At the end of my first year in Glasgow

Accustoming myself to university life wasn’t hard, once I got the hang of it, but I nevertheless had quite a lot to do. I definitely had enough projects and learning material not to get bored, and I might even go so far as to say that by choosing to take on 140 credit’s worth of courses instead of 120, I might have unwittingly caused myself a bit of a rough ride. My first year’s timetable consisted of biology and chemistry 4-5 times a week with relatively interesting 3-hour weekly labs from each of them. I also attended French lectures 3-4 times a week and attended an online life sciences course over the first term. Although we wrote regular reviews and often had large lab group projects from biology, I still found the online course, and even more so learning French, much more difficult. I am definitely not proud of my final French grade, but it motivated me to start learning it from home, additionally giving me all the necessary materials and contacts in case I ever need help. The three other courses went relatively smoothly and I spent quite some time as a class representative helping with course structure and compiling student feedback for the lecturers.

All this still left me with time for my hobbies, however. I played the First Flute and Piccolo in the university’s student-led symphonic orchestra, the Kelvin Ensemble. We had a concert right before the start of each term’s exam period. I also joined the university’s Shotokan Karate Club and somehow even managed to get 3rd place in kumite in the 2017 SSS Karate Championship.

In the middle of my 2nd term I started applying for summer placements, only to find that many were either meant for second year or higher students, or that the application deadlines for summer placements were sometimes as early as October, at least in fields related to life sciences. Although I was close to attaining 2 summer placements I applied to, unfortunately neither was successful in the end. After the final exams, I experienced a tedious month looking for accommodation for my next year. The competition is amazing, and I found out quite late that if I like a flat, I should apply right then and there, and even then it’s sometimes too late. I finally successfully applied for a tenancy, but only now after a month of calling the agency did I find that the landlord chose someone else over me. If I were to advise any future student, try to find your next year’s accommodation early, even a month is not nearly enough if you don’t know exactly what you’re doing.

I look forward to next year when I can finally start specializing a bit more and find a placement.