Before one can truly be liberated, one must somehow pay for it, or deserve it, and no one pays more than students. Before we can be free, we have to endure the gruelling torture that is the examination period. In a way, you sort of look forward to it knowing that on the other side lies freedom. On the other hand, you dread having to prepare and study like mad in order to deserve that freedom. The one benefit is that exams are over quickly so the suffering is not prolonged. I have paid my dues this semester, though not a heavy price. I had only 2 exams and both in the same week.
The first exam was on Monday afternoon on the subject of Commonwealth Constitutional Law (ComCon). My dad told me that this field always interested him and he did well in it, although he did not take up constitutional law as his practice. The exam, held in a very large, but air conditioned room, was not as hard as I thought it would be, though it was involved. It required a considerable amount of skill and I only just managed to get all my answers down before the exam ended. Happy that that was over, I then concentrated on my Advanced International Law (AIL) exam, held today.
The day didn't begin easily as the exam was at 09:00, necessitating a 08:00 wake up. I had prepared fairly thoroughly with some fellow lawyers-to-be and so was confident going in. While most exams at law school are open-book, this was closed-book except for the Articles on State Responsibility. Again, the exam was over reasonably quickly and I think I got all the major points. It wasn't easy remembering the correct process of state responsibility but the chart I had made proved useful in study. The professor has said that she will be marking this fairly leniently so I am confident I will finish well, especially after my 87% on the mid-term test.
My day was further complicated in that I had to go to work an hour after sitting the exam. Needless to say, I've had a fairly long day and I'm very tired. My leg muscles are aching, in particular as I've spent most of the day on my feet.
As if things weren't interesting enough, Australia has turned up the thermostat this November. Most days have been above 30C and the temperature is expected to rise as high as 36C on some days. In their usual pithy way, the Bureau of Meteorology has described these as "warm to hot conditions". How is 30C , "warm"? It's beyond warm. They should say "from scorching to oven-setting". With the heat, there comes an increased risk of bushfires and although there aren't any yet around us, the predictions point to a hot summer this year so we must be ever-vigilant.
Finally, I will wish a happy birthday to my father who turns 70 on the 15th. He's been around for a while and he's almost as old as World War 2. Just to put that into perspective, when my dad was born there were only about 2 billion people on Earth; now there are roughly 6.8 billion of us. As this is a major milestone, as all decade years are, I hope dad gets to celebrate. My mom told me that my brother and my dad are going to watch an Ottawa Senators game, which will be the first time that any of us have gone to a professional hockey game, except for my dad and even he hasn't been in decades. I just hope he gets to keep a puck.
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