2/28/2018

You’d be surprised to read about this.

Throughout the weeks since my return to the start of semester 1, I loaded up on the hours from the volunteering activities and stayed back late on campus a couple of times. It allowed me an escape from the remainder of a boring holiday while doing something good. I prefer 6 weeks of break. Anything longer than that, I’ll be itching to keep myself busy to prevent myself from being in a rut. Although I was tired from the O’Week-related volunteering activities, I forced myself to attend the first week of lectures (which turned out to be only one for the core course as the rest were electives) because … why not? If I don’t get into the study zone soonest possible, I’d be slacking until the commencement of the tutorials.

Leftover πουργούρι (romanized as pourgourri) with further additions

I continued to volunteer for both Student Life and the Union amidst the added pressure of academic success and the graduate/clerkship programs. You could say that I am biting off more than I can chew, but I craved for something that will leave me on the go for ¾ of the time and improve on time management skills. I’d rather be on the move than to spend my free time on social media. Don’t get me wrong; I don’t hate social media. In fact, I appreciate the convenience of maintaining contact with friends through that method. It’s just that those time spent online could be diverted to better use, such as more revisions, volunteering, or even job hunting. For certain events, it forced me to dig deep for the experiences garnered in CPU to help me along. It also sharpened my interpersonal skills and … continued to prepare me for the hustle and bustle of the real world, so to speak.

As for the tutorials, DRE was okay. I mean, what could I have expected from the second week of classes? We had arranged to be in a team for the group work later in the semester, so fingers crossed that it will spare us from unnecessary and avoidable issues when the assignment arrives. I was initially surprised when the ADR lecturer mentioned that the skills we picked up from that course will be beneficial for DRE, but I guess she was right. Now that I have given a quick look at the course structure, it will definitely come in handy for certain elements of the course.

Understanding Climate Change as a whole was a tad bit difficult than I expected because it encompasses a lot more. I guess I knew what I signed up for after I spoke to the folks who did it last year and wanted to challenge myself. I mean, Climate Change will be an issue that affects us all - look at the weather around us. For the half of January 2018, Klang Valley was shrouded with a spring’s touch of cool air. Mind you, this has never occurred before. The assignments didn’t bother me as much as it did for other students as it had the same structure as one of my other electives last year. I cringed for a minute when I had a look at the list of enrolled students. While I already knew that two of my friends were in the course, I wasn’t counting on seeing some familiar names from Corporate, DRE, and Legal Theory. Now, although I warned the good friend when we met up during the Fringe Parade that there would be a surprise headed his way, he never expected that it would be me joining him in this course. He jumped for joy when he discovered the surprise.

I also had another friend - but from Criminal Law and Canadian Law days - who were with us in Climate Change. He was more excited than me for this course because he felt that it was wider in scope. When we ran into each other on the first day of lectures, we grinned at each other expectantly because we already knew what was coming.

So, I guess I’m relieved that I swapped from my previous elective to Climate Change for now. I won’t know if I’ll regret my decision in time to come, but we’ll see.

The not-so-Japanese potato salad

Ah, Legal Theory. The course that I couldn’t enroll in sophomore year because I swapped Criminal Law with my non-law electives. I wasn’t exactly ready to be challenged by the course although I was aware and studied elements of the Nuremberg Trials in Canadian and International Law. Heck, we did a presentation on how Kristallnacht (known as Crystal Night in English) was the precursor to the Holocaust and how it eventually led to the ICC’s prosecution of the Nazi officials in the trials. The link that I attached would help you understand what Kristallnacht is about.

At least I wasn’t going in with zero knowledge of the Eichmann trial. I wasn’t expecting to see many students because this course is not as popular and hinges towards a mixture of philosophy and history. As what we Mandarin-speakers would say, 这本科比较冷门. It was good because it allowed us to spread out in the class instead of being squashed to each other, though. I felt myself questioning on whether I wanted to fulfill the required attendance (that will be the break between a pass or a credit grade) due to a couple of reasons. Class discussions never bothered me since Taylor’s, but I didn’t want to embarrass myself by saying the wrong thing and be snatched of the opportunity to do so by my peers in the smaller discussion. Trust me, there are times when that has occurred in the other elective to the point where my lecturer was like, you should have interrupted the person because what you said is of substance and worthy of a class contribution. The introvert in me doesn’t fancy it because it forces me to approach other students who are strangers to me. I can’t gauge if they would welcome my input or totally ignore it. But since there is no exam component, I think I can swallow my discomfort with a pinch of salt.

Seeing that some of us had arrived earlier, we sneaked into the classroom and took our separate seats while waiting for the lecturer to arrive. Although I heard the doors being opened and closed by the rest of the students, I couldn’t be bothered to shoot a glance as I was exhausted from the workshop that I attended the previous evening. I had looked up once to double-check if it was the lecturer because the timing seemed right, only to find myself looking at someone I never expected to see in Legal Theory.