A day in my life as a Research Intern at the University of Warwick
My day starts at around 8 am in the morning. Immediately after waking up, I brush my teeth and take a quick shower to kickstart the long day ahead.
The first task of the day is to prepare my breakfast and lunch simultaneously. I usually pack my lunch every day for college. It is mostly a mixed egg roll or some egg fried rice for lunch. Immediately after I prepare my breakfast, which is usually fruits, an omelette or a tortilla with some spread.
It takes me around 30 to 45 minutes to prepare my breakfast as well as lunch for the day. While preparing I and my friends, also take note of which groceries we need to buy while coming back from the university.
I then check my emails, if there are any presentations or meetings scheduled by our supervisor for that day.
After having a nice breakfast, I head towards the university, which is around a 30–40 minute walk. Since we do not have an extra workout routine, we prefer walking to and from the university. We carry a backpack with all the essentials like a laptop, tiffin, umbrella, water bottle and a notebook every day to the university. It is actually a heavy one 😰 for us to carry.
After reaching the university, I study for some time at my assigned office desk and around 12 pm head towards the common kitchen to grab some coffee or tea. We used to take a coffee mug along with us for preparing and having coffee or tea.
We have quite a large number of options for tea and coffee in the kitchen along with a huge sitting area. The area, however, is only accessible by the PhD and the staff members, along with the visiting students, which is also occasionally a seminar room.
Then, after studying for another 2–3 hours, I have my lunch in the same kitchen. I take a microwavable tiffin to warm the lunch I already bought from home and enjoy a hot delicious meal. Sometimes, however, I along with my friend also grab some food from the cafeteria like a pizza, or sometimes even buy some ready to eat meals from the supermarket.
After lunch, I usually call my parents and talk for a while in the seminar room adjacent to the kitchen. Because of the time difference between India and UK, this time is the perfect time for making a call to India.
Finally, I again head back to work. At around 5–5:30, I usually leave the university. I and my friend then call our flatmates about their whereabouts and plan the return walk together. On the way, we often stop by Aldi, which is a comparatively cheaper supermarket and buy groceries and snacks for the coming days. We usually don’t stock much food, rather prefer buying it around twice or thrice a week.
Another favourite stop of ours on our way back was a shop named “Fish and Chips”, from where we grab some chips and burgers often as an evening snack.
By 7:00 pm we reach our home and relax by talking about the day with our colleagues and landlord. After relaxing a bit, I either do some laundry or cleaning (which we don’t have time for in the morning). Finally, at around 8:30 pm we prepare our dinner (usually two of the flatmates prepare it on alternate days), which is rice and some dal or mix vegetables 90% of the time. For the other 10 per cent of the time, we either order food from Rupali(an Indian Restaurant nearby) or have food at a nearby KFC. But as Indians, one meal consisting of rice as the main ingredient was mandatory for us.
After our dinner, we regularly play some UNO 🤩. This is the most awaited time of the day when we all relax and play cards.
Finally, after studying or preparing some college material for some time I call it a day by 12 am.
The day depicted is a general view of how our days were during our stay. Although it is far from an ideal, productive day, it was a learning experience for me that taught me self-dependence, time management and productivity on a long run.
