Uni Essentials

Hello hello!

I have started university in September and I jus finished my first year. It was certainly a big change, and even bigger was the fact that I wasn’t only starting university, but I was starting it in London! Everybody’s dream, basically.

I found it hard in the beginning, finding my way around, my space, finding out the best way of organizing my study life!

Here are some essentials that every university student (girl?) must have:

1. Laptop

I wouldn’t live without my laptop. I bought a new one just before starting university. I wanted it to be functional and easy to use. I don’t bring it to lectures, before I prefer way more taking notes on an actual paper notebook, so I got a regular size laptop, where I downloaded all the lecture slides and where I also keep my Semester B schedule.

 

2. Notebook and binders

I have always loved to write on paper and to have all my notes together organized in a nice binder with a nice cover. Going through elementary and middle school I was so fascinated about how my writing style was changing over the years. Now, it is probably a mixture of habit and actual love for papers and pens (that is also why I keep buying and reading paper books rather than buying a Kindle or Ebooks).

3. Pens and highlighters

EXTREMELY important: pens of different colours (I don’t like the fancy pink-light blue-purple pen kind of stuff), mines are the classic blue, red, black and green, and highlighters. A lot. Of as much colours as possible. Really.

 

4. Student planner

I actually have to. Semester A had a paper planner. SO useful. But I started carrying a bag rather than a backpack, so Semester B got an electronic planner, which is even more useful! You can open the window and see everything from the beginning of march until the end of September, when university will start again after summer holiday.

 

5. Other stuff

Student ID, otherwise you wouldn’t be able to enter in the library. Oyster, what if you walk to Whitechapel and then it’s raining so much and you also went to Sainsbury’s and you just feel like taking the bus (or the tube, it’s only 10p more expensive and I don’t know, looks cooler)? Lipstick, oh, you’ll need it, especially in London, especially with this *lovely* wind. Wallet, with EVERYTHING in it, from the credit card, to the laundry card (which actually looks like another credit card!) and to the membership cards of every. single. place you go to (what if eventually you get a discount? You don’t want to miss it, right?)

You know what, coming from a small city in the north of Italy and having lived in Vancouver for some months, have made London look like the dream city, and I actually love it so much! But guys, I thought my umbrella was going to be my “best friend”…. Now, listen to me: it is also windy in London and when it’s raining it is even more windy! You just give up on the umbrella after the first rain and learn how to survive without it (hoods are amazing, I’m actually kind of loving them right now).