aaaahhhhhhhhhh!!!

That's my general feeling about life right now. My first couple of weeks at American University's Washington College of Law (WCL) really weren't too bad, and I was starting to think everyone who had told me about how busy I would be was just trying to freak me out. I seemed to be managing just fine, plodding along with my readings for Torts and Contracts and Civil Procedure, and I even had time to outline (in legal lingo, "brief") all the cases! But then...out of nowhere, that little two-credit Legal Rhetoric class that had just been lurking quietly in the background pounced and bestowed upon me an abundance of citation quizzes (and these aren't your friendly MLA-style citations), pointless library research assignments (busy work, anyone?), and oh yeah, "memos" requiring more reading and researching, not to mention actually writing them... My other three classes, not to be outdone, also upped the ante and began assigning more readings, as well as in-class quizzes (but don't let the term "quiz" fool you) and take-home midterms (which is apparently only supposed to take four hours, but that's AFTER I spend a good eight hours organizing all my notes into some kind of manageable outline).

On top of all that, I applied for and got a position as an Articles Editor for the Human Rights Brief at school, which means several hours a month of...editing articles (duh)! However, I am SUPER excited, since I came to WCL primarily because of their focus on international human rights and public interest work, and this is a great way to start getting more involved. The brief has over 6,000 subscribers in more than 130 countries, so apparently it's a pretty big deal! I mean, I'm not a big deal - I'm going to be doing a lot of fact-checking and citation-correcting - but it's still very cool to be a part of it! They publish three times a year and they recently started a "blog" that will be updated with human rights happenings all the time, but it's not online yet, so I'll give you all more information about that soon. I also have the opportunity to report on hearings of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights for the blog! Lots of exciting things.

WCL divides first year students into "sections," which means I have all my classes with the same 80 people (except for Rhetoric, where there are only 12 of us from those 80). Seeing the same people all the time has its ups and downs...but I have gotten to meet a lot of really interesting and fun people! I was a little worried about everyone being super mean and scary, but it hasn't been like that at all. Well, I guess there are a few scary ones, but it's easy enough to stay away from them :) These are a couple of my new friends --

My new friend Claire and me:

Tim and me with new friends Ryan and Jen:

As you all know, I occasionally share embarrassing stories about myself on here (come on, I know that's really why you're reading this), so here's a good law school one for ya -- Sometime during the second week of school I'm reading in the library and I get a little sleepy, so I decide to listen to music. I get out my headphones, plug 'em in my laptop, and crank up some Maná. I continue working and a couple minutes later a guy comes over and taps me on the shoulder, so I turn around and take out my headphones to listen to him...and I can still hear my music. And so can everyone else within a ten-foot radius. Apparently I hadn't actually plugged in my headphones all the way, so the very hush-hush library got a nice taste of my latino music. I guess the lack of sleep was already getting to me...

Tim and I are really enjoying our apartment so far (and we would love to have visitors!). Our building manager asked around when people were moving out this summer and found a bunch of free furniture for us so we didn't even have to buy anything! We got a couch, a love seat, a dining room table with two chairs, a TV table, a big chair, and a dresser all for free! Pretty lucky, huh?? We've rearranged a little since these pictures were taken, but here's a little taste:

This is the front door area (which looks totally different now)...

This is our dining room...

This is the kitchen... (notice the dishwasher! The phrase "I'm so glad we have a dishwasher" has been uttered at least 12 times since moving in.)

We each get our own closet!

And the outside! I love the flowers!!

Here are some more random pictures and stories from random DC highlights:

We went to a Washington Nationals game last Wednesday and they beat the L.A. Dodgers. I'm not really a baseball person, but apparently the Nationals generally suck and the Dodgers are generally good, and we went with a couple from L.A. who are die-hard Dodgers fans, so they were pretty upset. But it was still really fun!

Apparently "curly" means "win"...? Tim and me, enjoying the cheap seats:
Natalie somehow still manages to smile:

Over Labor Day weekend, we took a quick trip (less than 24 hours) via bus up to New York City to see Avenue Q at the John Golden Theatre on Broadway! Neither of us had been to NYC before, and it was amazing! I hope we'll have more time to go back in the future... And Avenue Q was SOOOO good! The show closed on Broadway about a week after we went, so we got there just in time.

This is us inside the theatre. Apparently you're not supposed to take pictures inside. I got yelled at roughly .67 seconds after this was taken.

We're hanging out with the puppets after the show :)

So awesome!!

Also, no pictures (because I forgot my camera), but Tim and I went to the National Book Festival on Saturday (one of the perks of being in DC is all the "National" events are here!). We got to hear John Grisham speak, as well as Sue Monk Kidd and her daughter, Ann Kidd Taylor. They had tons of other big-time authors too, but we couldn't stay for the whole day. We did get some free bags and pens. All in all, it was a good time :)

Well, it's about time for me to get back to reading... I hope the next update will be sooner than two months from now, but I'm not promising anything...

I'll leave you all with this true story --
As I'm walking out of a restaurant Friday afternoon, I pass an elderly couple. The man sees my laptop bag and asks if I'm a law student. I say, yes, I just started at American. He says he has a legal question for me. I tell him I really don't know anything yet. He says he thinks I can help him with this one -- What's the difference between "unlawful" and "illegal"? I stare blankly and wonder if this is something I should know and once again tell him that I just started so I really don't know anything. He says he knows the answer anyway -- Unlawful is when you break the law, and illegal is a sick bird...

Yep.

Hasta luego!!

BOQUETE!

What is Boquete, you say? Well, it's a city in Panama! To make a loooong story short, my Spanish school in Panama City wasn’t really working out for me...so, I decided to only do four weeks there instead of six. I signed up with a Spanish school called Habla Ya in Boquete for my last two weeks in Panama. I arrived last Sunday, July 26, after a seven-hour bus ride from Panama City to David, and then an hour bus ride from David to Boquete. But so far, it seems like it was worth it! I really like the school, I’ve met some more cool people, and Boquete is beautiful!! It’s a quaint little town surrounded by volcanoes, mountains and rivers, with basically perfect weather (75ish every day, no humidity, breezy...although it does rain a little every day, but it is the rainy season after all...). Apparently it’s a hot spot for foreigners to retire, so there are quite a few non-Spanish-speaking people here, but that’s ok - there are still plenty of opportunities to practice! Boquete is also home to the famous Volcán Barú, which is a dormant volcano and the tallest mountain in Panama, at about 11,400 feet. This is me with the volcano in the background (although it's kinda cloudy, so you can't see it very well):

My family here is great. I live with a lady named Gojka (pronounced JOY-kah) and her sons Oscar, age 18, and Sebastian, age 11. She also has a daughter, Maria, age 19, who goes to college in Panama City. Gojka is so sweet and I really feel like another member of the family. We all eat breakfast and dinner together every day and talk about what we've got going on. Usually the boys go watch TV or something after dinner and I chat with Gojka while helping her do the dishes. She definitely loves to talk...which is great practice for me! Especially because she doesn’t try to slow down at all, but I’m definitely getting better and better at understanding everything. I also get along really well with Sebastian - probably because we pick on each other all the time :) This is me with Sebastian and Gojka:

My house here doesn’t have internet, so that’s why it’s been a while since I’ve updated my blog...I have to use the wireless internet at school. (Although I do get HOT WATER in my shower here, so I can deal without internet.) I live a little bit outside of the town - about a 35-minute walk to school (or a 60-cent cab ride!). Usually I just walk down to the main road (about 10 minutes) and then the cab only costs 50 cents! I really like walking here if I have enough time, because, as I mentioned, the weather is AWESOME, and I get to soak in more of the scenery. Such as...this is the view I get when I leave my house:

This is my house:
Cute, huh? :)

Last Friday, my school took a field trip to Paradise Gardens, which is a "non-profit rescue sanctuary" just outside of Boquete (I actually walk right past it on the way to school). Apparently they save hurt animals and give them a home. There were a lot of birds and monkeys, as well as a couple of leopards and some beautiful flowers. One of these monkeys was eating a lizard, so the other one chased him around for a while:

This guy really liked red toenails, but luckily he didn't pick mine...:

Pretty flowers!

On Friday night, a few friends I made at my school in Panama City (Bess, Keith, and Cindy) came to Boquete, so that was really fun! My friend Loren also decided to take classes at Habla Ya for a week, and he arrived on Friday as well. We all went out to a few bars in Boquete that night and had a good time. This is the group (minus Cindy) hanging out at a chill place called Zanzibar:

On Saturday, we went to the Thermal Hot Springs in Caldera, a little town close to Boquete. We parked our car and walked about 20 minutes through a forest and then paid $2 to enter the property. There were three little pools of varying temperatures, but all super hot... luckily there was a river nearby where we went to cool off in between. It was a really relaxing and awesome day! This is the beautiful river:

This is one of the pools (which would be really romantic, but not so much with five people in it...):

We drove back to Boquete and cleaned up and then went to the famous Panamonte Inn & Spa for dinner. Supposedly it's the best restaurant in Panama, according to the Capital Chef magazine (and I'm sure the author ate at every restaurant in Panama before making such a claim). It was pretty yummy though! Definitely more expensive than your average Panamanian fare, but not too bad if you compare it to a high-class restaurant in the U.S.

Bess, Keith, and Cindy had to leave early on Sunday morning to head back to Panama, but Loren and I (along with a few other students from Habla Ya, and other random tourists) did a zipline tour through the rainforest! It was AMAZING! It was kindof rainy and cold the whole time, and I was pretty scared before the first one (ok, the whole time), and I rammed my face into the metal pulley because I didn't brake fast enough and gave myself a fat lip, but it was STILL AMAZING!!! I wish I could do it every day. It's just a totally awesome rush...makes me think maybe I could try bungee jumping...maybe. This is me zip-lining it up:
And a face view:

This is the "truck" with horrible suspension that we took up to the top of the mountain on the incredibly rocky road which we decided was probably scarier than the tree trek:

Well, that's about all I have time for right now...my mama's holding dinner for me! :) I'm flying back to Panama City on Friday afternoon, and then I leave Panama Saturday morning. I fly to Atlanta to Chicago to St. Louis, so it's gonna be a long day...but hopefully I will see and/or talk to all of you soon!

Hasta luego!!