Hi Ho

I just got back from my second official day at my internship. I realize I didn't write about my first day, but since I did just about the same thing both days, I don't think it will be a problem. I've actually been finding it really interesting. Since Probono is a clearing house (meaning it takes in cases and then gives them out to high-power law firms) it has a ton of different cases to look through. And apparently a similarly-minded law firm called the Johannesburg Legal Center recently closed its offices and Probono inherited all their cases. So what I've been doing is going through a lot of these files, reading up on the cases so that I understand them, summarize the main points for myself, note what Probono workers have already done with the case, figure out whether or not the case should be closed (only happens if we haven't been getting responses from the client) or what else should be done. And apparently eventually I'll be calling people up to continue working on the cases. I'd better work on my phone persona. I tend to talk too fast and all that.

One of the more interesting cases I discovered was one for this guy who was hired by a security company as a guard. He was told that he was required to supply his own gun, however he was robbed on shift and the thief took his gun. The company suspended him until he could replace his gun, and he called back the next day only to be told that he had been replaced. And his replacement did not own his own gun. So the case was meant to get this man back pay owed to him because he was wrongly fired. However, the sheriff's department in the area was contacted to deliver the fee notice to the company and went to the company at 8:30 in the morning, even though they were told that the offices didn't open until 9:30. They then went back that night at 7:30 and (surprisingly enough) the office was again not open. The law center was then charged for the services of the sheriff's office, even though they went against recommendation. The office refused to pay the fees and then sheriff refused to try again. That's where the case was left. Unfortunately so many of these cases have been ongoing for like four or five years by this point. Anyways, the cases are interesting to read about, though the notes Shanon (the person I'm working on this for) has written about these cases are so illegible. I feel horrible each time I go up to her to ask her to translate her handwriting. Her handwriting rival's my dad's, which is saying a lot, I'm telling you.

Rehearsals for the musical piece I'm in are a lot of fun. Pretty unstructured, especially with the sort of student-run theater I'm used to, but it's definitely a different experience for me, which I enjoy. You can't grow if you're only doing the same thing every time. The piece is mainly this big group song, however it was 'composed' and written by the student informally directing it. I say 'composed' because he only has a rough melodic line in his head, and nothing written down. So during rehearsal we've mainly been trying to figure out an actual melody for it. I'm even singing lead vocals for one part of it (probably a reward for being the only person who has showed up to every rehearsal, or being the only girl there yesterday) which I'm not totally comfortable with yet because it involves a lot of improving and unstructured repetition that also needs to flow with the constantly changing background vocals. It's just not a type of singing I'm personally used to, and thus am not quite as confident with it as the rest of the guys involved in singing the song. I'm hoping it will get easier, and it definitely is helping me grasp harmonies quicker because there is no written music and there isn't even someone telling me when to sing harmony or sing melody, so I've been kind of doing it when I feel like it fits. Which doesn't always work, but I think I'm sort of getting better.

Academics (oh right, school. the reason I'm here) are going pretty well. Classes here are a lot more lecture-based than Vassar's, but we were warned about that like five million times before the program started officially, so I haven't minded. My lecturers have been pretty good. I still love my state sovereignty class the most. Natalie, our lecturer, said that next year it will be a semester-long instead of a half-semester course. I wish it was semester-long this year. My media studies class was interesting this week in the fact that she mainly focused on the logistics of media studies, which I appreciated never having taken a media studies class before. However she didn't even mention the readings, which was weird. Especially since she decided to let us out about an hour early. But come on, who in the their right mind wants to sit through a three-hour lecture in the afternoon, let alone teach one? I didn't mind. The core course (human rights, perspectives through law I think is what it's called) has a good lecturer as well, though it has the most minimal class participation. The class is also like 60-70 people (well, on a good day. I don't think we've ever had everybody in class), so minimal participation makes sense.

Our program is hosting a movie night tonight, which I'm heading to in about twenty minutes. It was advertised as a way to get our minds off of our homesickness, but I personally haven't been needing a distraction. I can't speak for everyone of course, but I don't get homesick very easily. And if I was homesick I don't know if this event would really cure me. Because it was also advertised as a movie followed by a discussion. Like another class. Can I get an oh God, why more school during our free time? I hope there's free food.