Last semester I did a post like this where I recorded a week in my life to show you what it’s like being an international student doing online college during a pandemic and it seemed like a pretty popular post! This semester I decided to do another post like this to give you a little insight into what my life is like at the moment. I love watching ‘a week in my life’ style vlogs, so I hope that this blog post is just as interesting to you! If you’re someone who’s applying to college right now and wants to know what it’s like, then hopefully this post will give you an insight as well.

I tried to be extremely honest about what my days look like in this post! Let me preface and say that this is not the routine I would be keeping if I was really at college right now. I’m currently living at home and I’m 8 hours ahead of the country where my college is, so it’s been a struggle! I spend a lot of time on my laptop and I have a very irregular sleep schedule; I show all of these things not to romanticize being ‘busy’ but to get a real look into what it’s like being an international student during this time. Even though there’s a lot of things that are really difficult about this school year, I’m still really enjoying college and can’t wait to hopefully get to do it in person soon!

I recorded a week in my life a few weeks ago, and it was the week right after I finished most of my midterms. I initially thought that this would be a more chilled week in my life which is why I thought I would have time to record everything. But… I feel like I go into every week thinking it will be more chilled and it never really is! So you’ll kind of see as I share my week that I had a very relaxed Monday thinking this would be a rest after midterm, but by the end of the week I was super busy. Anyways, by the time this post goes live I’ll be on Spring Break, enjoying a week of sleeping in and relaxing a bit, so I hope you enjoy this post!

As I mentioned, I started out this week very relaxed! I had just finished out a tough week of midterms so I decided to go out to lunch with a friend and catch up on some sleep. Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays are the days where I have three classes, so my evenings are normally pretty busy. I also usually get quite hungry once I finish class for the night so I sometimes go downstairs and get a quick snack after class!

This was a week where I was actually taking some driving lessons (yes, it’s taken me a while to learn to drive – it’s just so hard to fit in with college!) So I had a pretty productive morning before going to my driving lesson which kind of drained me! I have two classes on a Tuesday so I went to those as well as a meeting for a conference that I was helping work later during this week.

Okay by Wednesday I was starting to get a bit more stressed! I thought it was going to be a more relaxed week but I realized that I actually had so much work to get done. I didn’t have any exams or tests, but I had so many readings and assignments to get through so that was mostly what I was working on. On Wednesdays I also have meetings for a club I’m in and during this week I also went to office hours for a class to prepare for an exam I had the following week.

Once it gets to Thursday I usually breathe a sigh of relief because I don’t have any synchronous classes on this day and it’s almost the end of the week! I normally try to go to sleep earlier than other days on a Thursday night because I wake up early on Friday mornings to go to a recitation for one of my classes and then go back to sleep right after. These are optional sessions, and it’s one of those struggles about being in a different time zone; technically these things are optional but they do help with learning so it’s a tough decision to make between sleep and that little bit of extra help so I usually end up just sacrificing the sleep and going. I included it here even though it was technically Friday morning just because in my head it’s still part of Thursday’s work.

Friday, the end of the week yay! I always finish up my week with three of my classes, which is a super fun way to spend my Friday nights haha. I was feeling a little down at the end of this week, so I ended up going out with my family and getting some snacks after my last class of the evening which was a nice thing to do. Because I am at home most of the time working, it does make me feel a little down sometimes, as it does for most students right now! So I try to get out the house once a day whether that’s driving somewhere or just going for a walk! This was also a weekend where I was helping organize a conference at my university which ran on Saturday and Sunday, so I had to wake up early on Saturday morning to go to a rehearsal and then I went right back to sleep. Again, I included this as part of Friday cause technically it still seemed like Friday’s work to me.

So, Saturday was actually my sister’s birthday! I had some more free time during the day, but we mostly celebrated with a dinner and watching a movie at home in the evening which was really nice! After the celebrations I then got back into the school grind and I had some social media graphics to make for the conference I was helping to run that weekend.

And finally, Sunday!! As you can probably tell from looking at this post, I really prioritize spending time with my family on the weekends. With my weird schedule I don’t really get to spend that much time with my family on weekdays; sometimes we’ll eat dinner together, but a lot of the time I’m either asleep or in class during the normal times we’d spend together. So on the weekends I really like to spend time with them. Sunday nights are usually a pretty busy end to the week for me as I have training and meetings for a pre-professional club I’m in at college, and this weekend I was also in this conference so I wrapped up the weekend with some work for that!

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So that’s a typical week in my life! When I look back to this post that I made recording a week in my life last semester I feel like I’m just so much busier this semester. I think I am taking a more difficult course load this semester and I also think it took me a while to get comfortable with the whole time zone thing and really start to get involved with clubs. So while I am busier, I am really enjoying what I’m doing!

It’s always weird to record these kind of posts because it kind of makes me reflect on how much time I spend doing things everyday that I normally just go through absentmindedly! For example, I did not realize how much time I take to get ready in the morning or how much time I take to unwind and do my night routine in the evening – I honestly don’t even do anything that special, it’s not like I’m getting ready to see anyone! I think for me, keeping these routines has really helped me navigate this time when I don’t really have a regular schedule that I’m following and a regular time zone. So I think it’s one of those things where, yes, making a nice breakfast and listening to a podcast in the morning or watching some YouTube before I go to sleep in the evening does take a longer time, but I need them as part of my life!

Anyways, I hope that this post gave you an insight into what it’s really like being an international student right now! If you’d like to see more of what my days are like day-to-day make sure to follow me on Instagram @little.miss.expat

See you next week,