Jehovah Nissi

It was timely that I was reminded today that the Lord is my Banner. This reminder was done by Pastor Green at Orchard Baptist today. I went with Christian union for the annual church shopping which allows students to visit a different church each week with a view to finding one that you wish to attend on a regular basis and call home.

Well I decided to go this week to the baptist church. It is small and feels so homely and the Pastor is good. He reminds me somewhat of my own in portmore.

The service is very different however, but the message is the same as that is what is important. So today the message was about jehovah nissi. The story was based on exodus 17 verse 8- about 13 about moses, hur, aaron, and of course battle with israelities and the amalikites (think it is not spelt correctly).

I know this masters for me is going to be a battle field, mentally and physically. I am already trying to calm myself and say 'self, what is important is that you do your best' dont over stress it. Once you put out the work it will show. As the song says the Lord always comes through for you, you may not know how, you may not know when but he will do it again. He has done it for me at LLB and at NMLS so i dont know why i am stressing like this already, but my mother says 'a so u stay, if u nah fret u nuh feel good'

Well for anyone who is reading this blog and you have problems not just school anything, remember jehovah nissi.

I will of course attend Orchard again and hopefully make it my second home church

Inducted into the LLM Mafia

The title may sound mind blowing and you may be wondering what on earth is Luciana talking about, but today along with about 15 other students i was formally inducted into the LLM programme at Essex.

As usual ms previous was early for the induction process which began at 905am but i got there at 8 25 am. This was for several reasons, one i was not sure where the place was and also i am just being me. When i got there i was ok, then i saw several persons streaming in, i started thinking about my LLB and the CLE and started feeling overwhelmed. I started to question if i really belong here and whether or not i can manage what is in store for me. I know i like to read but hearing that an LLM is demanding and after going through UWI and NMLS and the work world and i am wondering if i can really undertake this.

I quickly said a prayer and give myself a small box and said luciana get it together, you must have faith and it is too early for this.

I observed then my classmates, i realised i will be the only browning daughta in the class. There are two browning men and another who seem to have a mix of indian in him. I started to smile so that my face would look inviting. Although i came so early i ended up with a back seat because my usual bladder issues arose at the wrong time. Anyway i got a seat beside some nice people with varying backgrounds, apparently the class is not made up of even 70% attorneys. I am the only Caribbean national also. We have Canadians and Americans and some Latin American counterparts.

Now it was time for the welcome. We were given two big folders and a smaller folder with a million and one papers. In addition we were introduced to the course. Now they have changed the programme for the better they say but the work load is there and even more.

1. PIL is compulsory with an essay (2500 words)
2. Research Paper compulsary with an 6000 words essay and an unseen exam
3. You can choose two courses which also have 6000 words essay or unseen exams

after successfully passing that then you have the dissertation which is 15,000- 20,000 words ( a how much page that?)

anyway so far i realise that i will enjoy the courses because of previous knowledge as well as eagerness to learn those evolving areas I have been reading about day to day in the papers.

Additionally there is a course not compulsory called legal writing for masters students. It is really geared towards persons whose mother language is not english but i am still going to brush up on my well needed grammar. It lasts only for four days first class was today. It was like law and legal systems with a little bit of legal methods and research....LLB foundation courses that is.

Well i am now in my room, going to take a nap and then wake and do some housekeeping and start the ball a rolling by reviewing handouts and choosing my courses.

oh by the way as the class was about to begin we had a fire alarm so imagine that for a dramatic beginning. in terms of the weather the sky was nice and blue, but laud the cold a bite me

My first day on campus

Today was a somewhat better day for me. Well i got up feeling much better and also i decided to sort out my financial affairs at school. That went smoothly.

After that i was hungry and decided that i have to buy my own food and cook my darn self because it was the food that made me sick yesterday nothing else.

So i took a trip to tescos, after i shopped i had a trolly full and then had to take a taxi back and it was ridiculous for me to take all of those things on the bus. Anyway took the taxi and thought that the man would have dropped me at the dorm door, eh eh basically, him seh him cannot go down deh so. what made me upset though is after mi struggling with the bags i saw other taxis dropping persons at their door

anyway mi come out of the car with about 8 bags and a mop. lo and behold the lord provided two young black guys to the rescue. I stopped them and asked in my nicest voice if i could trouble them to go out of their way to help me to south courts. Well i found out they lived in south towers so it wasnt that far off, but was a good walk. well i never want them to come to mi room so mi tell them leave it down stairs. Anyway, mi look on the four flight of stairs and said mama mia.

I took the two heaviest to the top and then came back down for the rest. The lord then provided another girl, who asked if i needed help and i took the rest up without having to make another trip. But for that i have to go try out fi them hockey team so itnuh look too bad on sunday. may like it and will help with exercise too.

well. all in all cannot complain about today. the lord is continuing to bless me.

added pics of my room and view of my campus from kitchen