Wednesday Friendsday!

These past three weeks, I have met so many great people. I came into the program knowing only Simon and Margaret. Not only have I become far better friends with them, but I’ve also developed relationships with many other people from the program. Although three weeks have already passed, I feel as though there are so many people still to meet. I know that I will leave the program whishing that I had to opportunity to get to know more people.

Today we went on a fieldtrip. We had to wake up early, 8:30, and head down to breakfast. It was strange to be in a relatively empty cafeteria. Normally, I am there an hour later when there is hardly a seat to be found. After a quick breakfast, we headed down to meet our teacher and the rest of the group at the subway.

We took the train far downtown into the financial district. After a long, unair-conditioned train ride, we arrived near the courthouse. We walked past Little Italy and China Town on the way. After the two-block stroll, we arrived. The security to get into the courthouse was very strict. They took our phones away and scanned our bags. I felt very safe.

When we walked inside the courtroom, the trial was already underway. They were direct examining a man who was almost the Secretary of Agriculture at Nigeria. Then, they preformed a direct examination on a real estate attorney from Queens. We all spent the first 30 minutes of the trial in utter confusion. Thankfully, the judge called a recess so we had the opportunity to figure out what was going on.

During the break Luke told us that the case was probably a mortgage fraud case. He turned out to be right. After the break, we learned that the attorney helped an old woman to buy a house for 300,000 dollars. Someone changed some of the documents to make it seem like the house had been sold for 450,000 dollars. Unfortunately, this was all we figured out before we had to leave. The prosecution attorneys failed to present a witness, so the judge got super duper angry and dismissed the court early.

We went into China town for lunch and ate at a really sketchy restaurant. My soup was pretty gross, but it was cheap so I was happy. We headed back to campus at around 2:45 and arrived at around 3:20. I headed back to my suite to get an early start on my final essay!