So, the time for my announcement has finally arrived. Here goes…

I’ve now finished all of my studies here in Leicester, no more lectures or coursework for me! Instead we move onto projects, research into a current scientific problem, and my project is certainly going to be interesting less because of the topic and more because of where I will be doing it.

In about a month I’ll be packing up all of my belongings and moving to Turin, Italy! There I’ll be taking part in a joint project with students from there and from Toulouse, France researching ways to decrease the amount of space debris currently floating around our planet. I am incredibly excited to go, but also incredibly nervous!

Sadly though, it means I’ll be leaving Leicester. I’ll be back in a few months but this still strangely feels like goodbye, so I decided to do a bit of a farewell tour before I go home this weekend.

The Sights of my last six months

I started off yesterday with a little walk around my neighbourhood, mirroring one of the first things I did when I moved in last September. Everything is starting to become a bit more lively now that spring is coming around, so I managed to spot a few early bloomers:

Anemonoides Blanda – Anemone

Flowers! More specifically Greek Anemones (pronounced A-neh-mow-knee). These flowers are one of the first to bloom in early spring, closely following the Daffodil. They only stay around for the spring though and tend to die off in May.

The appearance of these flowers is often what brings bees out of hibernation and are a great way for them to get their first pollen of the year!

Muscari Armeniacum – Grape Hyacinth

It’s always fun when the common name for a flower matches how it looks, and certainly these flowers look like little bunches of grapes!

The name Hyacinth comes from the Greek myth of Hyacinth who was killed by Zephyrus. Apollo, whilst mourning the death of their love, transformed Hyacinth’s blood droplets into the well known flower! HOWEVER, Grape Hyacinths are actually not a breed of Hyacinth. I know what a twist. They are instead a breed of Muscari which is a type of flower that always produces the bulb like flowers!

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Once I finished my walk, I decided I wanted to run as well. The weather was lovely yesterday and I wanted to make the most of it. It was by no means the most impressive run I’ve ever done, but it felt nice to be able to be more active and to give one final look at a few of the familiar streets.

After a quick shower upon my return, I finished off an assignment. This assignment was actually really interesting and tasked us with writing an article in the style of the New Scientist magazine about a space-geology related topic. I wrote mine all about the ferromagnetism of the Martian crust (a topic I’m quite well versed in), I’ll put a little snippet of it below. Let me know what you think 🙂

Once that was finished, it was about time for me to head to my Italian class. See now you know why I was learning it this whole time, somehow I knew I’d go come the spring!

This lesson was as standard as ever, we learnt about the weather! Did you know that in Italian they have two words for rain: La Pioggia – which means ‘the rain’ – and Piovere – which means ‘to rain’. The difference between them simply being whether or not it is the object of rain or the action of raining!

By the end though, most people had figured out it was to be my last session. I got a few ciaos through heldback tears which was really sweet, truly a great class to be a part of for the past six months :’)

I headed home and went to sleep, my last full day in Leicester awaited.

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Today started early, a 9am workshop about Human Spaceflight. It was a good chance for me to say goodbye to all my friends from the course. I’ll be seeing them again after my Europe adventure, but I have a long way to go until then.

After that, it was time to pack. I’m heading home to spend some time with my family so I have to make sure I’ve got everything before my train. Fortunately my tried and true method of just chuck everything in my suitcase and force it shut has never failed so I was done in a heartbeat. The next item on my list are my library books.

I’ve checked out a few books from the local libraries during my stay here. The Edgar Allen Poe collection I showed a few weeks ago is one such example. The nearest library to me for me to return them is in a familiar spot: Evington! So around midday I began my hike over through the Arboretum. Now that spring has sprung a few of the trees are starting to blossom, including one interesting example…

Magnolia x Soulangia – Chinese Magnolia

Now this is a first! This tree is a hybrid tree, a cross between a Magnolia Denudata and a Magnolia Lilliflora first bred in France in the 19th century. Despite the common name, the tree is most often seen across the British isles and is quite popular in places such as this arboretum.

The flowers of the Chinese Magnolia only come about in early spring before falling as blossom and allowing the leaves to grow in the branches throughout Summer and Autumn.

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I dropped my books off with the kind clerks and continued my looping walk back towards the village. Whilst on my walk I reflected a lot on my time here in Leicester and all of the incredible and fascinating things I have done whilst I’ve been here. Moving here was the start of a new life for me and I really think I’ve proven to everyone just how beneficial that was. I just hope my next new life is somehow even better than this one.

!!!Arachnophobia warning!!!

Once I got home, I grabbed my longboard. There was no way I was going to waste the Sun. My lonboarding sessions mostly consist of me travelling around in circles over and over, which may sound boring but I find it incredibly relaxing. I’ve found I can go much faster and make much tighter turns than ever before, plus it made for a nice break from all of the rocket science.

There was a little friend waiting for me at the court today, sadly I don’t know much about how to identify spiders so if anyone has any ideas on their breed please let me know in the comments! I’d love to add arachno-knowledge to my wild book.

I finished my laps of the court. Once again I felt like I was saying goodbye to a big part of myself despite the fact I’ve only had this longboard for about a month. I’m not sure if I’ll be able to get my longboard to Italy so it might be a while before I get to ride again.

I decided that next on my tour should be Teardrop Pond, a name Google STILL refuses to let me actually name the pond. I’ve noticed a lot more life around this area lately, and that includes a few deer the other day. Today though there were only birds, including:

Branta Canadensis – Canadian Goose

I always think these are the nice geese, although they can still hiss at you like their cousin the Emden goose. These geese can be found all over the northern hemisphere due to their migratory patterns but often prefer to head to the Canadian islands that fall in the arctic circle during the summer.

These geese are also vegetarians, preferring to eat grass and grains than any small insects or fish that other birds tend to eat.

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It was finally time for me to head back to my room, and stay there. I made myself some popcorn, put a film on, and relaxed on my bed. Do you ever get that feeling the night before a move, that you’re not just sad to be leaving a place but it’s sad for you to be leaving? Even with me coming back in August I wont have this same room, it makes me a little teary as I really do like this room. Grazie camera, grazie!

My day finally wound to a close, I had seen all of my favourite spots and favourite people. Time to leave I think.

So thanks for reading, and I hope you’re excited for the next chapter! I’ll be making sure to write lots of interesting posts from my adventures around Europe so be sure to stay tuned! For now though, I think it’s definitely time for a break 🙂

Addio,

Cassie