Keeping Busy

The last couple weeks have just flown by – whoosh – and they were gone. I had to submit an outline for the 15,000 word research paper that will be the sole basis of my grade for International Law & Imperialism. I didn’t know what to write about and was in a bit of a panic. Then, just before the outline was due, an idea sort of gelled: a review of how globalization is a kind of legal crossroads between the historical narrative of international law and commercial law. It’s a chance to write about international law – which I have no background in – with a view to commercial law – which I’ve been working with for nearly twenty years. Today Professor Anghie e-mailed an encouraging thumbs up on my outline. Another 14,000 words and I’ll be set.

I also taught my second round of tutorials, this time on legislative interpretation and case analysis. Simple topics to cover in one hour with students who don’t have any prior legal background. I’ve fallen way behind in preparing materials for employment relations – a class I’ll be teaching in November. I’m also supposed to be thinking about four investment & securities law lectures I’ll be giving in a couple months. And I should start reading for my other intensive class (International Commercial Contracts), which starts September 21st. But I’m not complaining: it's all really interesting, I get to study things I want to learn about, the students are (mostly) fun to work with, and my professors are really helpful.

This week came word from my former secretary at the bank that my former manager has been laid off. Integration after a merger usually takes about 18 months, so they’re right on schedule. Unfortunately, it’s 18 months of misery for the people involved, and the reward at the end for a lot of them is a severance package. Could be worse, of course – plenty of people lose jobs without severance. But Steve was there for 20 years, is in his mid-50’s, and has two kids to put through college.

Puts class preparation and research papers into perspective. I am so glad to be out of the corporate world.

Cheers,
Sandie

I (Still) Do

On Saturday, while the rest of the world was commemorating the 60th anniversary of the Atomic Bomb, Ali and I were celebrating a different anniversary. In 1994, we were so preoccupied with our wedding plans that we hadn’t realized we were getting married on Hiroshima Day. However, it’s been an easy day to remember ever since.

We bought a car last week (a’98 Mitsubishi Diamante, like-new with only 50,000 km), so after breakfast we headed to the Waitakere Range. It’s a huge Regional Park just west of Auckland, full of trails and hugging the best surf beaches in the area. We hiked through bush for a couple hours, following a trail that rewarded us with stunning views of the Tasman Sea at the ridgeline, but that was completely flooded just before we reached the dunes. There was nothing to do but get soaked – the water was up to my knees at one point. Fortunately, although the water was cold, the black sand was warm enough we could take off our boots and walk barefoot across the dunes.

When the trail seemed to split, we tried different paths, calling to each other as we topped the dunes until the paths were too far apart and we got out of sync. The dunes seemed to go on forever: undulating sand hills sporadically covered with grasses and shrubs, lagoons filled with shorebirds in the low spots, the sound of the waves the only reassurance that the ocean really was in front of me. With no sign of anyone else, for a moment I could imagine what it felt like to be a castaway, utterly by myself. But a moment later I reached the top of the last hill, and the endless beach spread to both sides. Ali, already down by the water’s edge, waved and I was alone no more.

Cheers,
Sandie

Adventures in Tutoring

Last Wednesday I was supposed to spend the day preparing for my Thursday tutorials. Com Law 101 is an introduction to law course which business students are required to take. They have 4 lectures per week, plus every other week there's a “compulsory tutorial.” (There are about 900 students taking the class; the tuts are small discussion groups, and they can’t schedule more than 32 per week. Hence tuts are every other week for students, but every week for tutors.)

Pre-assigned questions are posted on-line, and students are supposed to come to class prepared for discussion. We're starting off with an introduction to the NZ legal framework and constitution, about which I know next to nothing. So I was a bit anxious to at least read all the assigned materials, which I hadn’t had time for because my intensive just ended on Tuesday. But, Ali’s been looking at cars, and on Wednesday he wanted me to come see what he’d found. “It will only take half an hour.”

Five hours later (the dealer told us to take the car for the day, get a feel for it and Ali promptly – and sensibly, I had to admit – wanted to use it to check other potential cars around town) I was in a mad panic. He dropped me off at home so I could get to work, while he tried (unsuccessfully, it turned out) to negotiate for the car.

It was a little past midnight by the time I felt reasonably comfortable with the material. As it turns out, I needn’t have worried. It would have been nearly impossible for me to know less than they did. My first group, at 9 am, were shy (or still asleep?). The 10 am crowd was better: they’d read the material and were awake enough we could have a discussion; it was actually fun. Unfortunately, my 2 pm class was deadly: every question I asked was met with blank stares. As if they hadn’t heard a single lecture or read a page - and would rather be anywhere else in the world. And I get to do it all again with new groups this Thursday.

Cheers,
Sandie