Day in the life of Xiayao studying Biological Sciences

Woke up at 6 am. Took a shower, had a cup of coffee. Then sat by the window, listening to the birds chirping as the sky began to lighten. Logged into Canvas to check for new announcements and went through emails. I have a lab practical at 9 am this morning and a 1-hour lecture on animal behavior at 3 pm today. So, the plan was to stay in the library between these two scheduled sessions and finish planning my course assignment, which is due in a month, and I haven't started yet.

Made toast in the kitchen; it was so quiet, as nobody in my flat seemed to have a 9 am lecture today. Walked to campus and arrived at the Biosciences building at 8:30.

Although it's named Biosciences, I'm not that familiar with the building. Most of our lectures take place in large lecture theatres all over the campus, except for Biosciences. I remember the Arabidopsis practical from last year; I almost got lost the first time I went to the greenhouse. I went to this building mostly for tutor or labs, as today.

Today's lab was on horizontal gene transfer. Genetic practicals are always nice and easy; pipetting to make a few dilutions and streaking the prepared diluted cell cultures onto agar plates, and we can count E. coli colonies the next day.

Spent 2 hours doing background reading for my assignment in the library and came up with some possible titles for my write-up. My friend said she had some questions over the last week’s teaching content that she’d like to talk with me, and we decided to have lunch together.

We went to a Chinese restaurant on Bristol Road, which is full of fast-food restaurants and supermarkets. We discussed her questions, and I had been shared with some recent news.

Wandering in the campus with my friend. We chose the same module in last year’s module choice fair, and she told me that she is also just about to start her assignment. It is always a comfort to know that your classmate’s progress is similar to yours.

Bought a cup of Cappuccino in the library café. I felt sleepy easily after lunch, and coffee is part of my daily routine if I have lectures in the afternoon. Sat in the library making notes on lecture recordings. Every live lecture will be recorded and can be accessed by enrolled students in Panopto at any time. Its drawback is that it made me easily forgive my distraction during live sessions. The pro is that you can pause and make notes, which is really lifesaving for international students for whom English is not their first language. But there could be accidents, and some lectures will occasionally not be recorded. So, the advice is to concentrate on live lectures.

Today’s lecture was on primates and how lemurs’ morphology matches their locomotion in arboreal environments.

The day on campus finished at 4 pm.