And If I Click My Heels Three Times...

Does that mean I won't have to endure the 6 a.m. public transportation trip to Heathrow airport, followed by a nine hour flight back to Chicago, and then another two hour bus ride to Janesville, and then an hour drive back home...????

But travelling aside, I'll be back home on Tuesday!  And with weather reports in the high 50's, snow melted and grills out, I have safely dodged a midwestern winter.  With a total accumulation here in South East England this winter of about 5 inches (which, at 2 inches at a time, managed to shut down the entire city of London and it's surroundings for two days - it was almost comical), and the coldest winter in 35 years maxing out at -2 degrees Fahrenheit, well, it wasn't so bad.  Not bad at all.

In the past weeks I have attended open days at three different law schools in London, and have made my decision to attend City University London law school.  It's an entire blog to itself (and indeed a book or three), how the legal system is different here in the UK.  The bottom line is that instead of having a general "attorney" category where everyone is granted the same rights of audience within the court system, in the UK (and some Commonwealth countries), they divide their ranks into Barrister and Solicitor.  A solicitor has right of audience with clients (read: they can be contacted directly by clients and interview them), but are not allowed to represent these clients in court.  If a client needs to go to court or needs more specialized advice, the Solicitor contacts a Barrister, who only then can work directly with the client and who would be able to represent the client in court.  Obviously that is a very simplistic distinction, and what is even more relevant to me at this point is that the training and education qualifictions are different for each, and as I have chosen the Barrister route (really, what is being a lawyer if you don't get paid to argue in front of people?!), it is much harder.  I guess that means I'll be in for a few years of little sleep, lots of reading and even more stress.  Ah, bliss.

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And since I have been promised that come September I will barely have time to eat and sleep, Neil and I are on a quest to do many fun and interesting things before D-Day.  Tonight we're off to the National Theatre to see Terry Pratchett's 'Nation' and as a nice send-off, will spend the weekend working on the yard and garden.  I'll post photos soon (read: as soon as student loan funds come through and Kim can afford a new laptop).

Well I'm off to gussy up for a night out on the town.  See most of you in a few days!!!!  xoxo