i just came to say goodbye

In the end, i arrived tired, but happy and healthy to Santiago de Compostela Airport.

A friend of mine came to drive me to my sweet home... :) and i arrived ok after 2 hours in the car.

So, this is the end of my trip to Malta...

This month have been one of the most enriching in all my life and i am going to keep the people and experiences i have lived in my mind forever.

In the whole, I really enjoyed the experience and if you let my to give you an advise, in my mind i believe that travelling and knowing new people, new languages, ... are a very good way to make our life worthy.

;)

I want to thank to all of you that have commented this blog anytime, sent me sms or emails, called me by phone,... in sum those who supported my during the trip...

And i want to say thank you to all the kind people i knew in Malta (students and teachers)... you know who you are¡ May be i'll see you somewhere, sometime,... the world is too small...

BYE BYE.

Galicia 2011/03/06----

[This blog is closed]

Cost living in Malta - February 2011 updated

At first i want to complain about the transfer to airport service of EF school. if you are going to use the transfer service of EF in Malta, please, think about it twice... 30€ is really expensive... it is better to pay for a taxi between several mates (a lot of people leave the island every saturday) otherwise, i f you use the EF service, you will be transfer in a crowded and small minivan and it is not a direct transfer, you will do a complete Malta sightseeing before you arrive to the airport, because the minivan pick up everyone in their acommodations... DON't use it¡

i am in madrid now, fortunately i have a cousin here and kindly he offers me his house to stay tonight.

Tomorrow i'll finish my trip, i'll leave Madrid at 9:55 and i'll be back in Santiago de Compostela in the middle of the morning... so now i am still in transit... ;)

In other matters, today i prepared a little spread sheet where you can see some prices in Malta than i colleted during this month.
In brief, i think the prices are more or less the same than in Spain, but you can check yourself...



Tomorrow i am going to get up early in order to take my come back flight... so, i'll see you¡

Leaving Malta

Finally i am leaving. It was a month while i was living abroad my country - Galicia/Spain -

My fligth will take off in a little hours time. I am preparing my luggage.

I came here almost without luggage, however i am coming back to Spain with a new bag for my new stuff (clothes, books,...) and with my mind full of memories, people and experiences...

All of these collected during only a month, while i was living in this little country called Malta.

I really will be missing some things because this month's experiences have made my mind change. This is not a goodbye, it is only a break, probably i will be back sometime in the future ...

Today is going to be a hard, long travelling day. I don´t have a direct fligth, i need to fly in several aircrafts... so at the end of the day i'll be exhausted, but i'll be in Madrid - Spain.

But i am happy, i am going to see my friends again. I miss you guys...

See you soon¡

Mission acomplished

Hi, i have finished my lessons today, and as today was my last day, i have finished my whole english's course in Malta.

Mission acomplished¡

My teacher gave me my level test results and i am really astonished. I got a C1 level mark¡

I know it is only a piece of paper... but C1 is a really good level, i am happy however i think they are cheating on me. I have seen another students in lower levels, and i know how they speak english... so may be i am a C1 level student, but i feel that i am more B2 than C1.

By the way, i dont know if i spoke before about the levels. There are 6 levels A1 A2 B1 B2 C1 C2 from starter (A1) to advanced (C2) ... This is an european framework, common used all around europe.

Anyway, i am shining like the sun... my mark is C1 and i need to make some amendments in my CV to include this¡

Now is time to enjoy my success and have a good time, may be some last minute tourism and of course i will have some farewell's beers tonight, too.

See you¡

Curiosities about basic services in Malta

What is a basic service in Spain?

May be the water and the electrical power in every house?

The central heater system, perhaps?

Do you think in the internet connection as a basic service?

In my humble opinion all of them are basic services in the 2011 world.

So i am going to talk today about this services in Malta. I'll try to compare their quality against the usual quality in Galicia / Spain.

At first, The internet service. Please look at this advertisement i found in pub's toilets everywhere. Is your pipe big enough?

The local brand is called Melita (the roman name for Malta) and they have a broad offer in speeds of internet...

http://www.melita.com/personal/internet/packages/

If we compare them with Spainish prices, i think we don't have in Spain a really cheap functional connection like the Melita's 5 Mb (13'85€)... and this is Malta, one of the smallest countries in Europe...

Why dont we start an uprising in Spain claiming for the right price for Internet?

We should do it, i think the prices in Spain are too high...

Second, the central heater system

where i life, in Galicia, almost all our flats includes some kind of integrated central heater system, mostly City Gas heating or electrical heating.

I know the weather here is temperate, but this last two weeks it is been really cold (between 6 and 12 degrees celsius).

As they dont need the heating system most of the time, i haven´t seen central heating in any place. The most usual, yet, even in our residence are the old (for us) catalytic stove or oil heaters...

And at last, the water and electric power

There is water - even warm water- in Malta of course.

And electric power... You must no be afraid about that.

;)

But you should remember that the plugs are different here...

And that was all ...

See you

My final test

It's done¡

I finished my EFCELT (EF Cambridge English Level Test).

It lasted 40 minutes, 50 questions, 4 possible answers (A B C D).

First exam part is a listening. There are 12 questions about this. It was a quite easy listening...

The second part are grammar questions - filling the gap style -.

All the rest of questions, may be the most complicated exam part, are about piece of text. You have to read it, make up your mind and then answer some questions about it. Most of times the response is not obvious, you must understand the text to know the right answer.

In my mind, i believe i did it quite well... but i really didn´t know the answers in most grammar points... so i followed my instinct, filling the gaps with my first thought ... i freed my mind¡

We will have our certificate and mark level next friday...

Let's see what happens¡

See you¡

A world of keyboards

Today only a curiosity, have you ever thougth about how many languages are in the world?

Have you ever thougth that almost every language needs a different keyboard in the computer?

Here they are some pictures for different keyboards and different languages around the world...

German one

Norweian one

Russian one

French one

and go on ...

Sorry for the short post but tomorrow is my final test...

See you ¡