Trying to catch up - part 9: Interview and Family in London

Hello,

Today I am doing another post that won’t follow the “Outstanding events” format, as my family was in London for a weekend and on the Friday I also interviewed my Evolution lecturer (Dr Yannick Wurm, also called Dr Handsome on the blog)! So this weekend definitely deserves its own normal post :)

Friday 7^th November started with me accompanying Isabela to the big Sainsbury’s in Whitechapel. I didn’t need to do my grocery shopping, because my parents had said they would pay for it in the evening, so I only bought what we needed for Maria Stella’s surprise party on the Sunday night.

When we got back to the flat, we finished organising the interview, writing down the final questions and splitting them between the two of us. Just before 4 o’clock we showed up at his office and... he had sort of forgotten we were meant to do the interview! Though, he was very nice and he didn’t mind and he let us in. I literally froze there... I couldn’t say a word, pretty much, and I let Isabela do all the introduction, because I was trying to convince myself that I could go through the interview (I was embarrassed, because he was my lecturer and we had been talking about how handsome he is). Anyway, apart from the first 5 minutes during which I was very held back, I managed to relax and the interview was really nice *_* His research turned out to be rather interesting and he explained things quite clearly, which made it even better! He also took us to visit his lab and see his ants (he works on social evolution of ants) and take pictures of them :)

Afterwards, I caught a DLR train to go to my parents’ hotel, where they had just arrived, but there was an accident on the line, so I was stuck there forever and it took me almost an hour to get back home... eventually, they joined me at university, on foot *-* After lots of hugs, chats and laughs, we went all together to the small Sanisbury’s and Budgens here in Mile End to do my grocery shopping. It was weird that for once I was the one knowing where all the items would be!! 

Eventually, my parents left, whereas my sister stayed over at the flat and we had dinner with Isabela, preparing the playlist for Maria Stella’s party, since Benny (sister) is a lot more prepared on party songs than either of us two!

After dinner, I watched “The Vampire Diaries” with my sister, as she is a big fan and a new episode had just been released. I don’t really like the series, no I am up to date with it at all (I think I stopped around episode 18 of season 1!), but we were doing something together so it was nice :)

On Saturday morning we missed the alarm, as I had forgotten to set it, so we had to rush to get ready. I had to quickly wash my hair, help her with some Physics homework and prepare to go out. My parents then reached campus and we all left to go to Canary Wharf. I had never been there, if not in passing, but I see it every day from the kitchen of the flat, so I truly wanted to go there to visit as I knew it had to be really pretty: it was *-* There was a very strong and annoying wind, but I loved the place!!

My sister, my mum and I trying to shield from the wind

 

Later in the day we went to Greenwich, where we had lunch in a little pub and looked at the Cutty Shark (and old vessel) from outside before returning to Mile End. While my sister and dad went back to the hotel, mum and I came to my room to pick some clothes for the next day, then we joined the others at the hotel and I took a nap... I hadn’t realised I was so tired!

For dinner, we went to Covent Garden with some family friends from Italy, who just happened to be in London as well. We were there to celebrate my dad’s birthday and, after struggling to find a restaurant with room for 8 people at about 9pm, we had a lovely dinner all together! 

Sunday morning I was woken up by dad around 9.30 and the four o us went to Tower Bridge, which is my favourite place in all London so far. I had seen it many times before, but never like this! First of all, there was the “poppies celebration”, so there was a huge crown over the bridge and surrounding the Tower of London, which was covered in red poppies *_* So beautiful! Secondly, we went at the top of the bridge and visited the exhibition on its construction! We spent a couple of hours at the bridge and it was amazing!

 

 

 

 

Around 1pm we went for lunch at Bar Remo, an amazing Italian restaurant just outside of Oxford Circus that my mum and I had found back in September. I had their amazing lasagne, a dish I hadn’t had since the last time I had been there, and I loved them! Since my parents and my sister had to leave around 3pm, we didn’t have much time left to do anything, so we just quickly visited the Disney store. Why? Well, because I had mentioned over lunch the fact that on the following Wednesday Queen Mary was going to host a Disney party and I didn’t have a costume. I had decided to go just in casual clothes, but they were like: “Nooo, you love Disney, so you should do something!” *_* Awwww! So in the end I bought a pair of Tinkerbell wings, her bag and jewels (not that she wears many), to go with the green short dress I already have (not exactly Tinkerbell’s, but close enough I would say!).

After that, our weekend together was over and we said goodbye after catching the tube back to the hotel :(

It was sooooooo great to see them again! We were laughing, chatting and being together in a totally natural way, as if I hadn’t been away for a month. I don’t know how to explain it, but it was kind of better than when I went back to Italy. The thing is that at home I felt like a guest, because nothing was the same as it should have been, whereas everything was at its place here and I could simply enjoy their presence without noticing the differences :) However, having them here meant that London wasn’t anymore the “bubble” where it was just me and it made me start to feel nostalgic again. I don’t exactly miss home, but I miss my family (and friends, but it’s unrelated to this). I noticed a few days later, when I was watching the last episode of “Madoka” and the main character was hugging her mum... and I suddenly felt that I really missed my own... and then I couldn’t sleep very well at night because of that and I didn’t really know how to deal with missing them!