Summing up my first two weeks at QM!

Now that I am almost done with telling you about the past days, I just want to write a reflective post, with my feelings about this new experience.I will go on with the "storytelling" as soon as possible.

POSITIVES 

I am loving independence. I never thought I would, but I am! Seriously, cooking is fine, washing, drying, cleaning... it all only annoys me a bit, but it's a big lot better than I thought. And I found out I am quite organised and that I can manage myself well enough, I just need some practice. 

I have met a lot of people, overcoming my expectations once more, and I recognise many faces around the campus. But, most important of all, I have made friends. Quickly. I have found people that are similar to me, with whom I get on very well and to whom I feel actually pretty close already. I know it might be weird, because I have been here barely two weeks, but I do already love some of my new friends a lot! I can't believe how quick this has all been. There are the girls from Biology (Andrea, Coral, Elena and Laurana), who are seriously great and I love spending time with them. There are my flat mates (Isabela, Melanie, Josh and Tommaso), who are very good people to be living with, despite some issues with J's untidiness and strange smells :P But on top of all... there are Isabela (the same as before) and Maria Stella, who I consider my friends at all effects! It's just so much fun to spend time with them and I am so really happy that I have met them - and that I happen to be flat mates with one of the two especially. Isn't that good luck?? It feels so good to have someone to do pretty much everything with, from washing, to meals or afternoon tea (like today) or hanging around. Oh, and let's not forget the fact that I can share my craziness as well!

So far (but it's only been a week), I really like my subjects. I mean it, all my lecturers are funny and very good at teaching and none of the lessons have been boring (not counting the fact that I was falling asleep once - it wasn't the lecturer's fault!).

I have found a temporary part time job, which should help with some extra money coming in. It's not like street fundraising is my favourite thing ever, but I am fine with it for now, as long as I get something and until I find something more stable.

NEGATIVES

I am a bit homesick. It's not killing me, it's not keeping me awake at night, because I am tooooo tired for anything like that... but I am a bit homesick, yes. It never happened when I was in Australia, but I guess that was different. Yes, here I am as or even more) busy as I was down there. But here I have to deal with everything by myself, or with the help of my friends of course but it's not the same)... and probably also the fact that my mum has been in hospital and I wasn't there made me homesick. So yes, I have actually said it.

It's hard to manage finances. It's not too bad, but I am used to being able to afford a lot of stuff that now I can't afford, if I have to stick to a budget.

Friday - One more lecture, washing and gnocchi!

Friday 26/09

This was the day when I had my first lesson for the last of my theory modules: Cell Biology and Physiology. It was again in the Great Hall (like Tuesday's lecture) and I got there exactly at 9 o'clock and I am really really glad the girls keep a seat for me every time hahah Otherwise I would always be sitting on my own! However, there was a new girl in the middle of our group on Friday morning and I immediately introduced myself, thinking she had arrived with Coral, since they were sitting next to each other... her name is Lea and it turned out that she didn't know ANY of us :P So she had just ended up sitting in the middle of us by chance lol.
Anyway, at the beginning we had the module organiser (a woman, for the first time) introduce herself to us and then it was the turn of another lecturer to give the lecture :) Again, I really liked the lesson, despite the fact that cells are not as interesting to me as Evolution is, and I took heaps of notes (which I need to fill in with the aid of my text book as soon as possible!). Plus, the lesson was very interactive and we were introduced to "buzz groups", which means that we were given a few minutes to discuss certain topics with the people next to us! That was cool :D

After the lesson I spent a bit of time chatting with the rest of the group, then Andrea and Coral went home, while Laurana, Elena and I went to the library to print some stuff: I printed my cv, but it was ruined because of the printer :(

Then the three of us went to The Curve so that Elena could fill up some forms and I dropped in at my flat do leave my cv. I also met Isabela and talked to her a few minutes, before running downstairs again! I wasn't at the Curve for much longer, though, and I got back home for a quick lunch with Isabela. I meant to blog for the rest of the afternoon, but Maria Stella asked me to accompany her to the Curve for lunch and so I did, then her ball dress arrived and we dropped it in her room. Afterwards we went to the bookshop for her to buy some law textbooks and eventually she went to a lesson (late, by the way... poor her... there was such a huge line at the bookshop!).

Next, I did the washing with Isabela and, while waiting for it to be finished, we went to the supermarket to buy the ingredients we needed to make gnocchi for our second Friday night big dinner (like last week's one with spaghetti) :D When we got back, I was like "Are you up for some tea?" and we had tea... and what I was thinking was that I truly love having these times to relax together and do simple things, because it makes this flat feel a lot more like a home!

Once the washing and the drying were done, around 7.15pm, I started boiling the water for the potatoes and then Melanie and Isabela helped me prepare the gnocchi, which took us over an hour. The result wasn't exactly the one I am used to with my grandmother, because there were heaps of lumps in the potatoes... we had taken them off the cooker a bit too early! But the final result, after cooking the actual gnocchi, was good *-* I am really proud of how they turned out!! At dinner, it was the three of us, Maria Stella and Tommaso, who actually didn't eat gnocchi because there were not enough for everyone and he decided to give his portion up. I so love this tradition we have created of having a "big" dinner together o Friday nights... it's lovely and lots of fun :)

After dinner, Isabela and I wanted to go to the party at Drapers, the Krispy Kream 'Xperience (Krispy Kream is a brand of doughnuts), but decided not to, because I was too tired and in the morning I had to go to work... so we gave up our plan and instead washed up together with Maria Stella. Again, there were soooooo many plates, pans and cutlery to wash hahah I guess that's the issue when you have more people eating together, but the fun is worth the effort ;)

So, once we had decided not to go, we walked Maria Stella back to her flat and we found some confetti ("coriandoli" in Italian.... what a weird translation!) in her kitchen form the birthday party of one of her flat mates so we took a handful each and... we threw them at Tommaso as soon  as we got back to our flat LOL! He had just come out of the shower and came out only with a towel so all the confetti stuck on him! Maria Stella, Isabela and I were literally bent in two with laughter hahahah

Anyway, after that, Isabela went with Maria Stella back to her fat, whereas I went to Isabela's room to use her printer to print a proper copy of my cv. She let me stay in her room with all of her things without worrying... that's trust :D Or as she said "If this is not trust, I don't know what is!"
When I had finished printing, I went back to my room, but I didn't go to bed because Isabela's room was still unlocked, so I waited for her to come back and then I finally went to sleep :)

Job trial and cherry blossom (Thursday)

Thursday, 25/09

 

My alarm went off at 7am and I felt terrible... Melanie had been sick the day before and I got it from her, so my throat was so sore and I felt very weak! It wasn't because of the lack of sleep, but probably because of Melanie (she reminded me today... I was trying to work out where I had got it!) and the continuous changes in weather! Anyway, it was going to be my job trial, so I had no other chance but to get up, get dressed AND look normal. So I got ready, left Queen Mary and caught the tube (Central + DLR) to reach the office of the charity that I was going to raise for (Help One Child). I was even 10 minutes early on the appointment, which was at 9am, and I sat there with one of the other people who were going to try the job. In the end there were three "trainees", a team leader and the manager: the two of them explained us what we should be doing and then we went with the team leader to Sevenoaks, where we met two other fundraisers (they have been working with the charity for a few days/weeks) and we were given t-shirts to wear and buckets for the money. On the way to Sevenoaks, though, we stopped at Canary Wharf to change the tube and... awwww *-* It was so pretty! I was a bit of a tourist then, and also when we reached London Bridge train station :P

At the beginning, my team leader had me stand in front of a Tesco supermarket. The first couple of hours or so were pretty good, because most of the people who came past listened to my "Hi, any help for homeless children?" and donated some money. Then there were another couple of hours that were awful, because it was freezing cold (and I was already ill) and people kept telling me they had already given money to my colleagues... especially to my team leader, who stationed just a block away from me :( However, he had to leave early and he gave me his spot, in front of a 99p store, which was awesome *_* Almost everyone gave me pounds and I was so happy!!! Anyway, it was a looooong day and I am glad I made friends with the fundraiser (girl) across the road, so we could chat sometimes! We finished at 4.30pm and by then it was just me, the other girl, one of the trail boys and the other experienced fundraiser (a boy). On the way back to the station, I spent most of my time talking to him and he is really lovely! The trip back to the office (where it was just me and the two experienced fundraiser, because the other boy had to rush before us) was a nightmare though... my head was spinning and I truly felt like I could have fainted on the tube :( BUT I GOT THE JOB!!!!!!

After talking to my manager, I left the office and I found Drisha (I think this is the correct spelling - the girl) and Itaram (the boy) waiting for me, which was really sweet *-* I wasn't expecting it all, in fact I pretty much walked out on them until I realised they had been waiting for me! 

Eventually, I got back home at 7.30pm... Gosh, it had been such a long day and I was literally exhausted! As soon as I walked in I met Isabela, who showed me the door stops we had just received and we placed them on our doors... it looks so good when we both have our doors open, now :P Then I had dinner and she stayed with me and we chatted about our day, until Tommaso came in and I went to help him do the washing (he had never done it). When I got back, Isabela and I decided to go back down and pay a visit to the Village Shop (the QM minimarket) to buy biscuits for our tea and then we had a tea together J But in the meantime... in the corridor there was a terrible smell of poo, which comes out of Josh's room every time he goes to the toilet because he leaves his room's door open, so the two of us used our Cherry Blossom room deodorants and sprayed the corridor and our rooms (because our doors were open) :P We couldn't stop laughing when we did that hahaha Especially because then there was such a strong smell of cherry blossom LOL!

A day off uni: the longest Skype call ever and other things

Wednesday, 24/09

Wednesday was my first day off from university :)

The previous night, during my emailing with Isabela, she had told me she would try to wake up at 8 to go to the post office with me... I had honestly ignored her message and set my alarm for 9 o'clock, because I knew I would have been dead otherwise lol. However, I was the first one to wake up in the end :P She got up just after me, as she had simply switched off the alarm, and we ended up going to the post office around 10.30. What's with the post office?  On Tuesday, I had found a note telling me there was something for me to pick up at the post office, so she had decided to come with me in case it was our Argos stuff arriving (which would have been too heavy and large for me to carry alone). Though, it was actually just a book for me that had arrived at the office: my beloved "Millennio di fuoco - Raivo" (Cecilia Randall) *_* I had ordered from the Italian Amazon, because it has just been released (being Cecilia Italian, it's in Italian) and it's not available in England :(

During the morning, I also got three phone calls: two phone-interviews and a call I couldn't pick up. The first interview was from an organisation that does street fundraising and they gave me a job trial for the next day (Thursday, since I had another day off from uni). The next was an Events organiser, but I didn't accept the group interview and I dropped my application because I wasn't really interested.

Later, I had lunch with Maria Stella and Isabela at Curve and, immediately after that, our Argos stuff arrived at the flat *_* But Isabela had to rush to a lecture and I had planned to Skype with Giorgia (my best friend), so she just dropped the bags in my room and I barely opened them before Skyping. 

It was about 2pm then... I finished Skyping at 4.30!!! It was really awesome to be able to talk to Giorgie for sooo long, because I miss her a lot, not having seen her in person since July (she was on a work experience in Malta), and this loong call felt so familiar, that it was like we were together again! I told her everything that has been happening here and she filled me in on her last adventures in Malta and her return home :) We aso started organising her visit here, which should be at the beginning of November, and I am already sooo looking forward to it! I can't wait to see her, show her my new life and introduce her to my friends here in London in person! Though, I virtually (through Skype) introduced her to Melanie, my only flat mate who was in at the beginning, and to Isabela, who arrived after 4pm and was a bit shocked to find me still on Skype hahah The conversation that Giorgie and Isabela had was very funny :P They introduced themselves and then Isabela saw our iron on my desk and started staring at it and talking about iron and she started laughing when she realised what she was doing and Giorgie was just staring at us laughing as well, because I had started talking to Isabela about the items from Argos! Anyway, our call lasted a few more minutes, but then I had to hang up because I was meant to meet a guy for some ticket repping job. 

Argos items *_*

Melanie, Isabela and I were both meant to meet this guy, so we all went in front of the Curve, where he told us to go, and stayed there and listened to his talk. I wasn't sure about the job when I applied, but I got so excited about it when he gave us the tickets to sell and the leaflets to distribute hahah Actually, all the three of us were very excited and we decided to work together and share our incomes in the end... We got back to the flat and stuck our contact details to all the leaflets and posted the links to the events on Facebook and twitter. All of this took us about 1 hour and a half... until something like 8.30! And Isabela and I were meant to be at Maria Stella's place by 7 o'clock  o.O On the way to her Hall, by the way, we hung leaflets on various doors.

During dinner, Maria Stella and I put some Italian songs on (Baglioni, "Questo piccolo grande amore" and "Strada facendo" and Pausini, "La geografia del mio cammino") and we sang along loudly, then Isabela showed me the video of "Let it go" in every language :D It was amazing *_*
Later, still at Maria Stella's flat, we helped her write a letter to the manager of the Students' Union Events to ask if she could come to a party on Friday (Krispy Kream) and then we showed her the websites where to find jobs and to make a good cv! 

This time, I actually managed to be in bed before midnight... at 11.30 hahaha And the next morning I was meant to wake up at 7am to go to the job trail :(

A blurry day & lots of job-searching (Tuesday)

Tuesday, 23/09

The next morning was literally a blur for me... I had to get up at 9am to go to the first lecture of Molecular Biology (a subject I am not really that much into), which turned out to be only an intro to the course. But my lecturer was Dr Curren, the same as for the lab induction, so it was funny again!! I was half awake during this lecture, but the next one (after an hour of break at The Ground) was absolutely HELL for me!! I could barely keep my eyes open and my head straight... I couldn't bring myself to take nay notes and I was lucky enough that this was sort of an intro again... of course it was not Dr Curren's fault, because he is awesome, but I was too tired because of my lack of sleep!

Afterwards I ran back to the flat because Isabela and I were meant to go to the welcome bbq for the Amnesty International society and I wanted to tell Isabela that I wouldn't be able to go... but she anticipated me and apologised for being too tired to go hahah So neither of us felt like going, for the same reason, and we had a relaxed lunch to wake up a bit :P In the meantime, she told me about the crazy cleaner that had come in the morning... gosh, it sounded so scary! Apparently, this woman complained about Isabela's pan still being in the sink to be washed (she had left it the previous night, but was going to wash it at breakfast) and especially our posters... ouch! But she didn't take them off, actually, so that was good at least :P

Then we spent about half an hour trying (and succeeding!) to build her desk organiser that had just arrived: we didn't have a screw-driver, so we had to adjust to using knives and forks instead... it took us ages, but we made it (ehmmm...kind of, it's actually a bit wobbly)!

As soon as that was done (about 2pm maybe), we both sat with our computers at the kitchen table (with the pretty view outside) and we started looking for jobs again. This time we were a lot luckier and each of us sent a few application to various employers :) There's one job that I'm really thriving to obtain, as a tutor to a couple of kids nearby, but their mother hasn't answered yet :(

At some stage, Josh and Tommaso came in the kitchen and they told us it was about 9pm again... so after a few minutes we closed our computers and finally ate... LOL it's so funny how we always forget to look at the time when we are doing something!!!

By 11pm, or around that time, we were all back in our rooms and I thought I was going to go to bed early, but I started reading... and in the meantime I was emailing with Isabela, because she started sending me links of jobs and I would look at them and reply to her and went on like this almost until midnight hahah