Where are we...?

Finding your classroom in London tends to remind me of MTV's Diary tagline: "You think you know, but you have no idea."

This was my first week of classes so I left home armed with a map of the Faculty of Laws, a list of my classes and corresponding room numbers. I thought I would have no problems finding a simple classroom. Silly me.

This is what I have learned about the law school building at UCL: No level of intelligence, number of held degrees, or years working in the building mean that you will be able to find your way to where you are supposed to be. This building is no larger than Ole Miss' law school.

When I finally found a phD student who could direct me towards the right direction (using her map), she gave me these directions:

"Okay. You are going to go back to the staircase. Go up 2 floors. Walk around the statue, come down one floor. Then walk down the corridor. Take those stairs at the far side down one more flight of stairs. Pass through the double doors, and follow signs to the "GS" section. Tutorial Room 3 should be down in that section of the building."

Miraculously, I found my room, only to realize that my professor was tardy due to his being lost in the same building. Later, in one of my other classes, I was chatting with a phD student who was surprised that we found our way to our classroom. She let us know that she had been studying in the building for six years, and yet still had problems finding her way. 6. years. Lord, help me.*

While talking to other students around London, I have determined that this lack of sensible building design is the norm. Some require you walking through other buildings to enter, others are buildings "inside" of other buildings. And heaven help us if we use a numbering system that might actually clue anyone into where the room actually exists within the building. I suppose using "room 106" to indicate that the room is on the first floor is so much less imaginative than to call it the "Main Lecture Theatre" or "Seminar Room 7" (located nowhere near either Seminar Room 6 or 8).

The most hilarious example of this was when we had our first planned fire drill. Half of the class didn't make it back afterwards. At least the building sort of reminds me of the inside of Hogwarts, so it's entertaining while you are lost!

*In other news, if I disappear: Look in the Bentham House, Faculty of Laws, UCL. But good luck finding me.