7.45h – Alarm goes off and, after hitting snooze twice in a desperate attempt to catch up on the several hours of sleep I am missing, I roll out of bed and do some relaxed morning yoga at my window to properly wake up.

8.30h – Quick shower and I grab a bagel and a banana as breakfast and eat while speed-walking to my morning lectures in the Medical Sciences Teaching Center (MSTC) that I am always almost late for. Manage to squeeze in a seat with some medics from my college that I share the lecture with just as the lecturer says his opening words.

11h – Two lectures in a row are done and I have a psych lecture in Worchester college starting at 12h. I set off for a relaxed walk to Worchester, chatting with some other biomeds that I just sat in my Neuropharmacology lecture with as we walk and go by Pret for a much-needed coffee and a croissant. Biomedical Sciences is a small course and, since we get to choose our own modules in second year, the lecture only had 8 students!

11:30h – The lecture theater at Worchester has an area to do some work in prior to your lectures starting so I settle down here and sip my coffee while answering some emails. I like using this half an hour to get some work done for societies or JCR positions, in this case sending some emails off asking neuroscience firms for sponsorship of an upcoming outreach event with a prompt I carefully sculpted last night.

12:30h – Grabbing another coffee with a friend I was just in the psych lecture with, I grab some nutrition on Cornmarket street (sushi!) and head off to the JCR, where I plop down on the comfortable couch to eat and simultaneously read over the essay feedback I just received for my Cellular Pathology module essay on atherosclerosis. The tutorial is at 13:30h so I don’t have much time to ensure I understood the comments my tutor wrote and have at least read the abstracts of the studies he’s suggested on the sidelines of my feedback.

14:30h – Just finished my tutorial! We mainly discussed some relevant studies for the topic, looked at how we could design experiments to answer some questions that are still open and there was of course plenty of time for the tutor to explain any points we hadn’t understood sufficiently.

15h – Now time to read some papers and textbooks for my upcoming Sleep Neuroscience essay! On other days, I might have a practical class in the MSTC instead, which can range from growing and killing bacterial colonies to observing the contraction of an animal tissue in response to drugs that we expose it to in an organ bath.

19h – I’ve worked for several hours and understand my essay topic much better now – my essay plan is coming together nicely, and I’ll be able to start writing the actual essay in the morning. I decide to take a break and grab some pizza with a friend from a different college, although I can’t stay all too long because I have volleyball practice soon.

21:30h – I’m done with volleyball and head back to my flat, which is luckily right next to Iffley Sports Center. After working a bit longer to get at least two paragraphs of my essay done, I decide to call it a day and Facetime a friend from home for the rest of the evening.