November Malta Updates, Part One
The first weekend of November brought our first formal event – as ‘staff’ at the U.S. Embassy, we were invited to the Marine Ball. It was held in a beautiful ballroom at one of the larger hotels in St. George’s Bay. Luckily, we took a cab there because there was lots of traffic (it was a Saturday evening) and construction in the area, so if we had taken the bus, we would have been out of luck and looked really foolish trotting around in our heels and fancy clothes.
We got through security (it was a Marine event, after all!) and descended into the ballroom via a sloping staircase straight out of a film. I felt like they should have been announcing us as we walked down! Also, the security should explain why I can’t post too many photos from the event – although we got to keep our cameras, I want/am required to protect people’s privacy.
The event began with a video/PowerPoint that was quite moving, referencing the tenth anniversary of 9/11 and all that the Marines did to help in that situation, and of course all that they continue to do. They then proceeded with speeches, and finally to the color guard and the ceremonial cutting of the cake (with a sword!) and presentation to the oldest and youngest Marines present. They also had a table draped in black set aside to represent all of the fallen Marines, and they served a piece of cake to the table in memoriam.
During the dinner, I got to chat with our coordinator at the Embassy, who was seated at our table with his wife (they have an adorable 1-year-old daughter that I may get to babysit at some point) about the Embassy’s visits to local primary schools. This is a program that goes beyond the work that the three of us do in the schools we have been assigned to. The Embassy sends out invitations to schools, and if/when they accept, we go and give a short presentation and present a gift of some books to the school. Apparently one of the topics for this year is NASA, and since I took a whole semester-long class on basic Astronomy at WC, I am now the “NASA expert” of the group! Thanks, Dr. P! I guess I will have to start brushing up on my space shuttle names and planetary factoids.
The night ended with drinks and dancing (as it is wont to do anytime you have 120 or so people helping themselves to an open bar). The bartender thought I was hilarious because I just kept getting Diet 7UP “on the rocks”. By the time we got home around 2 a.m., the girls considered heading to Paceville (pronounced Pah-che-vill, the local nightlife/bar/club area) but decided they were tired, so we all retired for the night (or morning, technically).
The following Tuesday, I stopped with the teacher who gives me a ride to my secondary school at her favorite local fish shop and bought my first lampuki! It is a very popular fish here, and is very similar to our Mahi-Mahi. I got it filleted at the shop, but they also gave me the head (eww, though I suppose you could make stock with it.). P and I had our first fresh filleted fish fry (say that 10 times fast) that night. I just dipped them lightly in flour and fried them in olive oil in a pan. Another popular way to prepare them here is in a savory pie, but I am not yet quite that advanced! GC (the teacher who kindly gives me rides and is a great cook and a lovely person) promises to teach me before I leave, which I am very excited about!
The boys at my Secondary School are getting more used to me being there, now that I have been in class with them every week for two months. I have switched out of one class where the boys are just too rowdy and having me there only makes it worse, because then they just want to act out to see if they can get a rise out of me. I know it isn’t my fault, and the teacher has repeatedly told me that they would do the same thing with any newcomer, but I still feel guilty that I won’t get to teach them. I do like the class that I have been switched into, as they are older and a bit more advanced in their English, so they are easier to work with. I am helping in that class by serving as the reader for the listening comprehension tests that they will have in the spring. It was Parents’ Night a week or so after I began in that class, and some of the boys came with their parents, and the teacher reported to me the next day that they had been ‘complaining’ about my accent. (It is still so weird to think of myself as the one with the accent, even though I know it is true here!) She said that when she had been telling the parents about me and my role in the class, a few of the boys piped up. I had done two comprehensions with them; one was fairly easy, and the second a few levels harder. “It’s too hard! We can’t understand her accent!,” they claimed. “Well, you scored well on the first reading, but worse on the second,” the teacher explained. “Yes, well the first was easier, the second one we couldn’t understand her accent!” “Her accent didn’t change between the first and second texts!” (Insert much grumbling by the boys here – they don’t like logical arguments) The other teachers and I had quite a laugh about that story.
We went to Valletta (the capitol) early one morning to finally get our residence permits submitted. The office for that here is kind of like the DMV – just take your number and wait. Once we got into the office, after waiting for almost two hours even though we had gotten there right when they opened, we paid and got our temporary permits (aka pieces of paper) fairly quickly. However, even though we asked several different people who worked there, no one seemed to have their stories straight about when or how they would contact us about getting our actual permits, and then there’s the confusion over traveling. It specifically says on our slips that they become invalid if the bearer leaves the country. Apparently there is some sort of passport sticker you have to get, but you have to have your travel itineraries, etc there with you, so P and G would have to go back another time.
After our wait, we were very hungry, so we wandered about in search of a café to have a late breakfast, and magically stumbled upon the only one (that we have found so far, and believe you me, we’ve been looking) that actually has bagels! This has surprising and funny as we had just been discussing how much we missed bagels (they have all sorts of breads here, but the bagel isn’t one of them). We quickly flagged down the waitress, and then proceeded to confuse the heck out of her as we inquired about different types of bagels (e.g. blueberry, everything, chocolate chip, etc.). There’s only one type here – plain with sesame seeds. Once we had finished confusing her, she took our order and soon after brought us bagels with cream cheese (which they-obviously- do have here, although they don’t have sour cream), tomato slices, and “bacon” (which is more like cooked pieces of ham, not the crispy stuff we have at home). Even with the variations, we were happy and scarfed them down!
The only good thing about the Residence Permit office is its proximity to the Upper Barrakka Gardens, a lookout spot that gives absolutely astounding views across the harbor to the Three Cities and lower down into Valletta. See below for some photographic proof, and there will be lots more photos and stories next post as I attempt to catch up with the entire month of November!
Lots of love (and a belated Happy Thanksgiving (stories about that coming in another post)!),
MH
^This one I couldn't resist because it was just funny :) Oh, British signage...
^Welcome to Sliema! "Tas-Sliema" means "of the peace" - slightly ironic now that it is one of the more tourist-y parts of the island
^The ballroom at the Marine Ball
^One of the gorgeous chandeliers
^ A mini-replica of a suit of armour which was a gift for the guest of honour
^ A poorly lit photo of the pretty staircase
^ Our take-home gift, a small replica of the raising of the flag at Iwo Jima
Okay, for some reason Blogger doesn't want me to upload the other pictures to this post, so see the post that will be directly above this for the rest of the pictures!
