Nadja, a student on BSc Management, Leadership and Leisure, shares with us what a typical day in first year looks like.

9:00am

The alarm wakes me up and I promptly turn it off. I have never been an early bird, so I remain relaxing in my warm bed and move the alarm by 15 minutes (you know, just in case I manage to fall asleep again). I am quite lucky, because all of my lectures throughout the semester start at either 10am or 11am so I get the luxury of ‘late mornings’ that none of my flatmates have.

Despite this, I often find it extremely difficult to get myself out of the bed – especially since Manchester weather tends to be very ‘moody,’ so the drizzle outside does not help me at all, but who knows? It might be sunny again by the time I leave my accommodation.

10:15am

I have had my breakfast, I’m dressed and ready to commence my commute to the main university campus. My accommodation is in Fallowfield, so I am taking the bus. I have to admit that although it is November already, I have no idea what the bus schedule is – the buses arrive every 3 – 5ish minutes, since so many students are commuting from this area.

I have also dodged the infamous Fallowfield bus queue thanks to my ‘late morning’ class. The bus stop is extremely busy at around 8:30am when everyone is trying to make it to their 9am.

10:45am

I am at the campus and head straight to my lecture theatre where I will be early as usual. That is okay, at least I will get to chat to my course mates for a few minutes before the lecture starts.

1:00pm

The lecture is over and lunch time is here. I usually bring my own lunch, which I reheat in one of the microwaves that are in the Student’s Union. Unfortunately, I forgot to do so today, so I head to Morrison’s to buy a meal deal. This might be an unpopular opinion, but I think Morrison’s meal deal selection is the best – they even have warm and crispy, straight-out-of-oven, potato wedges as a snack option!

1:45pm

After lunch, which I typically spend in either the SU sitting spaces (if I manage to find a free seat) or outside on the bench (if the weather is nice) with my course mates, we decide to have a coffee break and head towards the conveniently located Costa, which is just across the street. I enjoy these coffee breaks with them, as we get to discuss course content, upcoming assignments, and of course, our own personal matters. We agreed to head into the city centre during the weekend to visit the Manchester Art Gallery, my favourite café ‘Fig + Sparrow’ in the Northern Quarter, and who knows what else! Northern Quarter has lovely shops on every corner!

3:00pm

I head to the library, as I have some work to do and need to print some articles that I would like to read. After a good ten minutes of walking up and down, I settle down in blue area (my usual) at a nice and quiet spot. The assignment brief was issued today too but I am not necessarily going to work on it yet since I still have a lot of time till the due date, but I would like to at least flick through it.

6:00pm

I have decided to bring my fruitful library session to an end, I may or may have not finished everything that I intended to, but I definitely did something and it’s the effort that counts, right? I get on the bus headed towards Fallowfield and pop into Sainsbury’s since I ran out of rice and I need it for my dinner which will be red lentil dahl. I love this recipe, because it serves 4, so it lasts me a good 2-3 days and it’s freezer friendly as well!

8:00pm

After dinner, I remain in the kitchen and talk to my flatmates for a while – there is 8 of us, so there is always someone in the kitchen to talk to. Depending on the availability of everyone, we either stay in the kitchen or head out to the vibrant and lively Fallowfield, where options for fun are limitless. We will try not to stay out ‘too long,’ since the alarm will go off at 9am tomorrow and the cycle repeats.

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