Things to like about Yale #1

Libraries.

Spacious and beautiful.  Air conditioned.  Well-lit. Full of open spaces and cosy corners in which to read.  

Comfortable leather arm chairs.  Tables at varying heights (from desk to coffee-table).  Friendly security guards who tell you to "have a nice day."  The Ministry Resources Centre at the Div School, with books, videos, music and just about any props you might need for every liturgical, pastoral or sartorial occasion (Bible board-game anyone? Tambourine? Angel wings?), and enthusiastic people to help you find them.  Listening stations (with headphones) in the music library.

Comparisons with Cambridge are inevitable, not least architecturally. The university library here is built like a cathedral (not a prison), and the Div School library like a country house (not a spaceship).

Things you don't have to do in a Yale library:

1. Leave your bag outside.

2. Walk around the perimeter of the room hoping to find a lamp with a bulb still working.

3. Hide your water bottle when a member of staff comes past.

4. Walk miles along and up/down several floors to find a toilet.

5. Develop backache due to inadequate seating.

6. Return books before you've finished with them because there's a limit of 10 (even I won't get to 200).

7. Expire from overheating or contract hypothermia.  (I'm assuming the latter - I've yet to experience winter here, but I suspect the heating will be both on and correctly functioning.)

8. Run around the city returning books to the various libraries whence they came.

9. Read the refectory menu five times before you find something you might want to eat.

10. Wish you were somewhere else.