Local or Guest?

So how long does it take for you to live somewhere and actually be considered a local? Are there certain requirements you have to fulfil? Maybe you have to speak the language, be able to give directions, know at least 5 people on the bus before you get to your destination? I admit I can’t speak the language (I haven’t been reading my Learn Maltese, Why Not book... I’ll tell you Why Not- honayyyy no time), I have been asked for directions (which I was able to give, surprise, surprise), and sure I don’t know 5 people on the bus but is it weird that I saw a guy from the grocery store near my residence in Lija, walking around in Valletta and I thought to myself “oh that’s Carlos from Smart.” Okay, ya that’s probably weird that I know his name because we’ve never talked before, I am just observant and I’ve read his name tag. My point is that in the past seven weeks that I’ve been here, I feel more and more like a local every day. I usually eat lunch at one of four places which therefore makes me a regular there and it’s really nice when people recognize you and genuinely ask you how you’re doing. Take for example, the salad place (I don’t actually know the name of the restaurant –some regular I am), I went there Friday morning before my exam to grab a cappuccino and then later to get a wrap and the guys there asked me how the exam went. I’m not sure how many places I could go to at home that would do that. It’s a nice feeling. I also feel like a local based on the fact that I can spot the non-locals. It’s a fun game I like to call “Spot the Brit.” It’s an all-too-easy game because you can spot them because they’re the only ones dressed in some sort of white apparel, often times looking slightly cold because- surprise- it’s not summer anymore. I’m not going to lie, even though it’s not summer, the weather right now is really great- not too hot and not too cold, like a perfect September afternoon. Sorry you guys at home in 3 degree weather, it’s still around 20 in Malta. Woot 

On another note, I took advantage of the little free time I was given this weekend and I went exploring to Marsaxlokk (say that 3 times fast), the old fishing village. The girls and I walked around and checked out the market, sat down to people watch a bit and then came back home. When we got back to Valletta we noticed that some of the Christmas lights have been turned on in the city and it’s really beautiful so see. It makes me crave some hot wine and Christmas movies. So if you need to find me in five weeks time, I’ll probably be drunk under my snuggie watching The Holiday.  Here’s hoping that those five weeks go quickly -I know that the next 2 will for sure, I’m mentally preparing for a killer module.  

Trying to ward off the evil of my next course

Hitchiking & Old Friends

For someone who has an embarrassing sense of direction, it is amusing to see what kind of situations I find myself in when I have absolutely no idea where I am going. Take for example yesterday, I made an appointment in Attard to get my eyebrows done and according to Google Maps it said that it was 1.8 kilometres from the residence. In the morning when I went for my run I thought that it would be a good idea to try to run to the place which would kill 2 birds with one stone: first of all I would be exercising and second of all I would know where the place was when it was time for me to go there for my appointment. Let’s just say the only benefit that I had was the exercise since the first direction that Google gave me didn’t match up with the streets... yes that’s right, I’m blaming the streets for not being laid out properly. Did you think I was going to take full blame? But anyway as a side note, after giving up trying to find the place I was looking for, I ended up running around aimlessly just trying to remember landmarks so that I could get back to the residence. As I was doing so, I stumbled upon my grandfather’s old house, so that was really special for me. Later, after I showered and it was time to head to Attard, I hopped on a bus and asked the bus driver to just let me know when to get off which he was nice enough to do. The only problem was that although I was in Attard, I literally had no idea where I was supposed to go from there.

So me being me, I wandered around and asked for directions. The first person I asked was a girl crossing the street who was about to have a driving lesson. Between her and her instructor, they decided that they knew where the place was and said they would take me. Shwing! Listen, I know hitchhiking and talking to strangers is not the best idea at times, but I think exceptions can be made. On a weird note, the back of the instructor’s head looked like my grandfather’s... just saying. Even though things weren’t accomplished the way I originally intended, I think it was better in the end- I exercised, had a couple nostalgic moments, got dropped off in front of where I needed to go without having to pay taxi rates, and got my eyebrows tamed. I’m not complaining with that.

Earlier on in the week I was contacted by a friend from my 2006 exchange to London; Donna told me that she was going to be in Malta on holiday with her boyfriend (now fiancé – congrats you two!) and that we should meet up. It was really great to see her and it was great to know that although a lot of time had passed, we were able to pick up right where we left off. So that was a really unexpected but welcomed surprise; I’m sure both of us would have agreed that we would meet again sometime but we wouldn’t have guessed that it would be in Malta. I guess you just never know when or where you’ll bump into a friend.

Exploring

I finished my second module this week and since I finished all my work on Friday, I actually had a weekend to myself. I would have liked to have flown somewhere to visit a new country but since I never know how much work I will have to do, it’s a bit risky booking a flight in advance and not knowing if I can go. Besides, right now flights are really expensive and I think that it is important to see this beautiful island that many people don’t even know exists! So with that, I decided to go to Mdina, the old capital of Malta, also known as the Silent City. It was really nice to walk around and take in the sites and also go to an amazing cafe to take a break and eat some chocolate cake--- diet starts Monday so it’s okay. Later on in the evening us girls got dressed up for Halloween. To be honest, I really don’t like the holiday, save for carving pumpkins, but I ended up deciding to be Bellatrix Lestrange from Harry Potter. (19 days and counting until the 7^th movie comes out!)

Today a bunch of us took the ferry to Gozo, and we hired a few taxis as personal guides to take us around the island. Normally I wouldn’t do that but because today is Sunday and everything is closed or operates on a reduced schedule, it would have been really difficult to get around and we probably wouldn’t have been able to see half of what we did. It was a great day and we were all exhausted by the time we got back to Malta to take the van back to the residence. Everything was fine and dandy until the van stalled and we were stuck. Thankfully it didn’t take too long for someone to come and help us. I thought that when the next van came to pick us up, we would all just switch from the broken down van to the other one; instead, we were “towed,” and by that I mean the vans were attached by a rope and we were dragged from Mosta back to the residence. Is that even legal?

 

And I know I usually have a good story about the buses, but the only one that I have this week is that the bus drivers here can sometimes be really hostile. Take for example when I tried to get on the bus just as it was leaving- probably not the best of ideas but for the record I was yelling and saying “wait!” - I literally had to jump on the bus to get where I needed to go and then when I was trying to get off, the donkey that was the bus driver, didn’t stop so I found myself jumping off the bus. At least I know that if my career in conflict resolution fails, I probably have a good chance at becoming a stunt double in Hollywood so I mean, I guess it’s a win- win sitch.

So that’s it for me for now, I’m looking forward to the next module which deals with Media and Conflict... who knows, maybe I’ll get in touch with my inner Robin Scherbatsky and start my career as a news reporter. We shall see.

I am pleased to say that my second module has been much better than the first one mainly because the professor has been more realistic with his expectations. However, one thing that has been tough is his teaching style... I frequently find myself looking around to see if people in the class are confused but they either have amazing poker faces or I’m the only one in the class who is confused. The prof will ask if people understand and everyone nods enthusiastically, with smiles on their faces while I’m sitting there going “what the hell just happened?” Anyway, that’s something I’ll have to figure out. On another note- holey moley I’ve been here for one month which means I only have a year left. Boom diggety, time flies when you’re having..... *ahem* working hard. I have managed to squeeze in some fun time and I went out twice this weekend which was a nice break away from the books.

Now I know it seems that I have a habit about talking about the buses or the rain here but it is for a good reason. Take today for example (Mondays seem to be terrible for rain): I woke up to a thunderstorm. Seeing as last week I got soaked by the rain, you’d think I’d know better  (seeing as I am a local now) to just call a cab. Anyway, it wasn’t raining by the time I left the residence so I thought I could make it to the bus stop and all would be good. Wrong-o. I got soaked. And I’m not exaggerating by any means. I was wading through water that was gushing all over the place. Friends of mine decided to take off their socks and shoes but I really didn’t want to risk stepping on uneven ground and twisting my ankle or stepping on something sharp and bleeding everywhere and getting an infection. Instead, for the sake of my education, I pushed through and faced the dangerous waters and got to the bus stop only to have no buses pass and i ended up calling a cab and getting to class 35 minutes late. A new record for being late. I sat through an hour and a half of lecture freezing and smelling of sewage, so naturally I bought a new pair of jeans at lunch... I needed a new pair anyway (see mom, I told you I needed to bring five pairs of jeans)!  So there are a couple lessons to learn here: first of all, I need rubber boots and second of all, if I hear the rain, and see water everywhere, I’m just going to call a cab... it would save me a lot of trouble. 

Flooding in Msida is always the worst when it rains.

If you want to check out some video clips and pictures of the flooding, look here: http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20101025/local/readers-pictures-of-the-floods

It's Been a Tough Week....

Hay girl hay! You all still with me? I am surprised that I am still alive but I somehow managed to finish one semester in a fortnight... ya, I just wanted to use fortnight in a sentence. Anyway the last week was really intense, I had a presentation and a 15 page paper to due and then a random conflict facilitation simulation thrown in there with a day’s notice- why not eh? So basically, I went into hibernation, ate my feelings and felt sorry for myself for about a week. I’m not going to lie, I cried and hated my life. What a child I am sometimes. In fact sometimes I still manage to surprise myself at how childish I am since today I put my underwear on inside out. Really, am I 22 years old? 

 Thanks to Heather (Lamb#3) for sending this to me in an email which, I felt, really applied to my life. It said "It's been a tough week... but dammit I made it!"

Moving on. After finishing all my work for this module I got to enjoy 12 hours of the weekend to myself and I decided to get in touch with my inner 65 year old self and I did what every other senior citizen in Malta does on a Sunday night... I went to banda- in English, I went to a symphony. I was invited by a cousin of a friend I knew in highschool. I agreed to go because it reminded me of my grandfather. When I was younger, I remember going to watch my Pappa play with the Maltese band in Toronto. The ladies would sit and play rummy whilst gossiping and I would drink some pop and enjoy a pastizzi. This performance varied extremely to what I expected. It was actually really wonderful, and I genuinely enjoyed it. There was a tenor and soprano singer and they performed Nassum Dorma, and O Fortuna... anyway I digress, I guess I’m still a band geek at heart.

And just a little side note about the bus system in Malta. Remember my conundrum of getting from where I live in residence to Valletta? It already takes me a good 30 minutes to get to school on a good, dry day, but when it rains, I’m screwed. Take today for example, I was at the bus stop before 8:00 a.m and by 8:20, five buses had driven past me, I was cold and soaked so eventually three of us pitched for a cab and made it to class 15 minutes late- great first impression. The bus system is really unreliable, you never know when one is coming, you only know that it is supposed to come every 30 minutes, and the driver may drive past you for no reason which makes for a fun guessing game to play to try to get somewhere in a timely fashion.

So that’s what’s been going on in my life the last little while. Today is a fresh start to the course since I’m starting a new module (read semester) and I’m ready to work hard and push through this challenge.