Hey, remember that time...

that everyone in America got Rick rolled at the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade?

Immigration Court fun times!

One of the extracurricular/ public interest things I'm doing this year is Immigration Court Watch. It's a program that was started by NYU's law school after 9/11 when there was a strong anti-immigrant sentiment and worries that immigration hearings may not have been affording the due process (oh, what a phrase!) rights of detainees. The trials are usually in regards to undocumented immigrants who will either be deported or have a legal option to stay in the US.

So we work with NYU and observe hearings, watching for any indiscretions by judges, lawyers, or guards. It's a really interesting chance to see court first hand and start learning about immigration law, which I'm becoming really interested in.

Did I tell you that I may be living in the middle of nowhere, rural USA this summer if I can find an organization to work with? I want to work with someone who is representing/ advocating for immigrants who have been arrested in the immigration "raids" at meatpacking plants. We'll see!

Did I also tell you that I am waiting to hear about whether or not I got this really prestigious public interest summer fellowship that Brooklyn Law offers? The other really cool thing about it is that there are a lot of opportunities to get to know the other fellows and past fellows, which is awesome because most of my friends and classmates are really geared towards "big law" corporate-type jobs, which can be tempting, even for someone like me who knows that I want to be doing public interest. I mean, I am a simple person, but it would be nice not to be broke/in debt for the rest of my life!

Back to my story. It's a really interesting experience. It reminds me that everyone has a story, you know? Good things and bad things happen in all our lives.

But after this semester of evening classes, and never having been a morning person (I keep thinking that I need to work on that!) it's so hard to wake up early to get to the courthouse on the days I observe!

And I see the detainees, in their prison jumpsuits, a la this guy,

and they're made of the same material that scrubs are made of. They also wear sweet canvas slip-on shoes. It's so bad, but I keep thinking of how COMFORTABLE they look and how much I'd love to put on a comfy prison jumpsuit and go back to bed.

I know, it's horrible!

Reflections on living in "Barack-lyn"

Apparently my fair borough has earned this nickname because 79% of votes last Tuesday went to Obama. It's certainly strange to have moved from Mitt Romney central to a place where so many support our president-elect. I was able to work with a voter registration drive in the beginning of October, and it was awesome to see how many minorities were totally stoked, first-time voters. (Yes, there are a lot of black folk in Brooklyn).

There should be more representative candidates, which is why I am not a big fan of the two-party system. It necessarily fosters only the candidates that Big Money supports, and thus the policies that Big Money wants. People should be able to vote for candidates that they're excited for and supportive of, not just the lesser of two evils.

The other day I saw a girl carrying a bag adorned with:

I













BKLYN.

It made me laugh.

I also stood in line for two hours waiting to vote.

In other news, it's focus group time, baby!

I tried half-heartedly to get a job when I first moved here, but that was superseded by school. Thus, I'm broke. So broke it's not even funny. I applied for some focus groups last week, and on Thursday, I get to spend an hour and a half talking about chewing gum. Yep.

Hopefully it'll be the easiest 150$ I'll ever make. Until the next time I do it. (Hopefully!)

What law school does to one's nerves

So you know that feeling when you're head-over-heels for a new crush?

Like, you know they're going to call you soon, and your stomach is in knots, and you can't think of anything else?

I definitely feel like that right now... is there an awesome new guy in my life? NO. (I wish.)

I'm meeting with my Legal Writing professor in 3 hours to get the grade on my second legal writing memo. And to have a conference, but that's secondary. The thing that really matters is my grade.

This competitiveness is getting to me!