A Day in the Life of a Food Technology Student at WUR

Have you ever wondered what a day in the life of a Wageningen University student looks like? Great to see you here, then! In this blog, I will take you with me for a day in my life as a second-year bachelor’s in Food Technology student!

🥱Waking up and getting ready (7:30 am – 9:00 am)

Labs this week start from 9am, meaning you can’t sleep in that much💤. So, I woke up at 7:30 to get started with my day. To be honest, it was a bit of a slow morning for me (you know how Mondays are, haha), but I made a nice breakfast, got ready, packed my bag and went to class!
I always bike around, it is such a big part of my life now, that I feel its absence when I’m back in my home country and don’t have a bike. 🚲

🥼Lab classes (9:00 am – 12:00 pm)

This period, Period 6 with a duration of 6 study weeks, is quite interesting and new for me. We have two courses, but one of them (Quality Systems Operations) was 4 weeks, so it just ended last week with an exam (fingers crossed!), and now we continue with the other course – Food Properties and Functions.

In those last weeks of the course, we have the task of developing an innovative product with an appointed ingredient! How cool is that!? My team has to work with tomatoes. 🍅 Last week, we brainstormed some ideas and decided to proceed with the development of sweet cherry tomato seltzer. A not-so-typical and expected idea at first glance, but we like a good challenge.
But wait…did you really think that was all? 🤠 To make things even more fun, we are going to extract the colour of the tomatoes and make the drink transparent like the traditional seltzer.

So, we rolled up our sleeves (not literally, because lab coat rules😉) and began! Cutting, blending, extractions, filtration…we had it all!

Have a look at the nice centrifugation on the bottom right picture! The red things at the bottom are the pigments and colourants, while on top, the clear “tomato juice” remains.

 

🍱Lunch break (12:00 pm – 1:00 pm)

After a productive morning of hard work, it was time for a well-deserved lunch. I headed to Campus Plaza with a friend from my bachelor’s programme. Although we are in the same lab, we’re in different groups. So, now we finally have time for a better chat. 💬

 

🥼Lab classes (1:00 pm – 5:00 pm)

After lunch, we continue with the lab. The time stamp seems very long, I know…but, actually, it’s not as bad as it seems. I actually find it quite interesting and relaxing. It is much different compared to my 1st year, where the labs were stricter. Now, it is very chill and enjoyable – you’re working but also having fun with your group mates. There is even a shared playlist of music to which every student can add songs that we listen to during the lab practices! 🎶

💻Other tasks and heading home (5:00 pm – 7:00 pm)

Done with uni for today, yay!
After my practical, I had a quick online meeting from work. I am part of the International Students Team(IST), and as you might be able to guess, one of my tasks is writing blogs for the team.
Fun fact: This was the day I came up with the blog you’re reading now! (P.S keep an eye out for a new and updated blog about IST coming soon!) 

Post-meeting, I went for my weekly groceries. I always shop on Mondays, when the new kortingen (Dutch word for “discounts”) drop. 🛒

 

💆‍♀️Me-time and dinner (7:00 pm – 10:00 pm)

Usually, I go to the gym at de Bongerd (favourite place), but today I was quite tired, so decided to take it easy with a bit of relaxing yoga and a workout at home. 🧘‍♀️
After that, I made a big filling dinner (forgot to take a picture of it, oops, I was too hungry), and relaxed with some movie-watching and delicious mango!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

😴Final “duties” and going to bed (10:00 pm – 12:00 pm)

Now, after such a long day, it is finally time for bed and recharge!
I am also doing the Honours Programme at Wageningen University and as part of that, I’m currently enrolled in a course about citizenship. I initially had my reservations, but it then became quite interesting. It’s enjoyable since it gives me a refreshing shift from natural to social sciences. For this course, we are reading the book “Citizenship: New Trajectories in Law” by Engin Isin.📖 So, before bed, I dedicated some time to reading for our upcoming meeting.
As you can imagine, this thought-provoking book with complex concepts is great to warm you up for bed…and so, after that, I was fast asleep. 😄

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Ah, this was a long day, right? But don’t worry, not every day is as busy. I just wanted to show you the exciting possibilities WUR has to offer for the diverse student life! 🚀

I hope you enjoyed this blog (I certainly did, writing it) about the vibrant student life at WUR!

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PS, let me show you a bit of the BTS (“behind the scenes”) of writing these blogs:
While studying at Forum with a friend, someone was curious to come have a look at what we’re working on. 🐦‍⬛

See you around,
Zlatoslava 😊