One week of law school down and I’m still alive.  It’s actually more interesting than I anticipated – but still really really intense.  The hype about Socratic method is true – its pretty different from every other classroom experience I’ve ever had.  This one poor kid in my section got called on by our professor (on the first day) and the professor stayed on him for 3 days straight.  Pretty rough but he came out in one piece.  Here is a cheesy picture Lonica took of me going off to my first day of school – it’s like being in kindergarden again, except the books I’m carrying would crush a small child’s spine.

My professors are great – a few of them very renowned – but they all seem personable and down-to-earth.  Law school is different because everybody is cooped up in the same building all day. You have a locker, a mailbox, your own carrel to study at in the library and it’s already started to seem like the inside of the law school is a little bubble world. 

The reading is long and hard – it’s common to have 20-30+ pages of reading per day per class, with 4 classes = 120 pages.  The material is so dense, dry and foreign that sometimes you just have to plough through it and hope some of it sticks to your brain along the way, or maybe you’ll understand it later.  We read a case from the 1300s that was barely discernible, and many others from 1400-1800s in our attempt to get a foundation for understanding modern law.  Several of the cases so far have been incredibly interesting though – like one where a guy was arrested for drunk driving because he was passed out in the driver’s seat of a PARKED car with the lights on and engine running (even though the cops never saw him driving and nobody else every positively IDed him).  Hopefully things continue to go smoothly and I can keep up with the workload.  We are having dinner with Dave and Candace tonight (fondue) so I’ll try to post a picture of that if I remember.

Law School, Life in OH-IO | 5 Comments »

I have to admit, our blog was much-visited and much-loved when we were half-way around the world.  Now (understandably) everyone lacks the same enthusiasm and interest in our rather dull daily events.  I understand that closely monitoring the growth of our herb garden is much less exciting when compared with mastering the mountains of Northern Thailand.  Nonetheless, I’m going to continue writing, if for no other reason than it is a good means of journaling.  So… on to the super exciting events of this past week… 

As I just mentioned, our herb garden is coming along.  We’ve anxiously been monitoring their growth and find that the basil is still surpassing all the others.  We’re quite please though and feel rather proud of our little plants.  It makes me rather anxious for the spring when we can actually start a garden out in our backyard.  We have two small strips of dirt and I think I might be up for the challenge.  Unlike Arizona, you don’t start planting your garden in October in Ohio.  Apparently (so the local nursery workers tell us) it gets too cold during the winters in Ohio and you can only grow things during the summer!  Imagine!  And all my life I’ve been thinking that the summer is the time when all green things die.  Hmmm…see how much I’ve learned already from living in Ohio?  I think my thumb is starting to turn a slight shade of green…

Along the lines of becoming a fabulous homemaker (because all homemakers are good at growing gardens, right?) I’ve also decided I want to learn how to sew better.  Actually it is the perfect opportunity, seeing as I have lots of time available and few friends to fill it with.  Mostly, I want to learn how to make a really cool quilt with the silk fabric we brought home from Thailand.  This week I headed out to the closest sewing store and wandered around passing my hands over textured fabrics and aspiring to be the next Martha Stewart.  I collected a magazine outlining their fall class schedule and spent awhile pouring over the options available.  I think I’m going to find myself deeply involved in a new hobby.  We’ll see how it goes.  

A couple weeks ago we were hanging out with Dave and Candace one Saturday night and decided to go rent a movie.  We got Prison Break and headed home.  We started watching the show and I was enjoying it when suddenly it ended and went back to the main menu.  Apparently, Prison Break isn’t a movie as I thought it was, but it is a televesion show.  That’s how I was tricked into watching another television series.  I have to admit that it is rather intriguing and I anticipate the time each night when Scott returns home and we get to watch our daily dose of Prison Break.  Aw, the pitfalls of television.  Sometimes I admit (silently) that I’m a bit addicted, but who needs to know that?

Oh! I almost forgot!  Yesterday I lived through my very first tornado alert.  It was so sudden and unexpected that it was very surprising.  We were just at our house getting ready for the ward progressive dinner (3 couples were going to come to our house for appetizers) when Dave called Scott and said, “Can you hear that?”  We said “No” and headed outside for a better listen.  Sure enough there were sirens going off around the neighborhood.  We turned on the t.v. and listened to the weather man report on the “intense storms” (i.e. tornados) that were passing through Ohio and might touch down at any moment.  He was warning everyone to take cover in their basement and stay away from the windows of their  house.  So what do we do?  Run outside and “oh and awe” at the rapidly approaching, thundering, dark clouds.  This storm really came out of no where.  One minute it was peaceful and sunny, the next we are being told to take cover in our basement.  All in all, nothing major happened (unless you count some really heavy rain that passed thorough).  I knew that moving to Ohio would mean lots of humidity and snow and rain.  But I didn’t think it included tornados!  Who knew!  One more thing I’ve learned about Ohio.  Here’s some pictures I took from deep down in our basement (actually I was gawking from the window, in case you couldn’t tell).

I know that some of you dedicated Sconica blog readers (well, okay, just Raquel) have requested we post some pictures of our new abode.  I’ve held off, thinking that we should wait until we’re actually rather settled in so you can get the full effect of our new place.  Now, all I have left is to hang the pictures on the wall.  In anticipation for this project, I have collected all our frames into my “office” and shuffle them around on the floor periodically, trying to visualize the best arrangement. 

Notice all the bedding in the corner that is waiting for our new King-size bed to arrive! I can’t wait!

I think I’ve finally figured out what I want to do; I just have to wait for Scott to help me hang them up.  So, pictures of our new house should be a short time coming (hopefully)!

Life in OH-IO | 4 Comments »

August 18, 2007

Yesterday, we woke up to a gorgeous day!  The weather was wonderful and the sun was shining–warm, but not too warm.  So I decided I need to get out of the house for awhile, while Scott studied (can you believe they have homework before school even starts!).  Anyway, Candace and I headed over to the North Market here in Columbus.  I was on the hunt for tomatoes because last week I made my first Sunday pot roast (in the two and a half years we’ve been married I’ve never actually had to make Sunday dinner.  Can you believe that?  Living around family really has its benefits).  Anyway, so I made pot roast and realized that I didn’t have any chilie sauce.  And how can you have pot roast without  chilie sauce?  Anyone who has actually has it can understand how any pot roast without chilie sauce doesn’t taste quite as good.  So, I decided this dilemma needed to be rectified.  I was on the hunt for some fresh, cheap tomatoes because I needed a project (a week of sitting in the house looking for a job left me rather bored and restless).  So Candace and I headed to the market and we had a good time wandering around looking at all the produce and fresh flowers.  I was surprised by how many flowers they had!  I didn’t take any pictures because our camera battery was dead, but here’s the link to the website where you can see all the pictures there: http://www.northmarket.com/.  We didn’t really find what we wanted there though, so we headed up to Worthington’s market.  Worthington is like a little city within Columbus.  It is very old and very attractive.  They have a farmer’s market every Saturday down their main street.  It was so attractive and beautiful to wander around and enjoy the ambiance.  I ended up buying a lot of produce:  tomatoes, basil, onions, zucchinis, etc.  I also bought a little rosemary plant.  Scott and I have decided to start a little herb garden.  We got parsley, cilantro, sage, basil, and oregano seeds at a nursery and are anxiously monitoring their growth (I think Scott checks on them about 10 times a day, and I probably check on them about 5 times a day.  So, for those of you out there who think we are bad at growing plants you can be assured that these particular plants are being well attended to. So far the basil is wining at about .5 cms tall, oregano has sprouted but is very small, and cilantro made an appearance just today.  The other two aren’t showing any signs of life yet.)  Anyway, so we wanted rosemary, but were unable to find any seeds, but I found a whole plant at the market, so I bought it.  Scott was very excited.  He read all about rosemary plants and found out that if he had a cutting of the plant he could grow it on its own.  So we set off for the nursery again to collect some pots and a rooting mixture (which Scott assured me would stimulate the growth hormones of the rosemary’s roots).  As luck would have it, we passed a yard where they had a bunch of gardening equipment out front with a “free” sign underneath.  We took a bunch of pots and purchased our rooting mixture at the nursery.  Scott busied himself replanting our rosemary while I worked hard in the kitchen to make my chilie sauce and tomato soup (thanks Candace’s mom for the good recipe!).  We tried a noodle place by our house for dinner.  The pad Thai we wrote off as not very authentic, but the Mediterranean dish I selected was pretty good (at least until we travel to the Mediterranean and learn what their food is really like!)  All in all, it was a good day. 

Tonight, Dave and Candace invited a bunch of their friends over for a dip party (apparently they have them rather regularly).  So we enjoyed meeting a bunch of new people and sampling a bunch of yummy dips.  It was a good way to wrap up the weekend…now if only I could find a job, then everything would be really grand.�
 

Life in OH-IO | 2 Comments »

July 30-August 2, 2007

My mom flew in Monday night to help us settle in to our new place in Columbus. By the time she arrived on Monday we had hired some of Dave’s young men to come help us unload our boxes. A few of our new neighbor’s joined in and in less than an hour we had the truck unloaded (minus my car). We spent the next few days unpacking boxes and buying the necessities. We needed some new computer desks and a washer and dryer. We found a good deal on both and slowly, with my mom’s help, things began to become more organized. Our place here is much bigger than our old condo—almost twice as big, so that was a nice change for us. Overall, we are enjoying Columbus and are liking things here. Everyone is very friendly (and I mean friendly!), we’ve found a few good places to eat (the little ringer plate at City Barbeque is great!), we saw our first fireflies at a park by the lake with Dave and Candace, we enjoy the weather (although everyone else swears the weather here is awful), and everything is just so pretty and old. If only I could find a job…

Life in OH-IO | 6 Comments »

Friday, Saturday, and Sunday (July 27, 28, and 29)

I know it is becoming a bit trite, but Rowely children sang as they drove, and drove, and drove across the US. We had a LONG drive from Mesa to Columbus. I figured it was 30 hours by the time all was said and done (that version includes stops for lunch and time change). We had the big 24 foot Budget truck, behind which Scott’s car traveled on a trailer. The entire ensemble was difficult to maneuver and drive. I was terrified of driving the truck because I have never driven anything quite that big or complex. I did drive twice though—for about an hour and a half total. Scott was a machine though, he just kept driving and driving. We finished the first night at about 1:00 am. We spent the night at my grandpa’s house in Albuquerque. We had a good chat and I wish we could have spent more time there, but unfortunately we were on something of a tight schedule so we had to keep driving. The next day we traveled through Oklahoma City and made it to Springfield, Missouri before we stopped for the night (once again at about 1:00 am). The next day we drove through St. Louis and Indianapolis before finally reaching Columbus at about 9:30 pm. We stopped at the border on the way into Ohio to take a picture.

Dave and Candace were nice enough to put us up for the night before we had a chance to unpack and get settled in. I spent most of the long drive reading the last Harry Potter novel. I finished it about 40 minutes before we arrived and was glad to have had the time to just read—thanks to Scott’s fantastic driving skills. All in all, I really enjoyed our rather harried journey across the US. It was a longer drive than I have ever been on, but it was neat to see the country from a new angle. Hopefully though, we won’t be making the drive all that often.

Life in OH-IO | No Comments »