Traveling Used to be So Glamorous

The other day as I shared my time in London with an elderly lady who had traveled abroad often when she was much younger, the conversation quickly turned to the inevitable airport woes of lost luggage and delayed flights. As she reminisced about her extensive travels with her husband many years ago when they first married, she turned away and sighed, proclaiming, “Humm…and traveling used to be so glamorous.”
It’s no doubt that there was a time when flying seemed much more rare and illusive. I remember looking at planes in the sky as a young girl in amazement that people were actually on those planes or “in them” as I thought then. I also distinctly remember wondering what they were doing, as the know-it-all neighbor kid explained to me about stewardesses and how nice they treated you on board. It seemed like something that only the very wealthy could do. Now it seems that any and everyone can fly. With so many people flying these days, there’s no wonder there seems to be so many more problems with the airlines.
Flying has the potential for so many twists. I recall arriving at the airport this past May to learn about the new charge for the second bag- a byproduct of increased gas prices. I recall when weight limits got much stricter. Several years ago I purchased a very large piece of luggage so that I could streamline my packing into one piece. Now I don’t even use that bag because filling it up takes me over the 50 lb. weight limit. The bag itself probably takes up half of that.
Yesterday morning when I arrived at the airport in Philadelphia to return to Baton Rouge, I learned that I didn’t have a seat assignment because my flight was overbooked. They were seeking volunteers to stay over for a later flight for a small incentive. I certainly recall those days in the airport when I lived in DC hearing them ask for volunteers to stay over. I never even considered it. I was always desperate to get home. But yesterday, I thought, what the hell, I can do the same thing here that I’m going to do once I get home, with the exception of rolling around in my bed thanking God that I had made it home safely. It just happened that in the end, I didn’t have a choice. No one volunteered and I didn’t get a seat. They gave me the free ticket voucher anyway and upgraded my flight to first class. With all of my trips to Philly, that flight will certainly come in handy. Too bad I didn’t get a first class ticket from London :o)
So I bumped around the airport all day trying to keep myself busy. I actually spent quite a while at the Rosetta Stone vendor seeing how the program worked. I’m very interested in learning French now that I’ve been to Paris. I think speaking another language is so cool. Apparently it’s becoming a big business. I’ve never seen independent Rosetta Stone vendors.
But I arrived in Baton Rouge just after 8 PM last night safe and sound and that’s a blessing itself. Everything is just as I left it and it’s great to be home. It’s always wonderful getting to that final destination. The airlines have thier problems, but it's convenient and definitely here to stay.
As I sat on the plane yesterday, looking out of the window, I couldn’t help but to remember those days of looking up at the planes wondering what was going on “in there,” and now I know. Yesterday as I sat in seat 1A, the very first seat in first class, and the stewardess approached me to ask if I wanted a glass of wine as I turned back to my laptop to complete this very blog entry, I thought, “Well, maybe there’s still a little bit of glamour in flying.” :o)

A Stop in Philly on the Way Home: From Teacher to Student

I'm in Philadephia now. Although I had originaly planned to travel to Baton Rouge first and then on to Philadelphia for class, I decided to fly directly into Philly after a series of complications at the airport in London which would have prevented me from making it into Baton Rouge in time for my flight to Philadelphia. So I still haven't seen my home sweet home just yet.
So far the weekend is going smoothly. We're covering depositions this weekend, so some of the time is being spent in lectures on depositions and the other part of the time we're either deposing witnesses, defending depositions, or preparing witnesses for depositions. As a former prosecutor, I've never done depositions before, so everything we're covering this weekend is new to me. This is such an amazing program, I can't believe how much I learn from each area we cover. What's even more amazing is that I didn't realize just how much I didn't know. I have continued to learn and evolve in this program and I can't wait to put my knowlege to work.
Tomorrow night I'm returning to Baton Rouge and I'm really excited to get home so that I can take a couple of days to rest. After that I'll be back to the routine. I'll start by grading the papers from summer school and then I'll start getting ready for evidence this fall. But before any of that I've got to get through this weekend, so I'm off to get ready for class tomorrow so that I can get a good nights sleep tonight. There's a little bit of jet lag, but it's much better traveling west than east, so at least I've been awake and attentive in class. It's interesting being both a student and teacher of the law. It certainy helps me in the classroom, and I guess that's what it's all about- becoming better and better, never perfect, just better.

The following are a few pictures in front of the the Conwell Inn. This is a small hotel on Temple's campus. It's just a block from the law school, so this is where the LL.M. students stay during our weekends in Philadelphia. It's very convenient.

My Last Night in London: Procrastination and A Look to the Fall

You would think that something is seriously wrong with me. It's a quarter til midnight and I'm leaving London tomorrow morning and I haven't started packing yet- no, not anything. In the back of my mind I know it's not going to take very long, but I also think I'm not quite ready to leave. It seems that there is so much left that I haven't done. But I guess if I haven't done it in six weeks, then it wasn't really that important to me.

Today we finished our classes. The students will be taking finals on Thursday and Friday. I didn't give them a written final, so they are finished with my class. Most of them are leaving on Saturday and some aren't leaving until next week. So I'm the only one leaving London tomorrow. The reason I'm leaving earlier than everyone else is because I have class in my LL.M. program this weekend in Philadelphia. I'm actually fortunate that the program ended just in time to be there this weekend. Getting to Philadelphia will be a very quick turnaround trip for me. I will arrive in Baton Rouge around 7 PM Thursday night and my flight to Philadelphia leaves Friday morning at 8 am, so I'll barely be there 12 hours. I considered flying directly to Philadelphia, but I've got too much junk to lug around. So I'll make a quick stop in BAton Rouge and continue on to Philadelphia the next morning. I'll return from Philadelphia on Sunday evening and that's when I can really take a break.

My break will not last for very long. I've got a lot of plans for the fall. This fall I'm teaching Evidence for the first time so that will take quite a bit of preparation. I've begun preparing, but I've got quite a bit to do before school starts. Of course, I will continue with the LL.M. throughout the fall, and I'll be traveling to Philadelphia often. I'm really exicted about getting back on top of the LL.M. program. I really enjoy trial work and I want to get all that I can out of this program. I'm also really pushing for a late fall publication for my book, but with everything else I just don't know if I'll have the time.

This fall will be historic. We could witness the election of the first African-American president of the United States. We're already planning an election return party for that. I can't count how may people have immediately asked me about Barack Obama upon finding out that I'm from the United States- people from all over the world, including a guy from Russia the other day. The world is really watching this race and I'm eager to get back on top of the issues.

I'm ready to be at my own home, to hang out with Justice, and to watch some television. No, I don't have a TV here. There's a television room in the dorm, but I don't go down there. So it will be nice to watch a few programs. I'm also ready to drive. I don't really care for taking buses and trains everywhere. I guess I don't need to mention the food again, but some good Louisiana seafood would be nice.

After making this list, I guess I'm ready to go. It's been great, but it's time to go home and get back to the real world. A couple of times I've felt like I was in the twilight zone, such as when guys talk marriage on a first date. I think wow, it would be nice if these guys and the one's in the states could come to a happy medium. But I guess I miss things the way they are at home and i'm ready to get back to it. I hope I get to come back next year, but I guess I should take one step at a time.

Well, I'll close this out so that I can get packed up and ready to go. I'm not looking forward to the flight back nor the heat in Louisiana, but it will be nice to be back home. Wow, it went by fast.

Dining Out in London

One of the great things about London is the diverse culture. There are so many people from all over the world here until you just never know who you're going to meet. As a result of the diversity of people, the food is equally diverse. In the Borough of Islington, the area in which we live, there is a great selection of all types of resturants, but admittedly I don't like to "experiment" with foods. I know what I like, and I like to eat that. But that motto sort of became a problem when the things that I liked weren't around. My first inclination was to just not eat very much of anything. That caused me to resort to junk food right out of the convenience store. Of course that didn't work out for very long. Then I resorted to going to fast food resturants that I was familiar with, like Burger King. That got old pretty quickly too. Then I just decided to try some new things, and what do you know, I started to like some things.

Believe it or not, my favorite spot for a quick meal was Nando's which is actually a Porteguese resturant. This resturant had been recommended by several students who have participated in the summer abroad program in the past, but for some reason, it was about 3 weeks into the program before I tried it. I'm so glad I did. This food has so much flavor. It's reminds you of something that you would expect to find in south Lousiana. It was very good.

I also tried a couple of Chinese resturants. I was very dissappointed at one resturant and the other one was okay. The food did not have as much seasoning as I would expect to find in the states, but it was edible.

I've always enjoyed Italian food, and had a couple of Italian resturants that I visited often. Although I ate at Cafe Uno a couple of times, my favorite Italian resturant was La Dolce Vita, which is located near Harrod's Department store. I often found myself craving Italian food. Again, the sauces were not as rich and flavorful as in a resturant in the states, but I was beginning to get used to that and could attempt to enjoy the meal.

There were several other resturants we tried. Several students enjoyed eating at a couple of nearby Indian resturants and I also tried a little Spanish Tapas resturant. That resturant was actually pretty good. We ordered stuffed mussels, that resumbled seafood dressing. The stuffing was made of breadcrumbs with seafood in it. It was pretty good.

But there's nothing like finding familiar places. I'm so happy there was a Starbuck's here. And like the states, there's one on every corner. The only problem is that all of the one's near where we live close by 7 pm, which is simply too early. So I missed them many days. The coffee at most of the coffee shops in London that I tried weren't too bad, but I just wanted something that I was accustomed to and it simply tasted different. Sometimes you just want something familiar, which is why occassionally the fast food resturants were nice. When you ordered, you just knew what you were getting...and that's a good thing.

I'd be remiss in mentioning the pub dining. This, of course, is very big in London. I really like the pubs because they have such a variety of food. "Fish and Chips" are really big in London. It's a large fried piece of cod fish and large cut fries. The pubs also have various sandwiches and burgers. Professor Franks took us to Cittie of Yorke, one of the oldest pubs in London. However, my favorite pub was The Slug and Lettuce, which is a much more modern pub that had a traditional setup downstairs, but only small sofas with coffee tables an a fireplace on the second floor. Pubs are very plentiful and very popular in London.

For the most part, what I observed about the food and eating is that the British are certainly more weight conscience than Americans. The meats are much leaner. Many of the sodas do not have as much sugar added to them as sodas in the states. I also found that the nutrition information is more prominantly displayed on packaging. I was fully aware that that all the lacking flavor that I've complained about since I've been here, is all that fattening stuff that's so bad for your health. Since I've been here, I've found that I actually don't have as many cravings for sweets, carbs, and sugar as I used to. Eating fewer calories has certainly paid off for the British, they're definitely much slimmer. I couldn't find my size in many smaller stores. Several guys have also complained that XL, and XXL's just aren't the same as in America. So although I wasn't a huge fan of much of the food I had, eating healthier leaner food has made me more aware of my eating habits and hopefully that will have a positive effect on me in the future.

Lloyds of London

Tour of Lloyds of London

Yes, we're touring right up until the end of the summer abroad and still learning a lot in the process.

I had to write about my authentic English breakfast. Before the tour of Lloyds, we stopped at The Red Lion to kill some time and I decided to get some breakfast. It took me 5 weeks to get it, but it was worth it. I have done alot of complaining about the food since I've been here, but this was honestly one of the best. The meat and the mushroom had a smoked flavor, the egg was normal and the beans were good. Admittedly, my standards may have been low today -I was hungry and my breakfasts this summer have mostly consisted of a croissant and hot chocolate from the deli at school. But I honestly thought it was worth writing about.

The Chancellor's Reception

Last night, the Law Center hosted a reception for the participants in the SULC Summer Abroad program at the University. Initially, when I heard it was the "Chancellor's" REception, I thought Chancellor Pitcher was coming. I was really looking forward to seeing him. It was just a few days before the reception that I learned he wasn't actually coming. I know that he came to visit the program in it's first year, but Ihope that he can make it back soon. Everyone was really looking forward to seeing him.

During the reception, I really tried to make my rounds to take pictures with as many students as possible. Most of my free time has been spent with just a few students and I wanted to include as many participants on the blog as possible.

During the reception, we honored Professor Franks with a token of appreciation for his hard work and dedication to the Summer Abroad program. Professor Franks has worked dilligently recruiting students from around the country to participate in what is advertised as "Affordable London: Six Weeks, Six Credits, under $6000." All of the students were eager to chip in to get him a small gift. On Friday, I took a nice little journey to find an Irish shop to purchase something that Professor Franks would like since he's a citizen of Ireland. I found an Ireland scarf, a clover tie and matching socks. He was legitimately surprised to learn that we were honoring him for his hard work with the program. We truly appreciate him.

Eddie Harrington took a moment to inform the students about a local resturant owner who had agreed to host a farewell party for the students in his pub at no charge.

AKA's and Alpha's in the summer abroad program.

After the reception, several students boarded a bus and went to a popular resturant for dinner. Professor Franks and his family took the same bus back home.

ICL Wrap-Up

Today we finished up international criminal law. I really enjoyed teaching the course this summer as I indicated in previous posts, and the students seemed to enjoy the course as well. I didn't give a written final exam. Instead the students were required to make a second presentation on any topic related to ICL, and to write a short paper on that topic. The topics were very interesting. Topics included drug trafficking, human trafficking, and ethnic cleansing, just to name a few. In a nutshell, ICL had all the makings of a great course:


I lectured...

"Great job guys. Let's give them a round of applause."

"I think you raise a great point."

"How many of you have ever experienced that?"

Students were very attentive...most of the time.

Students participated in the learning process and in teaching by making presentations.

We attentively watched the presentations...some were rather entertaining.

Students were really interestecd in the subject matter being discussed.

I commented on presentations or reacted in other ways.

And students recooperated from weekend getaways.

No, actually that was between class :o)