Underground nerd
Who knew that getting into the library would be the hardest part of starting law school at Harvard? I still haven’t pulled it off. Loaded down with reading, I trudged to campus Saturday, Sunday, and Monday, each time finding the doors to the world’s largest law library locked without explanation. And so I had to search for alternate places to do my reading (my room, still cluttered beyond belief, was not an option). On Saturday I found my way into the locked international law building via the network of tunnels that run under the campus to protect wimpy students from the winter cold.
![[lockers photo]](http://unglued.org/nucleus/media/2/20030901-lockers.jpg)
I got the impression the building was supposed to be off limits, but once inside via the tunnel I found an open seminar room on the ground floor, and set up shop there. Very secret agent-like. It was a great space to read, save that the air conditioning went off after I arrived, allowing the temperature to rise to above 80 degrees. From time to time security people passed by, but nobody disturbed me.
Unfortunately, somebody over-zealous campus cop locked that room overnight, so Sunday found me once again on campus with fifty pounds of computer and books and nowhere to go. I finally found an enormous classroom in the Austin building – probably unlocked for the conference on race, but unused – and set up shop there. Every few minutes somebody would come to the door, open it, see me, and leave again. I lasted five hours in Austin, undisturbed.
![[ames mock courtroom]](http://unglued.org/nucleus/media/2/20030901-ames.jpg)
But today (Monday) somebody beat me to the Austin space and so I made another circuit of campus, checking every building I could get into before finally finding a tiny mock courtroom two floors above the room where I studied the previous day. It was equipped with every electronic gadget you could think of including an amazing array of AV equipment, all of it turned on. Every time I made a noise (such as dropping a pencil on the table) various pieces of sound equipment lit up. (I’m sure the footage and soundtrack of my afternoon of study is forever recorded on a campus server somewhere.)
The only problem was, again, the temperate. It was around 50 degrees in the room, thanks to the enthusiastic air conditioning, and I was wearing a t-shirt. At least the discomfort kept me awake as I shivered my way through Contracts, reading about little children injuring their aunts and relatives and being taken to court. By the way, the children didn’t fare so well, legally speaking.
Tomorrow classes begin for real. As glamorous as it is to slink around campus like an undercover operative, I’m hoping that the library will be open.
I got the impression the building was supposed to be off limits, but once inside via the tunnel I found an open seminar room on the ground floor, and set up shop there. Very secret agent-like. It was a great space to read, save that the air conditioning went off after I arrived, allowing the temperature to rise to above 80 degrees. From time to time security people passed by, but nobody disturbed me.
Unfortunately, somebody over-zealous campus cop locked that room overnight, so Sunday found me once again on campus with fifty pounds of computer and books and nowhere to go. I finally found an enormous classroom in the Austin building – probably unlocked for the conference on race, but unused – and set up shop there. Every few minutes somebody would come to the door, open it, see me, and leave again. I lasted five hours in Austin, undisturbed.
But today (Monday) somebody beat me to the Austin space and so I made another circuit of campus, checking every building I could get into before finally finding a tiny mock courtroom two floors above the room where I studied the previous day. It was equipped with every electronic gadget you could think of including an amazing array of AV equipment, all of it turned on. Every time I made a noise (such as dropping a pencil on the table) various pieces of sound equipment lit up. (I’m sure the footage and soundtrack of my afternoon of study is forever recorded on a campus server somewhere.)
The only problem was, again, the temperate. It was around 50 degrees in the room, thanks to the enthusiastic air conditioning, and I was wearing a t-shirt. At least the discomfort kept me awake as I shivered my way through Contracts, reading about little children injuring their aunts and relatives and being taken to court. By the way, the children didn’t fare so well, legally speaking.
Tomorrow classes begin for real. As glamorous as it is to slink around campus like an undercover operative, I’m hoping that the library will be open.
previously there was being left behind
afterwards you have Dangerous parallels?
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