It had been only hours since I started living in the campus dormitories. Since it was late and dark, I couldn't have a look around and explore the campus. I just confirmed my details with the receptionist and retrieved the keys to my room before falling asleep on the thin dorm beds. I didn't even have an appetite and I was seriously jet-lagged but the 13-hour long uncomfortable flight did a good job of inducing sleep. I wouldn't say I had the best sleep ever; I woke up a few times in the middle of the night but forced myself to sleep. When I woke up in the morning, it had already been half-past eight. I decided to have a look around the campus.
My room was okay. It wasn't the most luxurious but it was spacious. Two medium-sized beds were in each corner of the room, separated by a single nightstand in between them. Towards the leg of each bed was a small wooden cupboard that smelled funny of chemicals. A big glass window was installed above the nightstand and it gave a view of the girl's dormitory building. Not sure which architect designed the building layout, but I felt genuinely concerned for the girls in the other building to be under a potential chance of being peeped at by creepy dudes with huge binoculars.Walking out through the door, I felt the hallway's hard carpet under my feet. It was dark green and stretched in all the hallways of the building., including the stairs. The bathrooms and the showers were on one side of the building. As I arrived at the other end of the building, I found the stairs leading down. The room allotted to me was on the fourth floor so I felt a bit of a hassle to continuously have to walk up and down the stairs every time I had to either go to classes or the cafeteria.As I got to the lowermost floor, the passageway opened up to the cafeteria. Another passageway that ended at the same point led to the girls' dormitories. The cafeteria was a wide room with many tables and chairs. For now, there weren't many people eating or sitting around. I searched for a clock and it was on the wall having the buffet line.I'll have something after walking around. I promised my growling stomach. I had to make it wait a bit to accurately figure out what the different growls and hisses meant.The end of the cafeteria led to a circular main building, with a choice to either chose the left or the right hallway when standing at the cafeteria entrance. The two hallways both had stairs leading up to the upper level of the circular building, where the 12th-grade classrooms were. On the lower level were 11th-grade classrooms. I chose the left hallway to walk through and expected to keep walking till I reached the cafeteria again but the library caught my attention. At what seemed to be the end of the circular hallway, another hallway was perpendicular to this circular path, leading straight into the library. Walking inside the library, I felt as if my ears were suddenly cupped. The ceiling of the library was a single circular glass slab, through which the morning sun spilled inside. A yellow chandelier was also hung from the glass ceiling. The next thing you notice is the enormous painting of an abstract figure, covering most of the wall opposite of the entrance. Wide stairs led up to the painting before deviating into two opposite directions and reaching the second level.I take back my comments on the architect who designed this building.The second level hung separately from the walls of the library and the circumference was lined with tall metal railings. The second level of the library was even better than the first. It provided a wonderful reading mood from all the narrow and dim isles to feeling like levitating above the ground. A few easy chairs accompanied by short tables were scattered along the circumference of the railings.As I completed a lap around the second level, I descended the stairs by the painting and headed towards the entrance when I noticed a librarian staring at me from her counter beside a bookshelf."Pretty amazing, isn't it?" She said. Her pale, wrinkled face shone with passion when she smiled."Yeah," I admitted, "I'm not much of a library person myself but it drew me in.""Absolutely," Her voice cracked a bit when she spoke again, "It's done wonders."I nodded at her, still looking around."If you would want to try out a few books, let me know and I'll suggest a few for you," She said, "We have a lot that we've collected.""Thanks," I said, "But I'm kinda new here. I joined yesterday and so I'm just looking around.""You're new?" She asked with increased interest.I nodded."Then you must probably go join the campus tour conducted by the principal. It's taking place in ten minutes.""I don't know about it at all," I admitted to her."Yeah, those who joined the dorm before the final day of joining, which is today, weren't intimated about it," She said, "You would probably be getting a roommate from today because most of the people are to join today.""Ohh, okay thanks. I'll attend it." I told her and walked out.The hallway directly facing the library led outside the campus. I was greeted with soft sun rays as I made my way down the hard-gravel path in between the two playing fields. After walking downhill and following the curving around the high embankment wall of the playing field to my right, I could see the metal gates of the campus entrance where I'd been dropped off yesterday. I decided to wait near the gate for a few minutes before someone called me from behind."You new here?" He asked. The man was short, shorter than me, and came up to my ears.I nodded, "I'm here for the campus tour that the principal was supposed to give," I said."Oh, yes. The bus is supposed to arrive any time now," He said, "I'm the principal's assistant."So I waited beside him and after a short while, a big white bus arrived at the entrance gate and people disembarked with their belongings in hand. After everyone had their respective suitcases, the assistant advised them to walk up towards the main building again and I followed along with him.It only took a few seconds for the principal to arrive from the main building. He was a tall British guy. After introducing himself to the crowd, he lead the group around the campus on a tour that I had mostly done all by myself in the last thirty minutes.