Weekend with my best friend

Good afternoon :)

Let’s move on, with another special post since my best friend Giorgia was here in London for three days from the 15^th of November! 

Saturday 15^th: after our night out, I slept in until 11am, then had just about the time to fold my washed clothes from the previous day and make Giorgie’s bed. I already had the second bed set up in my room from when my sister had come to sleepover, so it was easy this time because I didn’t need anyone’s presence (I normally need at least Isabela or Melanie to give me their second mattress, since I don’t have one, and someone to help me pull out the second bed frame from under mine).  Anyway, I got to Liverpool Street station and, after walking to the wrong bus stop (of course!), I eventually found Giorgie *_* Awwww I had missed my bestie in the last month and even when I had seen her in Italy it had been for a short time...

We had a lovely lazy afternoon! We had lunch at the flat and Giorgia got to meet Melanie pretty much immediately, then we had lots and lots of chats in my room and then some more in Maria Stella’s flat, as I took her there to introduce the two of them :) Later on, I took her for a tour of the campus, which is truthfully really amazing... and I still think so after living here for two months and a half! I also introduced Giorgie to the Half Moon, the pub just next to uni and we had what she called “a very English dinner”: she had fish and chips for example :P

 

Once we arrived back in my room, we chatted until late, something like 2am, also planning what we would do on the next day. We wanted to do some sightseeing, but avoiding the usual attractions.

Sunday 16^th: the alarm at 9 o’clock came as a shock, but we had a lot of things to do, so we immediately got up! We briefly Skyped my Australian host family so that Giorgia could say hello after not having seen them for ages and then we prepared to go out :) We caught a train to Chingford to go to Queen Elizabeth’s Hunting Lodge and, after walking around following my GPS, we eventually found this little plain house that was her Lodge. It was really pretty on the inside and the view was amazing, as it looked out on huge meadows. If only it hadn’t been misty because of that light rain! In the Lodge we tried on some Tudor costumes and I took a photo with Elizabeth I, while Giorgia took it with Henry VIII (I was wearing male clothes and she had the female ones).

When we left the Lodge, we moved just a couple of metres away to a little museum that wasn’t really interesting, even though amazingly set up!, and we only took some time to... colour a drawing of some poppies with coloured pencils :P I think we shocked a mother with a little child, who instead seemed to enjoy the company! 

 

 

 

For lunch, we stopped at the hotel just next to the museum, where there were lots of families having Sunday Roast (including a family with a little girl dressed up like Anna from “Frozen” *_*). I introduced Giorgia to tomato soup and she was surprised to love it, like me some time ago!

In the afternoon we came back to London and took the Tube to Shakespeare’s Globe theatre, where we went on a guided tour. Honestly, we had the most wonderful guide possible! I think he was an actor from the theatre, because he was truly entertaining and he kept us all hanging from his lips the whole time. At the exit, I bought something I would have never thought to exist: a manga version of a Shakespeare play (“The twelfth night”).

In front of Millennium Bridge

Shakespeare's Globe Theatre

Back home, I took a shower and then Giorgia taught me how to make lasagne (well, I wouldn’t be able to re-make them on my own honestly...) and we made A LOT, thinking there would be five people eating them. Instead, it was just me, Giorgia and Maria Stella because Melanie and her friend didn’t join us. However, we managed to eat most of them and we only had some leftovers for lunch the next day :) Before dinner, Tommaso showed up and we had some chats. Later on, Isabela came back from her house and we ended up staying in the kitchen talking until veeeeery late... well, technically it was early in the morning since we retired for bed at nearly 3am! But it was fun, because Giorgia and Isabela seemed to get on well luckily *-* The two of them were singing songs from “The Phantom of the Opera”, and then we starting writing to one another on a tissue and we laughed a lot. At some stage, Tommaso joined us as well because he couldn’t sleep and he stayed with us for about an hour :) It was a lovely lovely night and I am glad Giorgia got to experience that!

Monday 17^th: Giorgia decided to come to lectures with me, since Monday is my full day! For the first time in a while I showed up to my Evolution lecture a bit early, as I wanted to introduce Giorgia to the other girls from Biology before the start. However, we only met Coral and the three of us sat at lecture together. It was a really interesting lecture, about sexual selection *-* at the end, Giorgia met Andrea and Elena, as well.

During the break before the second lecture, we went to the Common Room under France House and we chatted for a while, then I had to go to my interview to be an SBCS (School of Biological and Chemical Sciences) ambassador. The interview was very relaxed, with three girls and two “examiners” who made us talk about our impressions of Queen Mary and answer some questions they asked (as if they were prospective students at an open day). We also had to pick a little slip of paper with a random question and answer that: mine was about academic and financial support at Queen Mary and thankfully I knew enough about it :) Once that was over, I walked back to the Common Room talking to one of the other girls who was interviewed with me.

The second lecture was again very interesting, maybe even more than the first one. The topic was still “sexual selection”, but we went into details of strategies to be more attractive to potential partners and to increase the chance at reproduction in different species.

Giorgie and I came back to the flat for lunch and we ate our leftover lasagne, then we rushed to Lab. I am always nearly late for Lab, because I only have a one hour lunch break in which I have to come home, cook, eat and wash up... That Monday Lab was a special one, as it wasn’t a practical but a “writing workshop”, which was good since I wanted to bring a guest in. The problem with my “guest” was that she was adding herself to a group with already five people in it (me, Andrea, Coral, Elena and Laurana) and groups for the workshops are meant to be of five. So a demonstrator started telling us we couldn’t do it and that somebody had to move, but I went to talk to Dr Curran, the module coordinator, who said it was fine for her to stay with us since she was my friend and not really participating!

The exercise wasn’t bad, it was actually interesting as we had to correct and rewrite a terribly-written essay on global warming, but the Lab was freezing because the heating had broken down! So none of us was very active during the three hours :( We still finished earlier than most and we were allowed a ten minutes break to go and buy a hot drink from The Curve (canteen) while waiting for the others to finish :) It was too funny to see the faces of the other people in the Lab when the six of us (well, I didn’t actually have anything...) walking in holding smoking cups of chocolate! We had permission though hahaha 

At the end of Lab Giorgie and I stayed a bit downstairs talking with Andrea and Elena, then we came home to allow her to prepare her suitcase. When she finished, we had a tea in the kitchen to warm up a bit more and I managed to make Giorgie meet Josh: what a rare event for him to be around! He was ironing in the kitchen and he was uncharacteristically chatty! Then the funniest thing ever happened: he finished ironing his shirt and he used Giorgia’s arm as a hanger while I put the ironing board back its place (never did that before, by the way) LOL Giorgie’s face was absolutely priceless!

At dinner, it was the two of us plus Isabela and, sometimes, Melanie so it was another really nice evening with chats and laughter. However, at 9 o’clock we all went back to our rooms. Isabela had an essay to finish and Giorgia and I meant to go to bed early since our alarm would go off at 3.30am. We technically did go to bed, but we didn’t sleep until about midnight because we went on talking, with Giorgie giving me her impressions on the various people I have introduced her to and on the place. I was really happy to be able to discuss with her the people I have come to here and hear what somebody external thinks :) We also discussed her university and the people she has met, even though I still don’t know any of them.

Tuesday 18^th: the alarm was at 3.30am and then I walked her to the taxi at the gate of uni. It was sad to say goodbye again :( But I also know we’ll be back together in late December, only two weeks from now. I really enjoyed having her here, showing my best friend the new life I have built from scratch, the people I have come to love in just two month and my new home. Sharing it with her made it more real, in a way, because now when I tell her about what I am doing I am not telling her about complete strangers. I also loved being able to be crazy, childish and sometimes serious with her, as we always do. It is just all very natural when we are together :)