Today has been a day of non-productivity in regards to school work, I got up cleaned my room, guy came and fixed the dishwasher (yay for not having to do dishes by hand anymore!!!), and then Meena and I went to see the Maze Runner. Yes, for all of you wondering it was an absolutely fantastic movie, but do you want to know what was more fantastic?! The fact that they had salt and vinegar popcorn seasoning!!!! I've been craving that seasoning for months now, and omg, it was fantastic! Meena and I then the waited for the bus (I definitely miss my car), and I came home to pour myself a nice glass of red wine before I settled into my semi-comfy desk chair to watch a video of Emma Watson giving a speech at the UN. If you haven't watched it, I recommend that you do, it is very inspiring, and really bring to light the issues of gender inequality in today's world.
Now I shall tell you about how fun September has been, but first I just want to rub it in all your faces, for those of you who have just started school agin this fall, that I am officially on a 2 week break!!! Yup, that's right, 2 weeks of sleeping in, well since I only have to get up for school on Monday's and Thursdays, its really just an extra 4 days of sleeping in, but oh well, I'll take it. Also after these 2 weeks of holidays I only have 4 weeks of school left until exams start, and then I'm officially done my first year of law school, how crazy is that!!! I swear it feels like yesterday I was in the spare room of my house trying to pack my life into 4 suitcases and not having any of them over 70 pounds, (believe me that's a lot harder then it seems). But in reality I have been in Australia since February 3, that's 7 and a half months already! Like I said super crazy!!!
So in the last week of August, Amber and I got this crazy idea that we should join a mooting competition, because you know, having 4 assignment due within 3 weeks of each other definitely isn't busy enough. For those of you who don't know, mooting is like a fake courtroom where you have present your argument to a fake judge as to why you should win your fake case, that's what I think it is anyways. So we begged Meena to join our team by telling her she didn't have to do anything (little did she know we were lying) and signed up to take on the world as the "Eh Team!" (What? The name seemed catchy at the time)! We had full expectation of sitting down in one day and pounding it out in no time, little did we know, its a whole lot harder than that!
This is what our kitchen table looked like, and the coffee table looked that same!
Riders Rule, Stampeders Drool! (and #7 is my secret boyfriend)
After that I had to start prepping for the law ball, and by prepping I mean I had to get eyelash extensions! Omg I loved them, I loved every second I had them, they made my eyes look big and glamorous, and oh I miss them very much, but way to expensive for the upkeep, and my real eyelashes are paying dearly for them right now. When I took my extensions off most of my real eyelashes came out with them, but they are slowly growing back, and hopefully by Halloween they will be all back in place, and hopefully as long as Meena's (my hopes are extremely high, I know). Anyways, Friday the 5th of September (yay Law Ball Day), the day I have been looking forward to since I knew law ball existed back in February, (for anyone who really knows me, getting dressed up in fancy dresses is my favourite thing in life to do, which is one of the reasons I decided to be a lawyer, to play dress up in pretty dresses, but that's another point for another day). Back on topic, yay Law Ball!!! We get to the venue at around 6pm all dolled up and looking fabulous, and are greeted with a nice glass of champagne, the first of the drinks from the open bar! We stand and chat and look at all the other pretty dresses and guys all spiffied up in there suits (although side bar -- men, your lack of colour was very disappointing, just putting that out there, it wouldn't of hurt you to throw on a coloured tie or a coloured shirt to snazz things up a bit) don't get me wrong, the guys cleaned up good, compared to what they looked like in class, but the girls definitely had them beat with their elegant dresses. I was sitting at table 1 with the rest of the JD girls, and it was fun, we had wine, and we talked, we had tequila and we talked, we had some vodka, and we talked some more, then we had some more wine, and then supper was served, finally at 9pm. We were at table 1 so we were fortunate enough to be served first, the entree (which is equivalent to the Canadian appetizer) was either chicken satay skewers with jasmine rice or a chicken and goat cheese salad. I had the salad, it was delicious, not going to lie our table scarfed those entrees down, before I think even table 5 received theres. While we were waiting for the rest of the 500 people to be served there entrees the music started to become more upbeat and we decided that to go and dance a little bit. The main (equivalent to the Canadian entree), was served around 10pm, (definitely starting to get really hungry now), being lucky table number 1 again, we were served first. I had the lamb with mediterranean vegetables with potato gratin (that potato gratin was the most amazing thing I've ever tasted), the other entree was chicken breast with seasonal vegetables and rice I believe (it could have been something else, I was just to focused on eating my meal, wasn't paying attention to the other people's food)! We got up and danced some more while we waited for dessert to be served, I was having fun, with my awesome friends, finally dessert was served at around 11pm, we were served a berry crumble, which was meh, and a sticky date pudding cake which I inhaled, it was the most delicious thing I've ever eaten next to the potato gratin, (or I was just that hungry and everything tasted super good)! Shortly after table 1 (yay, my table) was served dessert, the party was shut down, because some idiot (which is a polite word) decided to punch a staff member, and people were jumping the bar to pour there own drinks, so we were all kicked out. But seriously though, 2 bartenders for 500 people, somebody clearly wasn't using their brain when they did scheduling for that night. Being the stubborn Canadians that me and my friends are we sat at our table and refused to leave, until we were asked very politely by one of the UNLSA members, which is when we got up to leave, but we were one of the last tables out, so yay for us for holding our ground! Meena and I decided that we were just going to go home instead of to the after party as getting kicked out of the venue was a major buzzkill, so with my high heels in hand, the train of my dress in the other, we walked back home. (Another side note, how do people in Australia walk around barefoot all the time, the sidewalk is definitely not a comfortable, smooth surface to walk on)! Anywho, that was the Law Ball, check out the pictures below of us gorgeous gals!
Paulina, Meena, Me, Amber, Hillary, Nicole, and Renee (All Canadian gals except for Nicole)
Meena, Amber and Myself
Just me, myself, and I (I love my dress!!!)
Me and Renee
Me and Nicole, the adorable Australian in the program!
Me and Hillary (stupid blue glare of the lights)
Duck Face selfies by the Prairie Girls
This is Mike, Amber's boyfriend, isn't he adorable, being so compliant with me putting red lipstick on his cheek!
Me and Meena (she wore lipstick! I'm so proud of her!!)
Me and Paulina
Me at the end of the night, once I got home, I made Meena take a picture of just me in my dress, which I absolutely loved. I'm going to make Devan photoshop the background for me into something a little more classy than a door and ugly carpet!
Roommate Selfies!
The six beautiful Canadian girls, in the entrance of my apartment, waiting for the cab!
The blue lighting at the venue was absolutely terrible to take pictures in, it made everyone look funny and cast weird shadows, once the pictures are up from the photographers at the venue, I will post some more!
Need to take a pause break in writing, because trying to upload these pictures is driving me crazy so I need to refill my wine glass!
The week of the 7th to the 13th, I shall call recovery week, mainly because I didn't do anything but sleep and homework and freak out about upcoming assignments. So I will leave what I did that week up to your imagination, (think boring imagination, not exciting imagination).
Although on Saturday the 13th, Amber came over, and we worked on the appellant side of the moot, which we ended up getting done a lot faster, and without any breakdowns, (that could be because I was force feeding Amber beer, so she wouldn't stress out). Later that night we ordered pizza, watched Mean Girls and Parent Trap, dyed Meena's hair purple, and just had an all around good time. I know what you're thinking right now, aren't law students supposed to spend every waking moment in the library reading textbooks and cases, well I shall tell you now that is not the case. If you do not take breaks and have some good times you're going to fail at law school because you will break down, everyone needs a break in life, and you shouldn't be scared to take one (I'm surviving law school and look at all the fun I have)!
Monday the 15th was a full day at school per usual, and per usual, during out 2 hour break from 12-2 we went to the GT Bar where we eat lunch, it became apparent to Meena that Brian (also in our program) has eyelashes that do not curl up, so she decided that it would be necessary to curl them, so he could see out of his eyes properly without eyelashes getting in the way.
Yup that's right he actually let Meena curl them, and now this picture is on the internet for all to see. (Sorry Brian, but that's what you get hanging out with 3 girls all the time)
That night we had the second part to our moot competition, this time I was senior counsel, which mean I spoke first. I'm not going to lie, it was intense, way harder than the first one. The reason it was harder, was because first off our Judge wasn't a 4th year student, he was an actual lawyer and secondly we were arguing for something that wasn't true. There are 2 things I learnt from this experience, first is that was that my hands shake uncontrollably when I am nervous, and second, it is really hard to argue something that you do not believe in, especially when all the authorities are in favour of the opposition. The Judge tore our team to shreds, asked us question after question after question that Amber and I did our best to answer, and I had to keep telling myself in my head, "think Taija think, what have you learnt in torts so for in regards to breach of duty, just think" but I think I did better than I thought I was going to do. Amber, Meena, and I thought the Judge hated us until the respondents got up to argue there point (which was supposed to be easy as all the authorities are in there favour) and the got torn to shreds as well, I actually felt bad for them a little bit. It was definitely a learning experience, and once again we still didn't get to find out who won, and we are still waiting to see if we advance to the next round, I'll definitely keep you posted on that!
Tuesday the 16th I got to dress up again in a cute little dress as I attended a scholarship ceremony (yay me for being smart and getting a scholarship)! I don't have much to say on this matter except that there was free wine and food, and my parents told me to never turn down anything that is free, so yay for getting a scholarship and getting free wine!
I know this is me bragging just a little bit, but I am super proud of myself!
Later that night I attended the UNLSA (University of Newcastle's Law School Association) general meeting, this is where issues are dealt with a the committee for next year is elected into place! I am officially the International Student Representative for the UNLSA, I'm excited about that, not going to lie, Meena got VP of Social Events (yay I get to help my roommate plan parties), and Amber got the Graduate Student Representative, so yay for both of them as well. The three of us are going to rock the UNLSA next year, and show them that Canadian girls are made of sugar and spice and everything nice plus a little bit of maple syrup for an extra sweet touch!
Friday the 19th I had a property paper due (I hate property), to much information that I think is useless but is probably very important, so property will definitely not be my category of choice when I start practicing law. Also on the 19th was the decade party, I went as a 20's flapper girl, I loved my costume, and I'm pretty sure I was the best dressed there, mainly because I wasn't dressed as an 80's girl and it's me so I give my all when it comes to costumes!!
See, totally awesome costume right!
Alright some general side notes regarding the last few weeks since we last left off, look how long my hair is getting!!! It's at my waist when it's straight and i'm sitting down (partially slouching). I'm excited at how long it is!
Next little random snippet, is that it is finally getting warm enough for me to do homework on my balcony again, I can finally start working on my tan and soak up some vitamin D while I read cases and textbooks, and of course drink my David's Tea, (can't forget about David, he is necessary to my functioning abilities).
Besides that, I got nothing else for you unless you want to talk about TV shows starting this week!! Yay! So excited for that, I can't pick which one I'm most excited for, maybe 'Chicago Fire' to see who lives and who dies, or 'Grey's Anatomy' to see how Meredith is going to react to a new sister and will Derek really leave, or maybe 'Once Upon A Time', will StoryBrooke freeze over, or possibly 'Bones', what will happen to Booth in jail. Needless to say lots of season premiers to watch this week, as well as new shows, I really hope 'How To Get Away With Murder' is as good as it looks!!
I will enjoy my two week break, and I hope you enjoy the rest of September!
