From Rome to Home

This post is slightly overdue but I've been really busy the last few days. I left Malta on Thursday and spent one night in Rome. When I got to my hotel, I found out that they had a shuttle service into the city which I took advantage of because I wanted to explore a bit and get some nice pictures. I had some time to kill before the next bus left so I decided that I would map out the things I wanted to see. Since my map-reading skills are awful, I managed to only get to the Coliseum and back two hours later to catch the bus. I of course got lost and found myself running through the streets frantically asking people if they could help me - no one could since they didn't speak English. Anyway I got to the bus with just a few minutes to spare but if I had been just a tad later I would have had to wait two more hours to catch the next bus since the bus I managed to catch was filled to capacity just a couple minutes after I got on. Close call. Anyway, needless to say, Rome is beautiful; I wish i had had more time to see it but I guess that means I'll have to go back again. 

Anyway, I caught my flight the next day and nine hours later I had landed in Toronto and was on my way back to my house to surprise my parents who thought I was coming home on Saturday. The look on their faces was priceless. 


It is nice to be home to see family and friends but I do miss walking seven steps out of my flat to the pool and seeing what people are up to. Thank you to everyone who made my stay in Malta so enjoyable, I am sure that our paths will cross again soon and I look forward to it. I wish you all the best, take care and keep in touch.

Even though I still don't know Maltese I will close this blog with a phrase that I picked up:
Alllrighhhhtttt? Seee youuu, ciao. 

Cultural Differences

Even though I've been here for nearly nine months and my time abroad is about to come to an end, I still seem to encounter cultural differences quite often. Take for example on Monday when I went to the hospital to figure out why my eye was bloodshot (hot, I know), I waited for about two and a half hours and while I was waiting (read sleeping against a wall) I was kindly awaken by a nice woman offering me a cookie and juice. Naturally I accepted the offer and then went back to sleep until my name was called. I think that a waiting room is an interesting place to make observations about people; in comparison Maltese waiting rooms are much different than Canadian ones. Seeing as it is such a small country, I suppose that people are bound to know each other or at least have a friend in common so conversations strike up easily and the room tends to get pretty loud - it actually becomes difficult to hear your name being called at some points.

Fast forward to today when I went back to have a follow up appointment; I arrived early to avoid waiting as long I had on Monday. Once again I found myself  people watching and at around 8:00 a man came into the room and I heard a woman tell her son that George was here. I figured that she probably just knew him by chance. Instead, I soon found out that George who is 86 years old comes to the hospital everyday to give small sermons in each ward. At first when he started to talk I thought hmmm okay people know this guy, it's cool that he's taking over the place but then I quickly realised we were in a mini mass session and I found myself doing the sign of the cross and pretending to understand what he was talking about. He took about ten minutes to get his message across and then carried on his merry way. On the one hand I was shocked to see this taking place mainly because it would never happen at home, but on the other hand since Malta is such a Catholic country everyone almost seemed relieved that they were able to pray a bit together to get rid of their guilty conscience for having not been able to go to church in the morning due to their optical ailments. Who's to say whether its right or wrong, as for me, I prefer a cookie and juice. 

Scootin Around

One day last summer I said to my parents that I think it would be fun to get a little scooter to ride around Malta on just for fun. My dad’s face went white with panic and he told me that I should never drive in Malta. Technically I’ve stayed true to my word but when a couple friends asked if I wanted to rent scooters to explore Malta and Gozo, I couldn’t turn down the offer. After all, I wasn’t the one driving anyway.  Four of us on two bikes spent two great days wandering around with a semi-plan of what we wanted to see. We spent about 9 hours exploring each day; on the first day touring around Malta we saw Popeye Village, Paradise Bay, the Dingli cliffs, stopped for some gelato in Pretty Bay and then ended up in Marsaxlokk and St. Peter’s pool. 

Popeye Village

Paradise Bay

Lookout Point

Dingli Cliffs

Marsaxlokk

St Peter's Pool

On our second day, just as we got to the Gozo ferries, mine and Ditte’s bike broke down but thankfully we found a man who had magic hands and was able to fix our bike and we were soon on the next ferry over to Gozo. We stumbled upon a great find – Slug’s Pool – which seemed to be the place to be for scuba divers. We took a break there and jumped off the cliffs and soaked up some rays. Later we went to Xlendi for gelato (you may notice a trend between both of the days) and to check out the sites. We capped off the day in Marsalforn and the Azure window. Needless to say, we were very busy. I think the last two days have been the best two days of my stay in Malta.  Being able to explore places that we normally can’t see because buses don’t run there or we don’t have the freedom (or will to walk) to get there, renting the scooters was a great way to explore new sites and revisit some old ones as well.

Slug's Pool 

Xlendi

Azure Window 

Done done and done

Sorry that I didn’t write anything last Sunday but I was a bit busy studying for exams; I wrote my last exam today and I wish I could say that it feels great but to be honest after doing work every day for the last eight months, it feels like I should be doing something right now instead of hanging out by the pool for hours on end. To keep myself busy, I decided to bake some cookies. Tomorrow I’m going to head over to Comino but for the days to follow until I go home, I’m not too sure what I’ll do but I’m sure it will involve a cycle of tanning, swimming, eating, sleeping and going out.

In other news, after living here for nearly a year, for the first time I had a female bus driver.  I realise that for the majority of people reading this blog, this is not a big deal but if you saw the bus drivers here, you’d understand why I think it’s such a big deal. 

Other than that, I don’t really have much else to report. Hope everyone’s doing well. 

Almost Done

This week has been pretty uneventful save for the fact that I started my last course ever. I am so excited to not have to sit for hours on end in the same white-walled room, interpreting authors’ writing and having someone throw their opinion in my face all day long. Anyway, I’ve come this far so I think I can deal with four more days of class and three exams. At least I can look forward to sitting in the same insulation-exposed room (my basement), interpreting authors’ writing -  All. Summer. Long. I bought a poster to decorate the otherwise drab walls of my basement; it serves two purposes: on the one hand it spruces the place up a bit and on the other it should help me focus and relax a bit since I figure that my stress levels might get out of control. Who knows if it will actually keep me calm? Knowing me, I’ll probably end up ripping it into a million pieces – “who’s calm now?!” Yikes. 

In other news, this weekend was pretty fun. On Thursday we did the usual Paceville thing but on Friday we branched out and went to Gianpula, Malta’s largest open air club. It was absolutely packed with people but I have yet to decide if I liked it so much because it was actually good or because it wasn’t Paceville. Either way, it was a lot of fun and it was well worth getting the bruise on my leg so that I could get up on stage to dance with everyone including the DJ who was pretty gung ho to dance with us “foreigners,”  that is until the bouncer kicked us off. So that’s it for me this week, I best be off to sneak some studying in before the sun tempts me to go outside. 

On stage, pre bouncer kicking us off

Prom

On Friday night I found myself getting ready for prom at the residence almost exactly five years to the date from my grade 12 prom.  Despite the fact that prom shouldn’t have really been a big deal, I was still excited to dress up and have fun with everyone on a much cheaper budget. There was no ticket to buy, no nail or hair appointments, I already had my tan, and there was no drama of organizing the limos although I somehow ended up being the one to organize the transportation to the bars afterwards, some things don’t change I guess. 

Prom throwback, 2006

Malta Prom 2011 

Other than that, the weekend has been relatively quiet. The weather has been a bit crappy which is fine by me since I have had to force myself to get some work done and I don’t feel like I’m missing out on too much sunshine. I can’t believe that on Monday I will start my last course here which means that in three weeks time I will have completed all 15 modules and then be on my way back home. Anyway, that’s it for now I hope that everyone is doing well.

PM, Boat, Rugby

This week, the Prime Minister, Lawrence Gonzi, came to my university for the inauguration of a new wing in the building. The main university is located in Msida but the Valletta campus was originally the main site until 1968; it had been the main learning site since 1592! The Prime Minister and a few others came to address the International Master’s Programmes and after some formalities, there was a little meet and greet session and a few of us from our class got to speak with Mr. Gonzi  and I was fortunate to get a picture with him. 

On Friday night, instead of doing the usual Paceville thing with people from the residence, we went on a night time boat cruise and sailed to St. Paul’s Bay and anchored there for a bit before turning back to the residence. It was a great change from doing the same old thing every week.

 

 Yesterday I went to watch a rugby match in the afternoon, two of the guys from the residence, Hugo and Titi, play on the team so a bunch of us went out to support them for the final which they won. It made for a fun afternoon and after that I just headed back to the residence for a relaxing night.

Congrats Hugo and Titi

Playing on the bus before our driver showed up

Hike #2

It's been nice to be back on the island after the weather in England last week turned sour during the latter half of my trip. It figures that the first six days that I was in Oxford the weather was gorgeous but as soon as I emerged from the homework dungeon, the weather took a turn for the worse. Anyway, the weather here has been pretty consistent and warm in Malta and today I went for a really nice hike from Marsaxlokk to St Thomas Bay. We stopped at St Peter's Pool halfway through the hike and it was absolutely beautiful; it was a great spot to relax, catch some rays and swim. I definitely could not muster up any kind of courage to get in the water- as beautiful as it is, I just can't deal with being cold. 

Other than that, everything has been pretty normal save for the fact that a turtle (tortoise?) barged (as they do) into my room last week and had to be put back into the garden; worse things have happened. 

So that's it for this week, hope everyone is doing well. Also, I would like to take a quick second to wish my mom a Happy Mother's Day, thanks for being the best. 

Easter Break Part 2- Grenoble Reunions

I left Oxford on Tuesday and made my way to London to meet up with Kat and Jess. Together we explored around a bit and then met up with a bunch of people from Grenoble to have a nice dinner. 

The next day we went to Camden Market, I’ve never been there but it’s definitely a place I’d go back to again; there were tons of shops selling everything from t-shirts to cool vintage memorabilia. We met up with Mailin in the afternoon had lunch, Lama joined later and we went for high tea and when we met up with Miranda we headed out to a cool Belgium place for dinner (obsessed with food much?). The restaurant had a really cool deal called “Beat the Clock” which meant that between 5 and 6:30, depending on the time you place your order, it would cost you that much in pounds, i.e. we ordered at 5:50, and that’s how much our meals cost. Pretty cool. After dinner, Kat and I headed back to George’s house to watch some movies and hang out. Despite our intention of taking advantaging of being near Hampton Court Palace, we decided that we really weren’t in the mood to go see the gardens and a maze, quite frankly I wasn’t a fan of paying 4 pounds to get lost in a maze... I tend to get lost frequently for free. 

On Thursday night Kat and I made our way to Highgate to meet up with her friends from Wales who are now living and working in London. I snuck in one last Grenoble reunion to see Rhyanna, I haven’t seen her for nearly two years but it was as though only two weeks had passed.

My last day in London was great, I had my eyes glued to the TV watching the Royal Wedding. I don’t know why I cared so much about it but I definitely got sucked into the moment and bought a commemorative mug, and magnet.I was crying when Kate walked down the aisle. Don’t judge.

I'm pretty bummed that my trip is over but I want to personally thank my cousin Geoff for letting me stay in Oxford, as well as George and Kat’s Wales Crew for letting me crash whilst in London. To all the new people that I met, it was a pleasure, and thanks to the Grenoble crew for making the effort to make our reunion so great. Miss you all already.

I'm back in Malta for the last leg of my course and I only have two and a half more modules left until I’m back home for the summer to work on my thesis. Start the countdown. 

Easter Vacation Part 1

My Easter vacation could not have come soon enough. Even though I had a bit of a break at the end of January, the last two and half months consisted of a lot of work and I was really tired and needed a break. On the last day of class, Carole came to visit me after her trip to India. Despite the jet lag, she was a trooper and manned up to come out with everyone to see firsthand the wonderful world of Paceville. The next day, when we woke up the weather was absolute crap; it had been so sunny and warm in the weeks leading up to break and I had told the girls who were coming to visit that the weather had been great and was supposed to get better. I had a slight panic attack as I checked the forecast which predicted rain for the next four days. By some grace of God things turned around for the better. On Friday night, Jess arrived; it’s a good thing someone was awake to bring her to my room since I accidently fell asleep- sorry Jess! Anyway, the next day, despite the bit of rain, Carole, Jess and I ventured off to Mdina, Mosta and Sliema to check out the sites. 

Mdina Cathedral

Mosta Dome

Blue Grotto

On Saturday night, Jamie arrived and the next day, all four of us went to the Blue Grotto and right after that we went all the way across the island to Comino. We collectively decided that since the weather was good, we didn't want to risk not being able to see Comino at all so it was worth the trek from one of the island to the other. 

Comino

Comino

Comino

We spent all day in Valletta walking and taking in the sites. In the evening we went back to the waterfront and had a great dinner. 

Valletta

Carole left early Tuesday morning so Jamie, Jess and I had a laid back day to go buy some souvenirs and spend the rest of the day at the beach. 

As a side note, I’m proud to say that for the first time ever, I am voting in a federal election. I hope that those of you at home are doing the same because it is an important thing to do. We are so lucky to live in a democratic country where we are able to voice our opinion unlike some countries where people have lost their lives this year fighting for that right. 

Who knew democracy could look this good?

And now, I’m in Oxford visiting my cousin Geoff. I’ve been here once before but it was in the winter time; it was beautiful then but it is even more stunning now that the weather is nice and flowers have been planted in the gardens. It's great being in such an academic environment; I went to the library and got some books to help me with my research for my  thesis. Overall I'm happy to be here to get some work done, to be with family and to relax a little bit as well. 

So I guess I got a little carried away with this entry but it makes up for all the times that I don't write. I hope everyone is doing well. Love to all xoxo

Strawberry Festival

This weekend was generally eaten up by working on a take home exam but I decided that I would check out the Strawberry festival in Mgarr on Sunday. We had heard some rumors that every bus that was going to Mgarr was packed full and was not stopping to pick up passengers. The options were that we could call a taxi or walk. A bunch of us girls decided to walk... for two and a half hours... at 12:30 aka the hottest part of the day. I was okay with it, it made for a good adventure and I think that the walk was better than the actual festival itself. The festival took place in the main square and you could buy various drinks and food made with strawberries but the absolute chaos of buying a ticket to actually buy something was horrific; lines were nonexistent. Either way I got to see something cultural, which I really don’t get to do too often. Not only was there a lot of pandemonium going on at the festival, getting a bus home was another experience altogether. I almost got in the way of a fight between two men who were annoyed about people pushing and they decided that getting aggressive with each other would be the best way to solve the problem. The irony was that they were both near the front of the line and had no problem getting one. Anyway, that’s what has been happening lately, I’m excited that my three visitors arrive this week so we can go on some adventures and relax a bit. Hopefully I’ll get back to writing more frequently again soon. 

After 2.5 hours, we finally arrived 

Hiking

I know that I haven’t written anything interesting in the last little while but to be honest, my life has been boring. School has been busy, and still is, but this weekend I went on a hike to the Dingli Cliffs which is one of the highest points in Malta about 250 metres above sea level (thank you Wikipedia). We were gone all day and managed to cap off the day by watching a beautiful sunset. Anyway I’m pretty happy that the weather has finally become much warmer and the rain has (seemingly) stopped. We had temperatures around 18 degrees this weekend and while I wouldn’t normally consider that a scorcher, I managed to get a tan (read minor sunburn). I’ll be honest, the nicer weather has made it infinitely more challenging for me to convince myself to do my homework- I find myself weighing the benefits of vitamin D and passing my course.... I usually draw the line somewhere in between.  It seems crazy that March is almost over- didn’t it just start? Realistically I think that the next 3 months are going to fly by as well. I have 4 courses left until I’m done here at the end of June and until then I’ll be really busy with school but looking forward to my mini holiday in the UK over Easter break, 3 weeks to go. Hope everyone is doing well, love to all at home. Drop me a line to fill me in on your lives *cough* Corina Buligan *cough*