Finals Week

When a college kid has finals week, the library becomes his (or her) home. When the library prohibits entering with books, the college kids breaks the rules.

It's not easy to carry in books, until you learn the system. So here's the overly complex, uneconomical way to bring a book into the library.

Clearly, you have to conceal your book in something else, but you can't bring any backpacks, purses, etc. into the library. What are you going to do? Find a loophole. The library lets you bring in laptops provided you get a special clearance at the staff entrance first. When I say special clearance, I mean a guard writes down the date and serial number of your computer on a slip of paper and hands that slip to you with no questions asked. Then, I put my laptop back in its case along with my books, exit the building into the street, and I walk towards the general entrance. At the general entrance, I have to show one of the guards my slip of paper and he just let's me in with no questions asked and without checking what's in my laptop case. Then, I have to go through a security checkpoint that doesn't even work. So, I put my laptop on the tray and walking through the metal detector with my keys, belt, pencil sharpener, and anything else that would normally set off an alarm. Then, I go through one more guard station where the guy just checks my slip of paper again, but doesn't look inside my laptop case and I'm home free. I can study with my own books!

I am still trying to figure out what the point of that slip of paper is for... My entrance process would be much quicker if I didn't have to go to the staff entrance first. 

And, now it's time to translate some newspaper articles.

The Great Library of Alexandria

It hasn't been around for over a thousand years. But, there's a new library in Alexandria called Bibliotheca Alexandrina.

In all fairness, the new library is awesome. Just check out the pictures, the architecture is awesome. One might say, it's a modern marvel.

But, it's a joke. The library wasn't built as a center for learning and studying. It's a tourist trap. It even has a planetarium connected to it. You can't even bring books into the library. It's not even open past 8 p.m (it closed at 2 p.m during Ramadan). And, anyone who has seriously studied anything knows that the best learning goes on past 2 a.m (But, I'm just asking for a library open until at least 10 p.m).

Huge tour buses are always parked in front of the library and tours go on all day long. There's even a concert hall right next to the library (referred to in my Franki Valli and the ... post). It even has the fastest book publishing machine in the world -- they needed some superlative. 

The new library was a great investment for the Egypt. Not only does it increase tourism, but it also gives pride to the Alexandrian people. Not only is it a tribute to when Egypt was on the top of the world, but it also shows that Egypt can still build wonders.

As a college student, my problem is that this place is not a real library. Sure, it has 3-4 million books, it's very quiet, and there's internet access. But, you can't bring in books, check out books, stay past 8 p.m, or find books critical of the Egyptian government. I've talked with taxi drivers, library employees and a manager about the rule against bringing in books; they all say that there's plenty of books inside the library and I can just read one of those. 

If you're into architecture, come check this library out. Other than that the Bibliotheca Alexandrina is just a sub-par library.

I hate to rail on something that people put so much hard work into, but truthfully, all I want to do is go in the library and study.