A visit from my dad , "moving" bedroom and other stories

Dear readers,

I know it sounds unbelievable but I am finally describing the events that happened LESS THAN A WEEK AGO! I am more surprised than anyone else... I really wanted to get up to date and I guess now I have made it! :)

Monday 1^st December: for the first time since I have been here, I found Evolution boring. Dr Hone talked about all the possible types of parasites and it was fine for as long as we stayed generic... but then he started going into details of little parasites, giving examples, some of which were awful... so I zoned out! Parasites are not my thing >.<

On the other hand, in the afternoon I had a great Lab session. It was the second Freestyle Lab of the semester, therefore we could revise all the experiments we had done in the previous week thanks to a revision booklet (we have an exam tomorrow). For once, I decided not to work with the rest of the group, meaning with the only two girls from my group sitting with me that day (Laurana and Andrea). So I tried to do everything on my own and it worked! I got a bit distracted at some stage, as I started talking with a boy and a girl I didn’t know who were sitting in front of me, but then I got back on track and I even finished early *_* I still called the demonstrator a few times, because we had the best demonstrator we had ever had and I wanted her to explain the reasons why I was going undertaking certain actions that I knew I had to do undertake. 

In the evening, first I watched “Once Upon a Time” with Maria Stella and then I Skyped my friend Giulia and we commented on it for a while :) Once again, it was a great and shocking episode! Afterwards, I had dinner with Tommaso and as usual we talked about our day and he showed me a video. When he left, I watched some more “Glee”, finding out that not only Idina Menzel is in it (which I already knew and is the main reason why I want to see the show), but also Kristin Chenoweth is *_* I had already seen an episode with her back in Italy, but I didn’t know who she was then so I hadn’t appreciated her as fully as now (even though I was absolutely in love with her character’s voice!). 

Tuesday 2^nd: in the morning I met Fenn (the girl from the Photo Society) at the Hive (a bigger common room on campus) and we chatted for a little while, before I left her so she could finish some assignment she was working on. Then I did some research for my tutorial presentation, until Melanie and Isabela joined me in my room and we started cutting Christmas decorations out of paper! That was Isabela’s wonderful idea, as we are all on a strict budget right now and we couldn’t afford proper decorations (should have thought of saving in the past weeks). Melanie made a beautiful 3D snowflake that is in the first two pictures I posted, while Isabela made a Snowman and I made snowflakes and Santa hats for the sticky pumpkins!
While we were there we made a decision: my room was going to be turned into a living room (despite all my stuff still being here) and I would move in with Isabela for sleeping :) We chose my room as the living room because I have the beautiful view on the canal!

 

 

 

After some time, Isabela and I left to walk Maria Stella to the post office to ask after a parcel that she hadn’t received, with me leaving my room unlocked so Melanie could use it... it was a big trust exercise for me, as I had never left anyone in my room other than Isabela, without me in the flat! In the meantime, Isabela and I received a parcel we were waiting for... our mutual Christmas present: Wicked-inspired necklaces saying “Because I knew you” (a line from “For good”, which is one of the songs we sing the most) – mine has Elphaba’s broom and green gem, hers has Glinda’s wand and a blue gem!

During dinner I watched “Glee” again and then Isabela came back from seeing her mum and we set up the second bed in her room :) We the finished cutting some more paper Christmas decorations and we hang all we had in the kitchen *-*

Around midnight we all went to bed and I started reading a Gelfie (Glinda + Elphaba) fanfiction on my phone. The deal Isabela and I had made was to stop “socialising” at midnight and we had begun well... but when we both stopped reading we suddenly started talking about the fanfiction and that led to countless more topics to talk about. For example, we discussed “Hunger Games”, “Chronicles of Narnia” and some other books/movies, before moving onto some deeper conversations... we ended up talking about our friends, including all of our flat mates. We went on talking until past 4am!

Wednesday 3^rd: at 10am I had Tutorial and Andrea and I had to make a presentation on “Structure and Function of posters”. I was in charge of structure and I had found a lot of information, but I wasn’t as confident as usual when I delivered my speech... probably because it was kind of an unusual topic! Anyway, the whole tutorial was a bit weird, because nobody was completely ready for their presentation and two girls didn’t even turn up! Thank goodness it was not marked!

Around lunchtime, I went and met my dad at Liverpool Station and he gave me a packet of Tarallucci, but then he immediately had to leave because he had to go to Windsor for work (the reason why he was in London).

When I got home, Isabela and Melanie joined me in my room and we looked up some Disney Infinity action figures (I love the Merida, Tinkerbell and Maleficent ones out of those I don’t have – mine are Elsa, Rapunzel and Anna) and Nintendo 3DS games... I wish I had a 3DS *_*

That evening, Isabela and I promised we would talk about anything we wanted to talk about before midnight, so we would manage to sleep early... but we switched the lights off at midnight and then we ended up starting a new conversation out of nothing :P This time it was serious from the very beginning, as we talked for over two ours about our personalities and how easy/hard we find it to meet new people and build trust.

Thursday 4^th: I went to my Molecular Biology lecture and we talked about regulation of genes, but i got distracted in the second half because I started writing a letter for a scrap book for one of my Australian friends who is going to university soon. On the way back from Whitechapel, where the Thursday lecture is, Laurana, Andrea and I stopped at Costa and the two of them got a hot chocolate... I am kind of moneyless right now and I am on a very strict budget. Well, to be fair I am not moneyless, but I am saving some money to go and see Les Miserables at the theatre next Monday, so all that money is untouchable! 

The three beautiful Xmas cups at Costa
(the Santa one was already on the table)

 

As soon as I got home I went to rest a bit and... I ended up asleep >.< I eventually met up with my dad, properly this time, and we went for a tea in Kensington. We went Chez Paul and we sat there for over an hour, chatting and catching up on our news :) Then we came back to Mile End and we had dinner at the Half Moon, so I wouldn’t have catch the tube alone at night! It took ages to get the food, but again we had some time to chat, before he had to leave (early) because he had to go to Stansted... he had a very early flight the next morning so he couldn’t go to bed to late :(

For the rest of the night I went on reading the Gelfie fanfiction I had started (I LOVE THAT FANFICTION! It’s called “Unadulterated something”), while Isabela was Skyping. Because she was talking, I also moved back to my room for the night.

Friday 5^th: I was nearly late to lecture so I rushed to be there at 9am exactly... but apparently there was no need! I met Lea, an American exchange student, on the way and she stopped me to tell me the lecture had been cancelled because our lecturer was not well! So I met with Andrea in the Common Room and we did some Lab work and revision, then also Laurana joined us. However, I had to leave early (at midday) to have lunch and go and meet my tutor. 

With him, I discussed the Research project at University of Queensland and he approved of the idea and said that it would be great to get some experience. There’s also the fact that he is very partial to Australia, of course, having been there to research himself ;) 

Later on I went to Maria Stella’s place and we went to the shopping centre in Stratford. I bought Isabela’s Christmas present, before she joined us and we went looking for Ben’s (a friend of Maria Stella’s) and Melanie’s presents. Then we wandered around Stratford and I bought a snack... I was also upset for a while, because I was mad at Maria Stella for having me left alone when I went to eat, but I guess tiredness just made me overreact to the thing because I was nearly crying! I was a lot better soon after and the three of us stopped in our kitchen to talk and I told them what was wrong with me... I didn’t want to say it at the shopping centre!

 

Eventually, we all went to bed and I went back to my “new” room (Isabela’s) and this time we actually went to sleep early :P