Harvard Medical School (with special guest Boston Public Library)
This past week, I was at Harvard Medical School for a few meetings. HMS is widely considered the best medical school in the world, so when I set foot on campus, I dropped to my knees and I felt like I arrived at Mecca. Actually, considering the magnificent marble neoclassical buildings here, Mount Olympus may be a better description. Either way, it was godlike. I never fail to be impressed by the legacy and significance of this campus.
Unfortunately, the trip was not for pleasure so I did not have much opportunity to explore. I did manage to take a few photos and paid a special visit to the striking Boston Public Library.
This is the view of the HMS quad from the street entrance. The dreary gloom of winter continues and makes for some bleak and desaturated photos.
In this climate, some of the buildings look a little spooky, almost like haunted houses.
A spring photo for comparison. Hmm… still looking a bit formidable.
The medical library. Notice the mini reading rooms hanging over the central atrium — scary! I think of them as the library version of a Japanese capsule hotel.
A common hang-out area for medical students inside one of their main educational buildings.
Found this place while wandering around, probably just an administrative office. Minimally invasive surgeries are awesome, and if you remember my surgery rotation post, I call them the world’s most sophisticated and expensive video game.
Big, glassy research center that opened in 2003.
The medical student dorm located conveniently right across the street from the school.
Central area surrounded by dorm buildings. The rooms are nothing special and look like your average college dorm rooms. After living in a cushy apartment for a few years, I would find it difficult to go back to a dorm environment with shared bathrooms and kitchens. But Boston apartments are ridiculously expensive, and obviously you can’t beat the location of this housing.
One afternoon, I hopped on the subway and checked out the Boston Public Library. It consists of two main buildings, one being a more modern wing that isn’t particularly out of the ordinary.
Now this is what I came here to see!
Can you believe this is a library?
Awesome reading room where I stayed for a couple hours. I normally can’t study in libraries because I get easily annoyed when people murmur and ruffle pages. There’s a lot of people here, but surprisingly despite the massively high ceiling, sound seems to be dampened somehow. Very quiet in here and a fantastic place to study and get some work done!
