By Sarvenaz Ranjbar, PhD Engineering Mathematics
This article is supposed to give you an insight into university life from someone who’s experiencing it a little differently. But I think it will probably end up being mostly about my weird and different life in Bristol. Hi all, I’m ‘Bristol PhD Girl’! I started my studies back in March, and was so excited until the war started. Yes, well, I am an international Iranian student.
I was already experiencing financial difficulties due to the war when I started looking into flats for rent in Bristol. I knew I couldn’t afford it, so I moved in with my parents in London. And well, I’m going to tell you about a typical day in my life commuting to university. Being a PhD student is so exciting. It means you have to be either reading papers, writing papers, or being in meetings. So, imagine doing all of this on top of commuting from London!
When I finished high school, I promised myself I would never wake up before 8 AM, and I managed to keep that promise all these years, until now! I usually wake up at 6 AM. And no, I am not an early bird, so my brain is completely offline. I open my wardrobe and stare at my clothes for a good 15 minutes, not knowing what to wear. Then I start stressing about missing the bus, so I grab anything and usually end up with a weird outfit.
I grab the London bus 36 and ride to Victoria Coach Station, usually arriving about two minutes before the coach leaves. Usually, I open my tablet and start reading while having a sandwich in hand for breakfast. The journey takes up to 3 hours. I usually get about two hours of studying done until I look out of the window and see houses and trees on hills far away. You can already tell it’s Bristol from all the graffiti all over the place.
Getting off at Bristol Bus & Coach Station, it’s time to either go up the hill or down depending on the day. I’m at the Department of Engineering Mathematics, in the Ada Lovelace building, which means I have to walk up the hill all the way to the top. I honestly do not know how students do it every day. I have such a love-hate relationship with St Michael’s Hill!
My lab, however, has recently moved to Temple Quarter Enterprise Campus a few weeks ago before the opening day. Surely you’ve heard about the new building with all the latest features and facilities, I definitely recommend that you come and explore it, although you won’t be able to get into the labs which I have taken advantage of. I quite like everything being new and clean. However, I never understood the yellow stairs! We are currently getting ready for the start of September classes. I’ll be leading some labs and providing help in some lectures, which means I get to work with many unit directors and study the materials.
Throughout the day, I get to sit with many, many cool and well-known scholars at the university, as we now all share a big office. It’s really exciting to be sitting next to the creator of some brilliant algorithms in MATLAB or a professor who has solved many statistical problems in data science, someone who can code with eyes closed and another who speaks binary! (Not joking, these people really exist at Bristol).
One interesting fact I always paid attention to was how academics and scholars seemed to have no time to properly eat. Until I became one myself. And I hate to say it, but we literally have no time! We usually have to get our lunch in the morning; a meal deal or something because we rarely get time to prepare or shop during lunchtime.
Olivia Hunt
In the evening, sometimes my other PhD friends and I gather and go for a drink and catch up. The catch-up is fun. It’s a mix of normal life and academic life. Then it’s time to get back to London, which means I have to head back to the coach station. The coach is usually busier on the way back, so I really try to find the best seat where I can get some more studying done, although I am mostly unsuccessful…
Overall, I must say I love Bristol. I love the university, and I love the city. I think there’s such a special bond between the university and the city that I’ve barely seen anywhere else. I must say, compared to London, the travel system in the city is a bit funny and cannot really be trusted especially during the Balloon Fiesta! Everyone at the university is genuinely very knowledgeable and willing to help and it has become a safe zone for me, a place of comfort. I’ve always felt that our University has a spirit of its own. An old, kind soul who has been through a lot and seen even more. I often wonder what his name might be…
Featured Image: Temple Quarter | Epigram / Sarvenaz Ranjbar
How is your university experience different to this one?
