You know the “Vandy Bubble?”
Yeah, there’s no “UJ Bubble.” You see, we at Vanderbilt are incredibly fortunate, because in order to find any building, well, you will stay on campus, and there is no city-wandering of the unknown in hopes of finding your class or professor’s office. Well, it’s a different story where I’m at.
Not that it’s a bad story! In fact, it’s a bit amusing. The Jagiellonian University’s campus is Kraków. Mainly around the old town, but… well, old town is still a large area of Kraków. In fact, I take trams to get to class! (Even though, you could walk to class in about 15-20 minutes for one of the buildings. But a) trams are fun. And b) I have to rest my legs.) The school buildings are so integrated with the city, that one of my buildings is right beside a club! No, I am not kidding. Left door: go to class. Right door: entry to “Klub pod Jaszczurami,” where you can sing karaoke with a live band.
One of my other buildings has this gorgeous courtyard, which I’ve mentioned before. Although, you can’t get all the way around the building without going outside. So if you are on one side of the building, and you realize that your classroom is on the other side (which did happen to me)… Well, then you have to go downstairs, walk through the courtyard, and look around, trying to figure out where your lecture hall will be, with the signs giving you numbers, hopefully.
Although, the best part of this is when you try to find your professor’s office. Ohhhhh, boy! A week ago, I went to talk to my Holocaust professor. I remembered that her building number 52 or 52, and that her office was 52 or 53. So, I go to building 53, and after much confusion, realize it’s not the Sociology department’s building. After essentially being scolded by the porter, I go across the street to the other building. Thank goodness they were close.
I walk into that building, and oh goodness gracious. It. Is. Enormous. Four stories. No elevators, unbelievably long hallway, and no true numbering system (i.e. indicating rooms by floors). I go up to the very top of the building, go down the hallway, following the numbers, then go back down a flight of stairs, find the room number I think I need, go into the wrong room, and then get sent to the next room.
Fortunately, I enjoyed my meeting, as I got a lot of incite about social anthropology, but oh gosh. If I ever need to find my other professors, I just know it’ll be an adventure! To compare it to Vanderbilt: it’s like Stevenson Center! Except it’s the entire city…