Orientation, etc.

Well, the fun has begun, so to speak. I've spent that last two evenings participating in Orientation for the part-time/evening program and it's been interesting. After all the congratulations and school selling that went on, some of the information was actually useful. Here's a break down of what occurred:

Tuesday
Check-in & Picture (for the face book) with dinner from Jason's Deli.
Welcoming remarks from the Dean (where he tells us how great we are, how wonderful the school is, and how many important people have graduated from the law school)
A 2 prof/1 former student panel on how to survive law school, part 1
A blurb about LWRA and the code of honor, where to get the syllabus, etc.
A blurb about campus counseling services and disability testing, since they apparently know they're going to stress us out so much we're gonna need a shrink.
A presentation from 2 Crim Law profs on Professional Responsibility. Ironic, if you ask me, but interesting and well done.

Wednesday
Dinner from Tin Star (a huge improvement from Jason's Deli) outside in the law quad.
A lecture from the Dean on Themes in American Law. Interesting, but not applicable yet.
A blurb on the relevant campus rules (like parking) and info on the extended hours or many of the law school offices.
Part 2 of the surviving law school panel focusing on studying, briefing, outlines and study groups. Overall, good info, but only 1 thumbs up due to delivery quality.
A blurb by Career Services promising that they've already started selling us to the local lawyer community but that we can't talk to them until November. Interesting, but I'm not holding my breath.
An introduction to the Library with info about the circulation desk, computer services, etc. Good to know, but the presenter was a little too eager.
A break out session with our SBA (student bar association) tutor group.

After all this, there's a happy hour tonite, a hamburger lunch tomorrow, and an SBA sponsored party Friday night (student bar assoc + happy hour/party = joke waiting to be made up). I'll probably go to the happy hour, and maybe the lunch and/or and party, but I'm not sure.

Now, about that tutor group. I'm not quite sure what the point of this is, but they've broken the 90+ of us out into 8 tutor groups lead by 3 current students (1 3L and 2 2Ls). They sat us all together and we ate together on Wednesday, and then introduced us all around in the break-out session at the end of the evening. I guess they're supposed to help us with any "going to law school" question we might have and provide us the unofficial guide to survival. They're also supposed to help us with outlining in a month or so and for that I'll be appreciative. The people in my tutor group are interesting and varied, with some older, some younger, and all from different fields. I'm optimistic that this will be beneficial, but . . .

My first impressions are good, I think. I'm excited about starting but am not sure what some of the orientation was supposed to help us with. The first assignments homework aren't overwhelming, but I haven't started them yet and that's probably not good (classes start on Monday). I've tried out my backpack, tested my new laptop on the school WiFi and registered my Lexis & Westlaw passwords. I've got to setup the WiFi at the house, upgrade the software on the laptop and orient my study corner, but overall I think I'm ready to go. I'm a little apprehensive and a little hyper, but overall I'm looking forward to this experience despite the challenges it might bring.