Just Another Day

I thought I would post some pictures of what I do every day while I'm here. When I uploaded them they ended up out of order but I can't manage to change anything, so I guess I'll just keep it the way it is.

Things are going pretty well here. I've been able to do quite a bit of work on my dissertation and teaching has been a lot of fun. I haven't seen much of New Haven, other than the campus and the payphone near the New Haven Green, but I'm not interested in adventure, I guess.



Among Yale's many student amenities are these really nice study rooms in the libraries. They keep them around 65 degrees to keep students alert (after 2 or 3 hours it gets really, really cold) and they run "phantom fans" that have no other function other than drowning out noise from the outside. So, they are probably the best place in the world to study and get one's work done. Unfortunately, the library closes fairly early, but it's still a great space.

This is what my room looks like. It's kind of a half-prison/half motel-6 design but the view of the parking lot and "au bon pain" pastry shop is pretty sweet. Fun fact: our current President Bush lived either in this dorm, the dorm next to me, or the dorm above me when a "student" at Yale. Those of you who know how I feel about Bush will know whether this fact makes me either a) honored to be in the same room or b) shocked that he actually went to college.

On my way to class I always walk by the Church of Christ Chapel, one of the oldest buildings on Yale's campus. It's a really wonderful building, so I finally took a picture of it. Allegedly it's breathtaking inside but I haven't ever ventured inside so I wouldn't know.

The large building you see here is Sterling Memorial Library, the main library on Yale's campus. The portion in the background is where you will find the stacks, 16 stories packed full of books. Between 4-5 million books. And the inside looks like a classic Catholic church. It's really beautiful. This is really the one thing Yale has that makes me wish I'd gone here as an undergrad. I would love to have access to that library. Which leads me to...

Getting a library card! Apparently Yale has some rare books on Thoreau as well as a few copies of rare letters, so I was able to convince the staff at the library that I needed temporary access to everything as a "guest researcher." And they gave it to me. Unfortunately, it costs a lot of money to get temporary privileges but the program I work for paid for it. And I can go into the rare book library anytime I want!

Which is where I got a few books that I needed for citations and background information, none of which they had/were willing to get at the Purdue Libraries. Having a world-class library is really one of the best ways of making...

Progress! I'm happy to have finally made it past 100 pages. It has taken a while but it feels good! If I work at my current level (roughly 7 "keeper" pages per day) I will have another 100 by the time I leave, which should be just about enough to finish the dissertation. By the way, "keeper" pages are the ones that will actually appear in your dissertation. If one were not concerned about quality, one could probably write 12-15 pages per day.

This has nothing to do with work, but I think it's hilarious. I've never seen an R2-D2 post office drop box before but it's pretty sweet. And you wouldn't believe how many people freak out over it. In fact, before I took this picture I had to wait for somebody else to take their picture next to the R2. Welcome to Nerdville.