i shoulda known...

...that this would happen.

went to collect my permesso di soggiorno that was supposed to be ready on 10th May (how come mine last year took 11 months?) after digital finger printing early march and found out that, yes, they have lost my papers.

my application is not in the system and they have no idea what happened to it.

i was adviced to, by the police woman, send an email informing what happened to the immigration EVERYDAY asking them to look into this issue until they respond.

WTF? is that even a system? so not up to this. come on italians, surprise me a little!

TYPICAL!

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RAW-R!

So they organised an African Night (week, really) at the office last night. I missed it last year and i dont even remember why now. I am sure it was more exciting to attend as a student, ecstatic to even be allowed in the holy building of The Organisation :p Last night we were quite proper, talking shop, exchanging bits about who's being sent off to where in the name of food security.

But then we went to see them dancing...and WHOOAAAA! you know beyonce? she has nothing on these girls! I bet not just a few of the men went back with a little bit more than a full stomach. Super hot! And the musicians...!

one word - RAW-R!

Dear Africa,

I know we had a deal and we agreed that only when i am ready, but can you make that invitation come soon. i mean, i understand the situation is different now. but just maybe...a visit? thank you.

x:j

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Your Girlfriend's Girlfriends

One of the things i miss most about Malaysia is my prized collection of girlfriends.

I was lucky enough to be born into a family filled with strong intelligent kind women. Then I was lucky enough to be selected for a boarding school where they groom strong intelligent kind women-to-be.

All my working life, i take extra pleasure in nurturing and cultivating friendships with strong intelligent kind women who made up the staple of my social life in KL. Luckily, it's easy to separate them with the other kind. My favourite scouting grounds are my workplaces, which just happened to coincidentally(?) be where the lot usually end up in - journalism and non-profit. Oy, what amazing women i met!

In the first part of my Roman adventure, I met more strong intelligent kind women in the masters programme. Amazing women who are brazenly brave (and i mean that about them being brazen). Each of us came with our own sliver of bravery in breaking the mold, daring to hope, doing the things we really want to do in this life in spite of everything, which in turn fuel the others to lose whatever reservation we had about our capabilities.

Now that the masters is over and we fly to the four corners of the earth, and i am not back in KL, there is a gaping hole in my life where the strong intelligent kind women used to be. my projectmates are mostly men, the people from the masters who remained and returned to Rome are mostly men, and well...my romantic relationship is also with a man :p

men men men! too much testosterone!

I havent had the time or the inclination to cultivate new friendships lately. Mostly because i really have no idea how long i will be here, and quiet frankly cultivating good relationships with strong intelligent women is hard work. ask any men and they'd tell you. but now that it seems that i might be looking at medium term at least in rome, i am thinking maybe it's time to start gardening. fortunately, The Organisation is teeming with strong intelligent kind women :)

i count myself lucky to be counted as a friend to these strong intelligent kind women. you see, men are great, but women, strong intelligent kind women, are the best!

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EUR-On-the-verge-of-collapse!

Checked my bank account today and since my pay still goes to my Malaysian account, i lost a whole stack of EURO (more than enough to go back to KL and back actually :( ) to foreign exchange compared to the usual rate of roughly RM5 to each 1EUR due to the bearish Euro.

Sigh... just when i am earning in EURO too :(

Oh, well...

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to the family

thank you for coming to visit. i am sorry it was still a bit too cold, this winter has been really stubborn. papa and mama, i hope you can see now taht i really am ok :) and taht i can take care of myself. it was my pleasure having you all here. my rome is a little better with you in it. i love you and cant wait to see you in september! keep healthy!

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La Dolce Vita

I know, i know...this blog hardly ever has anything related to Rome on it anymore :p mostly because i dont really have time to write anymore, and partly because i only write when i am angry/depressed/sad which these days usually aint about Rome, thank god.

Anyhow, speaking of Rome, IT'S SPRING!

probably the best time of the year :) there's just something about that special kinda green you see in the springtime that really puts a smile on your face. now imagine that green lining most of the streets and the tevere! there's just nothing like it :)

and the romans seems to have shaken off their winter cobwebs. when their winter personality is tucked away for the spring and summer, they get pretty warm and engaging...like the italians you usually see potrayed by hollywood...but without the mafia connection. heh.

oooohhh...and this is also the time when all the bests nature can bring you come to rome...arancia rosso from sicily, that rosso williams pear from argentina (maybe) and the pumpkin flowers (which hopefully will end up on one of those fiori de zucca & alici pizzas! yum!).


the blossoms are out :) yeah, at the risk of repeating myself, nothing like it! i was invited for a nasi lemak lunch at one-of-the-malaysians-who-have-made-italy-home's home and we had a great time walking around her yard now filled with flowers - my favourites are the plum blossoms.


yup, it's a good time to be in rome...

and you know what is going to make it better?

the family is coming to visit! more on this later :)

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it's that time again...

Time to find another place to live in Rome. The lease is up end of April. I have done this so many times that i should by now, on top of the masters i got in food security, also be declared a master in moving in rome.

it's true what they say, be careful what you ask for...and by that i mean, be very specific when you ask for something from the force/universe/god because he will give it to you as you asked it. at some ridiculous point before i left for rome the first time, i said to a friend that i want to live in many different places in rome in the (only?) year i was going to be here, because i want to really get to know rome and the only way you can really appreciate a neighbourhood is to live and breathe it. i havent stopped breathing different 'hood since.

after this amazing crib (7th!), it would take a real palace to one up this one. let's see what the universe will bring to me this time :) and to see if this will be the last one!

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dont be an ASS, stay (good) Malaysian

Italy, as you might know, is a long country, from the northern-most tip of Trentino-Alto Adige bordering Austria and Switzerland (around 47 N at the tip) to the southern-most tip of Sicily in the mediterranean sea, (around 35 N at the tip, same as Tunis of Tunisia, North Africa). Although there are only around 300 Malaysians in Italy, we are scattered all over. Perhaps not at the extreme ends...but you get what i mean...

so taking advantage of the long weekend over the coming Easter (we get friday 2nd April and monday 5th off!), a Malaysian in Genova (on the ligurian coast, not far from Nice of France) decided to organise an event of makan-makan on saturday in Milan, thinking many of us would probably like to drive/travel on those days like a typical Malaysian would do in Malaysia. It is not an official Malaysian in Italy Association event, just an informal do between fellow-countrymen far from home.

For her stellar effort of bringing us closer, she received an email from an irate fellow-countryman. in her confusion and sadness, the organiser shared with me the email. i couldnt believe what i read.

first the irate country(wo)man, let's just call her celina, noted that it is a religious weekend and for the catholics who are celebrating the Easter with family, it wouldn't be fair to them because they would miss it. Good point. probably we should take that into consideration next time.

then the irate celina continued to rant about a request from the organiser to bring gifts, turning what was meant as a fun & game dont-spend-money-make-your-own-gift idea into a sordid recycled gift case, which i wont even bother to explain here.

what really gets my goat tho is celina's third point in which the irate woman noted on the itinerary that halal food will be served. she wrote (in her bad english)...

"3. I don't know who wrote the program but does the word halal need to be emphasize! We're not in Malaysia, we're in Italy, by choice whether living or working we don't need that nonsense here. It would be good to remember that. If someone has a problem then they shouldn't be here in the first place."

considering malaysia is a muslim majority country, i guess (as a muslim myself) it would be nice to be told that, hey, we can eat at a social event we are invited to, no worries! thanks for being sensitive to our requirements, especially in a country where it is an issue to find halal food. last year, when ever our ex-president organised anything, she of chinese parentage and italian citizenship, would always assure us that food would be halal (if it was) and no one had ever said anything.

if you want to organise a gathering and serve all the porky-pork goodness that you want and not care if the muslim malaysians would actually attend because an event without makan-makan is just wrong to a typical Malaysian, go ahead. no one's stopping you. it's completely your prerogative.

and since when has italy turned into a no-halal-food-allowed country anyway?

and yes, we have quite a few muslim malaysians in italy, working and living, and i presume by choice as arranged marriage and slavery have pretty much been abolish here...unless you are talking about the chinese working in some dark buildings making cheap immitation of branded clothes in Napoli according to roberto saviano in his controversial book Gomorrah (which i have been told by a neopolitano, on a flight back from spain, is not completely exagerrated).

i mean, just because you were shipped to Malaya by the British from mainland china doesnt mean you need to forget your chinese new year and celebrate which ever new year people celebrate in good ol malaya, right? in malaysia, we ALL (chinese, malay, indian, everyone in between and betwix, and of course the occasional mat sallehs) celebrate it with you (thanks for the extra 2 days of public holiday!), typically by driving/travelling around the country.

it's not like we were escaping muslim tyranny in Malaysia in the dark of the night by the underground tunnel and now that we are in the land of the free we can no longer be obliged to not eat pork.

nonsense?

carrying within you your ideology, being who you are where ever you are, is not a bad thing. instead doing what ever the people where you have moved to are doing, changing you whole personality to suit them, and thinking what ever they are thinking and aping what ever they are saying just because you want to fit in...yeah, that just doesnt scream strength of character to me. it would be good to remember THAT.

i am a little upset by THIS nonsense. i cant believe celina is a malaysian!

~breathe~

Personally tho, i wont be able to make it to the event as i will be taking advantage of the long weekend to travel like a typical Malaysian, this time to Denmark. It's sad to miss these gatherings, but it is not THAT sad as there is probably another event somewhere around the corner for non-friends to meet.

i cant quite put my finger on this celina...i think i will snoop around and see which one is this one...heh! it would be good to see if she has grown higher nose bridge by osmosis just because she is in Italy. and of course to say to her, in my bad english, "what wrong you?"


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Rome: Again

life as i knew it has ended and a whole new one seems to stretch in front of me. and this second transit in rome will be the arena where everything will play out. divided about leaving home, cant bear to leave, cant wait to arrive.

see you on the other side!

love:j

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