Talks of friendship

Before going to bed, I really wanted to write this post about friendship. I don't mean it in a general way, though. What I mean is that, in the last few days, Isabela and I have been talking about our friendship and how easily it came up in a few weeks. Because yes, I have to say that now we are very close and that she is definitely my closest friend here in England... And knowing that she feels the same way is really heart-warming. We were talking about the fact that living with a friend is different from just being friends: you just know things of each other that you couldn't know any other way, you just spend so much time together that it's almost like having a sister-friend with you. And I love this! It makes my life a lot easier and better and I have a lot more reasons to smile and to laugh every day, because I know that somebody is on the same wavelength as me and that that somebody is there with me. It's refreshing having meals together, talking randomly, watching movies or anime together, doing chores with somebody else... just because we are friends and we want to enjoy each other's company. Already knowing that we want to move out together next year is comforting, as well. We talked about the fact that we would be very upset if we were ever to argue or lose this friendship, but I am sure we won't. I truly hope we don't.

This makes me think of how lucky I am, because I realise I have a bunch of wonderful friends, people I can truly call friends and that I love so much. They are literally all over the world, because I have some in Italy, as far as in Australia and here in England. I miss so many of them right now, because they are not with me, but I know they are there and that is enough for me. 

Okay, sorry for this weird psychological post, but I had to write it down!

Freshers Ball

Thursday, 2/10

 

Excitement was in the air on Thursday: it was the day of the Ball!! 

We had nothing else on our minds, pretty much, and each of us spent the day getting things organised. I cleaned my room and tidied it up in order to make room for Andrea and Coral, who were going to sleepover at my place (they live too far and it would have been a mess for them to go back home at 1am and then come back to lecture at 9am) :) I asked Melanie for her extra-mattress and I set up a sort of double bed, by moving mine to the other side of the room: it was the only way to fit three people :P 

In the afternoon, I went to the hairdresser at 4 o’clock, after washing my hair, and I was well and truly impressed by their work! It took almost 2 hours and 35£, but it was worth it: the result was absolutely gorgeous *_* Maria Stella was there for a while as well and we chatted in Italian (so funny!) while our hair were being styled!

Afterwards, I ran to the Sainsbury’s in front of the uni (trying not to move my head, because I was deadly scared to ruin my hair) to buy some pasta and some sauce to cook for everyone who was coming for dinner. In theory, there should have been many of us, because I had 2 people sleeping over, Maria Stella was coming for dinner, Isabela was meant to have a friend sleeping over and Melanie should have been there with a friend of hers. However, it was just me, Isabela, Maria Stella and Coral eating, as Andrea had already had dinner and the others didn’t show up >.< But I knew it, so I had made just the right amount of pasta, luckily. Throughout dinner, we had lots of chatting and Isabela went crazy trying to organise a taxi for 11 people (me, Coral, Andrea, herself, the girl she was meant to host, Maria Stella, Melanie, her friend and three more friends of Isabela), but it didn’t work so she only booked for the eight of us (excluding the last three girls). Things turned a bit into a mess anyway, because the girl she was going to host (Evelyn?) said she wasn’t coming, while Melanie and her friend were late getting ready... so Coral, Andrea and I left with the first taxi and got there 10 minutes before the others. Maria Stella (especially) and Isabela were very pissed about the delay that the others had caused because it meant paying the taxi more... it’s fair enough! 

Eventually, we gathered in front of Westminster Pier, where the Ball was going to be and started taking lots of photos! By then, it was only 5 of us: Isabela, Maria Stella, Andrea, Coral and myself :) It was the same group that we stuck with the whole night and I was very happy of having most of my London-friends there. Isabela wasn’t as lucky, because all of her other friends missed the boat for being even later, poor them... it was such a mess, because their taxi driver got lost and he didn’t know how to get in front of the Big Ben: are you kidding me?! A taxi driver in London doesn’t know where the Big Ben is?? O.O So weird!

 

 

 Anyway, the Ball was lovely! It was a disco on a boat along River Thames and the view was just amazing... I took so many pictures, both with people and just of the view :) We also danced a lot and my feet were killing me half way through the night, because my shoes were tight and I didn’t have a good balance, since I was on heels on a moving boat. I wanted to change into flats (which I had in my bag), but I didn’t because my dress was too long and it would have been swiping the floor the whole time... so I just lent my flats to Coral, who was dying as well! Lucky her :P

Andrea, Coral, Isabela, me and Maria Stella

 

  

Around the end of the night, I started staring outside of the window looking for Westminster Abbey, because I wanted to take a picture of it... and while we were just next to it, I couldn’t stop staring and I started crying. Why? I asked myself the same question at first, then I understood... Apart from the beauty of Westminster, it is also the symbol of London and seeing it that way made me realise that it is true: I am studying and living in London for real. It has been my dream since when I was about 10 and now it’s weird to think of it as my reality. I suppose that seeing Westminster in front of me, during a Ball organised by the university, was enough evidence for my mind. I know, in the last couple of years my dream had turned to Australia and I still think my future might be there, but for now I have realised my life-long dream, which is a huge accomplishment!

The Ball finished around 1am and, just as we were walking off the boat, Maria Stella started feeling sick... she couldn’t see anything anymore and she almost fainted on us... I was soooo worried!!! She got a bit better and we made her sit down outside, while waiting for the taxis, and then we gave her honey once we got back home. Luckily, everything was fine and nothing bad happened... but I still wonder what she had, since she hadn’t drunk anything (not even Lemonade like me, which could have been spiked)!

Once I was sure she’d be fine, Coral, Andrea and I went to my room and we had our sleepover, which was lovely :) We chatted and laughed for a while, but we went to sleep pretty soon because it was past 2 and our alarm was set for 7.30am, since we have a lecture at 9am on Friday.

Monday to Wednesday: First Lab experience and Ball preparations

Hello,

Once again I am very late, so I’ll try to be as quick as possible and to highlight only the main things :)

Monday, 29/09

After a crazy half-sleepless night (see previous post), I thought I would be dead throughout the day... instead, I was wide awake and I didn’t crash at all until the evening, probably because I had a lot of adrenaline keeping me up (thanks to Once Upon a Time). The Evolution lectures were very good, they confirmed my idea on my favourite module: Evolution is what I like the best! In the break between the two periods, I went with Andrea, Coral, Laurana and Elena to the Costa Cafè again and I found out that Coral and Andrea are fans of Pretty Little Liars (tv show) as well, so we started talking about that :) 

For lunch, instead, I went back to the flat despite the fact that I would have lab in just an hour... I wanted to have lunch with Isabela, since she had been away for the weekend, and so I did!

I met the other girls again at 2pm, in front of the lab building, for our first lesson of Practical Biology. Taking a step back, I was meant to have lab on Wednesday with Coral, but I asked to be moved to the Monday with the others and so did she. We didn’t get a reply in time, so Coral went on the Wednesday that first week, whereas I still went to the Monday after having asked permission to the demonstrator. Anyway, they freaked us out after barely 5 minutes, saying we should have watched and read some preparation material on QMplus (the online platform for the uni), which neither of us had done. We didn’t even know what the experiment would be about, because we hadn’t realised we would be completely left to ourselves... We had a microscope and a plate with cells in front of us and instructions to follow, but none of us knew what to do. However, it was a lot of fun and eventually we managed to work it out after hours! We were the loudest group in the whole lab, because we were four, while everyone else was working in couples at the most! For the first hour and half, by the way, I couldn’t even see any cell in my microscope because I hadn’t set it up completely, so I had to use Andrea’s for a while... Anyway, the lab lesson was meant to last 3 hours, but it took us 2 hours and a bit only to figure out how to use the instruments we were given and how to scale cells properly, so we finished half an hour later then we should have. But it was fine, we all got almost full marks (I lost one out of 25, for example)!

The rest of the afternoon was normal and so was the evening, until Isabela and I started an “emoticon-war” in the kitchen :P Let me explain... she doesn’t use many emoticons in her text messages and I am trying to make her do it, so we started texting only using emoticons to convey whole sentences: it was so funny hahaha And so crazy as well!

Then, at some stage, we also Skyped Maria Stella, who was in her flat, and we talked for a while before going to bed :)

Tuesday, 30/09

Tuesday morning I had Molecular Biology and there was a different lecturer, who talked about meiosis and mitosis so fast that I could barely take notes... I didn’t really like him, nor the lesson particularly honestly. In the break, I talked to Coral ad Andrea about going to see “Wicked” at the theatre: they said they want to go as well, so now there’s me, the two of them, Maria Stella, Isabela and her friend Emily.

In the afternoon I went to the hairdresser near Queen Mary to check them out and book an appointment for the day of the Ball (Thursday). I have to admit I was a bit hesitant about that place, but they looked good from the inside, so I trusted them and booked my place!

Then I went back to the flat, I re-watched the Once Upon a Time premiere (because I wanted to see it properly this time, without the grey screen and without being tired) and I had a very early dinner with Isabela. At 6.30pm we went to the Equality Society meeting. It was meant to be on between 6 and 8 and we thought we’d have dinner and go without missing much... but once we arrived they had already inished the presentation!! So we simply joined them at the pub nearby and it was so funny: everyone else had beers and things like that and I was there with a lemonade and Isabela with a juice! It looked weird :P However it was fun, I met some very nice girls with whom to share common ideas and we chatted a lot, until it got too cold to stayt out and the two of us came back home.

In the evening, Maria Stella came to our flat and she looked at hair styles with me and Isabela forever. We found some very very lovely ones and we couldn’t stop finding amazing ones that we would never be able to have... I also looked at Taylor Swift’s styles, but I gave up, because I am nothing like her :P In the end we each found our style and I absolutely loved my choice (I’ll put the final result in the post about the Ball).
During the evening, we also had a very sweet conversation, as Maria Stella said she felt like she had known us forever and that it felt like we were more than friends, like sort of sisters. It was so lovely and we all agreed on that and on how quickly we bonded :D I am so happy about this!

After that, Maria Stella went back home and, I don’t know how, the evening turned to total craziness hahah I mean it, it was so crazy, but also soooo much fun! Isabela and I started having something like 7 conversations at the same time, using the facebook chat, comments on a photo on fb, whats app, email, our uni email, the QMplus chat and proper talking :) I felt like I was drunk, but I wasn’t, it was just being crazy and it was amazing hahaha We went on until about 1am, before deciding it was eventually time to stop :P

Wednesday, 1/10

I don’t remember much of what I did on Wednesday and there are no texts that can help me remember, I have no idea of why. So I’ll be very quick ;) 

In the morning, I accompanied Maria Stella to the hairdresser so that she could book an appointment for herself as well, then we had lunch together at The Curve and talked for a while. After lunch we had a walk along the canal in the campus and it was sooooo pretty *_* The light was perfect, so I took lots of photos, and there weren't many people around so it was also rather peaceful :) During this wal, we got to chat some more and it was really nice!
For the rest of the afternoon, I think I studied, but I am not completely sure!

Last weekend: illness, sightseeing and dedication (Once Upon a Time)

I am late, again... I know! I am going crazy, keeping up with all that I have to do and I found I have a lot less free time than I expected, be it for “social” life or for university stuff. I guess I had underestimated the beginning of university.

I don’t think I’ll be able to go into details of every day that I have missed, unfortunately... I wish I could, because this blog is turning out to be a record of what I am doing, a memory to which I will be able to look back :) But starting from where I left you last week.

Saturday, 27/09

I had work booked in for Saturday, but I got up feeling worse than the days before. I already knew I had a fever and I was feeling pretty weak, but I still decided to give work a try. So I went to the station, met my new leader (Dunia) and we went to Luton Town Centre to fundraise. However, I was “okay” on the way there, but once I stood still in the place I was assigned, I felt like could fall at any time, so I had to go and sit down and she was lovely and got me some medicines. My work day finished there, because after half an hour I walked back to the train station and came back home, arriving by lunchtime. I also did the grocery on my way home, to avoid going back out.

At the flat, I found Isabela in the kitchen and we had lunch together... we were both very ill and it was a very funny meal: our conversation degenerated all of a sudden, starting from a serious topic such as religion and sacraments and arriving to saying that we are just behaving well for uni, but that we are normally either drunk or high (which is not true, just to specify – we were just saying crazy things). This lunch went on for quite a while, then I went back to my room and tried to rest for a couple of hours, whereas Isabela went back home.

I spent the rest of the afternoon and early evening blogging (most of my updates are form that night) and then I had dinner. When I arrived in the kitchen there was Tommaso who had just finished eating... but he was truly adorable and he decided to stay to talk and keep me (and himself) company. It was one of the first times we had dinner together and it was really nice :)

Later on, I tried to go to bed early, but both because I had slept in the afternoon and because

Tommaso had lots of Italian friends over making noise around the flat, I couldn’t sleep until at least midnight.

Sunday, 28/09

Around 10am, I met with Maria Stella and Melanie to go to Buckingham Palace. It was open until Sunday, because the Queen was on holiday... but when we got there, there were heaps of people and we couldn’t get in because the visit was sold out! But at least I managed to witness the beginning of the changing of the guards, for the first time ever *_* It was so majestic, even if we only saw a bit of it! WE also took heaps of pictures with the palace and in Green Park, just nearby.

 

Since our original plan had failed, we went to Westfield Shopping centre, had lunch at an Italian restaurant where the food didn’t taste Italian at all and then we went to do the little shopping we needed. I went to Intimissimi to buy a cardigan for the Freshers Ball (which, by the way, I didn’t wear in the end) and to Tiger to get a pair of fluffy slippers to wear at home :) Melanie went back to the campus after a little bit, whereas Maria Stella still needed do buy a couple of items and I kept her company :D When we got back home, I blogged some more and then I had dinner with Tommaso again.

Now, allow me to make a premise. I am NOT TOO SLIGHTLY obsessed with a tv show called “Once Upon a Time”, that has had three complete seasons so far. Last Sunday, season 4 premiered in the USA (on ABC). I was so excited for the premiere and I have been waiting for it for months... so Maria Stella and I (both in love with the series) decided we’d watch it live! I knew it would be a crazy thing to do, considering that I was going to have a lecture at 9am the next morning, but once Maria Stella put the idea in my mind, I couldn’t think of anything else. So we decided to watch it in her room and I went to bed around 9pm (in her bed), while she went on studying until 12.30am, when I got up. The premiere was at 1am for us (8/7c in America), so we set up my computer with a link a girl I met on facebook had given me and... we waited *-* I couldn’t stay still for how excited I was! AND WE DID: WE ACTUALLY WATCHED ONCE UPON A TIME AT 1AM ON A SUNDAY NIGHT, LIVE WITH AMERICA! This is dedication guys :P The episode was amazing, despite the annoyance of SIX commercials in 40 minutes of episode and of a grey window that kept opening on my screen to warn me about possible viruses that didn’t exist. I loved it I loved I loved it *_*

Once it finished, around 2am, I went back to my room and in the corridor I met Josh (flat mate)... it was so funny, because when, the next day, I asked him why he was up so late, he went all red and simply told me I wanted a glad of water... but then Isabela told me he actually had a girl in his room :P It was so awkward for him!!!