I feel like life is a series of 'first-day-at-school' experiences. I remember when I started high school, and my dad articulated exactly what I was feeling: "You're used to being the big fish in a small pond, and now you're going to be a little fish in a bigger pond, but don't worry, someday soon you'll be a big fish again...and then of course you'll go to university." And so it was. You'd think after high school, university (twice), a new city and a new job, I'd be used to first days, but I'm not. Little known fact: I am super shy. Interactions with a sea of unknown people? Possibly the most stressful thing besides, I don't know, picking up and moving halfway across the world. Every time I need to make a new acquaintance, I panic, get sweaty palms (not great for that first handshake) and mentally run through everything weird about myself, and then I push all of that down and paste on a smile. They can smell fear, y'know.
So yeah, today was scary. But anyway, R packed me lunch (seriously, how awesome is that?) and I caught the bus, which stops just up the road. When I arrived, I picked up my folder, free UCLA cap, and a cuppa coffee, and then met Professor Lara Stemple who's the director of graduate studies at UCLA and also the Sonke contact person. She's super nice and friendly!
For the first 5 days, we're taking a course on American Law to catch us up to speed with the JDs (undergrads) who've been studying this for years. American law is complicated, but probably not as complicated as it would be if I didn't have a common law background. I can only imagine what it must be like for people from civilian systems, learning this in a language that's not their first language. The lecturer is pretty awesome, though. He doesn't mind 'stupid' questions, and he goes at a nice pace (but that might be just because I speak English).
After lectures, we had lunch on the lawn (it was a really nice lunch, which was too bad, because I already had lunch - R even packed me nuts to snack on). They put out blankets with labels like 'music' or 'sport' and if you liked that thing, you had to sit on the blanket. That way people with common interests meet up. I don't think it really worked, as most people just wanted to find a blanket in the shade. I ended up sitting with a bunch of french folk, and some chinese (mainland), korean and japenese folk too. In the sun. Yup, I've had excessive amounts of vitamin D today. Being a student is just awesome. After lunch, we went on a tour (in the sweltering heat) and then it was game over, so I headed home for some R&R, dinner and reading. There may be a barbeque with the LLMs later, or drinks with the francophones. All in all, a decent first day.