Entering the Desert

After some time, this would be another soul-searching post, related to where I am at the moment.

It's always good to plan, but still nothing is certain in this world. I had planned things carefully, from starting my thesis earlier to getting a job offer half a year before graduation, coupled with some traveling around the summer. Everything was good, or so it seemed.

And then the inevitable came. The financial crisis ransacked world economy, leading to global recession. Projects are frozen, and my job offer was withdrawn, three weeks before starting date. On my side, I could not get the work permit on time due to the recent changes in the immigration system. So there was nothing that I could do except to search for another job.

I started off with loads of optimism. After all, if God allows good things to be taken from you, he would have better things on offer, right? Well, I still put my hopes on that, but my strength were getting sapped as the days gone by. Like in the desert.

These past few weeks came as a roller coaster experience. I would get elated on interview prospects and downcast on rejections. However, I started to realise something. That this situation might be one of the better things on offer.

Certainly it is not a convenient path, but it allows character building. It is a time when my real characters and foundations are being exposed and tested. It is a time when I could really know God, because when things go well, I tend to forget about him. And so, even still in the desert, I slowly regained my strength.

Bratislava

From Vienna, we went on to a neighbouring city of Bratislava, capital of Slovakia. It just took around an hour from Vienna to Bratislava by train.

Slovakia is not in the eurozone yet, and so we had to change currency in the station. Apparently, it is cheaper to withdraw directly from Euro account rather than getting from the currency exchange shop so we did just that.

The streets and piazza are similar to the Italian towns, however the signboards use local language. Prices are significantly cheaper on the town outskirt with and significantly inflated at the city center.
After going to the cathedral we stopped for lunch. Looking for some traditional dishes we ended up with potato noodle topped with goat cheese and a sparse decoration of meat. It turned out to be pretty good, although extra meat topping wouldn't hurt.

A major landmark in Bratislava would be the castle. It is located on a hilly part of the town. We went up, only to realise that the castle was closed due to construction work. The weather weren't very friendly as well at that time as it was raining a lot.

Vienna (1)

Back to travel log. Just before I submitted my thesis, I planned a short trip with a friend to several neighboring countries. It's possible because of the convenient Schengen visa which I got for my trip to Italy this time.

We went northeast, towards eastern european countries. The first stop was Vienna, the capital of Austria. The train journey took a total of twelve hours where we spent our whole night.

We first stop at the opera house. Vienna was a renowned cultural center before and so opera flourished. We got in just in time for the guided tour after having a quick wurst lunch. I'm not a big fan of opera, but the 30-minutes tour was informative and felt like a breeze.

Then we went around the city center. I like the bright color they use for buildings, they brighten the mood, so unlike the gloomy buildings in the UK.

The main streets and platz were beautiful. They're good place to stroll around in a good weather.


At some point, we decided to stop by in one of the restaurants for some local dish. German sausages are common in Austria. But one of their famous speciality would be wiener schnitzel. It's breaded and deep fried meat in thin slices. They have big portions of these served with potatoes. It's really a good mix.

As it was summer at that time, the sun stays longer. We didn't realise it was almost six in the evening as it was still quite bright, and we might not make it for our next stop: Mozart House.

Mozart once lived and worked in Vienna, thus the house he used to live in become a tourist attraction. We did not manage to get in since the they are closing, only a quick snap from the outside.

Invisible Hands

I have been quite busy the past months including holiday back in Indonesia. Let me continue, however, from the point where I left off.

A holiday break felt great after submitting my thesis. I spent almost three weeks back in Indonesia and Singapore, catching up with friends, visiting relatives and spending time with family. However, towards the end of the trip, something unexpected happened. I got a call from the course coordinator informing that one of the documents required for graduation was missing. In fact, I never submitted that declaration of value, which apparently is required by Italian law to graduate.

At that time the thing that's left for me to do is thesis defense which was in 2 weeks time, and I have to get the document by then. Declaration of value is issued by the Italian embassy of the country where I got my first degree, in this case Singapore, so I have to go there to get it. To make matters worse, I left all my original documents regarding my degree back in Italy. So in the worst case, I have to go back and forth Indonesia-Italy-Singapore-Italy to get the document and may not make it in time for the defense.

The case is already beyond my ability then. The embassy people normally would not care about your personal problems, plus they have very short opening windows and I dont have original documents. It was safer to bet that I wont be able to graduate on time. So I prayed.

I didn't really like playing with (low) probabilities. I liked to play safe. I had taken more credits during the course that I would still graduate on time even if I were to fail one or two subjects. I started my thesis few months earlier that it would complete well on time. I had searched (and got) a job offer early on. Everything was taken care of, or so it seems. But that time, there's not much I could do. I didn't have time and prayer was a last resort.

So here's how it went. On Monday morning I called Italian Embassy in Singapore. It turned out some other agency is doing it for them. Then I called Italian Institute of Culture. The officer there was unusually helpful. I explained the situation to her and she told me that I could ask the italian school to send a fax of the school documents required. In the afternoon I asked the school to fax the documents. They did. Next morning I flew to Singapore, straight to the IIC. Then I got the DoV on the same day. Next day I flew to Italy.

It felt like it's a miracle. I did not need to change my travel plans at all. (Not to mention that it's not easy to do for long distance flight). I only needed to show my original passport and got my DoV in one day.

When I mentioned to my father about how kind IIC officer was, he rebuked me. Surely she has been really helpful. But is it not God who is capable of making all these things happen?. By doing that, I was rationalising and not acknowledging God, not giving Him the glory He deserves.

Many times God works with invisible hands over our lives. And if we do realise those, then perhaps we are more blessed.

Bologna

After the short trip to Ferrari Museum, we went to the city of Bologna. Bologna has its own reputation as the food capital of italy, and thus where the terms spaghetti bolognese comes from.

Our trip was delayed as we needed to wait for bus in Maranello. So by the time we arrive in Bologna it's already 3-4 pm. By that time most of the restaurants are closed. In fact it is in whole italy that restaurants only open during lunch time and dinner time.

After a short walk, we found an open restaurant, and ordered our lunch, lasagna bolognese. The food portion was moderate, however, the meat sauce was a lot, hiding most of the lasagna from view. I would have stayed for more of these if we had not need to go back the same day.

Ferrari Museum

Another trip we made was to the Ferrari Museum, located in the city of Maranello, around 3-4 hours trip from Trento.

Although I'm not a big fan of cars or racing, I like how they shape the car body. I would say cars with a lot of curves look really good.

The trip itself was time consuming due to the lack of frequency of buses going there. The whole city of maranello was full of ferrari logo, from bus stop to coffee shop.

The museum itself is not so big, yet expensive, considering that it's the only attraction in the region. We did try to go to Ferrari factory, but only to be told to buy one first before we could enter.

Torino

There goes another part of my backdated trip post. The last place we went to after cinque terre was torino. The city is neat, with some huge city squares. There are few castles in the city. They have the same characteristics as their counterparts in Milan. The structure reminds me of the Heroes computer game's rampart castle. However, we didn't spend a lot of time there to check if it's open.
There's also Juventus shop there. But everything is pretty expensive. There's no such thing as a euro 8 souvenir T-shirt. The things they sell are for fans.

Cooking Chronicles 7: Soto

My first attempt to make Soto failed miserably. The taste was bland. Probably due to too much water. The subsequent attempts were better. I use garlic, shallot, vinegar, turmeric and chili for seasoning. Sometimes I would add ginger and onion. For the taste, instead of salt, I use oyster sauce and light soy sauce as they are readily available. I think the recipe's not supposed to have any sauce, but anyway it works out well.

Genova

After finishing a day hiking in Cinque Terre, we headed for Genova. We already booked the hostel there as it's not so far away from Cinque Terre.

We arrived at around 9 pm and wanted to have dinner there. As we drag our tired feet along the city, we look for restaurants serving local food. Fortunately, we bumped upon a kind couple who happens to know a good place just nearby. So there we were trying some local pesto pasta. I would say the taste was good, although it's not as strong as the pesto I usually get in jars. Probably I'm just used to put too much pesto in my pasta.

The hostel turned out to be far from city center, on a hilly place. It's good though that we have all the room for ourselves. Managed to catch some remaining part of Euro semi final and took rest, preparing for next day trip.

The Right Perspective

I realise that the process of writing my thesis was progressing pretty slowly. Often, during days, I would just try to do other things than what I'm supposed to do from games to comics, anime, chatting and so on. It is probably a sign of stress.

As I was taking a break, sitting down in my bed, I pondered, why it has been so pressurising. There may be several aspects to this. One is that I have already gotten a job offer for november. The visa for job in UK requires aUK degree. Although there are several graduation sessions in a year in Italy, there is only one (or 2) annually in UK. So I have to graduate by certain date or everything will get messy.

Another aspect is pride. I often take pride on my academics as it is one thing I can excel in. In this case, although I do not intend to pursue a phd, I wanted to get a distinction as it will look good. The coursework I have already qualifies for distinction for both universities. Now it remains only the thesis work. The problem is that my thesis work is more implementation related and so it is probably not easy to score high marks. (well, I chose implementation projects as I'm not really into research).

As I ponder I thought of reading my bible ( which I haven't done regularly these days). It brought me to the life of Saul ( the first king of Israel). He had low self esteem when he was chosen as king. But God raised him up and gave him victories. However, things soon become ugly when he tries to hold tightly to the things he has been given ( and started saying 'my battles' instead of 'God's') and even disobeyed God to keep on holding the reputation and respect he had from the people.

In the same way I realised that I have been holding onto things too tight. I was grateful when I got the scholarship. But now it seemed more like things I achieved and want to protect dearly. Thats when priorities for studies become out of place and bring unnecessary stress. It is like holding a pearl given to me as though I own it. I'm not saying that I should do halfhearted work in things. It's just that I should shift my focus from me and my pearl to God and see things that really matter. It reminds me of a song, Jesus, Lover Of My Soul:

It's all about You, Jesus,
And all this is for You,
For Your glory and Your faith,
It's not about me
As in You should do things my way,
You alone are God and I surrender;

As I pondered and came to realise that, the burden seem to be lifted from me. It is then that procrastination slowly start to look less attractive. It is really as I put myself in the right perspective, that I could be able to work effectively.

Cinque Terre (3)

The fourth village, Vernazza is looking more like a harbor with a small tower in the middle. It was almost two hours walk from the previous village.

At this we decided to take boat instead of walking to the next village as the next walking path is well over 2 hours of up and down slopes. The boat was quick, around 5 minutes or so to reach Monterosso.

In the last two villages, there were a lot of people swimming and sunbathing. We also thought that the weather was hot and we had enough time in Monterosso, so we went for a short swim in the sea.

For me, it was my first time swimming in the sea. Usually I would just stay on the side. The water is refreshing for a hot weather. I just realised how salt water is truly salty, much more than oversalted food.

Cinque Terre (2)

From Manarola to Corniglia, the path is getting steep. However, the view is still good since most of the path is still by the sea. I particularly like the bluish color of the sea and the way the villages are located on a hill just next to the sea.

Cinque Terre (1)

Just recently, we went to Cinque Terre. It is a scenic place on the west coast of Italy. The name translates to five land/villages. These villages stretch along the coast with walking path for travellers.

We took a night train from Trento, arriving early in La Spezia. Then continue to the first southernmost village, Riomaggiore by train. We planned to keep walking to the northernmost town as we had full day

The walking path from Riomaggiore to Manarola is called path of love. It is the easiest compared to the others since it is short and flat. Also it is the most beautiful with rocky cliffs and blue sea.

Lago di Erdemolo

Last weekend, I joined the university tour around Trentino. It was my first time to go with university tour. Last time the timing was always not so convenient to go.

Among the places we visit was Lago di Erdemolo. It is a lake on top of a mountain (circa 2000 m). We took bus and hike up for around an hour or so to reach there.

The lake was beautiful.We could see a blur reflection of the surrounding mountain. Also, the summer weather was warm. It was good enough to hike without a jacket. However, it's interesting that there are some snow around the lake. Summer snow that is.

Series of Problems

It seems like things keep going wrong these days. Not that it is damaging or something.
1. The ATM card was not working after some time in Edinburgh, sent it for replacement.
2. The student card has expired when I come here, had it reactivated, but still not working for the student restaurant. So they gave me a new one.
3. Rented a bike here. The bike ring fallen out from the gear after few days. Had it repaired.
4. The electronic door key card did not work after a few days. They gave me master key temporarily. The master key also stopped working after some time. Now I have manual key.

San Bartolameo

Last week I went back to Italy. Since the flight only reach Milan in the early evening, I only arrived in Trento at around 11 pm. Thankfully, the welcome office managed to ask the uni accommodation to hold the key in the residence 24 hours reception. So now, here I am in San Bartolameo.

The first thing I realised about the place is that its sloping up, quite similar to the one I had in Borino last time. It's like 5 mins walk from the main road, but pretty steep. I thought that downtown accommodation would be more flat, but well maybe it's part of the design to give students chance to do some exercise.

The room was good, well equipped, attached bathroom. However, being in ground floor, I get a door instead of a window. The problem with door is that you can't open them for long. Hopefully summer won't be too warm then.

Also, there is only a kitchen for every 20 students or so. Luckily, not everyone cooks for breakfast, lunch and dinner as I do. Worse still, we have to buy our own cooking equipments. Nothing is common. So now i'm on a minimalist equipment and try to apply constraint cooking.

Arthur's Seat Running Track(2)

The other slope of Arthur Seat is steeper, and more suitable for walking instead of running. There are more large stones in this part of the hill and the path is shorter as well.

Arthur's Seat Running Track (1)

Sometimes, when the weather is good (blue sky, warm sun), it feels good to go out. I would usually go for running around Arthur's Seat, a stretch of hills, east of Edinburgh.

There are several tracks around these hills. OThe first one is quite proper and not so steep with pedestrian walks and good scenery.

Trip To Highlands (4): Inverness

Throughout our trip, we did not stop for long in any place. It was also the case with Inverness. It probably the only major city in Highland area.

The city is beautiful, with a river just in between and castle on top. Usually, pigeons are common in European city squares. In this case, however, there are more seagulls, probably because of the river.

Trip To Highlands(3): Loch Ness

One of the most prominent characteristics of the highlands is the abundance of lochs. During the bus trip, we came across dozens of small lochs on the way.

The biggest and the most famous among the loch is Loch Ness. There were sightings on unknown creature there which spawned stories on Loch Ness Monster.

The loch itself is really big, stretching long across Scottish highland. We managed to stop by Urquhart Castle, a small ruin just by the loch to get a good view of the area.

Trip to Highlands (2):Skye

It was a beautiful day when we went to Skye. Skye has always been known as the 'misty island' due to the lack of good weather, but what we saw was a clear blue sky there.

From Portree, a small main town of skye, we took a taxi for 15 minutes to a hiking trail, 'The Old Man of Storr'. 'The Old Man' is actually a vertical stone on top of one of the hills formed by glaciers many years ago.

The climb up wasn't too bad especially since it is a proper path trail. It got a lot steeper near the stone though. However, it was a rewarding journey. The view from the top was simply breathtaking.

Trip to Highland (1): Highlander Castle

As exams are finished and the weather being friendly and warm, we decided to go for a trip north, to the Scottish highland.

One of our interesting stops was Eilean Donan Castle, a castle in a small island just in the middle of a loch (lake, Gaelic). The castle is still well preserved, although not so big. I feel that it just fits nicely with the surrounding.

The sky weather was extremely pleasant and thus we could get a good view of the castle. From the back of the castle, we could see the loch and the surrounding land.

Spring Sunshine

It has been warm these few days. People go out and bask in the sun. More smiling faces as opposed to the gloomy winter mood. Spring has come. It is interesting as people appreciate sun more here given the average cloudy day and the winter long nights. I would not say people appreciate sun back there. Perhaps because sun is always there and always hot as ever. Perhaps it is in our human nature to lose sight of what we always have and longing for what we don't.

Even now as Edinburgh is located way up north, the daytime gets longer and longer. There's still some traces of light after 9 pm at night. And this is not even the peak yet. I wonder how it will be like in mid June when we have the most sunshine of the year. The first picture here was taken in the afternoon. The second one after 9 pm. No Flash.

Trento

The Italian weather stays sunny most of the time we were in Trento. The meeting place was located on a hill and has to be reached by cable car.

The cable car, however are not always available. In case of strong winds, they provided alternative bus transport. At times, some of us had to wait for the cable car to be operational.

From the workshop place, we could see Trento and its surrounding mountains. The view was lovely. That's why the building is named 'centro panorama', which means center for surrounding view.