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*

We Jammin'

I’m not going to lie I really don’t have much to talk about this week. Obviously some weeks are more exciting than others and this is just one of those weeks where nothing really happened aside from day to day life. One thing that did annoy me was that my online playlist got deleted- this seems to be happening more and more lately which is on the one hand annoying but on the other it forces me to find some new songs to listen to. So with that said, I forced myself to check out what songs are playing on bbc radio1, billboard 100 and radio stations at home. I even went as far as doing the 30 day song challenge that’s been floating around on facebook and exchanged my list with Kat (who has much better musical taste than I do) to use whatever we came up with to compile my new list to rock out to.  So since I’m not cool enough to figure out itunes and neither Malta nor Canada is up with the times to get Spotify, I’m asking you guys to hit me up with your fav song, or a wayback playback (Karen and Lorraine that is a hint) or even a song that reminds you of me (I already put Beyonce’s Single Ladies on the list so don’t go trying to be funny and hint that one)! Let me know by one of the 19 ways you can find me online either by commenting on the blog, skype, email, msn, facebook. Okay so maybe not 19 ways but there’s five. Thanks for your help. Big love to everyone at home, I miss you all dearly. 

I Can Gozo the Distance

When I was in elementary school, I used to look forward to Carnival days in the winter months because it meant that we got to play in the snow all day. Canadian Carnival is a tradition which takes place in Quebec every year just before Lent but I guess our school used the tradition as an excuse to expose the students to French culture. Realistically, kids are not going to complain to not having class and getting to play games and drink hot chocolate. Anyway, Carnival has been taking place in Malta for the last couple days and I decided to venture over to Gozo on Saturday to check it out. To put it simply, the day was an adventure and an epic fail but somehow enjoyable. Once we arrived in Gozo, we decided that it would be a good idea to walk to Nadur since it "wasn’t too far” and this way we’d beat paying for a taxi. After wandering around for a bit we then decided it was time to cave and get a taxi to the farmhouse where everyone from the residence was staying. Despite pointing on a map to the city that we needed to go to, our driver dropped us off in the wrong place so we were stranded for a bit until we were saved by Mike and Jess- typical Canadians going out of their to help others. Anyway good times were had at the farmhouse with people dressing up and getting their faces painted. I actually never saw any of the carnival festivities but I think it’s sort of a combination of Halloween (minus the candy) and Caribana; basically a lot of crowds and rowdy people and apparently dead fish on the street?  Despite all the confusion, it was a beautiful day- finally- with a clear blue sky and sun poking through the clouds. It was a welcomed change since the weather has been terrible for the last couple weeks. I’m really looking forward to the warmer weather, although everyone seems to want to warn me about it, but I hate being cold.

In the wrong city- oops

In other news, I’m very excited that I will have some visitors over the Easter break for a few days which will be really great because I’ve been a bit homesick the last little while and it will be nice to see some familiar faces and hang out and relax a bit. After that I’ll be hopping over to England again to visit my cousin Geoff in Oxford and spend Easter together and then meet up with a bunch of friends in London at the end of my trip. There’s a lot of work that needs to be done from now until then but I know that time will fly by as it always does. Only three and half months left until I’m back in Canada- so crazy.

On a random note, I just wanted to share this hilarious video with you, thanks to Lama for showing it to me.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qMFpZRDYha4

You don't have to spend a lot to look hot

Usually, when I’m back home and decide to go out with my friends I’d put in a lot of effort in picking a cute outfit and a nice pair of heels, but in Malta I spend more time figuring out what I want to wear by deciding which clothes I don’t care if they come back smelling like an ashtray. Here it doesn’t  matter what you wear since there’s a lot of jersey shore couture in the clubs that I refuse to compete with, and some people (not mentioning any names) have gotten away with going in their pyjamas so I usually opt for somewhere in between and put on jeans and a top. This weekend was a bit different because to celebrate Denise’s birthday we ventured over to the 25 cent store to find our outfits. That’s right I said, 25 cent store; I thought we had it good with Dollarama at home. Actually Dollarama is much better than this place since some of the things are questionable, in that they have random dirt spots on them, and parts of the store are flooded but I mean, it’s 25 cents, I’m not going to complain. I decided that I’d wear a classy Spice Girls t-shirt but I also bought a shirt that I legitimately plan on wearing that may slightly resemble a tea towel but in the words of Tim Gunn, I’ll make it work.  

Chanel, Spring 2011 

Getting Cultural

This week I was invited to a ‘cultural event,’ a guided tour of Valletta. I’ll admit I was reluctant to go because I thought that since I’ve lived in Malta for the last five months, I’ve probably seen what needed to be seen. However, I decided to go and in the end was glad that I did; it seems that often times when you live somewhere, you fall into such a daily routine that you fail to realise what your city has to offer and the beautiful sites that surround you. Despite the fact that the weather was terrible (crazy winds and rain), the tour was great. We went to one of the gardens that I had no idea existed which was followed by a tour of the St. John’s Co-Cathedral and later to a 16^th century palace of a Maltese noble family and then out for lunch with the group. I particularly liked the palace because from the outside, you wouldn’t know that the house (read mansion) existed, especially since we entered from what appeared to be just a regular souvenir shop. The house has over 50 rooms and it is just exquisite. So in the end, it was a good idea for me to become a tourist where I live and I look forward to the next tour. 

Inside St. John's Co Cathedral 

Dining room inside 16th Century Palace

I cannot believe that my course is halfway done. I only have seven more modules to complete before I head home to write my thesis- which I still don’t know what it will be on yet, suggestions would be appreciated. This week has not been overly eventful except for the fact that Thursday was a holiday to mark St. Paul’s Shipwreck in Malta. I thought it would be cool to check out what goes on during a ‘festa’ so a bunch of us headed to Valletta to see what was going on. I think it would have been better to go at night because all we saw was a band marching through the city. Yay for cultural experiences. I’m sure there is more to it than that but I couldn’t find an itinerary of events or anything so that was slightly disappointing. There will be plenty more events to come, I’m sure so hopefully those ones are better. 

There have been a lot of changes going on at the residence, specifically with the new residents having arrived for the second semester.  The overall mood at the residence is pretty mixed right now with a lot of people sad to see friends heading back home and a lot of people who are happy to start their time abroad. Obviously it sucks to see people leave but, speaking from experience, having met people on exchanges in the past it makes for the best excuse to travel and you never have to worry about paying for accommodation! So good luck to everyone who has gone back home and welcome to all the newbies.