At long last there has been a minimum amount of legal work for the last two weeks!
Wandering the Christmas market was great (lots of Gluhwein and waffels were consumed) with the best part being able to go skating next to Het Steen and the Scheldt. Unfotunately I was silly and forgot my own skates and had to borrow some (which weren't at all comfortable) but otherwise it was great to be out on the ice practicing turns and spirals after a few months off. The fun weekend continued with the IELSP trip to Brussel - free train travel, free lunch, a tour of the European Parliament building, entry to the Parlamentarium and a lecture by the head of the European Commission's legal team negotiating EU accession to the ECHR and free dinner, dessert and wine. Fantastic!
Sadly the law kicked in again for my Children's Rights presentation, but a whizzy powerpoint and a nervous 7 minutes of speech later it was over and I was officially on holiday - woo!
A few days of frantic packing, present buying and stressing about the public sector strike the day before flying home later I landed in the UK after almost 4 months on Belgian soil - it was good to be home. After a whirl of family meals and a surprise trip to see The Snowman in Birmingham is was time to fly back to Antwerpen again with my best friend for our traditional New Year's celebrations.
Being the good students that we are (and worried about the impending exam season) we've been revising for a couple of hours each morning and then going to museums, eating waffels/chocolate/frieten, skating and visiting Brussel. Tonight we plan to see 2012 in from by Het Steen for a 20-minute fireworks display over the Schedlt - the perfect way to get in amongst the Antwerpen community and celebrate the beginning of another year.
Until next year!
31 December 2011
13 December 2011
A few thousand words and a Kerstmarkt
Yet again, my life has been law filled these last two weeks, with a heavy focus on my Children's Rights paper. On the plus side? 6000 words and 20 pages written, 33 pieces of legislation, 7 cases, 7 journal articles, 2 reports and a mountain of statistics read later, it is almost done! A conclusion and a proof read to go, and it will be finished and I can start on my presentation for next week. Amazingly, considering this paper has taken over most of my waking thoughts for the past 3 weeks, I've actually enjoyed doing the research and am considering developing it further in my dissertation next year (if UoD like the idea, that is). Maybe a closer examination of the standards of care for youth offenders in detention in the different jurisdictions of the UK?
Unfortunately my final Economic paper isn't going quite as well. Having worked out that 5% of the module mark means approximately 0.2% of my degree classification, it's kind of hard to get enthused about researching 500-750 non-legal words on the Eurocrisis. I will work on it...tomorrow. After children's rights.
In an effort to kick-start the revision process before Christmas, last Monday I resolved to do a mind-map a day, and have actually managed to stick to it! My folder is all organised by subject and now has 11 prettily coloured pages of revision. It's really quite a good way of refreshing the brain after a marathon essay writing session - today I worked on my paper for 6 hours straight and it was such a mental relief to get the felt-tips out and do some colouring! And it was fun :)
Not everything has been law law law though, on Saturday the Kerstmarkt (Christmas Market) opened in town, so I wandered through after the library closed. I'll explore it properly next weekend when my girlfriend is over for our Christmasy weekend together, but even just a quick wander definitely whetted my appetite for proper exploring - sparkly lights, a merry-go-round, a fire pot, huge christmas trees everywhere, the smell of fresh waffels and gluhwein (mulled wine) floating on the air, and an outside ice-rink on the riverside by Het Steen.
Next weekend promises to be filled with lots of non-legal fun, and on Monday there is apparently a free IELSP trip to Brussel including a trip to the European Parliament. Fun times ahead!
Unfortunately my final Economic paper isn't going quite as well. Having worked out that 5% of the module mark means approximately 0.2% of my degree classification, it's kind of hard to get enthused about researching 500-750 non-legal words on the Eurocrisis. I will work on it...tomorrow. After children's rights.
In an effort to kick-start the revision process before Christmas, last Monday I resolved to do a mind-map a day, and have actually managed to stick to it! My folder is all organised by subject and now has 11 prettily coloured pages of revision. It's really quite a good way of refreshing the brain after a marathon essay writing session - today I worked on my paper for 6 hours straight and it was such a mental relief to get the felt-tips out and do some colouring! And it was fun :)
Not everything has been law law law though, on Saturday the Kerstmarkt (Christmas Market) opened in town, so I wandered through after the library closed. I'll explore it properly next weekend when my girlfriend is over for our Christmasy weekend together, but even just a quick wander definitely whetted my appetite for proper exploring - sparkly lights, a merry-go-round, a fire pot, huge christmas trees everywhere, the smell of fresh waffels and gluhwein (mulled wine) floating on the air, and an outside ice-rink on the riverside by Het Steen.
Next weekend promises to be filled with lots of non-legal fun, and on Monday there is apparently a free IELSP trip to Brussel including a trip to the European Parliament. Fun times ahead!
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