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.