From the category: Featured
15 June 2024
This trip was nothing like that.
After the stress and burden of planning a wedding, the last thing I wanted was the stress and burden of planning a honeymoon. So while we knew we absolutely wanted to go back to Japan, (we got a multiple entry visa in 2020) we delayed buying tickets, laid off watching vlogs, and generally only listed down 3 "must-go" items on our list. The rest of the trip - all seven days of it - we were very much prepared to just go where the cold Tokyo wind took us.
12 December 2021
I just submitted my last exam for the first semester forty minutes ago, and I’m leaving for New York in about sixteen hours with my luggage still unpacked. But look at me, having the sudden urge to write about my many trips to Boston. Is it a couple of weeks, months, too late? Sure. But hey, let’s just roll with it.
Boston is just an hour away from Concord.
Or maybe I should say Concord is an hour away from Boston, if we're going to be taking on the point of view of a tourist (which sometimes I feel like I still am, despite having been here for five months already). It's my port of entry when I first got here last July, after all. The nice thing about it being just a bus ride away is that whenever I feel suffocated about the small-town life, I can always run away and find peace in the city. Okay, the irony is not lost on me. Yes, I'm a city girl through and through! I grew up near an airport, on a busy street! The city is more comforting to me! I wouldn't have seriously considered a law school in Concord if it was actually in the middle of nowhere. Having Boston nearby makes me feel a little less homesick.
Boston is just an hour away from Concord.
12 November 2021
I'm not a very outdoorsy kind of girl, but New Hampshire didn't have to try so hard to make me change my mind. I live in front of a park, and seeing the view outside my window makes me want to go outside, burst into song, and feel the sun on my face. Yep, this is my Disney Princess origin story, I guess.
Autumn is so short in this neck of the woods, apparently, so I did my best to soak everything in. Here are a couple of pictures from the last few weeks that would make you want to put on a coat, a big fluffy scarf, and take a walk in the park, like a manic pixie dream girl in a movie emoting to the When Harry Met Sally soundtrack.
Apple picking (taken using a Samsung, haha!)
And some more pics of my walks to school. My two pairs of Adidas UltraBoost have served me very, very well.
Please stay a little while longer, autumn. I'm kind of not done falling in love with you yet.
Autumn is so short in this neck of the woods, apparently, so I did my best to soak everything in. Here are a couple of pictures from the last few weeks that would make you want to put on a coat, a big fluffy scarf, and take a walk in the park, like a manic pixie dream girl in a movie emoting to the When Harry Met Sally soundtrack.
Apple picking (taken using a Samsung, haha!)
We went apple picking after school one random Wednesday, organized by our super lovely Dean for Student Affairs, Dean Lauren Berger. After spending about an hour filling up our baskets with apples of different varieties, we sat down for some apple cider and brought home apple crumble pies. Whew, that's a lot of apples.
Did you think I would pass up the chance to pretend like I'm the modern-day live-adaptation remake of a darker, more twisted Snow White? Of course not.
Pretending to know which apples to pick. (There were ribbons to differentiate the varieties, but I just went for the roundest, reddest looking ones.)
Pumpkins waiting for Halloween! I can't wait for my Disney Princess-turned-witchy-villain plot twist.
Portsmouth
We drove to Portsmouth, New Hampshire one Friday for my friend Kathy's birthday - and completely forgot about our afternoon makeup class. Ha! Model students. We attended the class via Zoom while we were having lunch by the marinas and having lobsters! Portsmouth is known for its fresh and delicious seafood so of course, we had to try it. But not really knowing how to eat lobsters and crabs - and you know, not wanting to ruin my outfit - I went for lobster mac & cheese instead. Make no mistake though, it was literally the best mac & cheese I have ever tasted. We walked around, visited a few parks, window-shopped, went to a museum, took lots of pictures - typical foreign-students-being-tourists stuff. It literally felt like being in a Gilmore Girls episode.
That's Kathy's sister, Karol, driving us. Look at that view!
Lobster mac and cheese!!! The most incredible thing I've had in the last few months.
Portsmouth's cute, small-town vibe was delightful.
Dartmouth
From one "mouth" to another! I attended a talk at Dartmouth co-sponsored by the UNH Law Rudman Center for Justice, Leadership & Public Service on "Renewing Trust in Democracy: The Role of Courts," featuring former US Solicitors General Gregory Garre and Neal Katyal. I went with my good friend Mithra, who, just like me, wanted to learn about the career trajectories of these former Sol Gens, and was looking for an excuse to visit and step foot in one of the Ivy Leagues.
I was so glad to have finally visited Dartmouth because it's a dream college of mine. It doesn't have a law school, sadly - if it did, I would've been in Hanover and not Concord! Papa and I have always talked about wanting to attend Dartmouth, especially since his father (my grandpa) was supposed to have gone there under scholarship offers by the US to exemplary university students after the second World War. Things just didn't work out as hoped, but it remained one of his (and our) dream, what-if schools.
Fun fact: the University of New Hampshire was originally incorporated as a part of Dartmouth in 1866, as its College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts, before finally becoming the state university in 1923. So I guess... I kind of am Dartmouth-adjacent now?
Another fun fact: My favorite Conan O'Brien commencement speech was the one he made at Dartmouth! (Kind of wrote about it here.) One of my favorite screenwriters also went here: Mindy Kaling.
I feel like in another life, I could have gone to Dartmouth and become a screenwriter like Mindy Kaling or Shonda Rhimes. Ah, multiverse, when are you gonna unravel??
Just a bunch of other fall pics that will make you quote Taylor Swift and go, "I remember it all too well,"
Fall just made me want to rebrand to a very "live, laugh, love" / "nature is my playground" kind of girl. Lol! If only I wasn't so lazy and dedicated to my bed and space heater most of the time! But I definitely enjoyed going out and actually taking advantage of the public spaces nearby. This is something I wish we had in Manila: less malls, more parks and hiking spots. Maybe I wouldn't be such a Greenbelt and Landmark hoe if we actually had nice outdoor spaces in the city??
The temperatures are starting to drop to around 8-14 degrees Celsius these days. Pretty cold, but nothing that a cute coat can't fix! I'm just trying my best to enjoy the sweater weather and the warm oranges before winter comes creeping in and officially turns me into a scrooge.
The view in front of my house. Can you believe it!!
White Park, which is just in front of the school
And that's the law school behind me!
Panorama photo from the Pierce Bridge
More pictures of White Park - because how else can you not capture that view?
The lodge won't open until the winter: it's used by skaters and hockey players when the lake freezes up!
Concord has its charms.
And just generally more pictures around Concord because I like remembering my weekend walks to the grocery and the bank. Running errands (and not having a car!!) doesn't feel as exhausting when you've got this view along the way.
I also went on a couple of hiking trips with friends. One of them was to Rainbow Falls, in Plymouth, NH (Another "mouth"! New England towns, amirite?) which was not the original place we wanted to visit but Waze kind of tapped out and brought us somewhere else. Not so bad at all, though, because we didn't initially plan on seeing waterfalls.
My "I miss my bed and my back hurts enough nature for the day" pose
Pretending to text but actually taking a very artsy/aesthetic photo for the 'Gram
Rains do not dampen the vibe of the scenery at all
Can this view get any more perfect? There's a baseball court somewhere in the right side of the picture, and every time I walk past it I feel like one of those girls in teen movies, meeting up with friends and secretly eyeing their crush. Unfortunately for me, my crush is all the way in Boston - hi Chris Evans, when will the universe conspire for us to meet???
My walk from the law school to our house
And the other way around!
Sorry, I just can't get enough of this view.
Literally just right outside my window.
Our school!
(Photo from UNH Law)
Please stay a little while longer, autumn. I'm kind of not done falling in love with you yet.
16 September 2021
Signs of life: Yep, I'm finally here! A journey that started in 2018 now finally coming to fruition.
I'm officially an LLM in IP student! Hi, UNH Law!
It has been a while since I last wrote here, I know. I've always been meaning to but somehow as soon as everything started, time just whirred by so quickly. (As if we haven't been losing track of it since the pandemic again!)
I arrived in the US on July 30, after what seemed like a rollercoaster ride for the first half of 2021. I deferred admission from Fall of 2020, but even with situations improving in the US sometime during April, I still didn't allow myself to fully embrace the reality that enrollment will finally push through until I finally stepped off the plane.
It has been an exciting first two months to say the last. So far, since arriving, I've gone hiking, visited museums, published a paper, formed new friendships, and learned how much I don't know in the world of IP.
Remember that old National Geographic tagline? "The more you know, the more you know you don't know." That has basically been the running theme of my life thus far. Every single day I find out about things I thought I already had enough working knowledge on and realize how much I have yet to discover.
This semester I'm taking Trademarks, Patent, Technology Licensing, Internet Law, and Art Law - all of which are incredibly interesting to me. I chose Trademarks because of the professor, Alexandra J. Roberts, who is basically one of the most well-known experts on US trademark law and the Lanham Act. She's well-regarded in the legal circles especially on Twitter, has been featured on numerous publications, and has been cited in a great number of scholarly articles. I'm so lucky she was also assigned as my Faculty Advisor. I'm looking forward to learning from her - and hopefully have her guide me through writing another paper, perhaps!
The actual emotional and mental journey to just get here is still astounding to me. I always have random moments of disbelief, because how could I ever have gotten here? If you told 2014 me that I would pursue further studies - and that I'd actually be good enough to get into a top 4 program - I would have thought you were making a mean, cruel joke. During the entirety of law school, I was anxious and deeply insecure. I couldn't think of a future where I could enjoy the law and the legal practice. "Is there even a space for me in the real world?" I'd often ask myself. And turns out, there is. I just had to go follow my interests and let them lead me to a field that I can actually, truly revel in.
So far, the main difference from law school in the Philippines? Here, it's a more relaxed, laidback classroom setting. Some professors do "cold calls" (their term for "recits") but it doesn't actually impact your performance in class; its sole purpose is to ensure that the discussion pushes forward. Because of this, there's less pressure in the daily grind and it's easier to enjoy going through the readings. The professors are also very sincere in wanting to help, and asking questions is highly encouraged. I don't think I've ever enjoyed reading cases as much as I have here; it's quite comparable to my undergrad experience, actually, where I take pleasure in actually burying myself in books and doing my homework. Which isn't to say the workload isn't heavy - in fact, only two months in and I'm already feeling slightly overwhelmed. But at least I'm genuinely having a good time poring over the readings. It's so refreshing, especially after the trauma of UP Law.
Anyway, I'm so excited about what lies ahead! I’m very thankful, grateful, and appreciative of my parents & loved ones, bosses, mentors, sisses in UP Portia, and friends who’ve encouraged and believed in me. I'm looking forward to learning more about the different aspects of IP and how each field can help shape our understanding of what it means to be IP practitioners. More importantly, I hope I can gain enough knowledge to carry back home, where my passion and experience can make a big difference. I've always said I’d love to make a big splash, a huge leap just before I turn 30. Well, I guess here goes. 💙
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