Trying to catch up - part 2: weekend back in Italy!

In the last post, I finished saying that I had to run to the airport to go back to Italy: I spent the weekend between the 10th and the 12th of October back at home! I really was looking forward to this and I was so happy when I got here :) But let’s start from the beginning.

As soon as Cell Biology finished, I rushed to my room, picked up the little suitcase I had packed on Thursday night and caught a train to Gatwick (well, after a trip on the tube to get to Victoria Station of course). Keep in mind that I finished lesson at 11 and my plane was at 1.30pm, so I had 2h30 to do everything... well, I nearly missed the 12 o’clock Gatwick Express, which would have been a mess! But I managed, with the doors shutting just as I stepped on the train :P It was such good luck!

Anyway, I reached my terminal at Gatwick at 12.50 and 5 minutes later I was lining up for the metal detector. I MET THE MEANEST GUY EVER!! I was ready, I had my handbacg and my little suitcase to scan and nothing else... and this guy in front of me had three bags (including a guitar), still had to take off his jacket and everything out of his pockets. I had 15 minutes to get to my gate before it closed, so I simply motioned to go in front, apologising and asking permission and he was like “Excuse me, why are you doing that??”. Imagine my face at that. Ok, now keep that face in your mind and turn it even more confused and surprised while going through the conversation, which was similar to this:
ME: “Sorry, I am ready...”
HIM: “You don’t have anything else? [a hopeful smile opened on my face and I shook my head]. Well, I don’t care!”
ME  [with my face saying “WTH?!”]: “But... I have a plane in 15 minutes, you won’t even be finished, but the time I am past that detector!”
HIM: “I don’t care! You should have been earlier!”
ME: “I was at university, it’s not my fault...”
HIM: “I don’t care about that as well”
ME [whispering and pulling back]: “You are mean”
I honestly couldn’t believe that was happening... I had to wait 5 minutes until he was done, with the lady behind me also impatiently glaring at him and then I was anyway ready before him after the detector, so I gave him a very meaningful winning look after we had gone through! I know it might sounds bitchy, but if you haven’t seen the scene with your eyes, you can’t understand how rude he was...

Eventually I made it on the plane and I got to Torino in less than two hours. It was my first flight completely alone, which was weird!! But nothing happened and I didn’t get lost, nor I lost anything :D

As soon as I walked out, I found my parents waiting and it was great to be back with them, to share hugs and talk and talk forever and just be together after a month! Soon we also picked up my sister, who was out with her friends and the family was reunited... I had missed them a lot!! It was so lovely going to the centre, drinking a fruit juice at the cafè together, walking randomly, shopping... I got two pair of boots and some long socks :) For the first time in a month I didn’t have to pay for things myself and I finally realised that there’s a huge difference between having everything bought for you and having to deal with it yourself... you are a lot more self-conscious when you shop with your “own” money (I still receive them from my parents, but I consider them mine, since I have my own account).

In the evening we went for dinner at my favourite pizzeria, “Ideal”, with a pair of my grandparents and two of my aunts *_* It was so cosy and familiar and the food was obviously amazing! However... it last for a very short time, because we met at 8pm and at 9.15pm we had to leave, because I was feeling so bad... I felt like I could faint for how tired I was, after my previous sleepless night and the trip with the cough and fever I had -.-“ It was so annoying! At home I watched “The Vampire Diaries” with my sister and my mum, even though only my sister normally watches it, but at least we were together :)

On Saturday morning at 12 I met my friend Giulia in the centre and we went to the bookshop where I had my work experience last year, so I had a (long) chat with my ex-colleagues, which always happens because I really really like them :) Then the two of us went to lunch at a pizza place where we always used to go and restored our tradition :P We spend almost three hours there, chatting about anything that came to our mind :) It was so good!

At 3.30pm I met with my school friends (Chiara #1, Denisa, Marisa, Sara and Chiara #2) near school and it was so emotional to see them after a month, especially Chiara and Denisa *_* In the meantime, we bumped into my high school Italian/Latin teacher and we had a chat with her, which was nice, since she was my favourite! Aftwerwards we went to the centre, had an ice cream together and walked around chatting for a few hours, taking some photos, telling each other stories of how our lives have been going on since the beginning of September :D It was hard to say goodbye again around 6pm and I have to admit that something that Chiara #1 said is very very true... it’s even worse saying goodbye after having been together again for a little while!

BUT then I met Giorgia! I hadn’t seen her since the beginning of July. I had missed her so much, I had missed having my best friend around, even if not always with me. I had missed not being able to talk to her freely and in person, or just sit there together and enjoy each other’s company. We were back together for the first time in months and I was so happy! We went to my house, we had a chat with my parents, we had dinner with wonderful gnocchi alla romana (that my mum made, because they are pretty much my favourite food!) and then chatted until midnight, when we had to take her home because I was still sick and having her to sleepover would have meant having no sleep at all. It was a wonderful night, after a great day, and I can’t really say how happy I was of seeing my best friend again! It’s just... i don’t know... we just understand each other and it’s so easy to talk about anything, because I know she will answer honestly and tell me what she thinks... I have to say this in Italian: ti voglio tanto bene Giorgie! Even though se is not reading this blog, I had to say it :D

It was so amazing to feel the familiarity that comes from the friends you haven’t seen in a while but you know you haven’t lost! So Saturday was really great, because I saw both my family and some of my friends and I realised that I had missed all of them a lot, more than I thought, and that I have so many people that I can’t but love in my life!!

Sunday morning was spent half sleeping, half helping my sister with some homework, then I went with my parents to an aperitivo with my grandparents and aunts (same as Friday night, but without my sister), which was really relaxed and enjoyable, because I was feeling a lot better (thanks to finally having got medicines) and we managed to do a lot of small talk :D In the meantime, I also got to drive a bit, after a whole month with driving!! It was great and I didn't screw up (apart from leaving the keys in the car at the end o.O).

Eventually we went back home and I tried to get some sleep, but my cough kept me awake... so there was nothing I could do about that and we left for Milano Malpensa with me all but rested :P I had to say goodbye to my sister first, because she stayed in the car, and then to my parents after we reached the Metal Detector (where I had a few problems with my hand luggage and I had to leave my camera to my parents -.-). I miss my parents and my sister already, but I also know I am going to see them shortly, as in next weekend, so I am fine at the moment, luckily :)

The trip was kind of good, apart from the fact that I didn’t have my bag on the seat with me, so I didn’t have an soothers for my cough... I had to keep from coughing all the time and I had to rely on the tea Easy Jet was providing. But it was a nice flight, because I met this Italian guy from another university and we started talking and he helped me to get to the Gatwick Express once we landed :)
On the way home on the tube, which is about 30 minutes long (Victoria Station to Mile End), I had a lot of time to think and I realised something that surprised me and kind of startled me. I realised that I had felt like a guest in my own room, at home, and that thought unsettled me a lot. Nobody made me feel like a guest, but it was a feeling I couldn’t shake... I was seeing things with the eye of a different person, my room didn’t look like it used to, because a lot of stuff is missing, my pillow was the guests’ one because mine is in London! And what shocked me the most was looking at the Tube map and thinking “Two stops until I am home”. When did I start considering London, and specifically Queen Mary, as my home? I don’t know. I didn’t notice it happening, I didn’t know it had happened until that moment. It’s not something easy to put down in words, it’s not easy to describe at all, but I wanted to try. So yep, apparently now I have three homes in my heart. I like it and it scares me at the same time, I don’t know why. But I can’t deny the fact that this city, this university, this flat is my new home.

Trying to catch up - part 1: routine, Anime, crazy washing and various bits and pieces

Hello,

Since I am three weeks behind with writing here, I am just going to make a general summary and then highlight the most important or weird things the happened :)

Routine in these past weeks

The last three weeks have been pretty full on and university is definitely entering the hard phase: I have to study, summarise notes, integrate with textbooks, do assignments and lab exercises.
 
MONDAY: A typical week always starts with my Evolution lecture at 9am, with Mr Handsome teaching us. Seriously, apart from anything else, he is a real good lecturer, I love the way he teaches and he makes everything very clear. The fact that I truly like the subject also helps!!
After the first one hour of lecture I have a two-hours break during which I normally do some work with the girls from my group in Biology, for example to finish Lab assignments.
Next we have a second hour of lecture of Evolution and then a break of one hour. In these weeks we have talked mainly about human evolution and genetics in evolution!
In the afternoon, we have lab, which is harder, but I am also starting to appreciate it :) These three weeks in lab were about: critical thinking (we had to create a poster – I’ll talk more about this later), solutions to count cells and “freestyle practical” (solutions + microscope + modelling of chromosomes).
Lab finishes at 5 and usually after that I have my “Once Upon a Time” meeting with Maria Stella, either in her or my room and we watch the new episode and comment it together, which is a lot nicer that watching it alone :P Even though I anyway comment a lot also with Giulia and Chiara (in Italy) through texts hahah Once Upon a Time mania yay! I so love "Once Upon a Time" and this season is amazingly great, with both "Frozen" and the old characters in it *_* 

TUESDAY: I used to have Molecular Biology on Tuesday morning, but it was move to Thursday from last week :) However I’ll talk about it now! Molecular Biology is fine, it’s not my favourite subject (that is Evolution), but I started kind of liking it lately... I think the fact that Dr Curren, my lecturer, is very good helps a lot! We have been dealing with DNA, RNA and chromosomes.

WEDNESDAY: Wednesday is my first free day and I normally just sleep in, do some work for the course, either at home or at the library, and relax.

THURSDAY: It used to be my other free day and I would spend it very similarly to the Wednseday, but from last week I started having Molecular Biology at 9am, in the Whitechapel campus, which is two tube stops away from here. I was really upset about having to commute, but the lecture theatre there is just amazing! It’s worth the trip, which is fast, anyway, and I go with a friend of mine (Laurana), so it’s fine! 

FRIDAY: On Friday morning, 9-11, I have Cell Biology and Physiology, which has become my least favourite module because I didn’t like the lecturer we had for the first five weeks, honestly... At the beginning I thought he was funny, but then he started being mean and rude towards the people who were asking or answering questions in the wrong way... he would tease them and I felt embarrassed for them :( Then he kept complaining nobody was interacting... how can you think people would want to interact when you treat them that way?!
After lesson, Andrea and I normally go to the common room in France House and we do homework together there for a while, which helps a lot because we understand things better and we do them quickly. We usually complete our Mastering Biology assignment, a weekly online test, our Lab preparation for the next Monday and our Lab exercise assigned for that specific week (lately, it has mainly been concerning the use of a software called Blast).
In the last couple of weeks, Friday has also turned into the days when Isabela and I go grocery shopping, either at the big Sainsbury’s in Whitechapel, 15 minutes from here, or in one of the smaller supermarkets around here! We always spend soooo much time out when we go shopping, either because we slowly walk around the supermarket chatting, or because we stop in other places, like last Friday, when we stopped at a French café for a crepe. OMG the crepe was great, but we had such an embarrassing experience... we simply walked out of the place and the man had to run after us, because we had forgotten to pay -.-“ It was soooooo embarrassing, I couldn’t stop blushing and giggling!
Lastly, Friday night is when we have our traditional “flat dinner”, which is not exactly a flat dinner, since Josh never comes! Lately, also Tommaso has been standing us up, but Melanie, Isabela and I are pretty much always there and sometimes also Maria Stella joins us, as an honorary flat mate hahaha I really love this tradition :) Up to now, we have cooked spaghetti and meatballs (week 0), gnocchi (week 1), hamburgers (week 2), pizza (week 4).

WEEKEND: it doesn’t have a routine, since I quit my job (I’ll explain later) :D Every weekend is different from the previous one and that’s nice, but I always get to relax a bit, sleep in, do some cleaning, shopping and to watch some show or read!

Outstanding events – #1 (6 to 10th October):

•  Monday 6/10: That day we had to hand in an assignments on statistics, one that had had me go crazy for four hours on Friday afternoon and four more on Sunday night, because I couldn’t work out how to do it... ARGGGH! But I had managed eventually, so I was fine :P But in the two hours in between the two Evolution lectures, I met up with my tutorial group to work on our presentation and I found out that four of them hadn’t done it (only Andrea and I had), so I started explaining it to them and helping them... I did it four times in a row, 10 minutes for each!!! I can’t believe it o.O I went crazy for hours on mine, whereas now that I know how to do it I find it so easy! I am glad I got to help them, because I practised a lot and now I am quite confident with histograms and box plots on Excel :D
•  Later that same day I had Lab and I thought it was going to be some other hard exercise, instead when I arrived (late) everyone was already sitting in small groups. I didn’t know what this was all about, so I went straight to where Andrea and Elena were sitting, in front of Coral and Laurana. But one of the demonstrator stopped me and tried to make me go to another group saying that the girls were already five and groups could only be of 5... what?! I could only see four and so could they, so we couldn’t understand why she wouldn’t let me go to them... int he end in turned out she considered Andrea and Elena in a group with three guys behind them and Coral and Laurana with other three, because they were on opposite side of a bench!! So the poor girl was right, but we still didn’t let her win and the five of us unified in a group, standing up all the others, on one side of the bench :P And I am glad we did! The exercise for the day was a Critical Thinking one, which meant we had to analyse three themes we were given (each group had different themes), by drawing out plots of ideas on A3 sheets we were provided. Apparently, there were also some instructions on the QM website, but neither of us knew it, so we just made it all up and... we got it right!! The academics were really impressed and couldn’t believe we had done it without looking at the examples :P So we worked on the three topics, but we mainly concentrated on the first one (“Domestication of dogs created several different species”), since they told us we would only be marked on one. Then we spent the rest of the time just chatting, about tv series and movies :) At the end of the workshop, they told us we could take the posters home and that we would have to hand in our favourite the next Monday, after completing him and perfecting it out of Lab! So the next Monday morning, in between the two Evolution lectures, we gathered in the France House common room (which has turned into our study room) and stuck the A3 sheet to an A2 one, added more writing around it and glued pictures in :) I soooo love the result, as we also made it a bit colourful! Here is an almost complete version of it, with only some highlighting missing:

• In the evening (yes, I’d say that Monday was particularly eventful), Isabela introduced me to the anime “Attack on titans” and... I would say I liked it, since we ended up watching 6 episodes in a row and after about a week and a half we had seen the whole season 1 (22 episodes) + all the available special episodes!! I don’t know why I got hooked so quickly, but I couldn’t stop watching and I wanted to know what woud happen next all the time... and I still do, since season 1 is not the end of the story!
  Moreover, we decided to cosplay characters from the show at the London MCM *-* I wanted to be Hanji and she wanted to be Mikasa, but we only managed to have one piece of costume each for the MCM, as will be shown in the post I will write specifically about the MCM!



Hanji is the screaming girl at the back

• Being sick – no specific day: starting from that Thursday I had my job trial, I was sick for about three weeks, with a very bad cough, a cold and some days even a fever! I could probably have healed a lot faster if I had thought of buying medicines, but I waited until I went back to Italy in mid-October to get some, so I had this sickness for quite a while!
• Tuesday 7/10: nothing particularly special, but it’s worth mentioning that because we were watching “Attack on titan” the whole time... Isabela and I ended up doing the washing until midnight! And once it was out of the washing machines, since the drying machine hadn’t worked very well, we had to hang the clothes on a drying rack in my room... but there wasn’t enough room for everything, so we also used my chair and Melanie’s extra mattress that was still in my room from the night of the Ball :P It seriously looked like a favela (word of a Brazilian girl!) HAHAHA

• Wednesday 8/10: at the 10am, I had my first real tutorial meeting! I was nearly late, because they are doing some refurbishing in the uni and every day some of the areas are closed, so I couldn’t find my way to the building where I was meant to go. However, I met Lina on the way and we walked there together, so it was fine :) The six of us that showed up (there’s 8 of us in the group, but Harry and Rose didn’t come... actually none of us had any idea of who Rose was!) presented our slideshow on “Function and Structure of a Chair” and it went sort of well... even though most of people got negative feedback (luckily, I was fine). But it was our first presentation and it wasn’t marked, so it was very useful to start working together and understand what our tutor expects of us!! I like our advisor/tutor, even though he seems even more nervous of us during the tutorials, as if he was the one being assessed :) But he is really nice and kind! I am also becoming friend with the rest of the tutor group, not only Andrea and Lina! The people in my tutor group are: Andrea, Lina (Karolina), Rose (who I didn’t know back then), Moh (Mohammed), Kash (Kashif), Hisham and Harry (same as with Rose, but at least Kash and Hisham knew him).
  When tutorial finished, I went to the Common Room with Moh and Andrea and we worked on one of our Lab assignments together until lunch time, Then something adorable happened *-* Moh offered me lunch as a thank you for helping him with statistics on Monday!! That was so sweet of him!
• Thursday 9/10: Since it was my only free day for the week, I relaxed and took a day off from studying anything. I talked on viber with my Australian host family and then my mum. Afterwards I had lunch and I finally caught up with the anime “Sailor Moon Crystal”, that I hadn’t watched in a month and a half, so I was three episodes behind! Now, I know I have never mentioned Sailor Moon before, but this series is another obsession of mine and i adore everything that concerns it, be it anime, manga or gadgets of any sort :P I even cosplayed one fo the Sailor warriors (Sailor Saturn) last year, so... hahaha By the way, I strongly suggest to anyone to watch “Sailor Moon Crystal” because it’s amazing (and for the people who have read the manga, it’s also very faithful to the original storyline).

• In the afternoon I went to the meeting for the QMSci, the Science Magazine here at uni, and I truly loved the presentation *_* I am so exicted about starting this, even if I haven't wrtiten any article yet! Just after this, I picked up Maria Stella from her flat and then Isabela from our and we walked Maria Stella to the minimarket, to then leave her there and run to the the Biological Society meeting: we had a quiz & pizza night, in which we sat with random groups (my group counted Roshee, the girl I met one of the first days of Frehsers' week, a friend of hers and two other guys, plus of course me and Isabela). We didn't win, but it was fun, even though it wasn't very well organised... especially the "pizza" part, as there wasn't enough pizza for everyone! I only got 1 slice and most of my group didn't get any at all :(
• Friday 10/10: I had an awful night because my cough got very bad and i couldn’t sleep :( So I was literally a zombie at Cell Biology in the morning... and afterwards I had to run to the airport to fly to Italy, but that will be the topic of the next post!!

 

Double sleepover and lots of cold (3rd-4th October)

Friday, 3/10

The alarm went off at 7.30 on the day after the Ball... can you imagine how happy the three of us were? Yep, we were everything but rested and awake... But what else could we do, other than get up and walk as zombies to a two-hours lecture of Cell Biology and Physiology. Admittedly, we weren’t as dead as I though during the lesson and I managed to take notes for most of the time, at least until the break in the middle. By then, my attention was elsewhere, especially on the photos of the Ball that Andrea and I were exchanging through Facebook :P When we had time, the three of us (Andrea, Coral and I) told the other two girls in our group (Laurana and Elena) about the Ball and that chat sort of kept us awake for a while hahah

After lessons, Andrea and I were meant to meet up with our tutorial group to work on our assignment of “Structure and Function of a Chair”, but only Kashif showed up, so the three of us just divided the topics and assigned something also to the other missing ones. 

Then I went back to my room, with the intention of simply laying on my bed (still a double bed!) for a few minutes... and I woke up at 3pm!! I was just sooooo tired I didn’t even realise I had fallen asleep :P By the way, before sleeping, I was texting a bit with Isabela, among other people, and at some stage (the background is a too long story, let’s just say it was connected to her friends who missed the boat) she told me something like “You are a very good friend” <3 <3 It brought a huge smile to my face!!

By 3.15 I was starving and I thought I was going to have lunch alone, but I was lucky enough to find Isabela eating as well :) Afterwards, we went to the common room under France House, where I had never been before, and studied there until 7.30. It helped a lot with my concentration, because I felt too guilty to get distracted with somebody else there with me (sort of like what happened when I studied with my friends for Maturità) and I managed to do lots of work!

The evening turned into an improvised sleepover, since my bed was still a double bed and Josh was having a party, with some girls in his room as well... and Isabela didn’t want to hear anything, poor her! So we decided she’d move to my room for the night (I so understand her!) and we went on talking for a while, chatted on the phone with her friend Emily (the same one of the Villains and Superhero night) and then we went to sleep.

Saturday, 4/10

In the morning, I went to work. I had to meet my team leader at King’s Cross station at 9.30, but she was late, so I had to wait for a while. However, when she arrived we found that for the first time it was a girls-only team! The other two girls there were very nice and we spent a lot of time just talking, on the train and walking to our spots. The beginning of the morning was good, I raised some good money and people were nice to me, including the manager of the security of the Tesco, who offered me coffee. But then it started being cold and rain started pouring... it was just awful! I sheltered at the entrance of the Tesco at first, but then it was just too cold and I went into the shopping centre where one of the other girls was stationed and we went looking for the toilets. Soon after, I received a call from my leader asking where we were and she joined us with the last girl :) So we all went to McDonalds to warm up and we had an early lunch... at first she thought we were having a short break, then she noticed how much rain there was and how cold it was outside and she let us stay  inside for a couple of hours. In the meantime we got to know each other a bit better and I found out our leader, Dunia, is only 17 years old! I would have never thought so, because she acts a lot more mature than 17, and I was really impressed :D 

Around 2.30, we decided it wasn’t worth waiting, because the weather wasn’t going to get any better, so we caught a train home and at 4 I arrived at the common room to do some study... which didn’t really happen, because I ended up emailing my Aussie friends, since I hadn’t had a chance to answer their emails for a whole week :(

Later, we went for dinner at Maria Stella’s place (late... as usual!), but the she didn’t come back to our hall with us as we had originally planned... so our movie-night for three turned into a movie-night for two! Well, it wasn’t too much of a movie night in the end, but that was the original idea :P Since my bed was still a double, we decided we’d stay in my room again and we organised everything... but then I started shivering and being very very cold, so I had to lay under a blanket and two duvets with hot tea in my hands, before warming up a bit. I really felt feverish, so I know it was because of how cold it had been at work that morning! We started watching our movie (“Despicable me 2”) pretty late... and it fact we never got to the end, because we both fell asleep half way through and I woke up a bit later, must to move the computer off the bed and go back to sleep again!