Tuesday, February 19, 2008

When it Rains, it Pours

I have been fortunate to have met many people recently who are willing to learn with me and/or help me learn. In fact, I have had so much help that I am now a bit overwhelmed and need to sit down and get very organized. School is also getting pretty demanding. I have a detailed paper outline due next week, a rough draft of a different paper due in a month, and the third paper I have to write is just on my own. A paper may not seem like a big deal, but when one paper determines my grade for an entire semester of class, it really is a big deal. I also have a midterm on Thursday. My goal is to have each paper be about something that interests me because I think that will make the paper easier to write. So far, I have these topics chosen:
  • International Human Rights Law & Children: Human Traffiking (I'm thinking, though, about maybe doing something about human rights violations in Egypt, especially after watching this series) (20 Pages)
  • Public Health Law: Bottled Water. I considered GMOs and terrorism, but I think bottled water is more manageable given that the issue is narrower to begin with. (15 pages)
  • National Security Law: United States v. Israel Foreign policy. Something along the lines of continued support for Israel is key to the national security of the United States. (20 pages)
  • Biotechnology Law: A discussion of the contributions of Israel to the world's advances in biotechnology and the implications of the attempts to limit research in other countries. This is the shortest paper at only 1500 words.
This past Shabbos was wonderful and the chazzan at shul was the best I have heard. I got sick on Sunday night and yesterday I went to an event where the head Rabbi of the Shul had a Q&A session, but I was way too ill to participate, despite the fact that I tried really hard to pay attention. I'm getting better and should be 100% by tomorrow or Thursday at the latest. The Rabbi in charge of my conversion emailed today requesting a meeting for 10 minutes. He assured me that I am "not in trouble" but said that there is "one thing" he wants to talk to me about. Despite his assurance, I'm worried. I don't know what that "one thing" is, but I imagine there is some manner in which I have failed or erred. I suppose we'll see.

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