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 Projects are frozen, and my job offer was withdrawn, three weeks before starting date.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.