Yesterday was the first day of orientation, and I'm not sure why I expected anything different, but I've already made some fun friends. The girls I met at the hostel who are also in the law exchange program were there, and I noticed a girl at orientation that I'd seen outside my building. I walked up to her and said, "This is going to sound creepy, but I think you live in my building!" And Jesse, the other girl from IU Law on exchange with me, arrived just after orientation started, fresh off the plane. So yesterday was a fun day of getting to know people and helping Jesse get situated.

Yesterday was the international student orientation, and this morning was the general new student orientation. After about 2 minutes at the general orientation we realized it was obviously geered for 18 year olds, so we bailed and went to breakfast. Jesse and I are still marvelling at a fabulous discovery from yesterday: we don't have to buy casebooks here. We stopped by the bookstore yesterday to get a look at what kind of books we need and how much they cost, and there was only one course that we're in on the booklist, and the only book it required was $195. So I emailed Mike and Kristy to see how the heck we're supposed to get our books if they aren't listed, and also is there a cheaper bookstore. Mike reported that you just go to a room at the law school on a certain day, and all the materials you need for class are ready to be picked up. WHAT? The books are free here? Well occasionally you will actually need to buy a book or a statutory supplement, but for the most part it appears that what we call at home professor supplements are the only materials we need for class. Those spiral-bound printed coursepacks that professors prepare and have copied and bound by a publisher are, for the most part, going to be all we need. Sweet!

And now Jesse and I are off to have lunch with the kiwis. Life is lovely.