Today I had my first session of an Alternative Dispute Resolution course. Unlike the other courses that meet in 2-hour blocks, this one ran pretty much all day and will meet for two more full days in a few weeks. I really like the instructor � he's a mediating practitioner who also can teach. And the class is interesting: about 10 people (half the class) are German. The others are international students, but only 4 of them or so are Americans. There's also students from Turkey, Sweden, Holland, Singapore, China, Australia, Canada...
Meanwhile, last night I gave a presentation on the INCOTERMS FOB designation for my International Commercial Transactions class. Oddly enough, I *think* it was the first powerpoint presentation I've ever had to give. I'm not sure how, but somehow I managed to avoid having to do one during my earlier career. (I attended several, but I wasn't responsible for producing them.) I'm happy to say that I produced a non-boring one. In fact, several classmates commended me for its non-boringness. The content was pretty well organized, and it was also liberally decorated with my own custom illustrations. You'd be amazed how well I can get stick figures to emote...
The other academic things I've been meaning to blog about I'll squeeze in here. One is that the German students here do something called "Studium General." The school puts on various presentations and such, often on Wednesday afternoons, bringing in all sorts of speakers and putting on programs of other topics. They are all optional (and they are all open to the international students, although most are in German) but over the course of the three years of study they are obligated to attend forty of them in order to graduate. It seems like an interesting way to provide diversity in their legal education.
And the one last thing to note is the particular way Germans applaud their professors. In the US, at the end of class we all just get up to leave. We save our applause for the last day of the course, but then usually clap. Whereas in Germany, students always applaud after every class by rapping their knuckles on the desks. This happens every time, without fail, after every course - even the seminars. It seems to be partly a way to show appreciation, and partly a way for everyone to indicate class is over. I've gotten used to it by now - so used to it that I may be inclined to do it when I go back to the US... But it was sort of surprising the first time I heard it. One of these quaint German traditions I guess... But kind of a nice one, I think.