Rence's Weblog

My last Malta-update!

16-11-2007 – Ill
I stayed home today because I wasn’t feeling well at all. I slept half the day, the rest of the day I spend with useless things: cleaning up the house, doing some grocery shopping, typing out my weblog, packing part of my suitcase and I’ve thrown a few clothes away because I’m not going to wear them at home anyway. I know it’s still one week before I go but I enjoyed doing these things and they made me feel a lot better. I also got a sweet post card from my mom with a cat saying, “We miss you”. My mom, brother and sister all wrote a few lines. This really made my day. 
Malta weblog week 10

20-11-2007 – The letter
I got a text message really early today saying I had to invigilate a progress test. At 9.00 I had a whole class full of pre-intermediate students. I had to explain the test and I did the normal things I also do while I invigilate a placement test. While I explained the second paper (writing, they had to write to a friend or for a newspaper) one of the students, Gokhan, asked if he could write the letter to me. I wanted to keep the letter so I made a copy at the end of the test; it was so funny! “Dear Rence, I hope you are doing well. I’m back in Turkey now and I’m working in the military service. When I heard that you are coming to Turkey I was overwhelmed!” Whaha! Well… The invigilating took me half the day. Fortunately I didn’t have to correct it! In the evening Gillian invited me for her birthday dinner party. It was really nice, I met a lot of new people and we had a great time!

21-11-2007 – Celebrations!
Yay, we’ve found another dead mouse! All the girls were flipping out (again) and they didn’t want to leave the rooms (the mouse was found in the hallways). Anyway, Gillian and Karl both didn’t come to work today so we had to manage without them. We did quite well. The teacher that checked the test accused me of sleeping while invigilating because one of the students had a grammar paper. I told her I wasn’t sleeping and I had no idea what she was talking about. One of the students was still writing when I said I needed her paper. She first made a rough version on a piece of paper and she didn’t have enough time to write it on the answer sheet so I took both papers and made a fold so they’d stick together. The student wasn’t very smart though… On the other side of the paper she had printed all the English grammar rules in Russian. We don’t know if the student has used them during the lesson but I do know she wrote the letter in class. It’s still unknown if the student has to make the test again. At 20.00 I finally showed the world my secret project, so it was really exiting for me. I used to be a member of an online forum a couple of years ago. Unfortunately it had to close because there were arguments between the staff. This was 1,5 years ago and I really missed some people that I used to talk to on a daily basis, so the original owner of the old forum and me decided to re-open the forum today! We didn’t know how the rest would respond to this, but fortunately most of the old-members were very enthusiastic!

22-11-2007 – No progress
What a great day! Because we did most of the work in the beginning of the week we were finished with all the work at 11.00! Unfortunately this meant there was time for a lot of shitty jobs, such as copying progress tests for the forthcoming month! Luckily I was finished at 16.00. Nicole gave me the cutest wristband; I like it a lot! At 17.15 I met Simone for a drink in Cara’s and we had a great laugh gossiping and making loads of fun together. Simone had cake and a beer (what a nice combo) and I had a hot white (!!!) chocolate with hazelnuts and whipped cream, SO nice! When I got home I quickly ate something and sped up to my laptop to see if we had new members on the forum. After one day we already had 500 posts! Two thumbs up!

23-11-2007 – Last day at work!
YAY! I had my last day at work today! There wasn’t much work to do so I was quite happy. After work I had a conversation with Nadya and I’ve learned a lot from it. I also asked if she was ever planning on letting me teach. Apparently Nadya and Anna had a discussion 3 weeks ago about letting me teach because my English really improved over time. Unfortunately they couldn’t find a suitable class… After my conversation I got my letter of recommendation, a lot of hugs from the academic office staff and I got a gift from Carol on behalf of everyone at the EC. It was a book about Malta and Gozo full of pictures. After work I drank a few drinks with some of the teachers. We had a great time. I’m going to miss them…

24-11-2007 Mdina part 2
I woke up early. I had to: I had a whole day walking around Mdina ahead of me. I went there to buy some gifts for my mother who recently celebrated her birthday and for Mario’s parents (because Mario forgot them). I also ate some soup of the day with bread and butter at the Fontanella tea gardens, very nice! I continued my tour around the city and I really enjoyed Mdina: the weather was gorgeous and the place was packed with lazy cats who were sun bathing. On my way back I met one of the Russian students, Olga or something like that. We had a long conversation but everything comes to an end. The rest of the evening I had a great laugh with everyone on the forum trying to spam as much as possible (believe me when I say it worked)! Well… I’m still the no. 1 spammer!

25-11-2007 Jojo’s crib
I didn’t do a lot at home, I just packed some of my stuff and binned a lot. At 16.00 I took the bus to St. Gwann. Jojo picked me up near the big church. We walked to her place that looked like a wine bottle from the inside because all the walls were decorated in cork. It’s a nice place though. Sam didn’t show up, so Jojo wasn’t happy because she also cooked for him. As a starter we had garlic bread and Maltese biscuits with dip sauce. The main dish was lasagne (home-made) and the dessert consisted of several Maltese chocolates. Jojo’s brother and his friend came in and we had a great laugh. After a couple of hours I said goodbye to Jojo and her brother and friend dropped me off at home.

Malta weblog week 11

26-11-2007 – Bored, bored, utterly bored
I spent all day packing my stuff, posting messages on the forum, working on my school report and on MSN, what a life!

27-11-2007 – Going home!
My last few hours on Malta had arrived! I woke up at 8.30 and I had to do the laundry, bin stuff and clean the house. I was going to be picked up at 12.00, but the driver didn’t show up! I called him after 15 minutes and he said he was on his way. When I arrived at the airport I checked in and before I knew I was sitting behind my laptop waiting for the plane to arrive. W00T, finally on my way to the Netherlands where I’m going to freeze my ass off! When I arrived Edwin, Ina and Mario were waiting for me. I gave Ina and Edwin a small gift from Malta (the glass turtle). We had dinner in the burger king, how nice. In the car I got my birthday present: an ipod classic black 80 gigs!!!! YAAAY! After a two-hour-drive I finally was at home.

This is the end of my weblog about Malta. I’m not going to update it as frequently as I used to when I was in Malta, but if something interesting happens I’ll let you know!

I want to thank everyone for leaving messages on my weblog and reading my stories =).

Rence

11 days to go!

Mario has selected the most beautiful pictures he has made in Malta, you can watch them here:

http://picasaweb.google.nl/Mario2Verkerk/
MooisteFotoSMalta?authkey=x1_VM0cFrq4   

Thanks a lot hun ;)

07-11-2007 – 20 days to go!
This morning I walked to school. Anna could pick me up with her car but I really felt like walking because I needed some time to think and to listen to music. I’m really counting the days now: Mario and I made a calendar and put it on my door yesterday. Every day I can count down by ripping off a piece of the calendar, yay. 

10-11-2007 – W00T!
What a day, the Swedish girls left this morning, yay! I’ll probably have the house all for myself the forthcoming 2 weeks. I don’t mind being alone, I totally agree with the song: “Laat mij maar alleen” – Klein Orkest (laat mij maar alleen, ook al valt het soms niet mee, de eenzaamheid, het is soms erger met z’n twee!). Only difference is that we were with the three of us instead of two. I cleaned the house, did all the laundry what took me all day (the girls left all their laundry for me to do, how nice!), watched episodes of “de lamas” and the English version “whose line is it anyway” (hilarious!). The rest of the night I updated Mario’s myspace and chatted with Rick and Tim ^^.

11-11-2007 – TMNT
Today I slept until 13.30 because I knew I had absolutely nothing planned for the whole day. I made breakfast and searched the internet for nice things and found some online tests but I was bored quite soon. At 15.30 I was ready to fall asleep again until I realised I could also watch the teenage mutant ninja turtles!  It was a very amusing film, better than I expected actually… When the movie was over Josefine called me to apologise for the laundry they had left behind. The rest of my night wasn’t that interesting, just the  usual…

Test results:
Character:
Analytical 20%
Artistic 22%
Driven 20%
Emotional 100%
Horny 57%
Independent 0%
Musical 33%
Optimistic 0%
Outgoing 0%
Political 56%
Religious 9%
Romantic 50%
Social 0%

Life experience:
Criminality 14%
Interlectual 38%
Relationships 40%
Sexuality 72%
Travel 17%

Politics: Your political views would be described as Liberal, while philosophically you tend to think like a Conservative.

Socioeconomic: Your attitude towards life best associates you with Upper Class. You make more than 77% of those who have taken this test. You tend to think more like an artist than an engineer. Location-wise, you would probably be a good fit for the city.

Malta weblog week 9

12-11-2007 – Working ahead
Monday started different than usual, I didn’t have to invigilate. I could pick up the test papers and correct them. Sigo had to leave early so I had to take over for half an hour, but I didn’t mind. After this Nicole had to invigilate other classes but I could start doing work for the rest of the week. I did the new R.O.W’s and I filed some of the banned R.O.W’s. In the meanwhile Nicole could put the name stickers on the certificates and write the class where the student is on the top right corner. We were finished at 16.00, which is very early for a Monday. Nicole doesn’t have to come in tomorrow, and neither does Mandy (but I do because I don’t get paid hehehe).

13-11-2007 – Secret project; ssst!
Anna picked me up at 8.15, so I could sleep until 7.45. Gillian send me a message that I had to invigilate the first and second module. I took the book Warpath, last convoy (R. Eldworth) with me. It’s about Malta in the Second World War, very interesting. I also brought the certificates with me so I could put them in their envelopes. When I was finished invigilating it was already 12.30! I had to help everyone at the office because it was break but after that I had my own break with French fries (for the Americans: freedom fries!). Until 15.00 I worked on filing the banned ROW’s. When I was finished I went home and got myself some chocolate and other groceries. At 9 I met Nicole in front of T.G.I. Fridays. We went to a café for a couple of hot chocolates (that were expensive but very nice!) and we had a great time. When I got home I talked to some friends online and got in a very nostalgic mood. I dragged someone else in that mood and all night we talked and worked on the secret project! I’m not going to say anything about it yet, you’ll find out when the rest does as well!

14-11-2007 – MOOOOOOUSE!
Nicole didn’t have to go to work today (again). I finished what I was doing yesterday: filing banned records of work. It’s a time-consuming job because you have to sort all the ROW’s by level first. Than you have to find the file that goes with the level. In the record of work the teacher stores timetables, attendance lists and a detailed paper what they did every lesson. A record of work can be used for 1 week before it gets banned, but also 16 weeks. When you store them you have to put them with the other ROW’s of the same date. As you can see, it’s a big job. In the meanwhile one of the academic office team members, Karl, found a dead mouse that was quite fresh. Everyone completely flipped and I had a great laugh because everyone was hysterical shouting “the next mouse will be eating my cornflakes”. All the cupboards got moved so the whole place looks different and clean now. I told Anna that I should take some pictures for Marien and she said: “oh, well, Marien left with a bitter taste in his mouth”. I can’t imagine why, I love working my ass off 50 hours a week for a good reference letter and a roof above my head!

15-11-2007 – The library
Yay, another time-consuming job today: the library file! The library consists of about 100 books. Most of the books aren’t present because students can borrow them for two weeks, so when you enter the academic office and see 20-30 books I can imagine you’re a bit disappointed! If a student wants to borrow or return a book someone of the academic staff notes that in the library file. It’s organised by book name on loose papers, but they tear very easy. My task was to make the library file nice again. It took me about 7 hours to make something nice of it. After that I went home because I wasn’t feeling well at all! My stomach hurt like hell, I was swearing a lot and I was feeling very cold. They told me that I probably had flu and if I wasn’t feeling well tomorrow they could manage without me. The rest of the night I spend working on the secret project and chatting about it in MSN.

Bathroom art (shaving foam)

Leave a message after the beep... BEEP!

1-11-2007 – Gozo I
Gozo is an island just a mile north of Malta. We went to see the capital city but we left a bit late. We took the bus and after that a ferry. The view was great but we saw that the weather was going to be crappy. When we arrived it started raining really hard, so we decided to have lunch in restaurant “the brothers”. The food was great but quite expensive. When we finished lunch the weather was a lot better. We went to the citadel, in Rabat (Victoria). It was very nice and on top of the citadel we had a great view overlooking the whole island. Unfortunately we got to the citadel quite late, so most of the “attractions” were closed. We did see an old prison though, but it wasn’t worth the money at all! It consisted of two rooms and that was it… We went back to the bus station after that, hoping to catch a bus to St. Laurenz but the last bus left at 14.20, we came too late. We decided to go back to Mgarr to get back to the ferries. We arrived back home and it was already dark so we got some groceries for tomorrow, had dinner and went to bed early because I had to work the next day.

The dungeons of Mdina!

2-11-2007 – Party @ Kayos
I had to work half a day today. At 13.00 I was allowed to go and Mario was waiting for my outside the school. I gave him a short tour and Mario took some photos of me working for my school report. We had lunch at the café next to the EC. At 16.30 we got a lift from Sigo (one of the teachers) to the music store in Mzida and we almost bought a guitar there but it was too expensive. We took a bus home, had lunch and went to Kayos, a bar opposite the school. A teacher and a guitarist were performing there and all the teachers were invited.  I also wanted to go to the black gold to show Mario Sigo’s band, but they were playing at the same time so we decided to stay at Kayos. We had a great time! A lot of students and teachers from the EC showed up, including a funny Japanese lady who we called Mickey Mouse, A Bulgarian who was completely pissed and thought we were from Sweden, some Turkish students who were singing and dancing traditional Turkish songs all night and a dirty old man who was dancing with 20-year-old students (blergh)! The performers made a big show including a beer contest for the male students and a teacher vs. student race! Danny, Jojo, Dion, Mario and I had to run and get a vodka-redbull shot one at a time and we had to finish the shots before the students did. We lost but had a few free drinks and a good time anyway!

Singing teachers!

3-11-2007 – Mdina
After a good night sleep we took the bus to Mdina, the former capital city of Malta. After a long journey we finally arrived in this small village but it was definitely worth the trip! We visited a small shop were they sold small glass statues. Malta is well known for them and I can imagine why; they were beautiful! I bought 2 cute statues of two birds sitting together ( a pink and a dark green one). After that we did some sightseeing and had lunch in a famous tea garden: the Fontanella tea garden. The weather became very bad so after that we took shelter in the dungeon museum. It was very cool! The history of Malta was told by pictures and puppets. We had to take the last bus home and we decided to go to the cinema and see saw IV! It frickin’ kicked ass!!!

4-11-2007 – Gozo II
We got up early today because this time we wanted to go to Gozo again to go to St. Laurenz. On the ferry we laughed our asses off because we saw Ronald McDonald!!! We took the bus to Mgarr (Victoria) but we just missed to bus to the Azure window so we had to wait an hour. We decided to go to the citadel again and after an hour we took the bus. The azure window was very cool and the fungus rock also kicked ass! Dwerja bay was also very pretty. Unfortunately we only had an hour there so we took the bus back at 15.15 and went to a patizzeria. That evening we went to the cinema again to see Helloween (a Rob Zombie film). It was pretty cool!

Ronny Mc D!

Malta weblog week 8

5-11-2007 – Mario’s last day
Another day at work. I had a conversation with Nadya, the big boss. She promised me that I can teach a new group if they find a suitable class. Well… We’ll see how that goes but I’m not counting on anything… Tonight is Mario’s last night so we went out for dinner in a nice restaurant situated near Spinola Bay. I had lovely beef / lamb minced meat fingers with fries and dessert. After that we went home and watched Shrek 3!!! I liked it but I prefer shrek 1+2… I almost fell asleep, not because it was boring but because I was so tired.

6-11-2007 – Airport
Mario left today and in 3 weeks I’ll go home as well. I’m already looking forward to it because I’ve seen and done about everything now. When Mario checked someone of AirMalta told him that the flight was overbooked because they joined 2 flights. If he took the next flight he’d get 400 euros as compensation! He couldn’t accept because he’d arrive at midnight and he couldn’t get home then. Too bad, it’s a lot of money… I spent the rest of the day cleaning up my room and typing out my weblog. I also bought two books about Malta: one about Malta during the Second World War and the other about the great siege of Malta in 1565. I already started in the first book, quite interesting!

One month to go...

21-10-2007 – Jack Bauer, watch out!!!
I woke up at 10.30 but couldn’t sleep anymore. I ate something, cleaned my room (it’s a mess!) and watched some 24. Lisa and Josephine went to Valletta very early (+- 7.30) to see the market. They asked me if I wanted to join them but I wanted to sleep late hehehe. I didn’t do a lot that day. I watched 24 until I fell asleep and I dreamed about Islamic women’s rights! In my dream they got the right to drink out of the same cup as they’re husband does… Great improvement!

Malta weblog week 6

26-10-2007 – Tops off day!
Anna picked me u at 7.55 this morning, sweet! Today was tops off day! I laughed my ass off when I read that on the notice board, it was picture worthy. Unfortunately no one was crazy enough to do so. The day was as usually, but the afternoon was interesting. After work a couple of teachers and me went out for a drink. We had a great time and I was introduced to my new friend: tequila rose! That stuff is gorgeous! I talked to Jojo for an hour and we had a very interesting conversation. By the time I got home it was 20.00 already. I ate something really fast and went online to meet with a friend. I’m sitting near the window in the bathroom, so I can see what happens outside. I wasn’t really paying attention, but I saw something moving in the corner of my eyes! When I opened the window I saw a gekko on the wall, I was so exited! I took a couple of pictures but he just disappeared into thin air. I kind of panicked so I closed the window… I’m such a coward! I have ten lizards at home and when I see one here… Madonna!

27-10-2007 – Arrival!
I woke up at 10-ish and couldn’t sleep anymore, because I was very exited: Mario is arriving in 5 hours (15.10)! I cleaned the house from the floors to the attic. I forgot to recharge by cell phone battery so I recharged it an hour before I was being picked up by the taxi. Then I got a text message from Mario: “I’m on my way back home, I won’t be flying until 20.25”! I was very angry because we just lost our complete day thanks to airMalta! All day long I didn’t do anything because we had to keep watching teletext regularly to see if the flight rescheduled earlier. Unfortunately it only rescheduled 10 minutes earlier. This meant that he arrived at 23.30, a big disappointment. The stupid cab driver also dropped me off at the airport too early, so I had to wait 2,5 hours completely boring my ass off. Of course this was all worth it, when I saw Mario I was very happy and nothing could wipe the smile off my face. When we got home it was already 00.00 or something; sleepy sleepy time.

28-10-2007 - Mario day 1
We woke up quite late and had a huge breakfast including orange juice and scrambled eggs. We did some sightseeing, I showed Mario the EC building and the harbours. We had lunch in a lovely restaurant located near the Westin hotel. The food was gorgeous and quite cheap as well! We also saw a lot of lizards, so I was very happy. That day we ate at a nice restaurant overlooking the ocean, Piccolo Padre. We went home quite late and watched a couple of episodes of 24. After that I fell asleep, because the following morning I had to work…

Malta weblog week 7

29-10-2007 – The return of Gillian
Gillian, one of the academic department members, returned today after a 3-week-holiday. Her sisters’ wedding was gorgeous but she said it felt strange to back at the office. Today was just like any Monday, except for the fact that I was ill. I went out during the break to get some medicines, because if I don’t take them, I’ll be ill for eternity. When I got home Mario bought me some nice stuff; coke, crisps, 7-up and Strongbow (OXFORD!). We cooked some nice food and planned our day for tomorrow. After that we watched 24 and went to bed early because we have an active day ahead of us.

30-10-2007 – Valletta and my camera…
After a great night sleep Mario and went to Valletta. We took the ferry what was really nice because you get a great view! After a general walk through Valletta we went to the ST John’s co-cathedral and the oratory. It’s very pretty in there and we got a nice tour. We also saw the paintings of Michelangelo Merisi (also known as Caravaggio) and two of his paintings: “Beheading of St John the Baptist” and “St Jerome”. I also saw another painting that intrigued me: “Allegory with Cupid and Death”, made by Anon in the 17th century. After the cathedral we had lunch, a nice mini-pizza that was quite big for being mini! I saw something that was worth a picture so I grabbed for my camera and turned it on. There was a huge crack in my screen!!! I was very angry and sad at the same time because this is going to cost me 200 euros to buy a new one (buying a new one is probably cheaper than to fix the old one)! It was already 16.00 so all the other museums were closing within the next 30 minutes. We bought some gifts for my sister and we decided to take the next ferry home. When we arrived one just left so we had to wait 45 minutes. When the last ferry finally arrived there was a huge group that wanted to go on it, including a group of teenage Germans who kept on marching when they walked and who said: ”Where’s my speedboat???” until it almost drove me insane. Fortunately the 5 minutes where over quite soon. When we got home we did some groceries for the next morning and we searched for a nice restaurant to have dinner. We went to TGI Friday’s and both had a starter + baby back ribs. It sounds small but I’m sure they could only make two servings of 1 cow! It was HUGE but nice.

31-10-2007 – Dingli cliffs
We had plans to go to Gozo today, but we slept until 10.00 so it was already too late. We went to the Dingli cliffs instead. The Dingli cliffs are very high cliffs in the south of Malta. It was very pretty and reminded me of Ireland in many (positive) ways. We had lunch in Bobbyland, the only restaurant in miles. The service was slow but the food was okay. We saw wild oregano and a lot of small flowers and we had a breathtaking view! It was definitely worth the 60-minute-trip! We took the bus back at 16.45 and had a bumpy ride back. I cooked some lovely pasta (damn, I’m eating a lot of pasta!) and we prepared the rest of our trip for tomorrow.

Update no. 3!

27-09-2007 – Frustrations
I slept wonderfully this night, but unfortunately I couldn’t sleep until 11.00. I ate cereal and walked to work with Marien. I had to finish the rest of the list of cassettes and after that I needed to copy files; that’s what I did for the rest of the day. I wanted to go home again at 16.00 or something in that direction, but they made me stay till 17.30, a big disappointment. At the end I got frustrated because I think they’re letting me work way too long for a volunteer. Everyone at the office gets paid except for me and Marien, but we’re the always amongst the people that need to work overtime. When I walked home I walked into Marien so we did some grocery shopping together. We also ate together; we had potato slices with vegetables and chicken with mayonnaise!!! Yay! Marien and I watched another part of 10th kingdom so we can finish the series in the weekend. Malta, the places where you appreciate cheese and mayonnaise even more!

28-09-2007 – Mistakes
I talked to the big boss to see what I can do for EC. I thought, well… finally, perhaps I’ll get a chance to teach! Unfortunately I made a (1!!!) mistake when I spoke so Nadya immediately said: Well, this is the reason why we can’t let you teach. Students notice these mistakes immediately and then we’ll have a problem.” 1 mistake ruined my teaching plans for the forthcoming weeks. We’ll see how the rest of the time in Malta will go; I will suggest teaching again in a couple of weeks. I don’t really mind the office work anyway. Most of the work is quite simple but everything needs to happen at supersonic speed, so you’ll never be bored because you’re doing 20 different things in one day. Everything went quite ok. Nothing really special happened, but I have good and bad news. The good news: I haven’t been stung in over a week, so I’m finally getting the nightly rest that I need (mohaha mosquitoes go suck an elf!). The bad news: I have a lot of headaches lately; at home I never have headaches!!! It must be the weather in combination with not drinking enough. I’m trying to do something about it, but it seems quite difficult. Malta, the place where one mistake can kill you.

Malta weblog week 3

01-10-2007 – Exhausted
Anna picked us up at 6.30 this morning to go to work. It’s only a 10-minute-drive; it’ll take you 30 minutes to walk to EC. I had to invigilate with Alex from 7 to 8.30, but we had 2 latecomers. They entered the room at the end of the test. I had to invigilate them as well. I was finished at 10.30 so I could continue my normal routine. Surprise! At 13.00 60 Spanish junior students needed to be invigilated and who needed to do that? Exactly, ME! When I was finished I still had to do a lot in the office, Mondays are always the worst day of the week. Best thing was that I had finished everything by 16.30, but because the computer didn’t work we couldn’t print the last things we needed to finish today. I had an hour to completely bore my ass off. Fortunately Paula told me that I could go home and do the work the next day. If she told he that an hour earlier!

02-10-2007 – High heel adventures
Today I thought, well, lets dress nice today. I wore nice white trousers with a white top and shoes with heels. I learned to never wear shoes with high heals to school again. Just my lucky day, because the school is too full we “rent” some rooms in the Westin Hotel; a fancy place. It’s a 10-minute walk from the EC and I had to walk that twice today. I also had to run up and down the stairs uncountable times. I was thinking of walking home bare-foot, but the glass on the streets prevented me. When I got home I was too exhausted to get some groceries so I made some spaghetti with cheese. We all went to bed early (22.00), everyone was probably still tired from yesterday. Malta, the place where you definitely do NOT want to wear high heels to work.

03-10-2007 – Yay, tickets!!!
Time flies, I’m here for almost 3 weeks now if I survive the next two days! My mom also called, so it was nice to have a conversation with someone in The Netherlands again. I had to be at the office at 7.45, 45 minutes earlier than normal, for three students that still needed to make their test. They didn’t show up (great!). It was just another office day. I like the feeling that I’m getting the hang of things in the office. When I was finished working I did some grocery shopping and bought some really disgusting pistachio nuts… I need to bring them back to the shop tomorrow. I finally booked a ticket for the 27th of November so I can go home. Mario also booked a ticket for the 27th of October so he can come to visit me in Malta. We went to bed early. Marien and I both had a headache and I had some stomach problems (probably the pecan nuts!!!). I listened to some music and fell asleep. Malta, the place where you need to double-check your food before eating / buying it!!!

04-10-2007 – Heavy loads
The only “quiet” day of this week. I didn’t like that they let me walk to the Westin hotel (10-minute-walk) with 20 books. I couldn’t find the room the pupils were in for whom I’d brought books. Great! I had to work until half 6 before I was send home. I forgot my pistachios so I’ll have to bring ‘em back tomorrow.

05-10-2007 – Pink Maggots
Wow, I’m really looking forward to the weekend… I’m exhausted and I knew this was going to be a very long day. I had to stay until 18.45, a very long day indeed. Gillian is going on vacation next week, so I had to learn a lot since I’m going to be one of 3 who are going to take over her job. Today was pink day, all the teachers had to wear something pink (it was great!). I also had to return the pistachio nuts, and you won’t believe it! I put them in a seal bag and today 6 maggots hatched from the pistachio nuts bag!!! Absolutely disgusting! Fortunately I got the money back. Marien got us some food for amigos; I had a lovely salad. The rest of the evening Marien and I watched coupling and had a few glasses of whine. Malta, the place where you buy pistachios and get free maggots!!!

06-10-2007 – Noche Bianca
A typical weekend day, I haven’t done a lot. I bought a Maltese SIM-card and a new bikini’ it’s a really nice one! I heard that Gigi D’agostino probably is coming to Malta when I’m still here. I’d like to see him if I had the chance, but I couldn’t find anything about the show online. This evening we went to Noche Bianca (White night). It was extremely busy but we had a great time. There was so much to see: a medieval market, traditional food, photographs, lots of bands and the shops were all open. We continued the party at home, bought a bottle of wine, fried some burgers and watched coupling. Brilliant! Malta, the place where music really resembles Dutch music! Oh wait, it was a Dutch band!

Malta weblog week 4

10-10-2007 Holy crap!
A nice day at the office, except for the fact that I lost very important documents. Everyone searched high and low and I was afraid that they’d be angry at me, but they weren’t. Gillian was the one who took all the bullets. I have to redo the booklist (which I’ve lost) what will take me about 2 days! I know what I’ll have to do at work the forthcoming days… By the way, at work the superiors have a lot of faith in me. Getting compliments is my way to get satisfaction out of work! I ate the rest of my courgette with penne, delicious! The rest of the night I chatted with Mario and other people on msn.

11-10-2007 - OMG! The mosquitoes strike back!
OMG! This morning I had 5 mosquitoes sitting on my mosquito net, how funny! I killed 5 of them, but there are still at least 2 flying around in my room. We’ll see how the night goes… I want to bet I’ll have at least one in my net tonight! I had to do the booklist all over again at work. They have a big file with all the books and I needed to check if all the books are still in the cupboards (1500+!). I got lunch on cost of the boss, I had two lovely pastiches; one filled with peas and the other with cheese.  Because Marien is leaving in 2 days we went to this place near the beach to have dinner and some wine with colleagues. We had a great time but we couldn’t make it too late, the next day I need to be at the office early again. One more day and its weekend!

12-10-2007 – Marien’s last day
I killed 2 mosquitoes again. I don’t know how they get in my net, but it’s a lot easier to kill them like that. I had another relaxed day at work! Marien had the day off because he needed to pack his stuff. We did everything in a high pace, so I could go at 17.30, the earliest Friday so far! When I left the building there was a goodbye party because on of the teachers, Lee, was going to Thailand. There was cake, crisps, wine and a lot of fun! When I got home Marien and I bought some food at Amigos and some wine. We watched the last 2 episodes of coupling together and went to bed quite early because Marien needed to get up at 3.30. Tomorrow the new interns will come and live in this house. I’m very curious what they’re like!

Group photo!!!

Me and Tristan :D

13-10-2007 – Quit your dayjob - We have a problem with Sweden!!!
I woke up at four-ish because of two mosquitoes in my net (I still wonder how they get inside) and said goodbye to Marien who was leaving. At 9 I woke up again and couldn’t sleep anymore. I decided to clean the house (you can’t expect others to clean after theirselves if you don’t do it as well) and before I knew they were here; two girls, Lisa and Josefine, from Gothenburg, Sweden. They’re very nice and we spent the day buying food and other things they / I needed. I cooked penne regatta alla Rence for them and they liked it. I’m looking forward to tomorrow. They expect that it’s going to be nice weather so we’re going to the beach!

Update no. 2!

21-10-2007 – Independence Day
I slept until 9.30, although I thought I would sleep to 12 because I was so exhausted. I typed 2 days info about what I’ve done so far. I took a shower and at 11.30 me, Isabella and her sister left to go to the “golden beach” (which means sand in stead of rocks). After an hour drive we finally arrived and it was very lovely! We ate and drank something there, I took a swim and got a bit of a tan. Not a big one, I’ll go for a swim tomorrow again. On the way back the bus was so cramped noone else could come in anymore and the bus nearly had a breakdown when we went up the hill. Once home I internetted a bit and ate some tomatoes with feta when I got hungry. I also cleaned the house a bit, but just the upper bathroom and the bedrooms on the upper floor because these aren’t used anymore. I watched “lost” and at 9 Marien and Steven came to pick us up for dinner. We went to a restaurant were it was very crowded and the waitress wasn’t very nice. We had dinner and some wine and after that we went bowling! It was very nice, they played good music and I even became 1st in the second round! We only rented the alley for 1 hour, so we couldn’t play very long. To close off the day we went to this bar called “Bar Native” in Paceville (THE place where people go out). They played very cool music and Marien, Steven and I danced A couple of hours. We had a great time and a couple of drinks, so it was time to go home. It was 2.30 when the lights went off. Malta, the place where you hear “no limit” on the radio in the bus (I actually laughed my ass off when I heard it!)

Marien and I going out

22-09-2007 - Rain
I slept late this morning, 11.30! No mosquito bites at all, what a relief! I made myself a sandwich and did some house holding duties. I played a game and watched some lost. It “rained” today, so I wasn’t really active. I cooked some dinner and watched lost again. Then dinner was absolutely delicious by the way! In the evening everything became dry so I could use the chairs outside again to MSN and talk to some friends from back home, Beirut and New York. Absolutely a non-productive day today.

23-09-2007 – Boredom
I was hoping for nicer weather and an active day, but unfortunately I didn’t get much further than the couch. I finished the rest of “Lost”, which means that I’ve watched half a season in one day!!! I MSNned with my mother for an hour to see how things were going at home. I ate the rest of the meal from yesterday because I made 2 portions, it was still delicious! I had to sleep very early because I had to wake up at 05.45!!! Malta, the place where you use don’t use your mosquito net to keep mosquitoes out, but to catch and kill them!

24-09-2007 – Invigilating
What an awful time to get up!!! I had to leave home at 06.15 to be at the office around 06.45! It was raining all morning so I had to walk through it to get to work. At 7 the colleagues entered and I had to invigilate during the test (make sure the students don’t cheat and talk, help them with questions, make sure that they don’t use dictionaries, etc.). After that I had to work until 6! This was an extremely long day and the good news was that tomorrow I have to be at work 45 minutes earlier because some students didn’t show up!!! I was totally exhausted because I also had to walk 15 minutes with heavy groceries and it was 19.00 before I got home and could start to cook dinner. I had rice with beans and a curry sauce, quite nice. That night Marien and I finished “Arabian nights”, a cool film! I chatted with Mario and went to bed around 23.00. Malta, the place where it can also be shitty weather!

25-09-2007 – Solo-invigilating
I had to be at work at a quarter to 8 to solo-invigilate. There were a small group that hadn’t done their test on Monday so I could invigilate all by myself! Everything went perfect. The rest of the day I had to do simple organising things such as organising filesm entering codes in printers and helping students with questions. We worked till late; I was home round the clock of 7. Mondays are always so hectically so I have to get used to the fact that I will be home late. I had to do some groceries and when I got home I ate rice with beans (yes, again!). Marien and I watched the first part of the mini series “!0th kingdom” and I almost fell asleep because I was so tired. I took a nice shower and went to bed. Malta, the place where it smells like Zeeland; you’ll always feel a bit at home.

The view we have when you walk to the end of the street.

26-09-2007 – Panic at EC
I got the GREAT task to make a list of all the cassettes (+- 600) and type them out. This extremely inspiring task took me all day. Panic at the EC today, inspectors were inspecting several other language schools so Anna, Paula and several other superiors were completely losing it because there were 5 sick teachers and 3 unqualified teachers that were giving lessons, one being Marien. At 15.30 I said “tabee” and left the building to do more interesting things at home, such as eating delicious Mexican food from a small restaurant only 2 streets away from our house! We watched the second part of the first DVD of 10th kingdom. I had a major headache so I decided to go to bed early. Malta, the place where it’s so hot that you really have to drink enough (or else you’ll get headaches)!

What a view! The golden beach.

The First update!

Malta Weblog week 1

The forthcoming 10 weeks I’ll be staying in Malta for my school placement (so this means I will return at the end of November). I will be working at the EC language schoolFor everyone, here you can send cards and visit me:

Kirbi Cross 30
Triq Sir Gorg Borg
Sliema, Malta

With a priority stamp it’ll take 6 days for the mail to arrive, so in emergencies you can better text message me:

0629216580

I’m going to buy a new Maltese SIM-card, I’ll let you know what the number is A.S.A.P.

Enjoy reading!

17-09-2007 - Delay!
My trip to Malta! Finally! Mario and I arrived at Schiphol and I checked in. I soon found out that the plain was delayed. I was supposed to leave at 20.25, but AirMalta seemed to have different ideas about that. Before I knew the departure time became 22.15; me no like! Half an hour passed, and the plain was delayed for another 45 minutes. This meant that my arrival in Malta would be very late; but I still had to get up at 7.00! Finally, at 23.00 the plain was ready and we could board. Another half hour passed before we actually took off. I arrived in Malta at 3.00 and before I was actually in the house where Marien lived, another half hour passed. I woke him up (he must have hated me at that time!) and he officially welcomed me with a glass of cold orange juice! It was really hot here, so I had some difficulties with sleeping (I didn’t sleep until past 5.00 and the frickin’ mosquito net can’t close!). Fortunately my deodorant bottle was still freezing cold, so this helped me to cool down and fall asleep. Malta, the place where it’s so warm you have to keep yourself cool with bottles of deodorant.

18-09-2007 – You have got to be kiddin’ me!
When I woke up at 9.30 after a short night rest I finally got a good chance to look at the house and its surroundings. I found out that the house has a lot of balconies and a nice rooftop! After that I took a refreshing shower and got dressed. I took some photos of the house and the garden and ate something. I left at 11 so I’d have enough time to explore and find my way to the EC language school. I walked out the street and I could see the sun and the sea and my reaction was: you have got to be feckin’ kiddin’ me! Nothing could wipe away the smile from my face that day: Malta is chill! I found the school not much later (20 – 30 min. walk) and I could start right away. The work is quite easy but it never stops and you need to be quick. The day passed sooner than I thought, at 4 O’clock Marien and I were allowed to go home (time vary a lot). We went to a local shop to buy some food and basic stuff such as bread. We took the bus and met Amra and Michelle, who arrived 4 days ago. We helped them with packing some stuff and we ate pizza together in a hotel / restaurant. Around half 9 Marien and I walked back to our house. I took a refreshing cold shower and not much later we had to sleep because we have to get up at 6.30 every day! Malta, the place where all bus drivers look like ex-convicts.

19-09-2007 – I like to move it, move it
I woke up myself because there were two mosquitoes in my mosquito net (it couldn’t close!) and one decided to rest on my nose. The second day I slept like hell, so I decided to move my stuff to the attic. It’s a small room but it’s cool there if you open all the windows and my mosquito net can hang better there. I have a couple of people I share the apartment with. Off course you all know my fellow student, Marien, but there are also three others. An older teacher, Sam (from Manchestah), lives in this house until Friday so I can have his room then. There are also two girls, Isabella and her sister who has a very difficult name, who come from Switzerland. The sister will leave on Sunday and Isabella on the 13th. Marien leaves on the 14th, so this means by that time I’ll have the house all for myself. If someone wants to visit Malta for a week send me an e-mail ;) Today they gave me a quite boring job, the management of the books. I needed to check all the books on a list and find out which books were missing. This cost me most of my workday, but I didn’t mind. At half 3 we were allowed to leave and we went to the supermarket to get some chicken, a toothbrush and some other food. I wanted to swim today, but I didn’t because by the time I was finished with cooking and eating I found out that we have a wireless internet connection with “default”! I can use internet from our rooftop of our building! I was very excited and was on msn for an hour to chat with friends and family. At 21.00 Marien and I watched part 1 of a mini series “Arabian nights”. I’ve probably seen it for 5 times already but I still am excited when I watch it. At 23.00 Marien took a shower and I went to my room to move my stuff. At 23.30 I dozed off and had a great night sleep. Malta, the place where I have a wireless internet connection.

20-10-2007 – Work, work, work!
It was a hectic day at work today. Because tomorrow is independence day we have to make up for the hours and work till 18.00! We did a lot of work, I worked hard and by the time it was half 4 we were allowed to go home because we worked so fast! Steven arrived today, so Marien went to the hotel after work. I ate some tomato with feta cheese and some bread. I packed my stuff and at 18.15 I was at the beach for a nice swim. I didn’t know the sun would set half an hour later, so I didn’t swim, I just chilled. I walked home and had a chat with Isabella and her sister. She got a tattoo this evening, it’s a nice one. We decided that tomorrow we’re going to do a lot of stuff together and we chatted until Marien and Steven showed up. After that I started season three of lost. I watched 4 episodes and round 1.00 I fell asleep. Malta, the place where you have to work hard.

I will post some pictures later!

Countdown

This will probably say enough!

New developments

I am happy to announce that I may have found something new. Marien might already have spoiled a bit of the surpise in his last comment, but I've contacted the school (situated on Malta) were he teaches. The plan is that I'm going to teach there and basically do the same thing as Marien. I will also be living in the same appartment so I think we'll have a lot of fun. I'm really enthusiastic about this and can't wait  untill I get my confirmation mail.

In the meantime I'm doing a lot of cool things! I've been to the formule 1 races in Rotterdam, I've been working (babysitting on my nephews 3 hours a week and on kids of Lilian 7 hours a week), finished the 1st season of "heroes" and started with watching "lost". Most of you are probably already far far away, so I wish you good luck, I'll check your weblogs once in a while and I'll keep you updated.

*big kiss*
Rence

Home...

I’m home again. It was the intention to go home for the weekend, so I could see my family again. I also haven’t seen my boyfriend in a long time, because he left on vacation to Eastern Europe 2 weeks before I left. I took a cab at 12PM, my flight left at 3PM and I arrived in the Netherlands at 5.20 PM. Mario was waiting for me and we left to get some dinner. We couldn’t find a restaurant on the way home, so we ordered a really nice pizza in Elst. It was a pizza fantastica, with mushrooms, ham and cheese. I was really relieved to see my family, boyfriend and other friends, my pets, etc. again.

Because of circumstances I will not be returning to the host family in Ireland. The family asked me to delete everything from this page because there were too many private details from them on it. Because I’m home for the forthcoming period I will NOT post any new updates until new developments take place.

When I look back at my time with the family I had good and bad memories. I really liked it when Michael laughed, I have seen and learned a lot of new things. Unfortunately I didn’t have the chance to do everything, but perhaps I’ll return to Ireland…
I also had some bad experiences, for instance that I really underestimated the work and that my job was quite heavy. I see these weeks as a period of learning. I’ve learned a lot, vocabulary and grammar, customs, history and also a lot about myself.

I don’t know what I’m going to do to finish the rest of my placement abroad, but the possibilities are endless. I don’t know if I still want to be an au pair, but I can do volunteer work anywhere in the world, I can work at a restaurant or café, etc. I still have to look at all the possibilities (and choose something), but I will keep you informed. I know that I have some time to relax now and to think about some of the things that have happened.