Finding the perfect place to study is vital to your post-secondary education. Getting away from your living space is good—we've already spent too long sheltering in place—but trudging to the dreary school library like countless masses of students before you can be soul-crushing. Is a little ambience really too much to ask? Here are some suggestions for study destinations you'll want to visit, which might just help you increase productivity and decrease procrastination.
Glitter Bean Cafe
Is your drink of choice a rainbow glitter latte? If so, tell your friends that if they ever lose you, Glitter Bean Cafe is where you can be found. Committed to creating a welcoming space for queer, 2-Spirit and transgender Haligonians, this Spring Garden Road coffee shop is home to Halifax's first queer-centered union co-op cafe, steps away from Dalhousie's Faculty of Medicine. There are larger tables available on the second floor, creating the perfect setting for group work. Open 9am-4pm weekdays and 10am-4pm on Saturdays, Glitter Bean is great for studying (unless it's a Sunday).
Glitter Bean Cafe, 5896 Spring Garden Road, 902-407-5715, glitterbeancafe.com
8th floor, Dal's Life Sciences Centre
If you are looking for a quiet space to gather your thoughts and finish your work but would rather do it with an incredible view, the LSC is your jam. Overlooking the Northwest Arm, the 8th floor can be a difficult place to secure a seat, but is most definitely worth dragging yourself out of bed early to visit. When there's no room on the 8th floor, the study lounges at the end of the hall on the 7th up to the 3rd floors are a consolation prize.
Life Sciences Centre, Dalhousie University Studley campus, 1355 Oxford Street
Halifax Central Library
Ideas about the user experience in libraries have evolved a lot since the 1960s, when Dalhousie's massive Killam Memorial Library bunker was built. The Halifax Central Library, which opened in 2014 just steps away from the downtown Dal Sexton campus, is a bright and airy architectural gem kitted out with modern Information Age tools from iPads and cozy reading booths to a circular meeting space and a recording studio. Open at 9am six out of seven days and noon on Sundays, you can book a study room on the day of your visit without needing a library card. And you might want to consult the Central's video game console...after you've finished your work, of course.
Halifax Central Library, 5440 Spring Garden Road halifaxpubliclibraries.ca/locations/SGA/
Benches by the drunken lamp posts
Yes, we said drunken lamp posts. For the ultimate seaside study experience, when the weather's right get down to the boardwalk that follows the Halifax edge of the harbour. Make your way to the twisty light fixtures (not far from Bicycle Thief restaurant in the Bishop's Landing plaza at 1475 Lower Water Street) and finish the reading that was due yesterday in one of the bright-coloured beach chairs or study as a group at the picnic benches. Enjoy staring across the water at Dartmouth while listening to local buskers—just be sure your mind doesn't get mesmerized by the fact that you are completing your work by the Atlantic Ocean. And no, running away to sea when the assignment gets hard isn't an option.
Halifax Boardwalk, Lower Water Street
Uncommon Grounds
An actual underground favourite located near Saint Mary's University, Uncommon Grounds on South Park Street can always be counted on to provide the best tunes with a hot cup of something. Whether or not you're an early riser, the cafe is ready for you 7am-7pm every day of the week. Uncommon's specialty drink is the Fog Burner, a combination of Kenyan, Costa Rican and Guatemalan coffees, all roasted locally. Take a seat outside on the patio or at one of several tables inside, and enjoy finishing your essay with the company of tasty baked goods or a sandwich.
Uncommon Grounds, 1030 South Park Street, theuncommongroup.com
Nova Scotia Archives
Don't be fooled by the name. Even if you're not working on a lengthy assignment about pre-war living conditions in Ecum Secum, the Nova Scotia Archives can still be of assistance to you. Located just 300 metres from the Marion McCain Arts and Social Science Building at Dalhousie, a trip to the archives means you can leave campus without really leaving campus, and find yourself surrounded by other hard-working, studious people. Lose countless hours of your life in a place of history, rather than your bedroom.
Nova Scotia Archives, 6016 University Avenue https://archives.novascotia.ca/