Sunday, July 18, 2010

No Furniture So Charming as Books...

...is what Sydney Smith said about the library, where I spent most of my day today. It's not exactly the most fun one can do on a hot, sunny Sunday, but it was something I knew I had to do.

I had a nice full night's rest, something that has been hard to do during the weekend. The day was nice, so I headed out with my roommate, Kristi, to CVS to stock up on necessities. I'm very glad that stores are within walking distance on Thayer Street, which looks a lot like Telegraph Avenue by the UC Berkeley campus back home in California.

College life is becoming much easier to accustom myself to. Although I am not experiencing the entire college adventure just yet, I'm sampling a taste of it. I can't say that I'm not anxious to go to college, I really am, but at the same time, it's a bit frightening. Although you have the liberty to do as you please and go wherever you want, there are always consequences. The friends you meet, the places you go, the amount of work that you do are all all based on your own decisions. I guess it's just a matter of making the right choices; nobody wants to end up regretting something they did.

After lunch, Irene, Selene, Bianchi (our friend from New Orleans) and I headed to the Rockefeller library, as I mentioned in my earlier blog. The library was big and also very modern, unlike the dorms which are old and plain-looking. But hey who's complaining? People do not come to Brown for the dorms, but rather for its education.

One of the rooms in the library 
Looking around... 
Studying 
One of the many rows and rows of books. 
Reading is fun. 
It was rather rather difficult to find books on Sonia Sotomayor, something extremely surprising to me, seeing as it is an Ivy League library and yet, they don't contain a biography on a very prestigious woman. I even asked for help at the counter and no luck still. The only thing I found was a book about baseball and law. Sotomayor was involved with several situations in America's pastime sport, so at least one book was found. 

Gathering from my experience at the library, I can definitely say that research will be difficult to do once I am in college, especially if it means looking for something that is not well-known or rare to find. I hope I can learn how to effectively do research, especially if there are people willing to help me along in this transition of high school-level work to university-level work. Of course, it'll be my duty to look for these resources to utilize. 

On another note, I learned that I cannot use the extension cable Don gave us. I received a notification that extension cords are not allowed in residence halls by the health and safety inspector. There was no big issue, I just had to remove it immediately. I do not want to know what happens if I leave it connected. 

Another day, another night at Brown University. 

3 comments:

  1. (From Irene's Mom)

    Sotomayor is a celebrity, but only recently so. I think if you looked in periodicals literature (magazines and newspapers and maybe even academic journals) rather than for books, you'd find lots of stuff about her. She has also published quite a bit herself, but I believe mostly in law journals. She has a very interesting biography, from what I know.

    Leah Carroll

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  2. Lupe,

    I’m betting that the reason it was difficult to find books on Sonia Sotomayer is that she’s only been a national figure for a couple of years. I KNOW that you can easily find articles about her and by her.

    Sorry about the extension cord flap.

    It was only this weekend that I learned that they forbid extension cords unless they are also surge protectors. It certainly would be nice if the Brown people would make this information known to potential dormers so they can come prepared and wouldn’t waste their money on items that were on a ‘forbidden” list.

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  3. I actually directly asked my RA about the extension cord issue, and she said that if they aren't surge protectors, it's probably okay if it's only a three-prong one and if tons of things aren't plugged into it. I'm being safe, though.

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