Hi! I’m Anissa and I’m currently in my second year studying English literature and Film and Television Studies with Employment Experience at the University of Exeter. I’m originally from Birmingham but now split my time outside of uni across the UK and Belgium. Today, I will take you through a regular day in my life at University, on and off campus.
9:00am
On a Monday, my first lecture starts at 10:35am, so it means I wake up at a very lovely 9am and start to get ready for the day. This involves the usual routine of showering, washing my hair, and ‘making’ breakfast, and by ‘making’ I mean two slices of toast with my dad’s homemade jam, not my most glamorous meal, but a quick and easy start to the day. And of course, I had a large glass of orange juice on the side.
I then made sure that I had everything I needed for the day packed as I knew that I would be on campus all day after that.
Handbag checklist:
- Laptop
- Laptop charger
- Phone charger
- Phone
- Keys!! (important)
- Wallet
- Water bottle
- Notebook
- Multiple pens
- Packed lunch
- Airpods
- Glasses (important!)
- The current book I’m studying (Faulkner’s As I Lay Dying)
10:00am
I’m now (usually) all set and with time to spare, which is very important in Exeter as you never know how badly Forum hill is going to hit you. The walk to campus from my house takes roughly 20 minutes (15 if I’m speeding) and it takes me by some of Exeter’s most beloved pubs, such as the Stoke Arms and the Vic Inn, which by 5:30pm on a Wednesday tend to be incredibly busy. Luckily for me, it’s 10am on a Monday.
10:25am
By 10:25, I’m on campus and my first lecture is my film module Shots in the Dark, which is all about the history of Hollywood, and I’m tackling Forum Hill as my lecture takes place in the Queens building (one of my favourites). Once I’m there, I wait for some of my friends to arrive and then we take our seats, ready for the lecture. Most of my lectures last up to 50 minutes, which is just the right amount of time until most people’s brains (mine) begin to shut down. This lecture was all about Hollywood in the 1970s and the introduction of the ‘Blockbuster’ as we know it, so it was only fitting that our screening for that day was Jaws.
11:25am
On a Monday, I will have a film lecture and then a 10-minute break before a screening of one out of the two films we watch for that week. In this little break, me and my friends tend to go on a little walk around Queens to stretch our legs. This Monday, we found a free cake display in Queens’ reception, which we took full advantage of.
11:35am
Free slice of pistachio cake in my bag (and feeling pretty smug), we went back into the lecture theatre to watch Jaws. The screenings are always really fun and a very cool way to relay the information you’ve just learnt and see it fully in action. Plus, it does create a nice break in the day, especially if it’s deadline season and you’re working towards multiple summative assessments at a time.
13:35
Jaws screening complete, it was time for me to head off to the library for a study session before my next lecture. I found some of my friends in the Forum Library study room T, which is a pretty chill atmosphere to work/chat in, meaning I felt no guilt in eating my lunch (left-over pesto pasta with peas and Quorn chicken pieces) as by that point I was incredibly hungry. Lunch over, and a few more friend arrivals later, we all got down to do some work.
As I’m on the Employment Experience pathway, Second year is when we start having to apply to different internships and placements programmes for our third year in industry. This means I spent a chunk of the study session working on applications, including translating my CV into French and completing cognitive tests for certain employment schemes. The cognitive tests definitely pushed me outside of my comfort zone, especially as a humanities student, but all was well in the end, and I did then treat myself to a Diet Coke and my pistachio cake. After that, I did some reading for English and then set off for my final lecture of the day.
15:35
This lecture was for the English module Modernism and Modernity, which is all about the modernist period, and was in Streatham Court, which meant walking down Forum Hill and heading near the Lemmy. I re-grouped with my friends from the first lecture and then got ready for a 50-minute-deep dive into As I Lay Dying. What I love about these lectures is the context that they often bring to the novel, which is always super interesting and satisfying when placing the fictional events within their historical contexts.
16:25
By 16:25, I’m done with the day and, of course, now that it’s November the sun had already set. A friend of mine from the lecture needed to pop into Sainsbury’s and as it was on my way back home, I offered to join them. The walk back home from campus is so beautiful, especially with the early evening night and the crispness of the air, so my spirits were pretty high.
17:25
I’m home! But the day is not quite over yet. I spend this time prepping my outfit for the next day and making sure I have enough tote bags for me and my housemate because we, and our beautiful friends from the road down, are about to go on our weekly shop to ‘big Tesco’. Going to Tesco supermarket has become a staple for our friendship group’s weekly routine and really sets the tone for the week; it’s a lot of fun, and we definitely spend too much time there!
Laura (the designated driver) picks us up from our house and then we head straight to Tesco, aux at the ready. By the time we’ve gone through about 5 different music genres, ranging from Country to House, we’ve arrived at the big Tesco. With Halloween and Bonfire Night long behind us, the festive Christmas displays and decorations had been put in place, so it was only natural that we indulged ourselves in a little browse. Once we felt satisfied with the browsing, it was time to actually get the food shop done, this often means randomly bumping into one another as we each try and separately find a selection of either Ritz crackers or tender stem broccoli, depending on the mood of the evening. Then it’s time to self-checkout, where the Tesco Clubcard saves the day when trying to stay in budget, and soon enough we’re back in Laura’s car, grocery shops in the boot and at our feet.
19:30
Back home, I unpack my food shop and immediately put my pizza in the oven for my dinner as I need something quick to eat before heading off to the gym. Whilst my pizza is in the oven, I get changed into my gym wear and re-fill my water bottle. My pizza is soon ready, sweet chilli chicken with veg, and a crisp can of diet coke, meaning me and my housemate are quick to head out to Pure Gym on Fore Street (a brisk 24-minute walk), for an evening workout, however not before I save half of my pizza for the next day’s lunch.
20:30
We arrive at the gym!
We get started with a 20-minute run on the treadmill, followed by the hardest 10 minutes of my life on the stair master. This is followed by a quick water bottle re-fill and then a 10-minute erg session to try and engage our legs, arms, and core into the workout. At this point, I’m wiped out, so we do a final 10-minute jog on the treadmill, then stretch out our muscles for a cool down and call it a day. I’ve found, begrudgingly so, that working out does actually help maintain a good mental health and genuinely gives me the energy I need when balancing my academics, my role as Social Secretary for English Society, and my job applications, so squeezing a 50-minute workout in at the end of the day is always super useful, even if it takes a lot of motivation to get there. The 24-minute walk back up-hill is less welcome…
22:15
Finally home and ready for bed, I have a shower and put on a fresh pair of pyjamas. A little bit peckish after the gym, I have some breadsticks and red pepper hummus and then head upstairs to read a couple more chapters of As I Lay Dying and watch an episode of Miranda to finish the day off right.
I hope you enjoyed this whistle-stop tour of a day in my life, and I look forward to sharing more throughout the year.
See you soon,
Anissa