An-American-in-Malta

                   School Days in Malta

 

 

 

Here it is.  This is the NSTS School in Gzira where I start my intensive CELTA class.  That stands for:  Cambridge (as in England) English Language Teaching of Adults.  It's a very intensive course that will last the entire month of February.  It goes from 8:30 AM to 5:30 PM.  I will have about three hours of work per night and throughout the entire weekend.

 

The director of the program told us to tell our spouse or partner that we will have no time to socialize the month of the course. Please take note, Mr. S.

 

So I will be just doing some short posts here and there in February. 

 

I haven't been a student in a very long time.  So I'm pretty nervous about the whole thing.  But everyone has been telling me I can do it.  So I'd like to thank all my new and old friends for their encouragement.  Especially my good friend Antonella who, after hearing the course description, said, "I don't want to scare you, but this course would kill me." 

 

P.S.  I'm afraid I'll be the oldest student in the course.  I've been looking for a sign that I will make a good student and will be able to compete with my younger, more brain-celled peers  And the sign came: a gigantic pimple on my nose.  Just in time for Monday.

 

Wish me luck, will you?

 

Winter in Malta

                        Expat Living in Malta                

                    Show me the Heat! 

 

 

See this thing?  This is a gas heater--a staple in almost every Maltese home.  Before three months ago, I had never seen one, touched one or even heard of one. Now I can't live without one.  In fact, we have two of them.

 

The Maltese do not have heat in their homes.  They have no central heating--no radiators, no furnaces in the basements, no hot forced air, no built-in gas heating, no electric heat (except for little electric heaters that cost a lot to run).

 

So what?  Isn't it supposed to be hot here in Malta, or at least warm or mild in the winter?

 

Well, I don't know what it's supposed to be, but I'm freezing here in my Maltese house. 

 

That's because Maltese houses are built for the heat--which comes after the winter--starting maybe in April or so.  I guess the Maltese consider heat their main problem, so the houses are built with thick stone walls and ceramic floor tiles.  But this makes it very cold in the winter.

 

And I don't know what the story is with the toilet seat. My G-d, every time I have to sit down on it, I cringe because it's like jumping ass-first into the Atlantic.  I don't know how the Maltese do it.  I know they have electric blankets, but I'm not that cold in bed. My winter jacket and fleece-lined boots keep me comfortable in bed.

 

Right now, it may be 60 degrees F outside (which I like very much), but it's only about about 50 degrees F inside.  That's cold, when you consider that 68 to 72 is a comfortable room temperature for us Westerners.  So this means that during the winter, it's actually warmer outside than inside.

Rain

                                         Expat Living in Malta:

          The Rain in Malta Stays Mainly

                          on the Streets

 

 

 

                   Water on the Streets in Malta--not good

 

This is for any of you who think Malta or anyplace else in the Mediterranean is Paradise.  It's not. At least not in the winter months when it rains long and hard.

 

Let me start by saying this: I hate rain. I don't care if we need it, if farmers need it, if the little baby plants need it, I hate it.  Daughter B has been with me for the past week and it's been great--except for the rain. We had some wonderful sunny and almost-sunny days in which we could do some fun things like horseback riding along the cliffs in Golden Bay, hiking along the Dingli cliffs, strolling through Rabat and walking to Valletta from our place in Sliema.

 

But for the past few days, it's been endless rain.  And it's not only the rain I hate, but it's the slippery streets.  The dust turns to mud and covers the streets like brown slime.  You can't do laundry for days.  Since very few Maltese homes have a drier, you can wash your clothes--but they won't dry.  And if you had them on the line, you got them washed several days in a row.

 

Mr. S., our amateur meteorologist, says that the rain in these past few days totaled to only one-half to one inch.  I find that hard to believe since the flooding in the streets was way over a an inch up into my sneakers.  

 

There are some streets, especially Tower Road and The Strand by the sea, that you literally can't cross without wading up to your ankles in water.

 

But, says, Mr. S., "What you see in Malta is mostly the water that is running downhill on the streets because of bad drainage and collecting in certain valley streets and dips in the roads."   Now, that is something I can believe.

Here are some more invaluable facts about the rainy season in Malta:

 

 

 

                   It is a good day to be

                   an American in Malta.

                              Living in Malta:

                     Mystery Solved

 

 

Remember when I told you that my cat's face smelled like a drainpipe?

 

We finally figured out what it is--and it is disgusting.

 

Last week, Mr. S, daughter B and I hosted our very first dinner party in Malta.  We had over five Maltese friends--who we met years ago when we used to visit Malta.

 

We were eating at the kitchen table (old Maltese houses don't really have a dining room; their whole focus of eating and socializing was--and still is--at the kitchen table), when all of a sudden we all smelled a very pervasive, unpleasant smell.  I should say, stink.  At the same time, our cat was trying to get under the sideboard.

        Guess Who Came to Malta?!

 

 

Clues: 

1. She traveled all the way from the US to get here (actually over 24 hours because of where she was departing from)

2. I was thrilled to see her, and she was thrilled to see her mom in Malta.

 

Oops..I gave it away.  It was daughter B who came to Malta yesterday to see where and how her mom is living.  She is the first foreign visitor for me. Mr. S is arriving here soon, inshallah, for a few days so he can play camp counselor and boss us around.

 

                               I have no idea on the map where we are

 

Anyway, it's probably one of the most happiest airport arrivals I ever had.  B and her sister R had been here two summers ago when we were first contemplating the move to Malta.  They loved it, but now it's a different story--a better story--that they realize they have a Mediterranean home to come to. 

 

I was so happy the sun was shining yesterday.

 

And guess what else?  B didn't think Manwel Dimech Street was that ugly at all.  Maybe it's not. I pointed out all the shops I go to and told her the names of all the shopkeepers I say hello to as I make my rounds.

 

She'll be here for over a week. I'm trying not to think of how hard it will be to say good-bye to her when she has to leave. 

 

Right now, I think I think I'll go watch her sleep off her jet lag.

                                          Living in Malta:

     You Can Go Home Again (I hope)

 

 

Yesterday, a nun kicked me off the grounds of a private school near Balluta Bay. 

 

I was walking through the gates of a spot I love to stand for a bit and feel very spiritual.   The place is called "The Valley" in Sliema.  It's actually a dry riverbed with huge wild palms and cacti.  I love this place.  From this vantage point, I can also see where the water of the sea meets the sky.

 

Anyway, let's get back to the part you really want to hear about: the nun.

Malta: Your Weekend Weather Forecast

 

                                             By Mr. S

 

Malta weather 9. Jan. 2009

Max. temperature 61 ° F ( 17 ° C )

Min. temperature 54 ° F ( 12 ° C )

Cloudy, but mild with chance of a rain shower

 

This should make some of you--who have been suffering with cold weather elsewhere--very happy:  A severe hailstorm left parts of Valletta (Malta' capital) covered with an up-to-waist-high covering of ice on the 27th  of December, 2008.

 

 

Hail is precipitation in the form of balls or irregular lumps of ice (hailstones). They form when super-cooled  water droplets freeze and are repeatedly blown upwards in large storm clouds.  When they become too heavy to be supported by up-wind forces,  hailstones fall out of the clouds,  as they did in Valletta the other day.

 

The world's largest hailstone ever recorded  was seven inches in diameter and weighed around one pound. Much smaller hail can already cause serious damage to cars, windows, crops--and people's heads.  Luckily, the Valletta hailstones were not that heavy but, due to the amount, took some time to melt away.   If you want to see a great video of a Valletta resident wading through the hailstones--and also learn some good curses in Maltese--please click on the following link:

http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20081227/local/hail-in-valletta

 

Forecast: Over the weekend, there will be very strong easterly winds coming to Malta from  Central Europe where there is a strong cold front.    This area of high pressure will cause winds to increase to a storm-force of eight (that's eight out of 10) on Sunday.  But there will be mild temperatures and the occasional rain shower from the southeast.  Let's hope it stays dry because--with that strong wind--Sunday won't be the best day to use an umbrella.

                                           Living in Malta:

                      You Asked for It

 

I've been getting a lot of emails lately with similar questions. So forgive me for taking the lazy way out and answering them in a general way--instead of individually.   Here's what many of you want to know:

 

1. Renting property, holiday homes

The best thing to do is to look up some of the property agencies on this blog--or Google them.  I used Dhalia.com to find our place, and we were satisfied.  Tell Matthew in one of the Sliema offices that Ilene says hi.  There's no reason to believe that the many property agencies in Malta are very different from one another.  Please note that the websites don't update their online inventory very often.  Even our place is still listed from this past October--which makes me a little nervous.  There is room for negotiating, as far as renting is concerned.  Leases are available for short lets (3 months) up to two years.  The longer the lease you take, the more room you have for negotiating the rent.

 

2. Home schooling

Home schooling is illegal in Malta.  This isn't true for other nations in Europe, but it is for Malta. 

 

3. Health Insurance for people from the UK

If you're an expat from the UK, you need to get private health insurance.  Even though the UK is an EU member nation, you can't depend on using the free Maltese national health insurance--unless you meet specific eligibility requirements: Maltese residents, persons married to Maltese residents, persons paying national insurance contributions in Malta (through work or self-employment) or in possession of an E111 form or certificate of entitlement would be entitled for free treatment.

Try this link Medibroker.com for information on various health insurance policies for expats.

 

4. Best Time to Assess Malta

Malta is steaming hot in July, August and September. So go visit Malta then to see if you can take it.  I could take it for two weeks when I tried it out one August; whether or not I can take it for months at a time, year after year, remains to be seen.  The summer is also the time when tourists are swarming all over the islands, and there are a lot of loud and annoying fireworks.  If you like Malta after that, then you may really like Malta as a home.

 

Please note:  I don't have the information or legal authority to answer very detailed or specific immigration questions on moving to Malta.

 

Malta: Your Weekend Weather Forecast

 

                             By Mr. S

 

 

Malta weather 2. Jan. 2009

Max. temperature 61 ° F ( 17 ° C )

Min. temperature 54 ° F ( 12 ° C )

Cloudy but mild and dry.

 

The US east coast saw a major storm move through during New Years’s Eve, leaving up to 12 inches of snow and winds of around 30 mph’s, causing the wind chill to drop to – 25 ° F…..yes,  minus 25! That's colder than our deep-freezer in Sliema.  In fact, Boston's First Night New Year's celebration was canceled for the first time in its history.

Compared to that, our Malta weather will be rather unspectacular.  High pressure over England is forcing areas of bad weather to slowly move through the Mediterranean eastwards over Malta. So over the next few days, it will turn from sunnier to cloudier with rain showers and the chance of a thunderstorm later and temperatures falling a bit.  As the area of low pressure approaches, the wind will increase a bit,  but all-in-all, it's a lot better than anywhere else in Europe.  Sorry.

Happy New Year!

 

Your Malta Weather Forecast will be an occasional regular feature by Mr. S., a longtime amateur meteorologist who wants some attention----I. S.