday nights at 8pm. It is a weird variety show hosted by one of the most famous German television personalities, Thomas Gottschalk, who is a tall, 50-ish man with a blond mullet and very strange fashion sense. Tonight he was in solid form – he had on a green velvet blazer with weird sparkly sequins on it, plaid slacks that were in fashion in the 70’s, and high-heeled patent leather black boots. Great.

Wetten, dass…? is a pretty fun concept. I’m surprised they haven’t done it in America yet. Basically, it is like Leno or Letterman, in that a series of famous people come out and talk about their latest project and answer other generally easy questions. Then, each famous person has to make a bet involving some stunt that a regular person claims he or she can do (maybe something like Letterman’s Stupid Human Tricks).

For example, the first “regular” person on tonight claimed that he could walk, in a bathing suite, across a clothesline like a tightrope and put on each item of clothing (shirt, pants, jacket, hat) that was hung there without falling off the line himself. The famous person was a German woman who is apparently well-known over here for something, but I had never heard of her or seen her before, and she didn’t interest me much because she had long stringy blond hair, ugly Pamela Anderson tattoos, and a shiny evening dress that most of her breasts were hanging out of. Tres obvious, no? I was embarrassed for her. Anyway, weird guy made it across the clothesline, which Blondina bet that he would do, so she won.

What was very fun about tonight’s show is that the guest of honor was none other than Tom Cruise. That’s right. They have American stars come on as well, and it’s very strange because there has to be simultanueous translations going on, and sometimes Gottschalk speaks English to the guest so then the translation has to go the other way. It can be very confusing and cause uncomfortable silent delays. What’s even more interesting about Tom Cruise is that the Germans have a very serious problem with Scientologists – from what I understand Scientology is not allowed to be practiced here. I thought he was boycotting Germany, but obviously I am mistaken.

(Actually, I looked it up when I got back online, and it is the other way around -- German, particularly the Christian Democrats, wanted to boycott Cruise's movies because he is a Scientologist ... but apparently they are no longer interested in doing so if he is able to promote his new movie on Channel Two over here in prime time. BTW, I have known many Scientologists over the years and I think they are totally whack.)

Scientology, thank God, did not come up during the interview, and Tom was relatively well-behaved – no jumping on couches, no arguing with the host. Instead he spent the whole time hyping his new movie, Mission Impossible 3.

(Are three Mission Impossible movies really necessary? Actually I don’t know because I didn’t see the other two.)

Anyway, his bet was really interesting. These two young girls came out, then the whole rest of their 8th grade class (about 20 kids in all). The bet was that if any of the classmates put on lipstick and kissed a piece of paper, the girls could tell who had kissed the paper from the lipstick mark alone. Tom got a load of that and said “No way.” But to be fair, they didn’t explain the bet very well. Tom understood (as had I) that the girls would have to identify the kiss marks from all 20 classmates, but as it turned out they only had to get 4 right. Believe it or not, they actually did it, and even though they only had to identify four of them that is still really hard and I was very impressed. Tom was also impressed. Since he lost the bet, he had to ride around the studio on a motorcycle while Gottschalk chased him on a kiddie tricycle, which was totally stupid and fell a bit flat.

The other fun part of Saturday night television in Germany is the live NHL hockey game that they show on the sports channel. I thought I’d never see another game this season, but instead I was treated to Flyers/Devils, live from Philadelphia. It is very strange to listen to a German announcer doing an NHL game.

I’ve changed back to Wetten Dass…? and now Roberto Begnini (sp?) is on. I missed all the Italian translating, thank God. His bet involved a weird German guy who could look at and feel any kind of 250 different varieties of sand and say exactly where in the world it had come from. Of course he got 4 out of 4.

Oh, yes, Wetten Dass…? also features musical acts. So far tonight they have been as varied as Columbian super-hottie Juanes, the 80’s band Toto, and some weird band from Magdeburg (Tokyo…something they’re called, I didn’t catch it) that I have never heard of but is one of the most popular bands in Germany. The band is comprised of boys, I think, although they are very feminine looking and the lead singer is a scary cross between Marilyn Manson and Bjork. The teenage girls in the audience are going crazy, like the Beatles on Ed Sullivan. I just don’t see the appeal.

Once I got back online, I found that there's some good reading about Saturday night's show on the ZDF Web site (all in German, unfortunately).

Wow. Television is fun. I told SP I was going to buy one when I got into my apartment and I felt his head shake through the phone.

Munich this weekend

2006-03-30T11:25:00.000-08:00

So I just reserved a hotel for two nights in Munich. You might be asking yourself why, since Munich is only 1/2 an hour from Augsburg on the train. A few reasons:

1. I have a ticket to the symphony in Munich tomorrow (Friday) night, and the concert starts at 8pm. Mozart with the Bayerischer Rundfunk Orchester. Should be interesting.

2. I don't know how far the Munich train station is from the symphony hall, but JS's apartment (where I'm staying) is at least 1/2 an hour away from the Augsburg station, and I don't like running around by myself that late, trying to find busses, etc.

3. JS's apartment is fine, but the shower is teeny and the water runs either too hot or too cold all the time, and I want a few days with a nice hotel shower/bath before I move into my own apartment on Monday.

4. I want to watch some TV.

Initially, I thought those reasons were not good enough to justify a 100-Euro hotel bill, but I was talking to SP about it and he convinced me it would be okay to spend the money, relax, and enjoy myself. So I booked it. I am actually pretty excited. Everyone I have ever known who has been to Munich loves it. My Bavaria book has a huge section on Munich, so I'll know where to go and how to get there.

The administrative things are all just about wrapped up -- I got my residence permit and I registered with the local authorities, and managed to get that done within about an hour this morning. Wunderbar. The main thing I have left to do is call the "Hausmeister" (landlord, I guess) of the student housing and confirm that I can move in there Monday at 8am. I hate using the phone over here and have been putting it off as long as possible. But I need to make sure I'm squared away for Monday, so I have to bite the bullet and just do it.

Dinner

2006-03-29T09:43:00.000-08:00

Yum. Lasagna, salad, and two glasses of lovely chiante for less than 13 Euros. I read my Time magazine and listened with enjoyment to the group of ladies next to me and the birthday party on the other side. And they took my American Express. Wunderbar.

Pasta e Vino
Bergiusstraße 13
86199 Augsburg

Retail Therapy

2006-03-29T06:59:00.000-08:00

I didn't make it to the resident registration office today because I got up too late. That's okay. Instead, I took my time getting ready this morning. I then went to the campus to sign my housing contract. The lady at the office was surprised I already had a bank account. I guess I'm doing okay on that score.

I then took the tram (Strassenbahn) to the Augsburg town center. I'm not sure how wise it was to walk around down there in the rain and blowing cold wind, but it felt great to get out and walk around, especially since I was in the town itself (which feels like a real German town). The university is out kind of in the middle of a field (and thus does not really feel like it's in Germany, somehow), and it takes about 20 minutes on the tram to get to the main train station from the campus. The tram runs straight through the middle of the campus, which is great. I kept thinking ahead while I was riding it to how easy it will be to get from the train station to my apartment (which is in a building practically on the campus itself) when people like my friend MA come to visit from the States (MA is coming over here for just over a week beginning in the middle of May).

Anyway, I went to the train station because I thought it would be nice to buy an English magazine or book (or both) at the bookshop there. I thought it might help my homesickness to get some English-language reading. I ended up getting a very long chick lit book (Marian Keyes, who I've read before in my weaker moments...the one I bought today must be one of her more prolific efforts), a Time magazine, and a Newsweek magazine. Total bill = 18 Euros (and totally worth it). As hard as it was, I resisted buying a New Yorker magazine (selling for a whopping 10.50 Euros).

I then went shoe shopping. Of course, I brought 7 pairs of shoes over here, but my heeled boots, clogs, and tennis shoes with mesh tops aren't great for life here due to so much rain and walking. I found two nice pairs of flat shoes that are not clogs and should keep both of my entire feet dry. Unfortunately the shoe shop didn't take credit cards, so I had to pay with cash. That's pretty normal in Germany.

Wow. I feel so much better now that I have English reading AND new shoes. I was really trying to resist buying a lot of things, but anyone who knows me knows how much I love shopping. And I had such a bad day yesterday with the homesickness I felt I really needed to treat myself.

Tonight, I'm going to try out the Italian restaurant around the corner and have dinner AND wine. Hopefully it will help me fall asleep earlier than last night, since I need to get an early start tomorrow and get some things done.

Homesick?

2006-03-28T14:09:00.000-08:00

Why yes, I am, thank you. I've lately been debating if I was totally insane to undertake this whole crazy scheme. Tonight has been especially tough. Nighttimes are the worst -- right after I turn off the computer, the light, and the radio it's just me in the dark there alone. Ugh.

To try to understand what's going on with me and to calm myself down, I've done some reading about homesickness online, and I have figured out that it's totally normal to feel this way while you're trying to adjust to being away from home. The sites also say that homesickness most frequently and severely occurs in children because they have not developed sufficient coping mechanisms when it comes to dealing with feelings of separation, anxiety, loneliness, etc.

That's cool. But I feel like what I am doing might take a special kind of coping mechanism that until now I never really needed to develop. I have never attempted to be so far away from SP for so long before, and I think it's normal to miss him and want to go home to him. I don't miss home per se ... I miss SP and want him to be here with me right now. His arrival here is tentatively scheduled for 100 days from now, and that feels like a long time away (at times too long).

Additionally, any negative feelings I currently have are probably exacerbated by the following:

1. I have to deal with everything in a foreign language that I haven't spoken on a long-term daily basis in almost 10 years.

2. I know very few people here and don't really want to talk about this with them because if I start crying I won't be able to stop and will be completely embarrassed.

3. I'm wading my way through German-style bureaucracy, most of the time without a clue as to what's going on and what I'm supposed to do next.

4. I'm living in someone else's apartment temporarily.

Put all that together, I'm having a hard time finding anything totally firm I can really grasp onto so far.

Ja, gut. I don't think my coping skills are necessarily malformed (in other words, I don't have the limited emotional development of an 8-year-old) -- those skills are being formed on the fly, as I type this and do everything else I've been doing over the past week. So the bottom line is that it's okay that I'm homesick, it's okay if I feel sad and want to cry a little (or a lot), it will get better as the time goes along, and by the end of the five months here I'll probably be crying because I won't want to leave (go figure).

The Lovely Frau Brueckner at the Sparkasse

2006-03-28T09:10:00.000-08:00

It's interesting. As mean as yesterday's bus driver was, the lady who set up my account at the Sparkasse (one of the main banking firms in Germany) today was exceedingly nice. Frau Brueckner only works there three days a week, and I happened to go in there on a day she was there. GOTT SEI DANK.

Gerda Brueckner is a lovely lady. She set up my account with the minimum of attitude and the maximum of efficiency and friendliness. She went out of her way to explain to me how things work, how much I would get charged, how I should get money before I get my card, when my card would arrive and how I should pick it up, etc. She also gave me her card with her email address and told me to email her if I had questions or problems. Furthermore, she was very complimentary of my German and told me she thought I'd have a lot of success at the university. Honestly, I felt like I was at the Bank of America or something, getting the love from one of their over-eager customer service reps. Wunderbar!

So now I have a bank account, and soon it will have money in it (after I give SP the info he needs to transfer money over).

If you ever find yourself at the Stadtsparkasse Augsburg (Univiertel branch, located at Hermann-Koehl-Strasse 9) on a Monday, Tuesday, or Wednesday, ask for Frau Brueckner. She'll take good care of you.

Getting Around

2006-03-27T05:27:00.000-08:00

Augsburg is not a big city, but the suburbs are far enough away and spread out enough that you need to use public transportation to get around. Hmmm.... I hate trying to figure out public transportation in a new place. There should be a universal way of doing it.

Augsburg's public transportation is a little bit confusing. To get from JS's apartment to the center of town and the main train station, you need to take bus #41 in the direction of Koenigsplatz. Fair enough. The thing is, not every bus stop has a machine that sells tickets. Augsburg is also made up of a number of zones, and how much the ticket costs depends on how many zones you're travelling.

Yesterday, I was at a stop that had no machine, and I didn't know how many zones it was to get to the Koenigsplatz, which is the stop next to the train station (I was going to the train station to travel outside the city to meet CS, a friend of a friend who helped me find housing here before I arrived). So I was forced to ask the bus driver. Luckily he was nice, and he told me exactly how much each zone costs, and how many zones it was to get to where I was going (2 zones at 1.05 per zone, total is 2.10). He then told me to just put the coins in the slots in the machine next to him and he'd give me a ticket. So far so good. I understood him perfectly clearly and he had been very helpful, so I was feeling pretty good about the bus.

Fast forward to today. I had to come back from the Uni, where I had spent the day taking care of administrative things. This mainly involved registration as a student at the University -- I was actually almost able to accomplish this completely due to the nice lady at the registration office who helped me fill out my form; I just needed a few additional documents (involving health insurance and proof of payment of fees) that I was able to get today, so I can bring the whole thing back to her tomorrow and wrap up the entire process. Registering is very important because you need to register to get a student ID card, which serves as nothing less than the holy grail of German university life. You can use it to get discounts on everything. The fees you pay to get it include the purchase of a Semester-Ticket, which basically lets you use your student ID to RIDE ALL PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION IN TOWN FOR FREE. After reading the rest of this post, it will be clear how important this will be to the enjoyment of the rest of my time in Augsburg.

While I was at the Uni today, I also had lunch in the Mensa (student cafeteria) with SR and her friends. SR showed me how to get a Mensa card, which you need to buy food there. The food is good and quite cheap -- I was surprised about the former, but not the latter. By the way, SR has been incredibly helpful, showing me how everything works, etc.

So after lunch I walked around the Uni area a bit, and then I decided to come back home and take a nap. I got on the bus to come back, and I knew it was only one zone from the Uni to where JS's apartment is, so I had my 1.05 ready. When I got on the bus I put the coins in the slots on the machine next to the driver, just as I had done the day before. The driver (a fat man with a red face, ugly blond hair, and a scraggly beard) looked at me in disgust, and said something completely incomprehensible. I assumed he was talking to me in the Bayern dialect because I had no idea what he said. I told him I had just arrived in town recently and didn't understand him. Here's how the rest of the conversation went (roughly translated):

Him: "Why did you just throw those coins in the slots like that?"

Me: "Excuse me? I thought that's what I was supposed to do."

Him (condescendingly, as if talking to a 5-year-old): "No. Why would you think that? You have to lay them on top of the thing, then I can see how much you're paying, then put them in. How am I supposed to know how much you pay if you just put them in the slots without me seeing what they are?!"

Me: "But the bus driver I talked to yesterday told me to just put the coins in the slots, he didn't say anything about leaving them on top. I'm sorry I did it wrong."

Him (very mad now): "One of my colleagues never would have told you to do something like that. So how much did you pay anyway?"

Me: "I promise he did say that. I paid 1 Euro 5."

Him (somewhat beaten, probably because I'd gotten the ticket amount right): "Okay." He then handed me the ticket.

I thanked him as graciously as I could, sweating profusely and red to the roots of my hair. I was sure everyone on the bus could hear our conversation and thought I was a total idiot. He did say "you're welcome" but I don't think he really meant it. I then stamped the ticket (which I also learned from the nice bus driver yesterday you're supposed to do), and sat down near an elderly couple who were doing their best not to look at me.

Ugh. I felt completely humiliated. Up until that point I'd been having a pretty good day, and this complete a**hole totally ruined it for me. I spent the short ride and walk home wishing I could spend 5 minutes in a room alone with him (so that I wouldn't embarrass him in front of everyone, too bad he didn't pay me the same courtesy). Here's what I'd say:

"You know, for those of us who are brave enough to travel to another country and to try to get around speaking a foreign langauge, it's hard enough to figure things out without being totally yelled at and humiliated for something as small is putting the coins in the slots on the bus by mistake. I hope you come to America sometime, buddy. I hope you come there and experience the American version of customer service and politeness. I hope that you realize that even though you probably don't speak a word of English, people will go out of their way to be nice to you and help you figure things out, and no one will EVER talk to you the way you just talked to me. Of course you will never do that because you undoubtedly will never be brave enough to leave your sad little life driving a bus here in Augsburg to travel as far as America. So go home to your fat wife and your obnoxious kids and enjoy eating your sausages and drinking your beer. Go ahead and have a good laugh at my expense -- the dumb lady who couldn't figure out how to pay on the bus. When you're done lauging, think about what you did, and consider how the other person might feel before you start yelling at them."

So, kids, here's an important lesson if you ever ride a public bus in Augsburg, and you can't buy a ticket before you get on: PUT THE FREAKING COINS ON TOP OF THE THING AND NOT DIRECTLY IN THE SLOTS. In fact, I will never drop coins directly in slots on a bus ever again in my whole life. It may be this way throughout Germany as far as I know. And if you ever see a fat, ugly, red-faced German man, wandering alone and confused through your neighborhood, he will undoubtedly need your help. Curse him silently, then treat him with kindness. Thank you.

Arrival

2006-03-24T15:59:00.000-08:00

Well, I made it. I landed in Germany late Wednesday night, and after one night in a hotel near the airport, I arrived in Augsburg Thursday afternoon. It has been such a whirlwind, with so many conflicting emotions.

I guess the easiest emotion to predict is, well, sadness. I was sad when we drove away from the house (after saying goodbye to the kitties) and sad at the airport when SP finally left me at the security gate. I cried a lot. I didn't want to but there was no controlling it. It was finally real and I was really going. Since then the sadness has come and gone, which I'm sure it will do more as the newness of arriving here wears off.

The trip itself wasn't too eventful. I slept most of the flight to London (thank you Tylenol PM) and just chilled out on the short hop to Munich. I was glad no one was there to meet me in Munich because I looked terrible -- all my makeup had been cried off, my hair was all over the place, and I was sweating and exhausted. I went through customs okay, entering as a tourist only. I decided not to try to get my Aufenthaltserlaubnis, or residence permit, at that point because the customs guy looked mean and I didn't realistically see him extending himself much beyond stamping my passport. So I figured I'd just go in as a tourist, and then play dumb when I got to Augsburg ("Oh really, I should have gotten my Aufenthaltserlaubnis at the airport? But I didn't know!"). My luggage presented itself right on schedule, and once I saw it I remembered how much of it there was and decided not to try to figure out how to use the S-Bahn (Munich's light rail train system) to get to the hotel, and instead found a taxi.

The airport in Munich is in the middle of nowhere, north of the city. I didn't really realize I was in Germany until the taxi driver got on the Autobahn and the spedometer hit 160kms. He was a nice enough guy after the initial misunderstanding about the name of the hotel and where it was, and complimented me on my German. I guess that's a good sign, but how well could he really discern considering he was from Turkey or Lebanon or somewhere and spoke with a heavy accent himself? But it was still nice to get around in German without too many hassles in the first hour on the ground.

The hotel stay was pretty uneventful, except when I tried to use the exercise room. It was more like an exercise corridor in the basement with apparatuses lined up along the wall that must have been popular in the early 1970's. Some of them had been repaired with duct tape (!). I got on this thing which must have been the precursor to the elliptical trainer (called a "walker") and did my best to get my heart rate up, but it was really just a non-starter. So I decided to put on my coat and walk around outside instead. The first thing that struck me was how COLD it was. I was neither prepared nor dressed for it in my lightweight exercise pants. Oh well, once I got going I warmed up. The area around the hotel was nothing so special -- a small suburb in north Munich. I realized at the time that it's unfair to arrive in March and gather a first impression of anywhere that has a serious winter. There was still a bit of dirty snow left on the ground, the trees were bare, and the lawns were brown. All the people also look like they'd give their eyeteeth to be on the Canary Islands right at the moment. So my first impression of Germany this time around was not generally favorable -- it's dirty, it's gray, and it's cold, and the people look like they've been beaten by life.

My German friend SR (also an Augsburg student, she studied at my law school last semester through the exchange program) met me at the hotel, and we schlepped my massively heavy luggage on the train to Augsburg from Munich. We came over on the ICE (Germany's high speed train) that was totally full and we had to stand near the smoking car. For those of us in California where it will likely soon be the law that you will be arrested and jailed if you light a cigarette anywhere outside your tiny bedroom closet, actually being in a train car that is full of people smoking is a very strange sensation. I happen to love the smell of secondhand smoke (but don't much like actually smoking myself), so I wasn't really BOTHERED -- "disoriented" is a better word. We were actually standing in the passage between a smoking car and a non-smoking car, and our location made it difficult to prevent the automatic door to the non-smoking car from opening and staying open. This old German lady was obviously very bothered by this, and yelled at us for standing there because the door didn't close. I'm sorry -- if you don't like smelling the smoke, then don't sit directly next to the door of the non-smoking car that is directly next to the door of the smoking car. Oh yes, I forgot, it's Germany. Those anal old ladies are everywhere over here, best handled by a roll of the eyes and a "ja, ja" in their direction.

We arrived in Augsburg and I dropped my stuff in my friend JS's apartment, where I will be staying for a week until I can move into my place (it is empty because he is doing an internship in Stuttgart at the moment). Hmmm. It's spare and small, in a rickety old building. He doesn't have a TV and there are no sheets on his bed. He also turned off his phone because he didn't want to pay the bill anymore. Great. At least it's free.

After SR and I walked around the Uni a bit (good first impression, more later), ate a pizza, and went shopping (bought a few groceries and sheets), I was alone in the apartment. By then I was really needing to talk to SP. There was a LAN cable, so I tried to plug it in to my computer -- no luck. The computer found a wireless LAN but it said it needed a network key. D'oh. So I took my Onesuite PIN # downstairs and tried to call him through the pay phone. Onesuite's toll free access # didn't work, and I hadn't bought a German phone card (and the phone didn't take coins). Double d'oh. I was pretty desperate and upset at that point. So I decided to dig through JS's desk drawers (sorry JS) and see if I could find, well, anything that would help me connect to the internet. Pay dirt -- I found instructions for connecting to the LAN, and managed to figure them out even though they were in German. Within 5 minutes I was online and IMing with SP. What a relief! I was very proud of myself because even though I was upset I didn't panic to the point of weeping incapacity, and I took care of business for myself.

That leads me to one of my goals for my time over here. I used to be fairly independent, but now when I'm home SP takes care of a lot of things for me, especially things that are really hard or that I don't want to do. It's not his fault -- he is a generous person who just wants to help, and I just let it happen. But it has made me soft, I think. I think it's okay to be mutually dependent, but it's also good when each person can take care of him/herself. While I'm hear my goal is to gain some of that back. I think it will help everything in the long run.

So I am doing better now. Of course, I am awake at 2am after sleeping less than 2 hours. My body clock is all thrown off. But adjusting takes time, and I have the time (no real pressing engagements at the moment).

3 more days...

2006-03-20T08:09:00.000-08:00

I'm almost out of here! I can't believe it's so close now. I've done most of my preparations, bought the things I need, played my last hockey game for 5 months (I even scored a goal with 2 seconds left) and said good-bye to my friends. SP gave me a fabulous Bon Voyage party last night at a restaurant near our house. It was wonderful to see everyone and to hear how excited they are for me. It really helped turn my nervousness into excitement, and some of the dread/fear has been replaced with a good/calm anticipation of an exciting 5 months. Thank goodness for that because I have been a wreck over the last week.

I am not a great flyer. I know planes are safer than cars but I still get so nervous flying in the sky. I am flying on British Airways this time (thanks to my wonderful and generous father, who took care of my flight for me). I have heard nothing but good things about BA, and I know we're going to have a self-assured, calm, relaxed, competent British pilot (complete with accent) named Roger who got all his A-levels, graduated from Oxford, and flew missions in the Faukland Islands for the RAF. Turbulence, terrorists, engine failure ... nothing will phase him. God, I hope so anyway. And of course all of the mechanics will have graduated first in their class from mechanics' school as well.

Things are shaping up well for my arrival too. I have a place to stay when I get there. I will have a mountain of luggage -- even though I haven't started packing yet I already know this. 5 months is just long enough to be away that the weather will turn from freezing to hot while I'm there (see here for the current weather in Augsburg), which means I'll need various clothes and shoes. Plus I am going to STUDY so I have my big German dictionary and various other books. It will not be fun to take all that stuff on the train but it's not like I haven't done it before.

Speaking of before, I have lived in Germany one other time in my life. I was there as a Fulbright teaching assistant in 1995, and I lived in Stadthagen, which is near Hannover. A lot of people are impressed when they hear that I had a Fulbright scholarship (SP likes to tell people about it -- I don't really bring it up on my own too often). I guess they are somewhat prestiguous, but I care less about the status of it than the actually opportunity it provided.

All in all it was a pretty good time -- I spoke a lot of German, taught kids some English, and drank a lot of beer and messed with the Germans who hung out at the Hannen-Fass bar in Hannover.

(Speaking of the Hannen-Fass, I just read in the Hannover newspaper online that it closed last year and they're putting in a high-class "Gastronomie" there -- what a bummer because that was a really fun bar.)

So my next German adventure is coming up, and it's time to go. I've had an awful long time to think about it.

Where is Augsburg?

2006-03-13T17:54:00.000-08:00

Augsburg is in the German state of Bavaria, in the south of the country. It is marked by a the red star on this map.

It is about 1/2 an hour by train from the German city of Munich (where they have Oktoberfest). As far as Europe is concerned, it is centrally located for easy access to multiple countries (and believe me I'm planning to take advantage of that).

Entry #1 -- Leaving in 1.5 Weeks

2006-03-13T16:58:00.000-08:00

It's weird to think so much about Germany while I'm sitting here in front of my computer in Los Angeles. In less than two weeks I will be on a plane heading to London, and after a short layover there I will be continuing to Munich. I am about to undertake what is probably the craziest proposition I have ever faced -- I am going to attend the University of Augsburg law school for an entire semester as an exchange student from the United States.

I am currently a second-year law student at a well-known Southern California law school. My law school offers a summer program to take classes for 6 weeks in Augsburg, but those classes are in English. When I heard about that program, I thought, "Sounds fun, but why not stay longer and take classes in German if possible?" As a fluent German speaker, I thought I might be able to succeed at this. So I started asking around to see if this could work. I spoke to a professor from Augsburg who was visiting our law school, and then I wrote him a letter when he returned to Germany. I did my best to use big and formal German words, as well as complicated grammatical construction...all of which were basically a pathetic effort on my part to show them I wasn't a total hack when it came to speaking German. Apparently that was good enough for him and for everyone else over there, and I learned toward the end of the second semester of my first year that they'd approved my admission for the semester.

Of course, I was really excited about this, although I did have a flash of a thought at the time -- "Maybe I'm crazy and I will crash and burn so hard that they'll never let anyone else try this AND kick me out of school as well for embarrassing them." That flash came and went pretty quickly, and while it still comes back during my lowest self-esteem moments, overall I feel pretty okay about doing this. It really helped to boost my confidence that we had four fantastic students from Germany studying at our school last semester, and they managed to pass all their classes. I know that my German is probably comparable to their English, and their success made me feel that if they could do it, so could I.

Over the last few months, as all of my friends at school have returned to the standard routine of reading, class, outlining, etc., I have basically been hanging out and getting ready to go to Germany. Why? Because German universities are on a totally different timetable -- they have a Winter semester (September-January), a big writing/testing break, and then a Summer semester (April-July). So basically I have had my summer over the last few months. I did not totally waste my time, because I worked in the library on campus a few days a week, I worked on a paper that won a publication contest and will be published in a law journal next year, and I worked as a research assistant to one of the professors at school, and she had a lot of work for me to do. Since I want to become a law librarian, I don't need that summer-intern-working-in-a-big-firm experience after second year, which is a good thing since I'll still be studying in my tiny room in Augsburg until the end of July. The bad thing about this break is that I've been somewhat lazy -- naps every afternoon, hanging out with the cats, reading Jane Austen novels, etc. It's been nice to have some downtime but I hope I haven't developed bad habits and can get back into the swing of studying in a few weeks.

I have also been dealing with the bureaucracy of setting myself up as a German law student. This is a nightmare and worthy of a separate post.

Finally, I've been hanging out with my husband SP. Yep, I'm leaving my husband for 5 months to go and study in Germany. Since we got married almost 3 years ago I have done very little on my own without at least seeing him at the end of the day. That might be the hardest thing about what I'm trying to do. We'll have the phone, email, instant messaging, etc. But I know that won't replace seeing each other. Everyone says the time will pass so fast and we'll be together again before we know it. I have a few thoughts about that -- (1) I don't want it to pass fast because I want to savor my time over there; (2) I hope it flies to make the time apart seem like only a few minutes. I suppose this is normal.

So I hope that readers will enjoy this online diary of my German law adventure. I'll try to make it funny AND educational. :-)