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. 

Vacay Therapy

So I know it’s been a while since I last posted, but I went away for a bit of an adventure after exams. I hopped around to 5 different cities in France and the UK and got to see a lot of people that I haven’t seen for a while and who I care about a lot.

I met up with Mark in London and the following day we debarked on our trip to Bordeaux to meet up with Dan, a fellow Canadian and friend from Grenoble who is currently doing his PhD there. Despite the fact that I haven’t seen Dan for about two years, we were able to pick up right where we left off and spent hours catching up, drinking wine and eating cheese and chocolate. Later that night Jamie arrived and the following day all four of us went on a wine tasting tour which was really fun and of course delicious.

  

Back in the UK again I went to Leicester and met up with Sweta, my friend that I met on my flight back to Toronto in December and we became instant friends so it was awesome that I got to meet up with her again and she took me to law school for the day, how very Elle Woods of me.  

Next up was Wales to see the beautiful Kat and Lama. What an amazing place, maybe I’m biased because I like lambs, but it was absolutely stunning. I would go back there in a heartbeat and I would love to see it on a clear day. My only complaint was the windy roads which make me sick but I’m just used to straight roads so I clearly need to man up.

The last leg of the trip was spent in London with Miranda (the legend), as well as a bunch of people from France and my cousins from Australia and Canada. Even though the whole purpose of my trip wasn’t touristy, I was pretty excited to make the effort to go to platform 9 ¾ (since I’m so cool) but I think the next time I am back in London, which will be soon, I’ll actually do the 27 page self-guided HP tour. Why not?

So thanks to everyone who I met up with especially those who donated a bed to me, it was amazing to see you all and I look forward to seeing you again. 

Going Postal

Earlier on in the week, I had to go to the post office to mail a few things; despite the fact that I had to walk there which realistically takes 3 minutes, and there was 4 people ahead of me in line, it literally took me one hour to go and come back. At the beginning of the year, I was really frustrated with the post office because a) I couldn’t find it and b) when I finally did, it was closed. It is only open from 7:30-12:45 so for people who work or go to school, it becomes very difficult to get mail posted. Albeit, I had a few (six) things to mail but in my opinion, I didn’t think it should have taken as long as it did. I had two small letters to send and after weighing them, the man gave me the stamps and envelopes back only for me to have to stick on the stamps myself and then walk outside and post them in the mailbox. I’m sorry, was I not at the post office already? Why would that mail not just stay at the post office and go out from there? Moreover, the remaining four things I had to send were larger things which contributed to the other 40 minutes of my post office adventure. For each package that I had to send, homeboy put at least 9 stamps on. Are you serious Clark? Why not print a sticker with a barcode that says that I paid the right amount instead of sticking each collector’s edition stamp on and then taping the hell out of the box to make sure the stamps don’t slip off? Too much. 

Legit

Anyway, in other frustrating/unsafe Maltese news, as I was walking back from getting some groceries last night I saw an uncovered manhole. The cover was just strewn about, not even half making an attempt to cover the hole. There were no pylons indicating any sort of random hole in the ground. I imagine that since today is Sunday, and God forbid anyone works, it will remain uncovered until Monday.

I digress. That’s been my non-eventful week. I’ll be back in two weeks.