The Bar wasn't too bad; I'm still alive, and feeling good about it. Taking the NY Bar in New York City is a singluar experience. It is administered at the Javits Convention Center in what is, perhaps, the ugliest area of NYC, falling between 34th and 39th Streets on 11th Avenue. You know, near the tunnel, near where cabs get repaired, near where they have multiple gas stations in Manhattan? Yeah, not so helpful if one was planning on getting lunch between test sessions. The first day I had a hotdog from a vendor, the second day we had more time, so I hiked around with two friends til we located a slice of pizza---NOT brain food, though, by any means. The shitty location was further emphasized by ugly weather and rain, which is notable since the Convention Center is over 1/2 mile from the nearest subway stop.
When I walked in, there were people EVERYWHERE. I am not sure if many of you can imagine over 4,000 recent law school graduates in one place, but that's what we were dealing with. That is a larger group than my graduating class from the University of Maryland, and almost 4 times the enrollment of Columbia Law School, or coincidentally, my high school. Once we realized what was actually going on, it became apparent that we needed to be in one of several lines where we would wait to exchange our admission pass for a green bracelet...the kind of bracelet you get at a bar crawl or club that you're not supposed to remove if you're 21 and want to drink. We were supposed to leave this neon green bracelet with "NYS BAR EXAM" printed on it for both days, meaning overnight and in the shower. I, not being a fan of this plan, put my bracelet on extra loose and took it off whenever I wanted. I'm so badass.
Walking into the convention hall where we actually sat for the exam was overwhelming. It was divided into thirds; I was in the last third, having registered for the exam a day before registration was due. Most of my other CLS friends were in the first third, having been totally on top of the registration process. There were 50 rows of roughly 18 people per row in my section. That's about 900-1000 people. The other sections were larger. So, imagine an enormous room with three sections of tables at least 50 rows and 10 columns, with two people per table and a fleet of proctors, and that was the exam. The loudspeaker was all "Sunday, SUNDAY, Sunday" as it echoed around the concrete room, and the proctors were a bunch of asshats who had no fucking clue about how much time we had or how to be of any assistance at all. Asshats!
Now that it's all over, I'm becoming human again. I slept well last night, and am about to go to the gym and do laundry today. I'm going to give myself a manicure, shave my legs, and veg out for the rest of the afternoon, followed by a small "The Bar is Now Over" party where I might get belligerently drunk in from of family, friends, and my guy, who is so wonderful that he called me every night I was gone, and sent me a card that was waiting for me when I returned home.