Back to School - A

After a very educational summer it's time for me to return to the world of book-learning and sitting in a classroom. And speaking of books, I recently bought my textbooks and course packs and have a ton of reading to do over the next 15 weeks or so. There's approximately 50% more to read for 2L than there was in 1L. I'm not sure how I'll maintain my sanity or motivation, but it's supposedly necessary to get through.

There is an up-side here and there, though. For one thing I get to dress a lot more comfortably. I also get to see my classmates and hear of their adventures. I also get to learn from a prof who not only knows the area of Family Law inside-out, but also helped draft much of the legislation over the years. He's got lots of energy and stories, and knows not only every case we're studying but the life situations of the clients involved, and how things worked out after the verdicts. He doesn't have much faith in our mathematical abilities though - we're only held to "family math" standards, which means you just have to be within a couple hundred dollars of the settlement value, or round to the nearest thousand, depending on how big the numbers are. He also has mentioned how the Supreme Court likes creating 3-part tests, because lawyers have trouble counting higher than that. Scott and I have taken to calling it The Rollie Show with Professor Rollie Thompson, and it's going to be an enjoyable way to start the week. Energy, anecdotes, candid observations, and great knowledge and passion for the subject all make a winning combination.

I'm also taking Business Associations law. It's not what I'd call exciting, but it's a good basis for a bunch of future courses should I need to take them. The prof is a very mellow-voiced woman who sounds like she stepped out of a CBC Radio studio and has all the energy that Rollie left at home (very little). She also teaches almost word-for-word off her powerpoint slides, which could get interesting if the projector keeps acting up. Sure, she knows her subject and thinks quite highly of corporation law, but her enthusiasm is the opposite of contagious. If you're interested in it, great, the material itself will endear you to her and the course, but for the rest of us mortals it's going to be a long semester. She's a nice enough person though, and the exam will be a take-home, so there's hope it won't be soul-crushing.

Speaking of long semesters, there's also Constitutional Law. The prof is very maternal and cares about our well-being, which is nice, but the course topics and readings are very long and very dry. Class itself will be fine, but the readings will be painful. Flipping through the book has my brain numb - I don't see this one getting any better.

Rounding out the list is Civil Procedure, also taught by His Rollieness. It's all about courtroom rules and legal rules and mechanisms. Some of it is very practical, some of it is quite irrelevant to my long-term goals. Thanks to Rollie, I don't care about relevance. I'll be looking forward to the classes just for his energy and stories and real-life scenarios. He's also very approachable and friendly, and his years of experience has given him stories about some of the judges we were in front of this summer. I can't wait to get the reasons behind the rules, it should help the actual rules stick in my head.

One last piece of follow-up from the summer - Mr. Hospital Fraud not only got sentenced, but now his wife is facing charges. Not much surprise there, but it's sure going to suck being their daughter for the next few years.

It'll be fun balancing all this reading with not neglecting Racheal. I guess we'll see how it goes!

That's it for now,
A.

Back to BC - R

After all of our touring of NS during the summer we took the opportunity at the beginning of September before Aaron was back to school to visit family and friends in BC. Our trip was short but sweet and we managed to get in a visit with just about everyone!

It was our first chance to meet our nephew Silas as Ben and Julia were out. It was nice to be able to join in on the baby shower for Silas and see some of the Martens and Toews relatives as we won't be back for Christmas this year.







We also got to meet Teresa as she and Chris came up from California too! Everyone had a great time holding and cuddling with Silas.




Racheal with her two nephews

Most of the Penrose family met up at the PNE and we enjoyed a day there before gathering back at the Martens' for a wonderful extended family dinner.







All in all it was a great trip - just wish we had longer to stay, but back to work and school we must go . . .