Law School Semester Update

I'm back!! It has been such a busy semester- I thought 1L year was supposed to be the hardest, not 2L year. To be honest, this semester hasn't been "hard" or "difficult" but really just busy. As previously explained, I took 4 classes for 14 credits, and am on the Jessup International Moot Court team that is also a credit (but a lot more than 1 credit's worth of work). I have also spent a considerable amount of time networking and applying for summer jobs.

I know a lot of you reading this are either in law school or considering going to law school, so I will briefly discuss how my life in law school has been going :)

Negotiation Competition

When my friend Travis called me over the summer for my birthday, he challenged me to try something completely new with him: the ABA Negotiation Competition. Around the country, the American Bar Association hosts a negotiation competition where law students in teams of two "compete" against each other in two preliminary rounds to negotiate business deals for fictitious clients. We are given a prompt the day before with mutual information for the two parties and secret information, such as the personal situation of our client, what they are willing to compromise on, and what they are totally unwilling to compromise on. Travis and I represented an attorney who first looking to enter a partnership with another attorney they had known in law school, then looking to liquidate the partnership ten years later. We stuck to our information and tried to balance each other out during the negotiations, but unfortunately the judges felt that we were not one of the top teams competing and we did not get invited to the final BU round (the winner from the BU round competed in the regional competition in December). I am glad I participated in the competition not only to have another legal experience, but also because I had a lot of fun and it showed me that it's something I might be interested in pursuing in the future.

Jessup International Moot Court

By far the most time-consuming yet most rewarding activity I have participated in this semester has been Jessup Moot Court. Five of us law students (2Ls and 3Ls) were selected to represent BU Law in the International Moot Court competition. The competition is a combination between mock trial/moot court (obviously) and Model UN for law students. Last year was the first time in 10 years that I did not participate in Model UN, so I am thrilled to be back studying, writing about, and discussing international issues, even if the topic and forum is a bit different. This year's topic concerns climate change migration, an emerging international issue due to global warming and rising sea levels. Unfortunately, because it is emerging, there is not much research available, which makes doing research to write the briefs next to impossible. Of the five of us students on the team, my partner and I are representing the country that went underwater, while two other students are representing the country that took my country's money and citizens. The fifth person is our captain who assists with research and writing. I personally am researching and writing about statehood (when a state does or does not exist) and foreign sovereign debt from an international legal perspective. Before the semester began, I really did not know any of the other four people on the team with me, but throughout the semester I realized how lucky I am to be working with them because they are all down-to-earth and easy going, yet wicked intelligent. Because of this, I am looking forward more and more to our regional competition in New York City in February (and if we win there, nationals in DC in April!).

International Law Society

As President of the International Law Society (ILS) I have been substantially helping the point people for each of our events this semester. We hosted three major events: the Legal Status of Puerto Rico (the day before the election on statehood), International Issues from a Global Perspective, and Doctors of the Darkside. For the Puerto Rico event, we had two BU Law professors who had written about the island's status discuss their paper and their thoughts on the statehood vote. If you care to read the actual paper, here is the link for it: http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1374874. The event itself was amazing: the room was overflowing with over 100 students who took time away from their studies to come listen to our professors, and we ordered the most delicious Puerto Rican food to serve for lunch. Our Puerto Rican Vice President, Cesar, did an amazing job promoting and organizing the event.

The International Issues event was also successful, in a much different way. Organized in part by our LLM Representative Bego from Spain, this event had a panel of 8 LLM students (including myself representing the USA- I never would have thought to include the USA, but everyone else insisted it was necessary) from Iran, Saudi Arabia/Greece, Venezuela, Brazil, China, Germany, Spain, and the USA speaking on a wide variety of issues, from oppression in Iran to oil in Saudi Arabia and China, to the Euro, and finally about socialism in South America. Many other vocal LLM students came to ask questions and share their opinions with their classmates, and the Americans who attended were fascinated at the "insider" information on different countries.We are hoping to host another similar event with a different set of panelists next semester. I think these events are great and also necessary for promoting globalism and tolerance, especially for Americans who do not have the opportunity to travel to see other cultures and meet people from other countries. For example, Venezuela is portrayed negatively by the American media because of its President Hugo Chavez, but our panelist from Venezuela is super friendly and pro-American/anti-Chavez, which shows that Venezuela and its people are not terrible, they just have a leader who the American government is not happy with.

Some panelists from the LLM Event (Credit: Ali Delforoush)

Finally, the Doctors of the Darkside event was probably my biggest headache of the semester because of issues with funding for food and rights to show the film, but it was also a great success for the club and BU Law as a whole. This event was brought to us by one of my classmates who feels strongly about the alleged torture of detainees at Guantanamo Bay. The film describes the detainee situation at Guantanamo Bay and the former situation at Abu Ghraib as a way to foster awareness about these detention camps and ultimately to gain support for pending Massachusetts legislation against torture. We had watched a similar film in International Law just a week before the event, so I have to admit I wasn't able to handle the stories and graphic nature of the film and had to leave after only a few minutes, but the room was again packed with people, not only those affiliated with BU Law but journalists and people from the greater community of Boston.

BU Law Parties

Law school is not only academic but also provides opportunities for socializing and fun. Three of the big parties I attended this year were the boat cruise, the Halloween party, and the Inter-LALSA Salsa.

Monster, Ninja Turtle, Raggedy Anne, and Marylin Monroe

The boat cruise (top 2 pictures) and Halloween party were sponsored by our student government, and the Inter-LALSA Salsa brought together students in "Latin American Law Student Associations" from BU Law, BC Law, Suffolk Law, and NESL at a Latin club downtown for a night of Latin dancing. Although I loved my classes this semester, these experiences are what I enjoyed the most and will remember best after I have graduated.

Beginning of 2L Year

I did not plan on a 2+ week writing hiatus with the beginning of classes. In fact, us 1Ls were told all last year that 2L year is busy, but a different type of busy, which I had expected to be more manageable. Last year, my first few weeks were all about making friends, getting used to law school readings, professors, and classes, and learning about the different organizations and opportunities at BU Law. This year, in addition to getting used to my new readings, professors, and classes, I am working on establishing events and starting up the National Security Law Society and International Law Society student organizations as president of both of those organizations. I am so lucky to have the help of two fantastic executive boards with people who are always willing to put in extra time, come up with great event ideas, and help with the planning and implementation of programs.

I will also very soon be involved on the Jessup International Moot Court team for BU Law, which seems like it will take up a lot of time. I applied to be a member of the team over the summer, citing my intense interest in international law and involvement in researching, writing, and debating about international issues for over 8 years, and was told last Thursday that I was one of five members selected! We will be researching the potential disappearance of an island nation (fictional) and what happens to its foreign debt obligations when there are no longer boundaries or property for the people of the nation, yet the government still exists (i.e. is it still considered a state?). I'm really excited for our first meeting on Friday, and to begin with the research and writing, even though we have to produce two briefs (called memorials) about 50 pages each by Christmas. I'm even more excited for next semester when the team will practice using our memorials to make oral arguments in the weeks leading up to the regional weekend competition in New York City in February! If we are chosen to continue in the competition, we will go to Washington DC in April, where teams from all over the world compete against each other in front of former International Court of Justice justices! I know this will result in a significant increase in my work load, but I'm so excited for it that I don't really care right now.

My classes this semester are fantastic. I am taking International Law, Evidence, Immigration Law, and Admiralty Law. The International Law class is essentially building on and supplementing my current knowledge about international relations, and the readings each have case studies of international issues that I find so fascinating that sometimes I don't want to stop when I get to the last assigned page. I had really low expectations for my Evidence class: therefore, I am actually enjoying that class as well. I decided to take Evidence to get my 3:03 certification (it allows law students to represent poor clients in court before you pass the bar, but requires a trial skills class like Evidence to be certified). I'm not sure if I will actually use the certification but I don't want to close any doors for myself, as some jobs require it. Immigration Law and Admiralty Law are both small classes taught by practicing attorneys instead of professors, so they are conducted somewhat differently than normal law classes. I really appreciate the insight from practicing and the practical knowledge from the classes. In addition, the attorney teaching the Admiralty Law classes was recently an American delegate to the conference that drafted the Rotterdam Rules, an international treaty among many states that the US may sign and ratify sometime in the next year. We are studying it in class, and it's awesome to have our instructor say things like "while we were trying to draft this part, the delegate from the Netherlands said 'when my grandfather helped draft the original rules....'" Our instructor also knows many of the attorneys personally who litigated the cases in our casebook, as well as the casebook author, so he has the inside stories on most of the cases. Because of his knowledge, Admiralty Law is probably my favorite class so far.

Outside of law school I have been trying to see all my friends who have returned to the Boston area, as well as take advantage of the fact that I have my car up here this semester. I have attended two BC football games so far, one with Erin, my roommate of 4 years at BC, and one with my dad. Our team is pretty terrible (we have had 3 games and only won the 1AA team game so far), but I still love the atmosphere of GameDay and how many people I run into each time I'm on campus.

GameDay with Dad!! Photo taken from BC FanFoto

My first real Mods tailgating experience, courtesy of Sarah and Katie

 Camilo and I have also decided that we're going to try to do something new, exciting, and fun each weekend, and are taking particular advantage of my car for this. Over Labor Day weekend, I sheepishly asked if he would be interested in going apple picking and doing a corn maze one day. I went apple picking almost every year I lived in Connecticut, but did not have a chance to go since moving to Boston, and I had always wanted to try a corn maze but never had a chance. These are usually family activities, so I was afraid he would think it was too childish for us. However, the next weekend he surprised me with a Groupon he purchased for a corn maze and apple picking about an hour outside the city in Bolton, MA. We drove to the farm, and once we eventually found it (getting lost, as usual), we began our adventure with the corn maze. Camilo held onto the map of the maze and had me pick which way to go at each intersection. Thanks to my incredibly bad sense of direction we spent about an hour making our way through the corn. At one point, he couldn't figure out where we were on the map and we were both totally lost, using the voices of others in the maze to find our way back to something recognizable.

Inside the corn maze

View of the corn maze from above: the entrance and exit are at the bottom left corner

Afterwards, we pet and fed some sheep, goats, and llamas while waiting for the truck to give us a hayride out to the apple orchards. Being from Colombia, Camilo couldn't understand why we Americans thought llamas were so fascinating that we would have them available for petting and feeding. I tried to compare it to Colombians having deer in a fence for children to feed, since we have them running all over New England and they wander in our yards, but because there aren't many deer in Boston I'm not sure if the metaphor worked.

Feeding the goat

Picking apples right off the trees

On the way back from the farm we wanted to find a roadside farm stand to stop and get apple cider from. In our attempt to find a stand (which we eventually did), we stumbled onto a vineyard and winery! I had no idea there was one in Massachusetts so close to us, but we made a point to remember to go back the next weekend to take a tour, have a tasting, and have a picnic together. Therefore, we returned yesterday and did exactly that. The sun was shining brightly, there were hundreds of people on the grounds picnicking and enjoying wine from the winery, and even a live band playing bluegrass-type music. We took a tour, which actually proved more interesting than I had expected after being on brewery and distillery tours before. Perhaps the wine tastings at each station helped: We sampled 5 different wines and got free wine glasses as part of the tour. One thing that makes this winery different and interesting is that it uses many different types of fruit to make wines, not just grapes. My favorite was the Cranberry-Apple wine, so I picked up a bottle before we left. After the winery tour, we unpacked our picnic lunch on the law in front of the live band and enjoyed a couple of glasses of local wine we had just purchased while relaxing on a perfect September afternoon.

Lawn full of families enjoying the day with the winery in the background

A Weekend in London

In between finishing my internship, beginning on-campus interviewing for next summer, and taking Spanish for Lawyers classes, I had about 5 completely free days at the end of the summer. My initial plan was to spend some time in Connecticut and come up to Boston for the weekend to visit Camilo. However, I realized I had had a pretty stressful summer with the situation with my grandma, applying for numerous law firm positions, and a lack of time spent at the beach, so I instead suggested to my dad that we go on vacation for a few days. Last year when I returned from Spain in June I had accepted that I probably would not be back in Europe until I studied abroad again, so I expected us to spend a few days in Florida or possibly the Caribbean. When I spoke with my dad on the last day of my internship and asked where he wanted to go, he suggested London. I had already been twice with friends, but he had never been, and since I was dying to get back to Europe I thought it was a great idea. We booked our trip on Monday and flew out of Boston Wednesday evening.

We had a direct flight from Boston to London, so I got about 3 hours of "sleep" during the night. We went directly to our hotel in South Kensington to drop off our luggage and were incredibly fortunate to find out our room was ready for us to check in at 9 in the morning! That allotted us some much-needed sleep before beginning our London adventures in the afternoon.

Thursday

First view of St. Paul's Cathedral

After a 3 hour nap, we were ready to explore the city! The first stop for my dad and me was St. Paul's Cathedral, as I had not seen it on either of my previous trips to London. I was not expecting much, since I have seen my fair share of European churches and cathedrals, but I ended up being impressed. We spent some time wandering around the ground floor, which looked much like St. Peter's Cathedral in the Vatican. In fact, St. Paul's is the second largest cathedral in the world, second only to St. Peter's, and it began as a Catholic cathedral (now it's Anglican), so it was modeled after St. Peter's. Even the main altar in St. Paul's looked strikingly similar to the gorgeous altar at St. Peter's.

We decided to climb up inside the cathedral dome (because that is what you do when you visit a European cathedral). The first floor was inside around the top of the inner dome. The architect made the inner dome close to the ground so that the people standing on the floor could see it and appreciate the artwork. However, he realized that the height would not be sufficient to make the view of the cathedral from the outside impressive, so he built another dome on top of the inner dome. On the first level, the architect made "whispering walls": there are holes in the walls so that you can stand on one side and whisper into them, and someone on the other side can hear you. The second level was at the base of the outer dome. It offered fantastic views of London.

View from the second level

Because there was only one more level, we decided to take the winding spiral staircase up to the top of the outer dome. I'm sure this had great views too, but my dad has never been a fan of small spaces high above the ground, so as soon as he saw that we had a 3 foot ledge to stand on 365 feet above the ground, he practically ran for the exit. I snapped one picture before quickly following him.

View from the top level

Our next stop for the day was Trafalgar Square and the National Gallery. Trafalgar Square (the one with the lion statues) was busy as usual, and we managed to catch a few street performers. The most unusual was a tuba player whose horn shot puffs of fire out the top every time he played a note. He had accompaniment music, but I was mesmerized by the flames and have no idea how he made that happen.

Note the flame about 3 feet above his head

The only painting we meant to see in the National Gallery was "The Ambassadors" by Holbein. I studied this painting in my sophomore year Honors seminar at BC, and am still impressed by the symbolism and games played with perspective by the artist. I made my dad stand at the correct angle to see the skull in the bottom of the painting, and pointed out the crucifix hiding behind the curtain that most casual viewers completely miss. We saw a number of other paintings in the gallery too, as it is almost impossible to figure out how to exit the building. Other famous paintings included the Sunflowers by van Gogh, Madonna of the Rocks by da Vinci, and Bridge Over a Pool of Water Lilies by Monet.

Our last stop for the evening before turning in early was the Westminster area. We passed by 10 Downing Street, the Prime Minister's residence, on our way to see Big Ben and the Parliament building. There was a white building with a black gate and a few guards standing around it, and I thought nothing of it because London had police all over the place due to the Olympics. However, my dad recognized the street sign on the building and was pretty excited that we had found the building.

I think the White House is much more impressive, though I wouldn't mind living here

We finally reached Big Ben- the name actually refers to the bells inside the clock that ring every hour- and walked around the area for a few minutes before grabbing some food. My dad chose an outdoor cafe in the area, and was really surprised at the men holding beers standing outside the pub drinking and enjoying happy hour. Most areas of the USA have liquor laws that prohibit open containers of alcohol outside in public, so to see the businessmen in London wandering around and chatting on the sidewalks outside the pub with beers in hand really amused my dad, to the point that he pretended to take a picture of me so he could take a picture of them.

Enjoying a beer outside

Friday

The next day was the day we saw what we mainly came to London to see: the Olympic Stadium! Unfortunately the stadium was undergoing preparations for the Paralympic games, so we couldn't actually go inside, or anywhere near it really. Nevertheless, we got some great pictures of the outside and it was cool to just be able to say I saw it with my own eyes!

Olympic Stadium! Accompanied by an odd statue to the left

The best views of the stadium were from John Lewis department store, part of a massive shopping mall built next to the stadium. It was both indoor and outdoor and have every possible British store you could imagine. In other words, I was in paradise. Unfortunately, my dad did not want to spend the whole day shopping so we walked around John Lewis for a while and then went back toward the city.

My dad with an official Olympics hat, standing with a stuffed Olympics mascot

A really strange outdoor contraption we found in the department store: I hope someone will make them in America soon

Policemen hanging around the mall holding giant machine guns

Our next stop was London Bridge, or so I thought. I wanted to take my dad to see the really pretty bridge that was shown on TV during the Olympics before and after every commercial break, and I was certain it was called London Bridge because that's the most famous bridge in London. There's even a tube stop called London Bridge that was in the area that I remember the bridge being in. We got off the tube, asked for directions, and walked to London Bridge. I was really confused because it was a normal concrete bridge, and was called London Bridge, but was not what we were looking for. We walked out on the bridge and saw our bridge farther East. It was a little frustrating, but we made it eventually. For future reference, the famous bridge is called Tower Bridge, not London Bridge.

View of Tower Bridge from London Bridge

When we finally made it to Tower Bridge, we crossed the river to the Tower of London. Again, this is not a real tower but a fortress area on the river where the Crown Jewels are kept. The Crown Jewels come out at every coronation and I believe each new king or queen has new jewels they use, plus some that are passed down for each coronation. Unfortunately you can't take pictures, and they are kept in the basement of one of the buildings in darkly-lit rooms with huge vault fireproof doors. Here is an example taken from the Crown Jewels website

Our final tourist stop for the day was the Buckingham Palace area. Tours for Buckingham Palace were completely sold out, which was unfortunate because it's only open for tours in the summer, but we were still able to walk around the outside and see its grandeur. I was excited to see the balcony from which Kate and William made their first appearance as husband and wife, and my dad was fascinated by the fountain and statue because he had watched the marathon for the Olympics end there just weeks before. As we had some extra time, I convinced my dad to walk to Harrod's with me. I love shopping at Harrod's but unfortunately the only thing I can really afford there is the tea. One day I will return to buy a chandelier or a McQueen dress or something. We also bought Lola's red velvet cupcakes! If there is anywhere in the world to buy luxury cupcakes, Harrod's is it.

As a student of international law, I could not visit Harrod's without walking two streets over to the Ecuadorian embassy. The news had been flooded with coverage of Assange's asylum, which was granted by Ecuador the day before. Assange is the techie who released the Wikileaks reports online. He had been hanging out in the UK until he realized the people there were siding with the USA and Sweden, so he appealed to the Ecuadorian government for asylum and had been hiding in their embassy for a few months. When Ecuador agreed to give him asylum, some guy in the British government said they were going to storm the embassy and drag him out. Technically once he leaves the embassy, the Brits can grab him, and the police are all over the place around the building, but infringing on Ecuador's sovereignty and hurting diplomatic relations between the two countries is probably not the best approach. Again, it was really cool to walk by the embassy, see the protesters, and know that one of the world's most wanted men was only a few feet away, but there were about 20 "protesters" with signs that said "Free Assange," not very forceful.

Protesters set up on the road across from the Ecuadorian embassy

My dad and I found a pub near our hotel for dinner that night. He cheated a bit by getting a Guinness, and I cheated more by getting a Kronenburg, but I had to support my city Strasbourg! We did make sure to order traditional British meals though: Hunter's chicken and a steak and ale pie.

Hunter's chicken in the front, Pie with chips in the back

Saturday

My dad has never been a huge football (soccer) fan. He did not understand why I would wake up and run downstairs to watch the World Cup almost every day two summers ago, nor why I was excited when Spain came to the states to play New England Revolution in Gillette Stadium last year. Therefore, I was really surprised when he insisted that we go all the way out to Wembley Stadium and take a tour, and was even more surprised when it was the highlight of his trip. Admittedly, I really enjoyed our morning there as well, but it is more surprising coming from my dad. For example, we were the only Americans in our tour group, and our tour guide asked what our favorite football team is. My dad had a blank look as he couldn't even attempt to name one- I said Real Madrid since it's the team I most care about, and he went along with it. Of course that was probably not the best choice as we were in England, but my other option was Les Bleus, the French national team that did embarrassingly horrible in the World Cup, so I picked the lesser of the two evils.

First View Approaching the Stadium

Sitting at the press conference table

As we were the only Americans, and there was one woman from France on the tour as well, the rest of the people were British. Our tour guide gave us a behind the scenes look at the stadium, and as we were standing outside the room pictured above, he turned to the group and said "now you will probably all recognize this from seeing it on tv" and we went into the room and my dad and I gave each other looks that said "I have no idea where we are, I have never seen this before in my life." However, while we had the news on that night, this room came on and we were pretty excited to recognize it and know where it was, especially having been there earlier that day.

Ronaldo's jersey! Best player for Madrid, in the room with all the Champions League jerseys (Messi's was also there)

View from inside the stadium: 90,000 seats! That's double BC's Alumni Stadium

Another cool area the tour took us to was the Royal Box. We got a picture with the "second" FA cup and got to sit right behind where the Queen and her family would sit to watch a game. I say the second cup because we were told there are four cups. The one we took a picture with is insured for a few thousand dollars. The original, first cup that gets engraved whenever someone wins is insured for a few million dollars, so of course we were not going to get anywhere near that one.

Between the tube ride to the suburbs and our amazing tour, the trip to Wembley took a few hours, so when we got back to the city we only had time to view one more thing before getting ready for dinner that night. We went  back in the direction of Buckingham Palace and bought tickets to go in the Royal Mews. "Mews" according to wikipedia is a British term for a row of stables. The Royal Mews housed all of the royal vehicles, including the wedding carriage that new royal brides ride to the church in (including Princess Diana) and new motorized vehicles. The most beautiful carriage was the coronation carriage. It is only taken out when a new King or Queen has a coronation, and has been used since the mid-1700s. It is huge and covered in gold.

Coronation Carriage

Our final stop on our weekend in London was Shakespeare's Globe Theater! I was disappointed to learn that it was only built in 1998, and so obviously not the original and not even that old, but I'm a pretty big fan of Shakespeare's work so I was still excited to go see an actual play there. The play that night was "Henry V," which I had neither seen nor read before. We upgraded our tickets from standing room only on the floor in front of the stage to sitting tickets, first row almost centered in the flower balcony, which was a blessing when the play ran for almost 3 hours. It might have run for over three hours, but we left at 10:15 as we still had not eaten dinner that night, and King Henry was still very much alive. My AP English Literature teacher in high school was also a big Shakespeare fan, and she explained that if the play is named after a character, it is always a tragedy and the named character or characters always die. Therefore, when King Henry was not on his deathbed after 3 hours I knew the play was nowhere near over. Aside from the length it was really authentic and well-performed, and made me understand even better how Shakespeare incorporated monologues and the audience into his plays. 

Outside of the Globe Theater

Act I, Scene ii Henry V

Overall, I was glad we spent a few days in London. I was desperately missing Europe, and although I had imagined I would be on a beach somewhere that weekend, I feel more satisfied having done something meaningful, especially when I was able to see things I had not seen on my previous two trips. Also, it was the only time ever I would be able to see not only the Olympic Stadium a week after the closing ceremonies, but the whole city still in Olympics-mode.

23rd Birthday Celebrations

My 23rd birthday was both one of the best and one of the worst birthdays I've had. My grandma died on my birthday. When I woke up on August 2, my plans were to go to work, talk with my co-workers and friends, and go to dinner with my parents that night, then get ready for my party on Saturday. Instead, I spent two hours in the afternoon driving faster than I probably ever have before to get home and say goodbye to my grandma. I didn't want others to feel bad or to seem ungrateful for all the birthday wishes I was receiving throughout the day, so I didn't tell anyone except a handful of my closest friends until the next day. However, it was ironic to continually get "Happy birthday!" and "have a great day!" messages throughout the evening.

My parents and I still went out for dinner that night, though it was not the great celebration in Boston that had been planned. They gave me the presents they had bought. They also gave me my birthday card and check from my grandma. Sometime the week before she had made sure my dad picked up a card from her and wrote me a birthday check. The next week when I returned to Boston I used the money from her to buy a necklace charm in the form of an angel to remind myself that she's now my guardian angel and will always watch over me and continue to take care of me. Over the past few weeks, it's been more comforting than I could have imagined to be reminded of that.

I still managed to have somewhat of a birthday celebration the next weekend although it was not the 100 friend party and club outing I had planned (ok, maybe 20 people would have actually come out, but I had still been looking forward to it for months). My parents and Camilo took me out to an amazing French restaurant overlooking Boston Common called Troquet. It has been rated as one of the best restaurants in Boston, and comes with a price tag to match its luxury rating. Every sip and bite was worth what we paid, and all four of us left feeling as though we had just finished one of the best meals of our lives.

Olympics Weekend

This has become a two-post night: I felt that summer cooking deserved its own post because I have been so fascinated by making things in the kitchen lately, but also realized that I have the cutest story to tell from watching the Olympics Opening Ceremonies.

Friday night, I went out to a local bar, Joshua Tree, with 5 friends from BC to watch the Opening Ceremonies. In celebration of the Olympics being hosted by London, I ordered Magners hard cider. Although most bars and restaurants list Magners as an Irish cider, the proper name for this cider in Ireland is "Bulmers," and Magners is the name the British give it in the UK. So although it's technically made in Ireland, calling it Magners instead of Bulmers makes it British, and ergo it was appropriate to order.

We began watching the ceremonies with the most confused looks. One of my friends even spent a majority of the ceremonies watching everyone else's faces because we were all somewhere between amazed and appalled by the opening ceremonies. While I understand that the United Kingdom wanted to showcase the history of its country, and that it began as a feudal agricultural society, showcasing peasants might not have put the country in the best light. The multiple dancing Abraham Lincoln looking figures seemed out of place, and suddenly giant smoke stacks emerged from the yard (but only after the peasants carried the grass away). Then a giant blow-up Voldemort appeared, accompanied by a giant Cruella deVille. These villains were scared away by a dozen Mary Poppins figures, and later in the ceremonies, two teenagers danced through the decades to British music. I loved the music but am uncertain what the teenagers signified. The best part was definitely Mr. Bean's involvement in the Chariots of Fire performance. A co-worker pointed out earlier this week that the British are well-known for their theatrics (i.e. Shakespeare), so of course they were going to put on a theatrical show for their ceremony. Once I thought of it like that, I was more ok with the performance.

The other exciting part of the night was seeing my friend Victoria who no longer lives in Boston and watching her be surprised by an unexpected visit from her boyfriend who lives over four hours away. Victoria lives in New Hampshire and her boyfriend, Chris, lives in Pennsylvania. They met through a mutual friend in Baltimore and have been together for six months. I had not yet met Chris, so I spent a while talking with Victoria about him. About halfway through the night I was thinking about leaving, and so was Victoria, so one of my other friends mentioned to me that Chris was driving out to surprise her, but wouldn't arrive until 10:30pm, so we had to keep her around until then. After that, I kept asking her when the next time she would see Chris was (Victoria thought maybe in another week, and if not it wouldn't be for a month), and saying how I had to make sure to meet him: little did she know I would meet him that night. When Chris finally arrived, he was guided over to our table by Erin, with whom he had been in contact, and Mikey, and snuck up behind Victoria and put his arms around her. She was completely shocked and clearly ecstatic to see him. She did not scream or make a huge smile as girls sometimes do, but instead looked completely in awe by the situation and thrilled. Long-distance relationships are tough, and I thought it was the sweetest thing for Chris to drive four hours to surprise Victoria for the night when they might not have seen each other for another month.

Summer Cooking

I have only one week and two days left at my internship, and because of that work has slowed a bit as I wait for answers to interrogatories and for my supervisor to review my work. When I am done wandering around the office socializing with my friends who work there, I occupy myself with the Internet, specifically researching new recipes for me to try. I have been afraid of baking and cooking too much for years because I did not want to gain weight from always having food around. However, this summer I  realized I could make food and either give it away or save it as leftovers for a few days. I then began trying at least one new recipe every week, and it turns out I'm pretty good at making things in the kitchen; maybe professional chef can be my "Plan B" if I get tired of being a lawyer one day.

This past semester, I must have made guacamole by request at least 10 times. I use a simple recipe from allrecipes.com, but maybe it's the fresh ingredients I get from Haymarket farmer's market in downtown Boston that cause it to be asked for again and again. It's really easy to make: just combine 3 peeled and mashed ripe avocados with the juice of 1 lime and 1 teaspoon of salt. Then add 2-3 chopped roma tomatoes, half a chopped onion, 1 teaspoon minced garlic, 3 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro, and a dash of cayenne pepper. Not only does this guacamole get requested over and over (prom, family parties, birthday parties), but I have had people, such as my dad, who hate guacamole and avocados, tell me it is the only guacamole they have ever liked.

Over the past week, I have expanded my cooking adventures to include homemade bagels and my mom's recipe of blueberry coffee cake. Although neither was perfect (the bagels were a little flat and the cake batter was difficult to spread before baking), I found myself looking forward to enjoying both. Therefore, I had to get rid of them both before I ate them all. My parents took a few bagels home after last week's concert, though I still had enough to enjoy them toasted with light chive cream cheese for breakfast.

I brought most of the coffee cake to work where it was almost demolished by the other interns.

I have found many more recipes that look easy and delicious on websites like food network, and am excited to try them before the summer is over. If everything goes well, maybe I can use cooking and baking to entice law students to attend National Security Law Society and International Law Society meetings by providing treats each time.

Goat Man, and other tales from the land of yacht clubs and not much else

Pampered Chef Party

Last Friday immediately after work I jumped in my car and drove two hours down to a Pampered Chef party at my cousin Kristin's house in Connecticut. At a Pampered Chef party, or any other home sales parties, a consultant from the company comes to the host's house and gives a demonstration then hands out catalogues for people to buy things from. Pampered Chef sells cooking supplies, so there were myriad hors d'oeurves made using the cooking utensils set out for the ladies to eat (that's another thing, usually only women attend these parties). The consultant stood in front of us holding up different cooking items, such as large non-stick skillets and spatulas, and explaining why each was unique and practical, and worth paying three times as much as target would sell it for. The main dish of the night that she made in front of us was barbecue chicken sandwiches. All the ladies at the party were impressed because she put chicken in a large stone casserole dish and put it in the microwave for 20 minutes and it came out cooked. I don't mean to be rude, I own a few things from pampered chef, but I put chicken in my microwave to defrost it and if I leave it in for more than a minute or two it begins to cook, so the large stone dish for over $50 seemed a bit unnecessary. However, the sandwiches were delicious. The girlfriend of another cousin was there with me and she and I were flipping through the catalogue trying to figure out what would cause people to think they needed half the stuff in there (a soda can opener? what, so you don't break a nail?).

The entirely necessary microwave chicken cooker, only $85

Watch Hill

The next day my parents promised me we could go to the Watch Hill beach in Rhode Island. It is one of my favorite beaches and only an hour from my house in Connecticut, but two hours from Boston, so it is easier for me to get there from my parents' house. Watch Hill is like a mini version of Matha's Vineyard (or so I'm told, I've never been to Martha's Vineyard). It's a small town in the corner of the state on the Atlantic Ocean with high end yacht club stores and cafes, a ton of beautiful boats and houses, and gorgeous beaches with large waves.

Main road by the harbor and beach in Watch Hill

East Hampton Party

Saturday night I got together with some close friends from home. Justin has a beautiful in-ground pool in his backyard and at least once each summer he invites people over to swim and hang out at night. This time Lily, Dave, and Olivia were there as well as two other friends they had from college. One guy did these crazy card magic tricks for us and the other one, Olivia's boyfriend, was from Romania and a little crazy himself. For example, I learned from him that you can go over 100 mph on a motorcycle on the highway and cops won't chase after you for liability reasons. He knows this from experience. I got a weird feeling of deja vu while at Justin's house that night: I have known these friends for at least 4 years, and some as long as 9 years, and even though I'm in law school now and they are in or finishing college, it's as if nothing as changed from middle school and high school. We would have been sitting around talking about almost the same things 5 years ago that we did that night. Like when Justin brought up yet another random yet hilarious news story he had seen recently: " 'Goat Man' spotted..." Look for yourself: Goat Man news article.

Camilo Comes Home!

I drove back to Boston Sunday night with only two more days until Camilo flew home from Europe. I think I occupied myself pretty well for two weeks while he was gone. It was still great to see him at the airport as he emerged from the customs and border patrol area. I practically ran over to him and he gave me the biggest hug ever even though he was wicked tired and jet lagged. Even after two weeks running around Europe, which I was definitely jealous of, he was so happy to be home and see me again, almost as happy as I was to have him back.

Enrique Iglesias and Jennifer Lopez Concert

Last night was probably the most exciting night I've had in the past two weeks: my parents came up to Boston to go to the Enrique Iglesias and Jennifer Lopez concert with me!!! As a joint birthday present for my mom and I, my parents bought second row balcony tickets for this concert. I have been looking forward to it for months. 

My mom, me, and my dad from our seats overlooking the stage in between acts

Before the concert, audience members could text messages to be shown on the jumbo tron. My parents totally surprised me-which they rarely accomplish anymore- by putting "Happy Birthday Kelly S Aug 2! Love mom and dad" on the screen! At first, I was surprised that someone else named Kelly S shared my birthday, but quickly realized it was for me. That was so sweet of them. Also before the concert my mom and I went to get drinks. I just got a soda but she wanted a beer. At all sports arenas in Boston, you have to have either a Massachusetts ID or passport to buy alcohol if you're under 25, and you get carded if you look under 30. My mom got carded, and after a few moments the cashier handed back her Connecticut driver's license and apologized. I'm sure she took it as a compliment.

Even though I saw Enrique Iglesias in concert in September and he had exactly the same set, including bringing fans on stage with him and dancing with one girl to "Hero," he was still an incredible performer and singer, and we all enjoyed his act. Jennifer Lopez was a bit more into performing, as she had back-up dancers and some story lines in her performance, but her part of the show was just as good. My favorite part of her set was when she sang my favorite song off her new album, "Until It Beats No More," and actually had a montage of videos and photos of her with her children during the song. I was a bit unsure about attending a concert with my parents, but all three of us were singing and dancing, screaming, yelling, clapping, and waving our hands in the air throughout the whole thing, so it turned out to be a great night.

Mid-Summer Festivities

Last Wednesday, I went to Logan Airport to see Camilo off on his two-week vacation to Europe and around 6:30 found myself faced with almost two completely free weeks! In honor of officially moving in to my apartment one year ago, I decided to do a top-to-bottom cleaning of all five rooms, one room per day. The lady doing my manicure on Friday looked at me like I had three eyes when I told her my Friday night plans were to organize, dust, and vacuum my living room. I must have sounded like the most lame client she ever had, and it stopped pretty much all conversation between us for the entire hour long appointment. I didn't feel like explaining to her that the week before, I had left for work at 8am with the intention of having a couple of drinks after work before heading home, and instead found myself leaving a club at 2am that night. I also didn't think I should mention to her that it was my "annual" cleaning, and that usually I don't have time or energy to do a thorough cleaning of my apartment.

I got done with my bedroom and my living room, and by Saturday I was bored with my plan, so I drove home to visit my parents for the day. This past weekend was the Old Home Day town fair in East Hampton. East Hampton has a population of about 14,000: about 1/3 of the population moved there sometime in the past twenty years, and 2/3 probably had their great great grandparents living there. The town fair is generally populated by the recent 1/3 and their children on Thursday night, middle and high school students on Friday night, and the latter 2/3 of the population on Saturday. When my family stopped by to get some lunch on Saturday afternoon, it was almost scary to realize that this was where I had grown up. I actually have a lot of pride in and love for my hometown, but it's not necessarily the most exciting place in the world. Therefore, I was surprised that one of Connecticut's Senators, Senator Richard Blumenthal, was at our small town fair speaking about how great East Hampton is and how we need to work together to rebuild the bell factory that burnt down last month. He must have been trying to win votes for November. His speech was followed by a town councilman (councilwoman?), who claimed that East Hampton would "once again" be the jewel of the state and the nation. Just to be clear, I'm pretty sure that in order to be the jewel "once again," it had to have been the jewel of the nation before, and I can guarantee that most of the country has never heard of my town before. 

After eating fried and greasy fair food, we left to spend the day on the boat. It was so hot out that all of us jumped in the water. Though I love living in Boston most of the time, I miss having summer at home where I can take the boat on the lake or down the river on any nice day, and drive an hour to the beach whenever I want. At least having my car in Boston allows me to go home or to the beach from time to time to pretend I still have that freedom.

Saturday night I had to get back to Boston to celebrate Erin's birthday! I met Erin the first day I got to BC. We were both in marching band together and so arrived on campus two weeks before classes began. We were also assigned to be freshmen roommates. Except when I studied abroad, we lived together all 4 years at BC. With our birthdays being in the summer, this was the first year we could celebrate together and I was definitely not going to miss it. We went out with four other friends from BC, Deb, Andrew, Mikey, and Brian, to a bar with a dance floor. Deb and Mikey turned 21 this year, so it was the first time the 6 of us went out dancing together and it was such an amazing night! I know Erin had fun, which is most important, but I also had a lot of fun and am glad I was able to go. I even ran into a group of friends from law school who I had not expected to see that night.

Now that the weekend is over it is back to cleaning and cooking. My discovery of the week is that the recipe for chocolate chip cookies on the back of the chocolate chip bag yields about 4 dozen cookies. I had all the ingredients at home and just wanted to bake something: now I have 4 dozen cookies in my kitchen that I really don't want to eat (so if anyone wants them, please tell me!). I love cooking and baking and trying new recipes, but if I eat everything I make I will probably gain 50 pounds. My apartment is too small for a dinner party or I would just invite a ton of people over and serve a 10 course meal, French style. I need to find people or occasions to cook and make food for so that I can continue to pursue my passion of trying new, fun, and exotic recipes while avoiding the inevitable weight gain in the process.

Fourth of July week in Boston

Happy Fourth of July!! We only got Wednesday off from work, but I feel like I have been celebrating all week long.

Katie's Graduation Party

It began on Saturday when I drove down to East Hampton for Katie's graduation party. I have been friends with Katie for over 8 years and have known her pretty much forever (we played Park and Rec basketball together in 5th grade! there are some really priceless pictures of us from that team), so she is one of the few people for whom I would drive 4 hours in one day for a graduation party. I had a great time so it was well worth it- I got to spend time with Katie as well as a few other really good friends, Alicia, Lily, and Tyler. Other than us, a lot of Katie's family and neighbors were there. It was such a beautiful day out and a chill backyard party, so we all had a chance to catch up with each other. I've more or less officially and permanently moved to Boston, and Katie and Tyler moved to their own apartment in New York two days after the party, so since we're all spreading out, it's rare to get time to hang out together like at the graduation party.

Tennis and Hampton Beach

The next day I continued to take full advantage of the summer by playing tennis for an hour in the morning with Camilo and going to the beach with my friend from undergrad Sarah and her sister in the afternoon. Camilo and I have been dating for over 9 months and friends for over 2 years, and this was the first time we managed to find a nice day without plans when we could both wake up early enough to get to the courts! I drove an hour up to Hampton Beach earlier to meet Sarah and her sister. It was both my first time going to Hampton Beach and the first time I had seen Sarah since she returned from studying abroad in China.Though I had followed her blog during the past semester, hearing her stories were still unreal. She had practically no internet connection and basically couldn't leave the country on her visas if she wanted to get back in. The beach was packed because it was so hot out. We would lie on the beach for about an hour and get really warm, then jump in the 55 degree water and run back out. Actually, Sarah and her sister would jump in, I went in up to my ankles and ran out because it was numbing-cold.

Reunited on Hampton Beach

July 3rd (pre-July 4th festivities)

Our office unexpectedly got out at 3pm the day before Fourth of July, which afforded Camilo and I an opportunity to go explore the ships in town before the Pops concert at night. In honor of the bicentennial of the War of 1812, about 10 foreign naval ships sailed in to Boston Harbor for the week. On Tuesday, we went to see the Norwegian and Danish frigates, and were able to take a free tour of the Norwegian one (the Thor Heyerdahl). The sailor who gave us the tour was about our age, maybe younger, but he was explaining how he was in charge of one of the biggest sets of guns on the ship. We got to walk around the bridge (the control room) and see a lot of the different guns on the ship. We even held and looked through the sailor's on-deck gun. I think Camilo may have enjoyed the tour a bit more because it focused on the fighting and war games the ship plays with others, but I have to admit it was cool to tour an active navy ship.

In front of the Norwegian ship (Danish ship next to it)

At night we met up with Brigid and went to watch the Boston Pops perform on the Esplanade. It was packed by the Hatchshell where they were performing, so we crossed over the bay to get closer to the orchestra. This was the first year I'd been in Boston for the Fourth of July, so it's the first time I've seen the Pops concert. I thought it was fantastic: first of all, it was a full-length concert for free. Not only did the Pops perform, but they were joined at various times by the Dropkick Murphys, actresses from Mama Mia, and Jennifer Hudson. We knew there would be no fireworks that night, so when the Pops played the War of 1812 after an hour and a half and left the stage, we began to pack up, thinking the concert was over. After walking away for about 5 minutes, we heard the loudspeakers near us saying that Jennifer Hudson would be on stage again soon and then "the best fireworks display in the nation!" So we went back and sat down to watch the last half hour, but unfortunately there still weren't any fireworks. The concert was still incredible, from the instrumental John Williams' selections to the Patriotic choir to the summertime sing-a-long. I really love Pops concerts.

Fourth of July!!


I did not get to really sleep in on my one day off during the week. Instead, I got up slightly later than usual to meet Camilo, Brigid, and Nicki for a holiday brunch/lunch down by the water. We ate at Joe's on the water so we could watch the USS Constitution and USCGC Eagle do their turn around in the harbor, watch the Blue Angels do their flyover, and watch the US Navy parachute men unexpectedly perform their jump. 

USCGC Sailing through Boston Harbor

After lunch, Camilo and I went to the other site of the tall ships to tour naval ships from Brazil, Ecuador, Indonesia, and Colombia. He was of course most excited about the Colombian ship, the ARC Gloria, which is the flagship of the Colombian Navy, so we went on that first.

Standing with the Colombian ship in the background

It was really impressive, new, and one of the largest ones there. Toward the aft of the ship, they set up a table where they were selling stuff the brought from Colombia. There were a ton of t-shirts, bags, jewelry, and some rum. I was particularly confused by these sombrero earrings in the color of the Colombian flag, but Camilo swears they are very popular at home and people wear them around a lot.

An example of the curious Colombian earrings

After viewing the foreign ships, we increased our patriotism by watching a Cape Verde concert in Government Center while waiting for my parents. It was their 25th Anniversary and so they also came to Boston for the first time on the Fourth of July to watch the concert and take a mini-vacation to celebrate. They went off on their own for dinner and drinks as Camilo and I went to find Brigid and Nicki again to picnic and watch the fireworks for real. We showed up 2 hours early with our blankets, drinks, and snacks, and spent time making fun of the crazy people around us, including a local Hispanic family where the mother spit and entire mouthful of water out on either her husband or brother, and a group of high schoolers who we couldn't quite tell which was dating which. We also watched a lightning storm rapidly approaching the fireworks area from Cambridge. Luckily the lightning never got to us or the river, but the concert was interrupted for a half hour, and the fireworks almost delayed as the Esplanade near the concert was evacuated. Finally, just as the rainstorm began, so did the fireworks. They were impressive, but the craziest and most impressive thing that night was that Boston got thousands of residents and tourists to stand in a downpour to watch a few explosions in the sky.


CeCe's Goodbye Party


Last fall I realized I knew one of Camilo's co-workers from BC: CeCe had dated a guy I knew from band for a number of years. She stopped being Camilo's co-worker on Friday, so I joined Camilo and some others from LEK to celebrate her last day of work. We expected the celebration to be a few drinks and maybe dinner at their favorite happy hour bar, the Tap, and the night began as such. We were about 10 people, including 2 swaps from the Sydney office and one from the London office. Because there were other Aussies around, I invited Brigid to join us as we moved to the Cactus Club for margaritas and apps. After staying there for about an hour, we proceeded to go downtown to the Estate nightclub. I was rather excited, as Camilo and I have not had a proper night out in a while. There was no line and no cover, so we all walked right in. Unfortunately, there weren't a lot of people either, but we were a large enough group that it was alright. Although I enjoy spending time with my law school friends, it was interesting and a lot of fun to go out with some non-law students. We all had an amazing time, and CeCe really appreciated everyone who went out to celebrate with her.

Myself, Brigid, Laila (Camilo's co-worker), Ben (Aussie swap), and CeCe

Cape Cod Beach


Somehow Camilo convinced me to spend a day on the Cape, but since we were invited by some of his friends from work I couldn't really protest. My previous experience on the Cape was driving from home for 3 hours, only stopping for dinner, and driving home because we couldn't find anything exciting to do. My impression was that it's a northern version of retirement country Florida where people went if they couldn't afford a real vacation like to the Caribbean or Europe. However, after today, I admit it's not quite that bad. We sat on Marconi beach for about 4 hours, went in the water, did some body surfing, tried to play whiffle ball, and walked around the sand. Afterwards, we stopped at a local fish shack for clam chowder, lobster bisque, lobster rolls, and fish sandwiches. I rested for most of the way home, but one part of the ride I remember is when Eric Clapton's "Layla" came on the radio, and instantly I thought of the two O'Connor beach trips I took with my Honors class at BC. I still think I would prefer going to Watch Hill in Rhode Island if I'm going to drive over 2 hours for the beach, but the Cape might be nice for a weekend trip sometime so we can stay late, have a bonfire on the beach by night, and wake up to the sand and waves in the morning.