In this blog, Hazel will take you along with her for a 'day in her life'. With summer and exam season quickly approaching, she's found a way to get the best of both worlds - studying in the sunshine!
9:00am: I’m an early riser so waking up at 9:00am seemed late to me! This morning, I took my time getting ready because I didn’t have an early class and have a busy week of deadlines ahead.
10:30am: After enjoying my morning coffee, setting my to-do list, and preparing for the day, I made my way to campus. My commute is really easy and very scenic: part of it crosses through Luxembourg Gardens, which is even more beautiful when the sun comes out! This week it’s the end of the Easter holidays in France, which means that the park has been much busier with many more people picnicking and socialising outside.
11:00am: About 30 minutes later, I arrived on campus. Today, I studied on the St Thomas site in the cafeteria. It’s light, spacious and there are many spaces to work on group projects. In fact, I have 3 group assignments due this week, so I think I’ll be spending a lot of time here! After securing a table, I continued to edit the slides for an environmental history presentation I’m giving later in the week.
11:30am: At 11:30, I met with a group member for this presentation. We both worked a bit individually on our sections over the weekend, so we prioritised editing the content to make sure it flowed and was ready to go.
12:45pm: I was starting to get hungry by 12:45 so we paused for lunch. Today, I went for convenience and decided to get a sandwich from the canteen. Because of the nice weather, my classmate and I decided to eat outside on the steps, with what seemed like every other Sciences Po student! After enjoying the sun for a bit longer, we returned to the cafeteria to finalise the presentation.
2:30pm: Now, it was time for me to make my way to my political sociology class on the main Sciences Po campus. Today’s topic was the historical and cultural dynamics behind anti-elitist policies in France and was really helpful because our presentation was on the British case the next day!
5:00pm: After reflecting on the class content, my group members and I decided to meet to make some final edits to our sociology presentation.
6:30pm: By 6:30pm I was fading fast and needed a snack! I decided on a coffee and a piece of fruit to stay productive—I still had a class to come!
7:15pm: Considering how early (or late) you think my day started will depend how early (or late) you think my final class of the day is! It began at 7:15pm and ran for two hours, where we discussed publicprivate partnerships in urban policy.
9:15pm: At 9:15 I was done with classes for the day and ready to get some sleep!
9:45pm: I reheated my dinner that I had batch-cooked earlier in the week and got ready for bed.
10:00pm: By 10pm I was ready to rest up and prepare to do it all again the next day!