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. 

So Much To Do, So Little Time (Plus, I Love Libraries!)

I slept until noon today. I woke up fully recovered from the past week and ready to hit the books. Lupe and I went by the V-Dub to grab lunch (because I missed breakfast) and walked up Thayer Street to buy some necessities at CVS. On the way there, we ducked into a small clothes store and saw this ridiculous sweater that had a useless zipper.

After having a good laugh about the silly sweater, we made our way back to the dorm to pick up backpacks and laptops. Today is an extra-warm day and we didn't want to be stuck in the dorms, so we walked to the John D. Rockefeller Library to do research for our Action Plans and our Amazing Woman monologues. I chose Rigoberta Menchu because I don't know much about her except that she was an important leader in indigenous rights. She also played basketball with my mom at 2 AM many years ago, and I've heard the story several times, so her name has been in the back of my head. Now I have the opportunity to learn much more about her and spread my knowledge.

This library has five floors and a seemingly endless supply of books. It's like heaven for me! I searched "Rigoberta Menchu" on the Brown online book catalog and almost 40 books showed up just on the first page. I wrote down most of them until I got to about the tenth one, then I realized that no matter how interesting they sound, I won't have time to read all of them. Instead, I went up to the third floor and found five books that were at the top of my list. I wish I could take this whole library with me everywhere I go. I would never be bored.

I'll spend the rest of the afternoon studying and doing research. At 7 PM, we have a floor meeting or a class meeting of some kind. I like the evening meetings, but in a way, they're a pain because they make it hard to do anything recreational in the evenings. There's a poetry slam going on tonight and a yoga class tomorrow night, but we can't go because of the meetings. Oh well. I still love it here.