Wow, it’s already been a month since my last post!! Time is flying past us here at Imperial – it’s been insane. Between lectures and labs, coursework, running the radio station, and the general effort of keeping myself well fed, clean, and moderately healthy, I’ve been absolutely swamped.

Anyway, I’m not here to complain or whinge about the work – we all knew when we signed up for Imperial that it wasn’t going to be easy all the time, and 2nd year is especially tough across all courses it seems!

Some news since I last updated the blogosphere – I finally got a double duvet for my bed when my parents came to visit, turned 20 and pierced my nose in sheer panic, invested in some Corona glasses and boom-boom-pow speakers… And I managed to get a Student Radio Award on behalf of our very own student radio station IC Radio! Also, I got my radiator fixed. Happy times all around!

The various assortment of presents I got for my birthday - new UFO-like speakers, a popcorn maker, recycled Corona glasses, a Lego Jack Sparrow keyring, a slightly inappropriate mouse mat, a new monitor, and an M&M glass. (I had no drinking glasses, hence the funky glasses craze...)

But it’s not all homely goodies and awards, oh no. This year actually counts towards my REAL DEGREE, and believe me, the work is definitely being piled on without mercy.

So anyway, to give you a good idea of what to expect from 2nd year, I’ll run through my average day for you…

7.15am - Wake up to a ferocious alarm and stumble out of bed after hitting the second snooze button

8.40am - Leave for 9am labs/lectures/workshops, feeling slightly more awake after a shower and triple dose of Weetabix

12pm - Break for lunch / Attend radio or group project meeting / Work on problem sheets and/or sleep in the Bioeng study room / Go to the bank or post office or get a haircut because your unkempt student appearance is getting just a tad frightening

2pm - Hit up more lectures/labs/workshops, try to pay attention and not think about all the work that you have yet to “catch up on”

5pm - Tell yourself that you’re still going to go to the gym after all that, get strange looks on the tube because your sweaty post-workout appearance is quite frankly terrifying / Failing that, go to Tesco for the weekly shop and try to convince housemates that they owe you 10 quid for toilet paper

7pm - Get into pajamas, make dinner and watch that mindless guilty pleasure tv show you secretly love (insert Glee/90210/Pretty Little Liars/Made in Chelsea here), attempt to work on assignments, have a Skype session with mates back home about the first shot you’re going to do when you hit the pub after homecoming, have Skype session with the mother about what BBC Jane Austen adaptation you’re going to watch after homecoming, have a Skype session with your housemate downstairs about whose turn it is to do the washing up

Any time between 10pm and 1am - Fall into bed with life satisfaction directly related to amount of work done/Skype-ing quality/fitness of opposite gender in the gym that day.

Amazingly, that’s a pretty standard day. Sometimes we start at 10 and finish at 6, sometimes we get one hour for lunch instead of two, sometimes we have a rare afternoon or a morning off (not often enough sadly). At the beginning of term getting everyone sorted for a new year at IC Radio had me pretty busy, but coursework has taken centre stage these days.

Bioengineering seems to have one of the heavier timetables here at IC, but even with that, I’m much more at ease here now than I was at this time last year. With the experience of last year’s exams under my belt I know what I have to do to make sure I don’t have too much a study scramble over the Easter holidays, but knowing what I have to do and actually doing it are two very different things…

So there you have it! A day in the life indeed. All I can say now is, expect me to be shamelessly listening to Mariah Carey’s “All I Want for Christmas is You” on repeat for the next few weeks… Hang in there lads, HOLIDAYS A’ COMIN’!

Fervently hoping to see it like this come December!

P.S. – Fellow blogger Dawn just posted an excellent blog about interviews here at Imperial. I’ve seen a few prospective students around the place looking fancy, and I never did an interview (international student wahey!) so if you’re looking for tips, go check it out!