Digesting the past few days: I got to visit Harvard Law’s admitted students weekend from Saturday morning until Monday night. Aside from being completely exhausted all the way through, the rest of my emotions ranged the gamut. I enjoyed my interactions with most of the people I came across, with a couple people here and there that I was unsure about, but hey, it’s a big school, and that’s expected.

However, while I liked my weekend, I didn’t love it. There was nothing ‘special’ about the place I was excited to be apart of, despite the history and the amazing alumni and tradition. I felt shades of it as I sat in on mock classes, realized I was at an institution that has taught presidents and justices, and listened as Martha Minnow sat at the same table as me and discussed her school, but overall, I didn’t feel an “I have to go here” compulsion by the end of the weekend. Maybe I’m spoiled at Clemson where I feel like there’s something in the DNA of the place that makes students wear obscene amounts or orange, but I didn’t find a similar spirit at Harvard that I felt excited about. This is all well and good, however, because now I have a base line feeling and can gauge my visits to Yale and NYU. Perhaps the undergrad ‘spirit’ and lifestyle has no place in law school, and I’m okay with that, but at the same time I want to feel excited and on board with the personality and flow of the university where I’m going to invest a ridiculous amount of money, energy, and time. Nothing that I heard from Harvard or saw in its current students was bad, I just was kind of ‘meh’ about it the entire time, and I really don’t think that’s because I have my eyes set on Yale, or that I’m somehow not attuned to the absolute blessing that it is to even be able to attend an Admitted Students weekend. 

I will say that one thing that is incredibly noticeable is the enormous amount of money Harvard has as a school. This is a good thing for current students, of course, it’s just not something I’m used to. We had free alcohol flowing constantly, food catered to us and (literally) served up to us on a platter. We were taken out to dinner, could order what we want, and it was charged to the school, and their new law school building is unbelievably top notch. I spoke to a lot of people who were incredibly reassured at their decision to attend Harvard by this weekend, and that’s fantastic, I’m really excited for them and was glad to meet so many great people. As for myself, I was reassured in a different way, and am really glad to have this visit behind me and look forward to others!

I already posted this link on Facebook, but really couldn’t resist. 

http://www.economist.com/node/21540395

“Libertarians dream of creating self-ruling floating cities.”

I believe they were preempted by Rita’s idea on Arrested Development, Bluthton….

Rita was an Mr. F, by the way.

One of the great things about doing nothing for 3 weeks is the amount of time I have to read, which is really silly of me to want MORE to read after having a semester of reading, but this is reading for FUN which I am more than happy to do. Ann surprised me with a Kindle for Christmas, and at first I was skeptical - I like having a well stocked physical library, and I spend time when I can to loot through thrift stores for books to read, and I’m a frequent patron of public libraries. Aside from making me feel like an 80-year old, I also think it makes me feel like there’s a certain fun in “finding” a good book to read, rather than pressing a button and having it delivered to me via WiFi.

However, I am not a Luddite, and I decided to embrace the Kindle. After having bought a book on accident (damn you, one-click checkout on Amazon!) and found that I can actually rent books from the library to my kindle, I am still one week away from finishing this break, and my current finished-reading list is as follows:

State of Wonder by Ann Patchet

The Power and the Glory by Graham Greene

The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

The Devil in the White City by Erik Larson

I would say the reading over this break has been characterized by pleasant surprises. For example, I wasn’t expecting to like the Hunger Games as much as I did, because I’m not that in to Young Adult fiction, with the exception of Harry Potter, which I started in 4th grade. However, for a simple book for winter break, it was really entertaining and I finished it in about a day and a half. The Power and the Glory, however, was a challenging read that surprised me by how much I enjoyed it as well. I’ve tried reading books with this setting before and was mostly uninterested, but the novel was set in Mexico when religion was outlawed and only one priest is still roaming around evading the government, except he’s a “whisky priest” and is a miserable drunk that doesn’t feel worthy of the title of being the only priest left, lots of challenging stuff about religion and morality and an overall pleasant surprise. As for the Devil in the White City, it’s a fantastic nonfiction novel that is really informative and also creepy - just what I like.

So, good break so far, and with a week left I think I can at least fit another book in, if anyone wants to toss out more suggestions.

Christmas eve: watching desperate housewives with my sister, baking ten thousand cookies, raiding Ann’s impressive liquor cabinet.

I love the holidays…