Beginning of second year and autumn in Maastricht

My computer is not really managing, just like me. Simultaneously with this article I also have to write an essay on comparison between German, French and English tort law, an assignment on foundations of EU law, I get Facebook notification every ten minutes from at least twenty study groups I am a member of and my browser is crashing because of all the tabs I have open for the purposes of research for tomorrow’s school debate.

To summarize it, second year is in full swing. Two lectures today, a debate tomorrow, then self-study for tutorials I have on Thursday and Friday. And weekend? What weekend? I don’t know this word.  This is how I would describe a normal week of a law student in this picturesque university town. I would be lying though if I said I didn’t miss it. Two months of holidays served as a well-deserved relax and they definitely didn’t mean doing just nothing. But I really missed the omnipresent student busyness. And everything else connected with university.

The beginning of this academic year was entirely different than the last one. Nothing unknown ahead of me, no fear of new things or missing home. Although home is home, I must admit that I got swallowed by the international environment to such extent that hearing Czech for two months at a stretch and being among Czechs only has become rather a rarity for me. Thus I couldn’t wait to see my international friends, housemates and Maastricht itself.

Things got into full swing even before the very school started, because I decided to participate in the life of the law faculty in a truly active way by becoming the Vice President for Seminars & Conferences in Elsa Maastricht (European Law Students’ association). After one day upon my arrival we already had a board meeting during which we talked about everything we have planned for this year. I personally have to deal with organization of trips to interesting destinations and institutions. Besides a trip to Prague that already successfully happened at the beginning of November, I am also planning on visiting the Limburg District Court, two-days trip to Brussels as the very heart of the European Union and visits to The Hague or Luxembourg. This all to enable local law students to get an insight into the real world behind the curtain of the university and open the door for them into institutions and law firms.

Even though I find the work in Elsa incredibly enriching, studying is, of course, my priority number one. This year represents for me a much bigger challenge than the previous one, the courses are getting more difficult and the demands on us students are increasing. The subjects I have for the first semester are Concepts of criminal procedure, European property law, European tort law, EU Law: Foundations and Private international law. Thus I have a lot to look forward to. However, I am successfully done with exams from the two first named courses, so now it is time to plunge into the mysteries of tort law in Germany, France and England and to deeply examine European Union law.