4.43 pm

I am sitting at my desk with a stack of law review articles in front of me, waiting for the water on the stove to boil so that I can make a cup of tea. I now have twelve weeks in which to research and write a forty page paper suitable for publication in a law review. Despite the fact that I am supposedly writing this under the guidance of a faculty member, the fact that I'm in the Netherlands makes it difficult to have conversations of any sort about the paper. I think I've got the skeletal form worked out - now all I need is to decide what I want to say. The course is two credits, which means about eight hours a week of work, although I'm not sure if that will be enough to actually write the darn thing.

4.52 pm

Work is going smoothly. I'm going to a fair number of trials, and finding that I really enjoy watching and then reporting on them. Perhaps because it contains a bit of story telling. I'm also doing some policy-type work that I find really interesting. I met up with one of the other girls from Boalt last night, and we had a fun dinner at this Italian place in Centrum. They hand you a card when you walk in - like a credit card, or hotel room key. Then you go to the various stations - pizza, salad, pasta, bar, etc - and order your food. The people you order from either make it there or give you a restaurant beeper for when it's ready. You don't pay until right before you leave. It was lots of fun - communal tables, and a bunch of different languages spoken.

As much fun as the kids in my apartment building are, i'm really glad there are other Boalties here this semester. I work in an office with only four people, including myself, and they're all much older than I am, with families. So socializing after work is probably not going to happen. I tried to get some of the girls in the apartment to come out to dinner with me last weekend, but they were all studying for exams or had already eaten. So last night was the first time I've really gone out since I got here, and it was lots of fun.

5.01 pm

Things that I have found in The Hague:

a tailor (who hemmed my pants for a very reasonable price and got them back to me the same day)
stroopwafels
where to buy tram tickets
bad Thai food
really yummy Chinese food