Tuesday, February 19, 2008 – 6:28 AM:
TOP TEN PLACES TO STUDY…and other pieces of my mind:
1. The Reading Courts on the 4th Floor of the Bloomberg School of Public Health (our next door neighbor at JHU SON – it is very convenient). Just a great, great place to get some quality peace and quiet in a superb atmosphere with really nice desks and work lamps.
2. The 2nd floor café on the North end of the Bloomberg School of Public Health for those of us who sometimes need a lot of commotion in order to concentrate.
3. The 9th floor, Southeast corner of the Bloomberg School of Public Health which provides a place to concentrate as well as contemplate a birds-eye view of Baltimore and the inner harbor (not to mention all of the construction going on at Johns Hopkins Hospital.
Hmmm…I bet your wondering why I haven’t mentioned anywhere to study in the School of Nursing Building yet. Well, going out on a limb here I will say that the truth is…for me, personally, in consideration of my own, unique learning style, studying at the school of nursing has it’s own set of, shall we say, challenges. It is a beautiful building; really, I’m not just trying to make up for leaving them out of my top three picks of places to study. It is a wonderful place with top-notch facilities. The lecture halls are so comfy and hooked up with the latest technology, the practice labs are great, the place is always spotless and the people are simply the best. Perhaps that is why I find it so hard to study there…the great people I am always finding myself in the midst of. I can’t help spending most of my time at the SON talking to all of the excellent people who seem to be constantly circulating there. I get much more done in a place where I am a lot more anonymous. OK, and it does get a bit crowded at the JHU SON sometimes, but the word is that the school may be putting up another building in the near future. Don’t say you heard it here first. So, there are a few places at the SON building that are well worth spending time in to study.
4. One of these places is “The NIRC” (It has it’s usefulness in a pinch). I believe it stands for the Nursing Information Resource Center. It’s on the third floor and I have gotten a lot done there on many occasions. The outdoor courtyard is also a great reprieve from just being inside too damn long. Now, across town from the “East Baltimore Campus” of JHU (also known as the JHMI or Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions) we head northwest a bit, to…
5. The “Q Level” of the Milton S. Eisenhower Library on the main campus of Johns Hopkins known as “Homewood” in the place called “Charles Village”…only, don’t look for the village because as far as I can tell there isn’t one. But it is a safe and attractive part of Baltimore and the Homewood campus is certainly that traditional, classic University campus you would expect to find, with the beautiful quads and buildings, brick and cobble stone walkways and stately trees. It really is an impressive layout. Many nursing students find comfortable abodes in this neighborhood; you should check it out. As for the library, I really don’t like any other level of the library for the purpose of studying than the Q Level. You see, one morning I arrived earlier than I care to admit in order to concentrate and study. I may have been one of the only people there other than staff. The place was so quiet and I got very excited about the prospect of accomplishing much. I located a table by the large windows facing south on the main level just under Q Level and began to set up for a study session when I noticed this noise. I said to myself, “Self, I thought it was quiet here. What is going on?” I could not quite locate the source of the noise, so I gathered my things and relocated. Again, as I sat still there was this noise, I was sure of it. So I decided to investigate. I began to walk around the library listening very carefully for that sound that I was sure I was hearing. It would fade as I walked and then get louder, fade, and get louder again. I decided to stop right where I thought it was the loudest and just stand there until I could figure out what in the world was causing this awful sound that to me had now escalated to an intolerable racket! It was then that I looked straight up over my head and there it was: a small white object hanging from the ceiling with a mesh cover that faced to the floor. Out of the top of it I saw thin wires that ran down the ceiling off to some unknown destination. It was…a speaker. Not only was it a speaker, but it also dawned on me that it was not alone, there were many of these speakers and they all were placed almost directly over each study cubicle and table and what they were doing was producing white noise! They were ambient sound generators! Or perhaps more accurately they were ambient sound diffusers or distracters or mufflers, but when there was no other noise in the library, no background noise of hundreds of people trying to be quiet, these little buggers were simply deafening and driving me quite mad! So I left and have come to the conclusion that I will never be able to concentrate on any level of the Milton S. Eisenhower Library at Johns Hopkins University than the Q Level – where there are no background noise generators but only real, genuine background noises of people who are not trying to be quiet. And there is a coffee bar right there with plenty of tables to sit at, in a sea of wonderfully authentic ambient noise with which to guide my mind as I navigate these troubled waters of pharmacology and pathophysiology.
6. Carma’s Café in Charles Village (that’s not really a village). The address on Google maps says 3120 St. Paul Street, but it’s not on St. Paul Street at all, rather a few yards up E. 31st street to the west of St. Paul, but anyway. A great place to go and sit and enjoy great coffee and some of the best food in town. They also “unofficially” have wireless access…I will say no more. Two of the required tastings on their menu in my opinion, well three, are 1. The meatball rocket, 2. A pink Dalmatian (don’t worry, they do not serve alcohol…it’s just a great cookie), and 3. I think it is called a black bottom cupcake. It is most likely properly pronounced as the Baltimore Black-bottom Cupcake (I think it has its roots in Baltimore as a local specialty).
7. The BMA’s (Baltimore Museum of Art) sculpture garden, again in Charles (not the) Village. Weather permitting this is a beautiful and tranquil spot outdoors for reading (I wouldn’t try making flashcards here).
8. The Barnes & Nobles Johns Hopkins Bookstore at the corner of St. Paul and 33rd. This is actually a great place to study. I particularly like the second floor up where the textbooks are. There are several tables sitting right up against the balcony rail overlooking the store. It’s a great spot for taking the occasional people watching study break. You should know that you are setting yourself up for buying something from “that coffee shop” which is located in the store, but sometimes I suppose that sort of thing just cannot be avoided in life.
9. Bert’s. Again in that little neighborhood that in no way resembles a village (Charles Village) there is Bert’s, a sports bar located on St. Paul and they have some really great burgers. They also tend to have some really decent beer on tap. Sometimes this is just the environment I need to study in. And now that there is a smoking ban in place, I can sit in there much more comfortably and have a good burger, get some reading done, maybe work on a paper and I don’t come out smelling like someone’s day old ashtray. Sorry you smokers, I am so glad there is a smoking ban in place for I just love fresh air (although the ban has been a tough one for me in principle - and I don't even smoke). And now for #10…
10. The balcony at the Barnes & Noble Bookstore at the Power Plant on the Inner Harbor. When the weather is nice this is a simply wonderful place to sit and study.
11. So I said the top ten places to study, forgive me. I cannot publish this without making mention of perhaps the greatest place to study that I have found so far: the One World Café on University Avenue on the Homewood campus directly across the street from that famous stadium where Johns Hopkins reigns supreme in the world of Lacrosse. It is, perhaps, one of the few sports retaining that dignity elusive to so many, that purity cast off so long ago by the others who have traded in the honest pursuit of fair competition for money and drugs and multi-million dollar 30 second television advertising spots on game day. The One World Café has some of the best vegetarian and vegan fair I have ever tasted outside of my own home and they play great music (and sometimes they play it really, really loud ;-)).