Sunday afternoons are FIERCE with competition as everyone struggles to find a spot to settle in and hunker down for the day, but me? I have very specific areas that I like, and will sometimes leave the library itself if I can't sit where I want....
There have been times when I've sat IN book stacks (this is a regular occurrence during finals season to be honest) because I like the quiet section best-I need silence to fully concentrate and absorb what I'm reading or writing about! I love getting a table in little nooks and crannies-places where there is very little "traffic" to distract me.
In any case, I was rather curious to see what the library situation would be like at UEA. The campus itself has some pretty harsh/aggressive architecture (think: concrete EVERYWHERE) and it is SO different from Dickinson's campus-part of the reason I fell in love with my school. Naturally, I was all set and ready to go the library on a Sunday morning, BUT, it seems that this is really quite an unusual thing to do!
WHAT?? you may ask, what do you mean no one goes to the library on Sundays to do homework? It is basically a 20 minute commute to the library from the village for one thing, so most people (flat included) prefer to just stay in their rooms.
I cannot do that!! I need a productive learning environment to get my work done! I really dislike doing work where I sleep at night-it sends my brain mixed messages.
I shrugged it off the first couple of times I went, only after realizing that the library is a horridly ugly building with TERRIBLE lighting, and limits on where you can talk and drink water!!! Normally at Dickinson I go straight to the library from the caf or the quarry so I have my tea with me-nope, not at UEA! You have to be VERY, very sneaky about bring drinks and food into the library because it is only allowed on certain floors. Signs are everywhere explaining what is/is not permitted on each floor: talking, phone use, eating, drinking...HARSH people!! I need my study snacks! Sheesh.
What really made me realize how different my study methods are from the average UEA student was the first time I went to the library with Georgia. We both had things to print for class, and I had figured out the system already (which by the way is SO unnecessarily complicated) so I went with her and showed her what to do, etc., BUT THEN she was all set to leave and go back to the flat afterwards, and had the most bewildered look on her face when I said I was going to stay there and do some work! Shocking, I tell you!! At Dickinson, you are considered strane if you DON'T go to the library to do work-oh how the tables have turned.
Turns out that there are no nooks and crannies for me to hunker down in. No small desks or tables either, no cafe to get a study snack or beverage...just big, long tables meant for sharing (in the middle of the room) and two-person cubicle sort of things all around the perimeter of each floor-these face the windows. Lots and lots of windows. Basically a glass wall situation going on in front of you (and yet the lighting is still so bad!! How???)
So, basically anywhere you sit, you are faced with either the prime people watching visual aids of the window-walls (distracting) or a long table which inevitably by mid-afternoon becomes the home base for people working on a group project (even more distracting). Sometimes I forget that there are 15,000 students attending this school...
Sigh. I suppose I will have to try out the room studying after all! I hope the flat will come to accept my weird study antics (let's be real, sometimes I just need I lie down on the floor to read) soon enough...and maybe flat mama (aka, me) will be able to convince them to do the same. These are distracted times we live in, people.
Xx
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