Chelsea Palmer/Guest Contributor

I don’t know about you, but if you are like me, you head on over to the library to crank out the final pages of that long essay due tomorrow.

This tall building full of books, study spaces and the occasional snoring student is a great escape from a dorm room that feels more like a white dungeon. Plus, you have fewer distractions unless someone decides to fall asleep or blast his rap music for the entire third floor.

I am currently studying abroad at the University of Stirling in Stirling, Scotland.

While we of course have a library, it is much smaller than Winona’s Darrell Krueger Library, which is where I spent hours upon hours last year working on all those essays. Both universities have roughly the same student population.

Students who choose to visit the library in Winona are fortunate to be able to find a seat 99 percent of the time. Over here, after the first two weeks, good luck finding a spot unless you get there either before ten a.m. or after five or six p.m. I have resorted to spending more time in my little dungeon, which is starting to feel less claustrophobic as a result, rather than daring to even search for a spot.

Privacy is another issue over here. Unlike the little cubicles that good old Darrell provides, all the tables in Stirling’s library just have a short slab of wood separating two students at one table. For some students, as a flatmate of mine pointed out, it can be hard to study when you have dozens of eyes all around you, all of which can see exactly what you are doing with a slight turn of the noggin. Many people work better when they don’t feel like someone is looking over their shoulder as they are trying to accomplish something.

The organization takes a bit of getting used to as well. Unlike the Darrell Krueger Library, Stirling’s library separates different sections of books by subject content as well as into two other categories: popular loan and long loan. Sometimes I find myself running from one floor to the next looking for a book.

One more thing. Printers. You may have to stand in line while the three people in front of you print out about 30 pages of material.

I have to say that Stirling’s library beats Darrell by a long shot when it comes to views. You can see Dumyat, a nearby mountaintop, from one side and a loch from the other. Walk outside and you’ll see the William Wallace Monument and Stirling Castle.

While Stirling does have a smaller library, that is how things are over here.

Perhaps it is just the perception of an American mind used to things being bigger in size.

No, I am not from Texas.

When you go to a different country, your mind likes to focus on all these little differences. In time you learn to accept and embrace those differences. You may just have to find a different place to study. I did. The greatest thing I have gotten from this experience thus far is a greater appreciation for the important things I left back home—friends, family, pets, home, and a few very familiar places (perhaps even a certain library).

See you soon, Winona.

Contact Chelsea at [email protected]