The weather in winter here reminds me of the end-of-year weather in Singapore. A quick chat with my dad just now confirmed that it's been raining back home.
I don't really mind rainy weather, as long as I am at home, nestled in bed or on the couch with a book or the internet... haha.
The day began well, with a few funny episodes of 'The big bang theory', an omelette breakfast and a successful attempt at making soup out of a celeriac (celery root) that I'd mistaken for a kohlrabi (German turnip/turnip cabbage) at the market, carrots, potatoes, onions and chicken bones from a roasted chicken. And the soup turned out a real treat. :D So comforting on a rainy day and the homemade stuff even possesses special healing powers for a cold (so said the poor thing sniffing and blowing his nose the whole day).
Lately, I've had some fortuitous experiments in the kitchen that I concocted out of available ingredients in the fridge, namely pasta and rice and salad dishes which were quite surprisingly yummy! For example, home-made gnoochi (only when time is not a problem. No pictures because it's always so messy after I've made them but I will try to take some when I do make them again), milk rice, ricotta and marscapone & ricotta cheesecake ... and hopefully I can add more to this list as time goes).
So far, the cooking and my Italian classes are the things keeping me sane in this seemingly-endless waiting time for the Italian bureaucracy. And speaking of which, it seems like there's now a final solution to my problem. I have been accepted into the university's PhD program (Thank God!) and I will be able to start in Jan 2011. 'Isn't that perfect?' My big boss had said to me, on the day that he called me and summoned me urgently to his office in the institute (which I had to travel for an hour and a half on various transport mediums: bus, train, bus, foot, to get to) just to tell me, in a less-than-10-minute conversation that this is what we'll do. Sigh. And I had wanted to start in July/ August. Sigh. All that lost time... :(
I am slowly getting used to the slow ineffective Italian system. I have to, otherwise I think I would die of frustration. Often, I can't believe I am in Europe. 'Italy is a second-world country!' Steffen says.
It no longer upsets me as much when things don't work here. It is a bonus if things work out. The Italians I've met think in this way too. haha.
Many a time I question myself, why I was so dumb to pick this country. (So have manay people who were surprised in Germany when I said I'm going to Italy for my PhD.) But the saving grace of all this is that in the times that I've visited the institute and met my future colleagues (Italians and otherwise), the environment and people have left me with a good feeling. I think it'll work out in the end. I think God will help work it out. :)
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