Post #4

Hey guys, long time no entry! I haven't been able to make blog entries because I've been working so hard here.*

Here's a picture of Golden Bay. Easily the nicest beach I've ever been to. The water was the perfect temperature, nice and crystal blue. Great sand which you take for granted in the US (most of the beaches here are rock beaches**). And what a view, am I right? On the bottom left of this picture you can spot a building which is a nice restaurant that has really good pizza. Actually reasonably priced too! My only complaint about golden bay is that a crab or something kept pinching at my ankles.

*source not found
**http://akmalta.blogspot.com/2014/09/the-flight-and-rock-beach.html

Here's a selfie of us at golden bay. Panorama selfie. Changing the game.

On Monday, rather than slogging myself out of bed to go to work, it was Victory day in Malta. Victory day, September 8th, celebrates 3 things: 

1. Going way back to 1565, when the Turks of the Ottoman Empire tried to invade Malta, climaxing in what is known as the Great Siege. The Knights of St. John (only 400 men plus 2,000 foot soldiers) defended this great island against the Turks. Voltaire once said "Nothing is better known than the siege of Malta".
2. In September of 1800, there was a large French presence of authority in Malta. This is when Napoleon was doing his thing, conquering Europe. The Maltese said nope, rebelled, and with a little help from the British and Rear Admiral Lord Broski Horatio Nelson... were victorious. 
3. Victory Day in Malta also celebrates September 8th, 1943, when General Eisenhower of the Allied forces announced the surrender of Italy of the Axis powers. The surrender actually took place 5 days earlier when Allied forces went to invade Sicily from Malta. The Cassibile Armistice was signed after the Italian Fleet surrendered on that day. 

Enough history though, here's a cactus:

No shortage of cacti on this island. Particularly prickly pear cacti. They're everywhere! Especially on my walk to work. I have to watch my step to make sure I don't get prickly pear all over my shoes. Huagh! Really cool though, love the cacti. Shout out to the cacti.

Here's a picture of a dog lounging on the beach. Ruff life. Made me miss my dog Gabi, but at least I got to see her last night when I skyped my family for the first time! She had no idea what was going on, but I could see it in her eyes that she missed me.

Here's a picture of the Maltese sunrise! Took this from my roof after getting back from Paceville at 7 AM one morning. Paceville is basically a town of clubs and bars. Haven't been there too much.*

Shout out to my mom (Susan)! Here's a picture of some Black Eye'd Susans and a palm tree. 

The Flight and Rock Beach

The flight over to Malta was an overnight flight, but of course I couldn't sleep at all. It was 11 hours and 20 minutes with an hour and 40 minutes of layover in Heathrow, London. It was SUPPOSED to depart at 9:40 PM on Sunday but it was delayed an hour, so I really only had 40 minutes of layover to catch my flight from London to Malta. Heathrow is a giant airport, and I needed to take a shuttle to get to my terminal, and then get checked by security again. Thankfully I had nothing to hide and I got to the boarding area just in time and caught my flight.

Here's a pic of the Virgin Atlantic Airbus that flew me from Boston to London. Massive!

This is a picture taken from London to Malta, flying over the Alps in Southern France. 

I also met up with these 3 friend-O's Ali, Angelika, and Eleanor on my connecting flight to Malta! 

The flight landed at 3 PM Malta time on Monday, and I spent the rest of the day settling in and food shopping. The next day we went to Sliema which is on the Northern Coast of the Island. The beaches here are rock beaches. 

 The water was crazy because it has been really windy here the last couple days. The warning level was 2 red flags which is the highest warning level, but that didn't stop these brave souls from getting their Mediterranean fix.

They also cut out pools into the rock so that when the tide goes out, there are pools that you can chill in. Pretty cool! Going back to Sliema tomorrow after my first day of work. It's going to be 30 degrees Celsius tomorrow, or 86 Fahrenheit. Prime beach weather!

Also in case anyone is trying to reach me, the place I'm staying has wifi, so I'll be able to Facebook message, and iMessage from time to time when I'm here. I'm going to set up a Skype account one of these days too. 

Post numbah 2

 If you guessed a creepy nun then congrats, you win.

Here's another selfie with a giant ear of corn.

More to come soon

The Journey to Malta

Inspired by my mom's blog that she made for our dog Gabi (http://gabithedog.blogspot.com), I have decided to make my own blog about my trip to Malta. I will be here for 3 months working in a pharmacy for my 3rd co-op in the Northeastern Pharmacy program. 

My flight left last night from Logan airport in Boston. Because they tell you to get there obnoxiously early, like 3 hours for international flights, I had some time to kill. I spent this time meditating on what my last American meal for 3 months would be. The options were fierce- Burrito Elito, Starbucks, Sbarro's ratchet pizza. Real top notch stuff. Then I saw it. I knew what my last meal had to be... 

BK Chicken Fries. Done deal. 

 

Check back in tomorrow to see what I took a #selfie with at the Malta airport. Was it...

a) A paper mache elephant

b) A really creepy nun

c) A giant tooth

d) A life size lego replica of Bob Saget