Over the past three weeks, there has been a lot of STUFF going on around here; the main thing being that I now live alone. A while back, Marine told me she couldn't afford to pay the rent any more (I was a bit sceptical, as she earns the same amount as me each month, but then I factored in my student loan and Erasmus grant, which she doesn't get, and suddenly it made sense), and she was looking for a cheaper place to live. Claudia and I managed to talk her out of moving to Salerno or Naples, partly because of the commute, but mostly because finding a cheaper place to live was the modus operandi, and if she moved to a bigger city then it just wasn't going to happen.
The thing was, she stopped mentioning moving out, so I figured she'd organised something and was staying with me. Out of the blue, about two days before she packed up and left, she informed me that she would be moving about an hour's train ride away to stay with a family she knew, and that I would be by myself from that moment on. Don't get me wrong, Marine is really nice, but I must say I felt a bit relieved at the prospect. I prefer living alone to living with really messy flatmates...
Anyway, she left, I pushed the two single beds together, and I've already had a comment from my landlord saying how much tidier the kitchen is now that the rubbish goes out when it's supposed to. Claudia is inviting me over much more frequently for lunch now - she doesn't like me being by myself, but I'm not complaining, as she's a brilliant cook.
She invited me over for what can only be described as an EPIC lasagne (including mozzarella, ricotta, and tiny meatballs instead of mince) for Carnevale a couple of Sundays ago, and again on Pancake Day so I could make an enormous stack of pancakes. Unfortunately, I had planned to make them with Simone, and he ended up going to a party in the afternoon, so I went home and made them by myself. We ended up making a big stack them on Valentine's Day instead, and since he's been asking me to make them again ever since, I must be doing something right.
Work hasn't changed much, besides the fact that three of my colleagues now occasionally sit in on my lessons so they can improve their English, which took a bit of getting used to at first. I've been utilising Horrible Histories again for my older classes, as well as working through a playscript of Cinderella with some of my second-years, which is interesting to say the least, especially when we listen to the overly dramatic voices on the audio version! I've also been working on my reports that are due in in June, and would still be if I hadn't accidentally decapitated my USB on Wednesday, and had to buy a new one yesterday. Silly me decided not to back up her files, so I've lost all the stories that I've been dipping in-and-out of for the past three years, all my previous uni work, my poems, music, teaching resources, and my plans for the aforementioned reports! Even if they can be salvaged, I am not going to try and get it fixed while I'm here, but thankfully I could recreate some of the stuff, I wrote my report plans down on paper before I typed them up, and I can go on the Royal Holloway Moodle site and download the guidelines again so I know what to include and how to lay it out. Not a total loss, but a very annoying and inconvenient thing to happen.
Other news includes the addition of Friday Pieday to my weekly activities - James and I have come up with a little contest, mainly to practise our baking skills, but also for a bit of friendly rivalry. Each week we will bake a new pie, one we've never made before, and the winner is the one who avoids such pitfalls as soggy bottoms, unbalanced flavourings, burnt pastry and leakages, and creates an all-round tasty and nice-to-look-at pie. Last week, it was a sort-of draw; my pie had a soggy bottom, although the filling was yummy, but James did not provide photographic evidence of his pie, so we decided to redo the first round this week. It's a delicate business :P I've already created mine, a lattice-topped apple pie, and James has yet to finish his thanks to an out-of-date eggs issue.
Also, very exciting stuff, hopefully in a few weeks James will be coming to see me! We're planning to do lots of tourist-y things, and I've postponed my creation of 'An English Dinner' for Claudia's family until he gets here, so we can do it together. Scallops (if we can find them), followed by beef wellington, and lemon meringue pie - I actually bought the beef fillet the other day after a visit to a local butcher and a bit of a lost-in-translation moment, but I managed to get a kilo for €14.50, which was a lot cheaper than I thought it would be!
One week today, my brother Gary will be coming to see me too, which I'm really looking forward to (and not just because he'll be bringing me the jacket I ordered from Joe Browns a little while ago)! Hopefully the weather will have improved by then, as after a couple of days of crisp spring sunshine, it's gone downhill into the land of rainstorms and chills once again. Thankfully, my boiler is still working, although if it continues to be as temperamental as it has been in the past, that may not be the case for much longer!
Until next time (probably March, unless something worth writing about happens between then and now)!
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