Opening Hours, Light Switches
A few details of Maltese life:
Malta still has the old fashioned opening hours. This means that stores close from 1pm to 4pm for lunch/siesta, and then open again from 4pm to 7pm. So whatever you need to buy, if you do not make it to the store by 1pm… you have to wait. I am not used to this. In the US there is the 24 hour culture, and even in Peru they did away with lunch closing hours years before I was born! Just yesterday I wrote a letter, but finished it around 1:30pm. The local post office in my area does not reopen in the afternoon, so I had to wait until today. I did find another one that opened in the afternoon, but I had no idea where it was.
(Which leads me to respond to a few comments… Google maps only has half the country at a detailed level, and it is the half that is less inhabited, so I cannot use it for the places I need to go. I am still looking for a good road map of Malta, before I go crazy trying to figure everything out).
Pharmacies close at 7pm too, like all the other stores. I asked at a pharmacy if there is one that stays open later in case of emergency. The cashier looked at me puzzled. No, she said, after hours you go to the hospital, where they have an emergency pharmacy open 24 hours. Silly me, how did I not think of that.
Yesterday I was also on a mission to get a converter plug so I could recharge my phone. It is international and multi-voltage, but it only came with a US-style plug. My trusty store at the corner did not have what I needed, so I had to go hunting to another hardware store. The plugs here are not European, with two round holes, but rather British. This means they are square, not round, with a third hole for the ground/earth. These plugs are only used in Britain and some of its former colonies. The odd thing is that each individual socket has a switch. That is, you can turn it on and off as if it were a light. I found this bizarre. Why would you turn an electric socket on and off? Who ever heard of such a thing? This adds another level of decision making to my every day life. I am done with the toaster, should I… turn it off? I have turned off the radio, should I… switch the socket off too? I only appreciated this yesterday when we used a power drill to make a hole in the wall. You really do not want to leave that thing plugged in, as bumping into it the wrong way could cause injury. So, M leaned over and… turned off the socket. Pretty neat, eh? Also, you *can* make European plugs fit, meaning you do not have to buy a converter every time the appliance you buy happens to have a European plug (most of the time, now that Malta is in the EU and things get bought across borders). To do this, however, you have to stick a pen in the third hole to “trick” it. I saw M do this and freaked out. “You are sticking a pen in the electric socket!!!!” Ah, but do not worry… he had turned it off first.
The new dishwashwer is coming this afternoon. I am excited as we will not have to hand wash everything any more. And this is where learning Maltese is coming in handy. The delivery men will call on the phone and speak Maltese. I will understand what they are telling me, even if I wind up replying in English. At least it worked last week.
I found this entry particularly charming. For one it again touched on language differences. Being that now in grad school that’s all that I’m focusing on lately, I’ve taken a special affinity to hearing about your language woes. It’s very reminiscent of cases I’ve been hearing of aphasia or even bilingual kids who are misunderstood by clinicians. The aphasia analogy was likened to being plucked out of your home country into another with your full cognitive abilities but with no expressive abiilities–> i.e. no understands your butt. So, when I read your stories I think to my recent lectures and how well your experience compares to the cases I’m reading about…sorry I’m rambling.
Anyways, so you have switches on your individual sockets. Personally I think that’s brilliant. Why are they there you ask? Well I don’t know the designer’s original intent but you sure as hell can start saving the planet bit by bit. Save energy dude! Cut off the ones you’re not using including…say your cell phone adapter when it’s not in use. Things that are “off” aren’t really. For instance, you can shut your TV off (it still sucks up juice when the screen is off) and save energy from being consumed. A great perk: you can save pretty significantly on your energy bill. My fiance did that at his last apartment and claimed his energy bill went down by 15 bucks a month. If I had a switch on everything I think I’d rejoice. I’ve taken to disconnecting everything I can reach when it’s not in use (like the toaster and the cuisinart).
By the way- sticking a pen in a socket is everything my whole organism is against. I think I would have hidden under a rock that was under a tree if I would have seen that coming. I remember as a 5 year old I was being babysat by my puerto rican babysitter- sra. awilda, and she caught me sticking bobby pins into the dining room socket. Man, she wooped the crap out of me. I guess that negative reinforcement has been with me ever since. =) Hey, what can I say? I’ll never stick bobby pins or anything non electrical into a socket ever again.
Oh and by the way the blog is on myspace. go to myspace.com/patricia8a. if it doesn’t show up just sign up and then request me as a friend. use my yahoo address to find me.
Love you, sorry worlds are colliding but that’s the price of blogging to the general public. tell your bro that the hebrew script was awesome to see. I’d never seen it online before. Fun stuff =)
Actaully, when you put a pen in the socket, you’re inserting it into the topmost socket, which is the earth. You’re at no risk of getting a shock there, honest. I’ve known people to even insert a key (metal!) into that socket. I prefer not to though in case there’s a short.
For adapters and any electrical hardware needs, I suggest a shop called G & E. It’s on the other side of the road of the Birkirkara Bypass, roughly opposite the new hospital. If the locals don’t know where it is, you can always ask for the “banka tal-lottu” (place where you buy lotto, Super5, lottery tickets and so on). It’s just around the corner. It’s a great shop and you’ll find almost anything you will need.
Re: the key, I find that car keys are the best since they have a plastic part at the top which acts as an insulator, so if you grab the key by that plastic part, the chances of electricty conducting to your hand are pretty remote and technically impossible.