Poop related curiosities

Poop in the toilets.

How are the water closed here? the handle is a little different but they work as is expected...

by the way, there are several polite ways to ask for the toilets location:

Excuse me, where are the restrooms?

Excuse me, where are the gents? (for men)

Excuse me, where are the ladies? (for women)

and a lot of sentences to tell about it to your friends:

i am going to send a letter

i am going to communicate with the nature.

or even thousands of unpolite SLANG expressions like:

i am going to take a dumb (voy a cagar)

Poop in public conveniences

There are a lot of public conveniences everywhere, not usual in Galicia. Once I had a lunch in Gozo and there were no toilets in the bar, i had to go out, cross the street and use the public convenience...

This is just a curiosity, i think the billboard is wrong because i was looking for the public convenience and the sign pointed directly to the sea ... (a cagar de campo? a cargar de mar?)

Pet's poop

If you have a pet you must collect its poop, this is the law. We have the same law in Spain. Fortunately the sign is not only in Maltese, we can read it in english too...

Sorry for the escathological post... ;)

See you¡

Maltese's cars and tuning

Hi, it looks like that quite a bit of Malta's young people are crazy about cars and motorbikes. It is funny for me, since they dont have any real highway and the speed limit,all around the country, is 70 km/h . So they can't really drive its machines fast... but they show off all its power in every roundabout.

I am sure that these guys must watch on tv the american show MTV tuning, because there are a lot of tuned cars and motorbikes.

The common element in all these cars are the rear spoiler, you can do your washing and dry all one's family clothes in one of this spoilers. Here some examples:

There are some differences with Spain for the newbies, first, they drive in the left, you know about this, but the have another color for the new driver signal.

And it is usual to see in some cars these suplementary antenna... what are these antennas for? i really dont know... :(

I have seen motorbikes too, a lot of new sport motorbikes with modified suspensions and transmissions in order to make the bike a bit longer.

As an example i have seen Suzuki Hayabusa sports bike with a long rear, may be 30 cm larger than its regular size (sorry i dont have photo of this).

The photo here is a vintage english motorbike... there are some of these around the island too. I had never seen one motorbike of these brand before... but i knew about them -Royal Enfield- (thank you Rob ;))

Of course there are tuning in Spain too, but i am not used to see as many tuned cars as i can see here, also I have never seen enlarged sport motorbikes in Spain's roads (may be in motorbike expositions) and i think it would be ilegal and dangerous because you are modifying the dynamics of your motorbike.

But here they live a relaxed life and i think the law is not too strict...

Ahhh mediterranean life¡

See you¡

Farewell and the big brother house feeling

I have been here for 3 weeks and i started to forge a relationship with some people, but this is EF Malta, the people come here for a short period of time and then leave the island to continue with their lifes.

Do you know Apocalyptica? it is an instrumental Finnish band and they have a song called Farewell. You can listen it and try to imagine how i feel now...

Anyway, i'll try to explain this in words... because today i am having strange feelings inside me. Some of my "two week's friends" are leaving the island. Obviously we will keep in touch by email (i am thinking about facebook and it is possible that i made an account ...) because we have to share our photos, videos and experiences, really a lot of them in a short time .

I am feeling sad, unhappy,... but three weeks ago i didn,t know anything about these people or even more i didn't know anything about their countries...

Nearly all here are suffering some kind of "big brother house's player" feeling, as if we knew so so much about the people that is leaving...

Also, the weather is not good it has been raining all the day, pouring sometimes. The day was dark since the morning and this helps me to feel more in blue... This is our life, you known worth people and then you lose them.

Tomorrow, new people are coming, another week here is going to start. Maybe i will make new friends, but these friends that have left the island today, all of us have left something of you in me.

I hope, we can meet again somewhere in time...

Take care of yourself and enjoy your life¡

I get my haircut

Hi everybody.

Finally i manage to get my haircut in Malta, another life experience in these mediterranean islands.

Yesterday i was looking on internet for some hairdressers vocabulary, because i didn't know how to say "rebajame de aqui" or "capeame allá". Now i know several words like gel, dandruff, curl hair, straight hair, fringe, ... but while i was looking the vocabulary i realized that it was better to look for a photo and show it to the hairdresser.

In the early morning, before my lessons i was wandering around St Julians and i discovered a hairdresser's called: "Jasmine Salon"

It is near my residence, the staff were 2 women and like all the maltese people, these women were speaking maltese.

I asked for a haircut to one of them and i shown her, the photo i downloaded from Internet the night before...



This was all our conversation in english until the final "how much is it?, please"

:)

are the maltese people talkative? i think so, but they speak maltese most of time and as far as i know they only use english in the academic and professional worlds.

Anyway, back in my haircut, the hairdresser couldn´t do miracles so my face is the same that it used to be, but i am really pleased with my new haircut. :D

Are you ready to know my new fashioned appearence? because at present i am a really goodlooking man :D, even more, i am a maltese gentleman¡

By the way, the haircut costs me only 10€, not to expensive, altough i know that there are some places in Valleta (capital city) when you can get your haircut by 3€.

That it is¡

See you

A night at Eden Cinema and other curiosities

i went to Eden Cinema yesterday, and i want to tell you about this new and "fascinating" experince ... not really fascinating, is quite similar to any other cinema in Spain... at least i think so. However i am going to talk about this :)

At first i want you to know where is the place, so here is the link.

Now i can talk about the prices, as far as i know, the prices are not always the same, they are different if the film is a newer one or an older one. So you have two prices, 7€ for the newest and 3 € for the oldest.

I didn't bother about the film i was going to see, i solely wanted to live a new Maltese experience... so we (a switzerland friend and me) decided to choose a cheap old film.

Our first candidate film was malta force.


I think this is the unique maltese made film in all the movie schedule, and i am sure that this film is not going to be broadcasted in Spain. :D

As far as i know, this is a maltese humorous film, something like Torrente in Spain... but it was a pity because they only broadcast this film in maltese, and i can not understand a single word in this language...

So, our selected film was unstoppable.

The film language was perfect american english and i realised that me english is quite poor, because most of time i did not understand anything... may be a 10% out of all the conversation...

anyway this was the typical american action movie, with Denzel Washinton as main star. The script is like all this usual american ones, a regular american guy that becames into a hero in order to avoid a catastrophe... , this time due to an unstoppable and uncontrolled train ...

The only curious thing during the film, was the "snack break", they stop the broadcasting 10 minutes to allow people to buy some snacks. A snack break in a film lasting only 120 mins?

In my humble opinion this is not too usual in Spain.

In other matters, i want to show you a curiosity... the internet knows about us... (the big brother is watching...) look at the advertisements that you can see in "la voz de galicia" when you are using the internet connection from the EF school.

There is a lot of russian people here and "internet" knows it, so russian ads everywhere¡

Be careful out there¡

See you

The bowling experience

Hey, i want to talk about my bowling experience yesterday.

We played in the evening , after a long day with a lot of classes, among 5 mates (EF students, students of another schools and other foreigner people working here too) in the Eden Superbowl bowling.

Before yesterday, I have never been bowling in a real bowling alley.... i had to rent one of this special shoes ... my god, Did you know this shoes? This may be the most unhealthy shoes in the world... how many bacterias are living inside them? I prefered not to think about that and just play... and surprinsingly i am not that bad¡

It was a really interesting match, because we were 6 people (2 french, 1 african -i can not remember the country-, 2 germans and me). I had met these people before and they are really good guys...

We were laughing most of time, and i really enjoy this time... and by the way, we spoke all the time in english, but, the funny thing is that mostly of time i didn't realize of it... It is easier to understand the english when it is spoken by Non native people.

By the way, i was able to reach the 3º position (bronze medal) with 84 points, no strikes but a very good average score for my first time...

When we left the bowling we had a good time in a PUB near my residence, we enjoy some drinks while we spoke about life...

I really came back late in the night, may be 1 am in the morning, and today i got up early again, i am tired of course, but this experiences are great, so the bowling experience worth it.

See you¡

Culture and manners

Hey, today i had a really hard day with lessons during 8 hours since 11:00Am to 7:20pm.

This week the lessons were concentrated in 4 days because the friday we are going to have a free day... tourism day.

The main issue to talk about today is the culture and manners of Maltese people. As far as i known, in this country is rude call a waiter shouting, whistling, or clapping your hands..., you should only up your hand and wait. Otherwise the waiter could feel that they are being disturbed on its work and do not attend you at all ...

To say the truth, this really dont happens here in St Julians, because there are a lot of foreigners and they are used to the Spanish way of life (a grito pelao¡)

I want to talk about my own experience, i am not really having too much contact with real maltese people,we are all foreigners here, but in my humble opinion, they are very zealous with his culture and manners and not too much openminded... Please, remember that this is a completely subjective opinion, may be i haven´t had enough experiences to say this.

As an example i want to talk about one "problem" i had the last night while i was at the monday party of EF school. A problem that really upset me:

I left my overcoat in a stack of clothes over a table, as usual. I had 2 small beers an then i decided that it was enough, i needed to rest at the residence.

When i went to the table for my coat and tried to take it, some Maltese guys, 2 mid-aged couples, (i prefer to think that they were a bit drunk), took my coat and looked at me as if i were a burglar... they review my coat, front and behind, i allowed them to do that because i knew perfectly that this coat was mine... when they finish its review, they were complete disrespectful and unpolite with its manners, and then they gave it back to me with contempt...

There wasn´t any apologize for its behavior, but they let my leave "alive"... i could see something in their eyes ... may be Xenophobia against the foreigners....

I don´t know, but i felt so bad and really angry, so i prefered going the residence and have a nice rest...

Today it is another day. May be it was all a simple misunderstanding, but i am too sensitive about this manners... then i will remenber it in the future - not all the people here is trustworthy-.

See you guys¡

The Malta bus service

Well this is a common topic for every foreigner in Malta.

The Bus public transport service. My first impresion was that the most of the buses are too old and now after 2 weeks here i can confirm that this is true, the most of the buses are quite old.

The buses themselfs are different among them, so is difficult to see 2 fraternal twins buses, altough all of them are painted in the same yellow colour (gray in Gozo island).

The elderly buses owns a string goberned bell to say the driver "kindly stop in the next bus stop". The more modern ones have the usual electronic bell button...

The bus marks are not known to me, i think they are english marks, it is difficult to see a Volvo, Man or Renault bus here.

When you are waiting in a bus stop and you can see your bus approaching, you must raise your hand and wave to tell the driver to stop and let you take the bus, otherwise the driver will not stop and you should be waiting for the next bus to come.

In every city there is a special bus stop called the "bus terminus", is just a "bus stop". You are not going to find there any building with confortable banks or any speakers system informing about the arrivals or departures, but you can find there the time tables (great) but unfortunately are a complety mess and nobody can make up its mind with that... moreover

you don't expect to have a time table in every bus stop, because this is not true, the best you can do is to ask for information to any kind pedestrian...

The main bus terminus is in Valleta, the capital city, it is just opposite the main city entrance door... this is really convenient for the tourist like me :D, by the way, it is crazy because let's suppose that now is the 20:00pm, all the buses wich its departure time is 20:00pm sets off at the same time¡ without any announcement, just start its engines and the race starts...

And i say, the race starts because the drivers are a bit mad here... i think they should be good WRC drivers... :D

But anyway, the service is really cheap, a trip costs between 0,47€ and 1,18€... (0,50€ and 1,2o€ really, you should no expect any change, and it is better if you pay with cash and no with notes).

And at short, to say the truth, the global service is good as far as you can reach every place in the island in less than 1 hour.

ps.- there is no railroad service here¡ the island is too small ;)

Gozo

This sunday i was in Gozo, it was a nice trip, i did it with two friends, a german classmate and a friend of him, really nice guys.
It is a quite long journey, that last almost 4 hours, 2 hours to go and 2 hours to come back to St Julians, but you can enjoy the seashore with grateful landscapes in the meantime...

Regarding the transport, we used bus and ferry.
The bus is always a difficult experience to talk about (i'll do it in another post, i am collecting information ;)),


The ferry trip is just a stroll, 25 minutes, Gozo is really close to the main island, Malta. I really loved the ferry, it was a sunny day, the blue sea, i put off my cap and i could feel the breezze ... ahhh Mediterranean life¡

mediterranean life ;)

Then in Gozo we went to the capital city (Victoria - Rabat) by bus. It is really a town, quiet, peaceful,... we saw the Ciutatella, another walled castle from where you could see all around, i think this is the highest place in the island,



Then we tried to visit the azura window, prehistoric heritage, i think, but we could not manage this, "mi gozo en un pozo", because we are out of season and there were no bus lines working to this destination, only taxi, i we didnt want to pay a taxi...
So, we had lunch in Victoria, we were speaking about of a lot of funny things, about Germany and Spain, joking, we were laughing most of time. I think that my humour sense can be defined as multinational...(my friends known already about my humour sense :D), but anyway, the main goal to be here is talking and we tried to talk as much as possible.

When we came back, i enjoyed the ferry again, we met some new people from France, we were all the time talking to them, and we could see a beautiful sun fall, from the ferry, the sun falling, the skyline of Gozo and the mediterranean see, it is a pity but i had ran over my camera battery and i couldn´t take any photo....

At last, i want to say thank you to the german guys. They were very kind, because they speaked all the time in english although they are german, and i could understand the conversation and be part of it... It is a bit frustrating when the people start to speak in their mother tongue and i can not understand any word...

Bye.

a day in Mdina

Saturday, i was in the residence until late in the morning, i had my lunch (several ham and salami sandwitches) and i made up my mind for going to Mdina, the former capital city of Malta.

Mdina rises in a hill so you have a wide landscape. You can see several other cities from here with the blue of the sea and the sky in the distance.

Mdina is the name for the old city inside the walls, It is a a complety walled city, with bastions and towers, plenty of medival ambient, with regal houses, churchs, museums, a cathedral...

The most of the streets are very narrow and there are some little squares too, you could think that you are living some centuries ago when you are inside Mdina, due to, it is really carefully preserved.

Beside Mdina, but already outside the walls, there is another city called Rabat. Rabat is a moderm city but with a lot of history too.

i visited the St Paul's catacums in Rabat, and you dont be afraid, nowadays there is no dead bodies, though they used to be there a long of time ago... :)

Regarding the heritage, really these islands had a very long history with a lot of influences, you can see something interesting everywhere you go.

Every city has its own history and vestiges, most of them are catholic stuff, the people here feels the cristiasm deep inside, really at heart.

I am here studing and to tell the truth i think i am not going to have enough time to see all this vast heritage, because i only do some tourist trips the saturdays and/or sundays... It will be a pity, but an excuse to come back again in the future ... ;)

In the other hand, it was not all tourism. Yesterday i attended a party in Paceville. the venue was the Havana Club. i did not like the ambient and went back to th residence early.

The problem was not the music, it was dance music as in every other pub here, so what was wrong with the ambient?,

Mainly i was intimidate by the security guys (more wide than tall) and the policemen (yes, the policemen inside a Pub, every 5 minutes ¡)

i think there were something wrong with that place yesterday...

By the way, drinking here is more expensive that to drink in other pubs around here (as a example, a pint of Cisk -local beer- is 4€ here vs 2,6€ in Native pub )

This is a photo of Paceville, upstairs you can find all the wellknown pubs here...

;)

See you

A rainy day for a meeting with an old friend

Yes, i know that this year Spain is suffering a cruel winter, with low temperatures, hail, snow and rain.

Here the weather is more stable, almost every day we wake up in the morning with a temperate temperature and a clean blue sky.
During all the days i have been here, only one day was drizzling, but it was just a bit in the early morning.

But today, my friends, today it is been the first really bleak day.
This morning when i wake up, it was only a bit cloudy and windy, but as far as the day was growing up, the weather has becoming more and more crazy.
In the middle of the morning we were attending our classes and it was raining cat and dogs out there... it was really pouring, this was not a simple drizzle¡

Regarding this, owning an umbrella is useless, because the wind blows too much, then you get your clothes wet whatever you do.
Furthermore, i didn't realize before, but there are not too many sewer (there are even streets with no drain at all), so, when it is really raining, like today, the streets become like little streams of water flowing freely everywhere and you get your shoes wet too.




Anyway, once our classes finished when i went back to the residence, i decided to buy some food at the Arkadia local food store...
And she was there, it was a shock, are you really here?, it has been a long time... i thought i was in a dream, but this was real¡
My former friend, one of my prefered in my childhood, i really loved her... i think some of my elderly friends knew this girl too... ;)
I want to introduce you my older friend MIRINDA (sorry, the photo is no too good).



Yes she is alive, and she is living now in Malta¡
XD

In the supermarket i found this guy too, he told me that he is my "cousin"...
I dont think this was the right name for a product if they want to sell it in Spain. Do you agree?
( come pudding PRIMO¡ XD )





Take care

Bye bye

Garage in use (Vados permanentes)

Hi, today just a curiosity.

In Spain we are used to see in the doors of our garages a signal for "vado permanente".
You have to pay a fee at your council every year in order to have this signal in your garage's door.

Here in Malta, i have never seen this signal, all you can see is a red square with white letters "Garage in use day and nigth. Strictly no parking"



There is no serial number and i dont even known if the garage's owners need to pay any fee to use it as in Spain.
Almost all the garages have its own red signal, with the "no parking here" advertise.
But here comes the curiosity, have you ever seen a garage without a door?
Look at his photo and tell me where the door is... by the way i took this photo in Sliema, the nearest city to St Julians, where i am staying...



Bye,bye¡

The Malta Experience

Hi there¡
Today i went to Valletta, the capital city of this little country called Malta.
It is a nice 40 minutes bus trip from St Julians, where my accommodation is, to Valletta Bus Terminus. I'll tell you in other post about buses...

Today in Valletta i was making my own way among its streets, when i found that place
http://www.themaltaexperience.com/
I didn´t known anything about these islands' history before i arrived here 2 weeks ago... so why not take a tour about the Malti History.


The "tour" is really a HD documentary film that last 45 minutes. You are able to hear the audio in 20 languages with his simultaneous translation system... but nothing more.
I think the price is a bit expensive, 6,50€ for a student or 9,50€ for an adult. It is just a short film... but anyway the documentary is interesting and summarize 7000 years of Malti history...

So, my pupils, today a lesson of Malti History (i apologize for the short lesson but i can not remember everything, furthermore, i selected to hear the english audio, so i didnt understand all the film neither :( )

At a glance:
.)7000 years ago there were prehistoric settlements in these islands.

.)5000 year ago these civilization collapse.

.)Since then a lot of civilizations colonize the islands by sea, bringing here their languages and manners,
-Phoenicians
-Carthaginians
-Romans
-Arabs (the local language is very influenced by this culture)

.)Cristiansm was introduced in the islands by St Paul... after a shipwreck¡

.)In the middle ages, cristianism raise and now most of the people here are catholics, the catolicsm is deeply inside the maltese's people.

.)The maltese cross, is the sign of a religious order, the order of St John. This order was first created to provide care for poor and sick pilgrims to the Holy Land.
It became a militar order and they fought agains Turks. It is famous how this order defended the island for more than three months during the Great Siege by the Turks. They won, and this is the main reason of the catolicsm here today... who knows about the main religion nowadays if St John Knighs were defeated by turks?

.)The time was corrupting the honorable order of St John, and Napoleon Bonaparte, take advantage of this to colonize the island of Malta.

.)in the 19th century the british came here to liberate these people from the bad manners that the french army had.
British people bring here his language and manners, too. Today everyone in the islands knows how to speak english and drives in the left. :)

.)in the 20th century, the 2º world war had Malta as a strategy point, due to, the island is in the geografical middle of the mediterranium sea.
Germans and Italians and allies have given to this land some of his manners too...

.) In 1964 the islands achieve its independence

.) In 1974 they became a republic

.) In 2004 they were included as another country in the european union.
...
And now i am here¡

That is it.

Remember to do your home work about this lesson :P

and please, be careful with the data in this post, because it could be not accurate...
:D

See you¡

Buying and Eating vegetables in Malta

hi, today i was a bit hangover. I didn´t know that word in english before, but i am doing my best to improve my language skills... :)
I really think that the alcohol drinks here are absolutely poison, it is no normal how bad i was feeling this mornig ... believe me, i did not drink so much yesterday... then now i know that i´ll take it easy the next time.
;)

But i had to get up this mornig because i had to attend my lessons... 6 classes of 40 minutes each... i felt like dying.... my god. But yesterday's party was my fault and i am here to learn.

Anyway, i have to post something interesting, i dont want to lose my loyal readers, ... so i am going to talk about these "little lorrys selling vegetables" that you can find everywhere all around St Julians.
As far as i know this is very popular in Great Britain, but i had never seen it before, so i tooked some photos.

And by the way, the vegetables here are good, you can find any kind of fresh vegetables and fruits, ... a healthy and tasty alternative for so much pizza.

You can find oranges, cucumber, onions, cabbage, apples, salad, carrots, pears, ... and so on. Always fresh and ready to eat.

It seems that the price is just a little bit more expensive than spanish price, but i think this depends on the season...

So let's eat some healthy food¡
(Mineralizarse y supervitaminarse)

XD

the new batch (la nueva hornada)

hei guys¡

today i wake up early in the morning, 7:45Am, because today is monday and i did not really know when my classes was going to start... i did no have my timetable.
today i discovered that i can look at my timetable in the my.ef.com website.
and you kwow what... i didn´t have to attend any lessons until 13:00 hours, then i had a lot of free time, and i tried to do some online exercises on my.ef.com site but no way, the wifi was missing all the morning long...



anyway, the most important thing is that today is monday, a new week, new students, ... there have been a small group of them (10 more or less) but we have new people in the classroom.
This was good for me, i was feeling a bit alone this days because most of people had forged some kind of relationship with other students (by nationality, by mother tongue, becouse they were couple before -a lot of couples are studing here-, roommates, because they have met in any party this weekend...) but
i came alone, my roommate has gone, i aim not to speak spanish here and i was sick this weekend so there was no party for me... then i was feeling alone, and the feeling doesn't matter me, the main problem is that I WANT TO SPEAK ENGLISH and i need a partner to do this...

Dude, never speak alone, you look like crazy¡ :D

But now, new students, new opportunities to know new people... i have been speaking with some people from germany, i think these guys have the best accent for my ears... ;)

And as every new week we have new activities sheduled.I think i am going to do some karting this wednesday. There are too scheduled dance lessons, paintball, different sports matches, parties, hop on , hop off tours, ... if the weather is fine and you are not sick or busted, you can not get bored ... :)


But today the weather is no the best, it was raining in the morning¡, actually it was only a drizzle... but the sun is no shining as usual, and my health is no at 100% either, altough i think i going to the welcome party at nigth to introduce myself to the new guys that had arrived today¡

Take care¡

1 week in Malta

Sunday
today is my anniversary, i have been in Malta for 1 week¡
i got up late in the morning, actually early in the afternoon... i got my shower and i came out with no destination, i took some photos and when i got hungry i went into dick's bar (this is a quite quiet bar, not like the burguers and pizzerias in Paceville)
I have been there before and i ate a reasonably tasty hamburguer with chips, however today i ordered the sunday special and the main course was not so tasty :( altough the main problem was not the food but a misunderstandig with the dessert...

In brief, today i could not understand what the waiter told me and my face became as red as the red traffic ligth!
Fortunatly, other clients, spanish people i think, tell me "caliente" and then i understood what the waiter wanted to know... (warm or cold).
Yes, i said like a robot... warm please.

i was happy waiting for my hot soup... when, what the...?
It was all a misunderstanding, there was no soup in the "Sunday special" meal, but there was Apple pie as a dessert...
the waiter brought me a warm apple pie... this was the first warm apple pie i have eaten in all my life...

So i could understand what the waiter had told me before. He only wanted to know if i wanted my apple pie warm or cold.

I ate my apple pie (sorry i forgot to take it a photo) and left the bar as fast as possible ... :D
i went by the seashore, i took some photos ... chill out ...
i have uploaded a landscape from Paceville seashore...

and that was all folks¡
More news tomorrow...

By the way, for those of you worried about my health, you must know that i am getting better and better... thank you.

i have a cold¡

i have a cold¡

today is my first saturday here, it was going to be a day for shopping and leisure, however it became a desease's day.
today i have a maltese cooooold, ... and you know that i love to complain about my health :)

So in order to improve my vocabulary about this issue, i am going to talk about it:
The weather in Malta is temperate, no warm, no cold, so you never know if you are enough covert or not.
If the sun shines you get warm and if it is cloudy you feel cold...

Yesterday, my throat started to hurt me, it was no that bad, but it hurted me.
in the late nigth i started to sneeze, 1,2, ... several times and my nose became a runny one, (I really runny one). Sometimes i cough, ( no too much ) nevertheless i have no headache and my muscles are not aching me, so i think this deseae is not the influeza.

Anyway, thanks god i brougth some medices in my luggage from Spain. A shot of "pharmagrip" in the mornig and i have walked and shopped all the day in Sliema, like any other healthy tourist.
XD

But now i am in the residence, sneezing again, so I rather stay in bed, and tomorrow will be another day...
don´t worry about me, i bougth some tissues yestarday (blue "tempo" packet in this photo) and i will have enough for this nigth.

As you can see, i am eating healthy salads and i am shaving my beard too, by the way, i bougth the yellow package because i though it was some kind of chew, but this was my mistake, actually are only sweets like spanish SUGUS...

Cheers¡

Residence issues

Hi, today i aim to tell you about my residence,s issues.

As you known, if you read previous posts, this is just one of the maltese hoteles where EF sends students when its main residence is full.

As far as i know, the main residence is always full, then this hotel is crowed of students most time.

Today i arrived the residence after lessons in EF school, i went upstars and when i came into my room, there was no signal about my roommate :(

Yesterday we had been talking about other residence (Georganis). My roommate was concerned about this one, because he thougth (other belgian people had told to him) that Georganis was better than our residence.

Certainly they have better services and facilites (fridge, wifi and heaters in every room ...) but i dont think the residence was the main reason for his change... , all the belgian people are staying in Georganis, they all are going to stay here for several months, and i believe that all this people were friends before... so i hope Alex is going to be happier there.

I suppose this next sunday i will be assigned to a new roommate... que será será... whatever will be, will be.. (do you know the song, don´t you?) :D

I will stay here in Rafael Spinola, the facilities are not a problem to me, ... actually i miss some kind of central heater system to use in winter months like february..., 5 degrees celsious more inside the room would be great...

Anyway it is hotter than my home in Galicia (if you have been at my home you know what i mean...) and, this residence shall be great in summer, with air conditioning and a big fan in the room, near the school (5 minutes), in a quiet area (if you want to rest), and with a swimming pool¡

Yes a swimming pool, i have just discovered that we have a terrace in the 5th floor, with a swimming pool ( empty :( its yet a bit cold for swimming ) ... but that is a great place to have some sun bathe or just to look at the landscape... you can see the sea, spinola bay or Sliema from there.

i took some photos in the terrace... great landscape

Enjoy¡

In search of lost shopping centre¡

hi, thursday, public holiday in Malta, free time all the day...
what can i do?
1) Sleep
my mind said yes, but my body was asleep at 11:30Am
2)Study
no thanks, tomorrow i will attend classes since 8:00Am to 14:00 AM

then, what to do with sooooo spare time?
let´s go fo a walk¡
and my feet started to move, step by step, at 12:00 AM.
They drived me towards Sliema, quite near St Julian´s (where my residence is).
It is a pleasent tour, because you are all the time by the seashore... and the sun was shining in the blue sky...


But my aim was not only a nice excursion, i wished to get to a place: The Point.
and what is the Point?, The Point (http://www.thepointmalta.com/) is one of the biggest shopping centers in Malta.
I have bougth some clothes here in St Julian,s (i´ll tell you about my shopping experiences in another post some day) however i think there is no too much variety.

i wish to buy some more clothes, if you had read the older blog posts, you knew that my luggage was minimum... and i want fashioned ones, no the typical tshirt (I LOVE MALTA) for the foreigners.

Anyway, i was looking for the Point and i "got a point (me dio un punto)", so much walking.
Sliema above, Sliema below, ... Sliema up, Sliema down...
where the hell is the f%&$$ing Point?
i gave up¡

I got into a bar of fast food, i ordered my meal and two pints of beer...

[Chill out]

when i finished i was so relaxed that i needed a siesta in the residence XD

Ah, but you know that i am a stubborn person, then I'll try it again this saturday and it will be a full success because now, i have searched the address in Internet ;)

See you¡

I assist to the Malta - Switzerland futbol match

hi everybody
i am here not only to study i want to live the Maltese life, then last monday i booked a ticket for todays "great" international futbol match between Malta and Switzerland.



i am sure that in Spain nobody has heard about this one, because our worldchampion team had his own match against Colombia today as well.

but anyway, i was there, in the "National Stadium of Malta" and surprisingly it was an interesting match.

One important question was decide what team to support:
i thought about supporting Switzerland, because a lot of students in the school are from this country... but i am in Malta, and beside, i remember the gift of Malta years ago when they played against Spain. Did you remember? 12 - 1? ...
so i became maltese and shouted out now and then "MALTA, MALTA,..." XD

But what about the match, do you really care?
To summarize, the match had a great star, the goalkeeper of Malta (Justin is his name), he saved 2 penalties.
Switzerland played better but at the end of the 90 minutes, the score were 0-0.
All the Maltese people (5 or 6 hundred, no more) were madly clapping as if they had won... but they draw (empataron).
...
Ah, i forgot¡, tomorrow (actually today) is February 10th, a National Public Holiday here (Feast of St. Paul's Shipwreck), the school will be closed, then i am thinking about doing some tourism visiting the capital city (Valletta) . I'll tell you ...

first day with the Ilab Efekta System and the text books

Well, it can´t be so funny. Yesterday i attended my first party (i'll tell you about the parties in another post ;) ).

So, to make the long story short, i went to bed late at night, and today i got up at 7:30 Am. I was sleppy all day.

Yet, today i was introduced to the iLab EF efekta system (http://my.ef.com), a web site for learning english made by EF. It's quite good but i have not enough time (actually i was defeated) to do so many things with it. XD
As an Ef student i have the rigth to use the system even when the Malta course has been finished (up to 3 months).

In the afternoon, i attend my first lesson in upper intermediate (level 3) group. We were only 3 persons in this group. The teacher gave me the text book and we started at a high chapter ... i found it quite difficult, because we were talking all the time about gramatic... do i have to use the gerund or the infinitive in that sentence? and similar items...

i will need to study... and i´ll do it¡

i could not make up my mind about what picture use to illustrate this post, so, the picture is the St george's bay at nigth, and it is no related at all with EF or my classes ;).

See you

Some curiosities

.)
Another country the same computational problems :)
.)
some people do not have parking and let their vehicles sleeping in the street.
But some maltese people take some cautions. if it has no engine, they can´t steal it. XD




.)
In the residence, we have a TV, but Belen Esteban is no there¡, only international programs in english, german or maltese...

thank god they have subtitles ;)