10-11am: Hit the gym

When I woke up, I attempted to get myself motivated to go to the gym in my building (Elms BT1). It was difficult as I went out last night to Babba (a popular student night in the club Limelight), and so I was extremely tired. However, I knew that if I went I would feel better afterwards! After I got up and put on my gym wear, I made sure to drink water and have breakfast as it provides me with some energy. It also helps that the gym access is included in my rent for Elms BT1. 

_{Gym at Elms BT1}

I aim to spend at least 20 minutes exercising when I do go to the gym, even if it means just walking on the treadmill to get my body moving. I find that exercising really helps my mental health and I start the day on a positive note before I head to campus.

12pm: Make a start on essays

Today I only had one lecture at 4pm, so I decided to head to the McClay Library with a friend beforehand to start work on our upcoming essays. I find the library a very good place to find essay resources, as the books are easy to check out and the library staff are very helpful at directing where specific books/subject areas are.

_{McClay Library}

The essay that is due first is for my ‘Us and Them’ class; a compulsory module that helps us to understand social groups. This module was actually inspired by the Pink Floyd song with the same title: ‘Us and Them’! It is a very interesting module that covers a wide range of material and attempts to explain social groups using cognitive and social anthropological theories.

3pm: Late lunch

Having completed a few hours of research for our essays, using both online resources and the library books at hand, my friend and I went to have some lunch at the Hope Café situated inside the McClay library. Here a wide range of food and drinks are sold, from traybakes to full Irish breakfasts! After enjoying a snack, we decided to head to our lecture.

4pm: Class time

We arrived at the lecture taught by Dr Paulo Sousa, which discussed how sacred values and group identity may result in sacrifice for the group using the work of Scott Atran. Atran is a very interesting anthropologist who has done research on religion and terrorism, which are two subject areas I find fascinating. I really enjoyed this lecture, and I am glad to have had this module this semester.

_{Ciara's seminar room}

In the first year, Anthropology students typically have 6 hours of lectures and 3 hours of tutorials per week (some modules begin midway through a semester and end midway through the second semester and so at some points an individual may be studying 4 modules at a time).

We have been lucky in that joining Queen's in September 2021 meant that only our first week of the course was online, and the rest has been face-to-face. I find that this has really helped me stay motivated for the course, as I work more efficiently this way.

5pm: Treat yo self at the end of term

As this happened to be the last lecture of the year (an early finish!) a group of my course mates and I wanted to celebrate our hard work by enjoying a delicious meal after class.

 

Our chosen restaurant was Sakura on Botanic Avenue. This is only about a 5-minute walk from campus and is one of our favourite places to go for lunch when we feel like treating ourselves!

6:30-10:00pm: Netflix and ...essay planning

We finished our meal and decided to call it a day, so I headed home to settle down for the night. I wanted to get a bit more of my essay planning done before going to bed as deadlines are in May and I plan to fly home in mid-May. I decided to do some research for about half an hour before watching some Netflix with my flatmate.

 

We decided to watch Midsommar, as we enjoy horror films, and it was definitely not like anything I had seen before! As we are both social science students, we found ourselves trying to analyse the movie to determine its meaning (which we definitely did not get to the bottom of!).

Once the movie was finished, I headed to bed to get a good night’s sleep in preparation for a trip the following morning. It was definitely a busy, but enjoyable day!

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Ciara Ashley BA Anthropology | Undergraduate Student | Liverpool, UK I’m a 19-year-old from Liverpool who decided to pursue her degree in Belfast due to its rich history. I am an anthropology student and so I am interested in all aspects of human life. In my free time I love to listen to music, take part in the university-organised trips, and go clubbing on student nights.