Whether you are a frivolous dandy whose intellect needs constant stimulation with music or casual conversation in order to keep the brain neurons firing or you are an all-too-studious smartie who abstains from any human or machine-generated sounds, this compilation, I hope, will add some useful knowledge to your potential best-study-places-at-Duke repertoire. I will attempt to avoid the cliché places—for example, the Von Der Heyden, the Carpenter room on third floor Bostock or the tanning salon on East Campus.
1. Back seats in the chapel
Although it doesn’t seem like the most socially amiable or religiously appropriate place to crack your Economics 51 or Organic Chemistry, the chapel organ music could be quite soothing and relaxing to ease your stressful mind. There is nothing so surreal as the comfortable quiet of the chapel.
2. Language lab
On the first floor language building, this room is packed with old computers that emit heat. For those who think far ahead beyond the beautiful sunshine of North Carolina and for those light-orientated warm-blooded moths that seek coziness, the language lab is your fated destination during wintertime—both for hibernation if your home lacks sufficient heat and for brain labor. Personally, my brain freezes if not taken good care of with the right temperature, temperament and titillation.
3. Hanging “corridor” of Babylon between libraries
Between Bostock and Perkins on the top floor lies a corridor that makes the Perkins library complex an organic and dynamic whole. Flowery couches that have a faint European touch, views extending to the Hospital South hidden amid lustrous trees and the occasional distraction of pedestrians holding piles of books walking past and into their own ivory tower. Again, awfully terrific place in winter.
4. Rehearsal studio behind Sheafer Theater
Go down the stairs of the Bryan Center, squeeze between the Sheafer lab theatre and the Griffith theatre and get past the 400 students swarming in and out of their Econ 51 class at noon every Monday, Wednesday and Friday to walk up another staircase—on your right-hand side is the rehearsal studio for Theatre Studies. Extensive space, beautiful lighting, a century-old wooden drawer that creates the illusion of homeliness—the rest is silence. Only a mirror is absent—for narcissists during their study breaks.
5. Porch on Mill Village
The porch is located right next to a gym, a swimming pool, a general store, a Food Factory, a basketball court, a bus stop and an e-print station—it is surrounded by residential Duke apartments. Comfortable swing chairs are available. What else do you need in life apart from (potential) friends, food and fun?
6. Basement level two in Perkins
Time stops underneath the Link among economic and political science treaties, classics and academic journals that close in upon you. I once stayed in this secluded area for more than 37 hours before walking out of the library entrance with my eyes dazzled by the first snow I have ever seen in this country.
7. Coffeehouse, the only oasis on East Campus
Just as squirrels occupy the zone between earth and heaven on West Campus, the hipsters claim their own territory at the Coffeehouse.
8. Common areas in Women’s Center and LGBT center
Both of these centers host study places for those who care about social activism—decorated with, among other things, boxes of free condoms. Take what you are learning in textbooks into practice for the betterment of the human condition.
9. Few Tower
Fantastic sceneries in four directions, especially on a rainy night. The only puzzle is finding the key to unlock the heart of this tower.
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