Terharu =')

A senior asked to meet to discuss about the tool I am developing for my research.
When I met her, she was scribbling, studying some paper.
And I found that... it was the paper I wrote.

The printout of my paper was full of her scribbles here and there. Some sentences were underlined. She has a bigger diagram from my paper printed out, as she said some diagrams can't be successfully printed out in small size. The folds and creases showed she has turned over those papers again and again.

Aww... =')

I thought I was going to melt at that time.

Never did it occur to me that someone would read my paper that intensively.

I can't help but think, oh, God, I hope there weren't any silly typos that I missed out >_<

I'm moved beyond belief.

May this moment motivates me more to do my research =)

Random act of kindness

I have forgotten already how does it feel to accept random act of kindness.
Today I received one.
I was just running an errand, buying groceries for survival, in the nearby supermarket this afternoon. The closing time of the shop was not really convenient as I still had roughly 20mins to wait for the next bus going to my place.

As I crossed the street to the bus stop, a lady and her daughter suddenly said hi to me (in Italian). I greeted her back, having no idea what she might asked. Unless they are fellow students, or old people, it's pretty rare to have Italians struck a conversation first with a foreigner like me. As it turned out, she asked me if I wanted a ride with her since she said she's living nearby and going home now.

I was honestly...surprised, mesmerized, speechless.... and ashamed >_<
First, I somehow can't recall ever seeing her in my neighbourhood, yet she recognized me. Second, she graciously offered a ride while she could very well just ignore me as I could get on the next bus anyway. Third, it's been a long time that I don't find this side of Trento, of a small city where almost everyone knows each other and talks to each other in public .And last but, yeah, very least, I'm so not in a proper public clothes; as I thought I was just running a small errand, I only wore a jacket, my crumpled baggy pants, and my flip-flops. Oh, God.

And, curses to my very very limited italian language vocabulary, I can't convey any of those mixed feelings in proper italian sentences to communicate with her.

With my super broken Italian I tried to tell her it's fine, I could wait for the next bus. She simply replied "come vuoi..." (I don't know how to properly translate this, literally it's "however you want", but in conversation this is more like saying "up to you") and continued that she was going home anyway with her daughter.
I could finally only sheepishly said, yes, thank you, to her.

And so we rode her car. Her name is Patricia and her daughter is Adelle, 9 years old. She's a native of Trento, living in the upper side of my neighbourhood. I told her I'm a student here, from Indonesia. And I'm so embarassed that I had to tell her I've been living here for 3 years, but still can't use proper Italian for small talks like this >_<
(Note to self : it is of high importance to take the advanced Italian course now!)

And so.. the short ride ended, and we parted our ways.
Once again I cursed myself since I didn't even know how to express my gratitude other than saying "grazie mille". In english at least I would go on with 1 full long paragraph of gratitude sentences to thank her for her help. But all I could say in Italian was just grazie mille...grazie mille (repeated until the car door closed).

And here I am in my home, safe and sound without having to wait for the bus in the cold, with warm and fuzzy feeling after receiving such random act of kindness. I hope I could return the favour someday, somewhere, somehow, and I hope I could do such an act of kindness to stranger here too next time. Amen :)