The Finite

I’m done with self-scheduling for next semester. 10:30s across the board. It pays to be obsessive. All five days start at 10:30. Two end at 2:30, three end at 5:20. No more 7:30 labs. I can go straight to the library after breakfast.

I’ve realized by now that I can’t study in my dorm. I’ll get distracted by the Internet and end up blogging or something. (Like right now.)

The nearest library is in the Lily Life Sciences building. The study desks are on the third floor, so only the hardy can ascend the steps with their books and make it up there to study. Even better the antiquated air conditioning system is forced air, meaning a continuous and steady roar from the ceiling’s circular air vents. It’s basically white noise. This also has the benefit of masking noise and making it an excellent place to sleep.

Sidenote: A word I kept hearing being thrown around is ‘carrel’. And I didn’t know what it was at first; I was envisioning an area fenced off with barbed wire where we would be forced to stand, like at the College of Agriculture’s library. But it turns out that ‘carrels’ are actually partitioned off little desks where you could take a nap without the guy next to you watching you drool.

There’s also the Black Cultural Center. I hang around there a lot because there’s nice little quiet library and a computer lab, not to mention it’s next to two dining halls.

The next closest library is the Hicks Undergraduate library which from the street looks like a one-story red brick pyramid. But that’s just the surface entrance. There are stairs within that lead down into the real library, which extends down at least two floors and sprawls over an expansive area that partially extends underneath the Stewart center and the Memorial Mall. It’s big enough and with enough noise dampening ceiling tiles along with the lack of cell phone reception underground, I have very few distractions.

The Krannert School of Management is across from the Union, and at first glance could be taken as a generic modern corporate lobby, which I can only guess was the intention. Hidden upstairs and the top of a helical chrome staircase is the Management and Economics library. It occupies a large chunk of the second story. So much in fact, that the few tables are spaced ridiculously far apart. I can talk to myself as loud as I want and I won’t be bothering anyone because the guy at the next table over reading the Wall Street Journal can’t hear me over the ruffle of his newspaper.

In the Mellon (Elvish for ‘friend’) Chemistry library, I’m usually the only one there. It’s so small and inconspicuous that no one comes looking for it except irritable graduate students who quietly grumble to themselves. And until finals, they grumble quietly enough for me.

Now if only I could get someone to force me to stay in one of those places.