My New Life in Malta

I spent a couple of days feeling, as they say here, very unwell. A bit of a fever, and pain in my throat. At my partner’s prodding, I wound up going down to the local pharmacy, where a doctor has visiting hours a few times a week.

I first called the pharmacy to find out how much the appointment would cost. The unhelpful woman on the phone said it all depended on the doctor and she really could not say. Well, I insisted, I need to bring money with me, so could she kindly tell me if we were talking of 5 liri, 50 liri, 500 liri, you know, a general estimate of how much I should bring. No, she could not. Well, I am happy to report that stupid/unhelpful customer service people are a worldwide phenomenon. I phoned up M, my partner, at the office and got a realistic estimate. Doctors in Malta are quite inexpensive and I should not worry. So I gathered up most of the liri I had, just in case, and headed out.

The heat  and strong sun have been keeping me indoors during the peak hours, but yesterday was a gorgeous day. Sunny yet mild. It was very therapeutic to walk by the sea on the way to the pharmacy. I was born and spent my childhood by the sea, and when I moved away from it I missed it constantly. I am very happy to be near it again, and I make a point of taking a seaside stroll daily. I thought that being ill would mean no seaside for the day, but as it turns out I did get to breathe in the lovely scents of salty sea water. Fishermen, swimmers, polo players and small boats were out and about in the Mediterranean as I passed by, mingling with locals and tourists on the promenade.

I found an older lady waiting for the doctor as well. She went in and spent the next half hour with him. I could hear a lot of talking coming through the door. I began to wonder whether she was really ill or just wanted to make conversation. Eventually she came out, and the doctor apologized for such a long wait.

This is where my story turns happy. Without too much hyperbole, this has got to be one of the most pleasant doctor’s visits I have ever had! The doctor was extremely sweet and pleasant. He started by shaking my hand and chatting a bit. He asked about my name and declared that he had never had a patient from Peru. I replied that I had never had a Maltese doctor. He shared with me the two Spanish phrases he knew, and I showed off with some Maltese phrases. This impressed him, as foreigners seldom learn the language (more on this in a separate entry). This was all such a contrast to the years I spent in the United States. There, doctors are so afraid to be sued that they cover themselves in latex and plastic and barely touch you. They devote a few minutes to you, sound like they are reading from a script, and move on. Here I felt like I was having a chat at my uncle’s house. Medical questions and physical examination were interspersed with comments and questions about Peru, Malta, my visit there, where I was staying, etc. Eventually he prescribed antibiotics for my throat infection.

I do not like to bring up money yet again, but I was just floored when he wrote up the bill. The grand total was Lm5, which works out to US$15, €12, £8. I mentioned that I had lived in the US for many years and that I could not imagine paying 5 liri for a doctor’s visit. He replied that he wished he could charge US rates in Malta. We shook hands and said our goodbyes. I purchased the medicine from the unhelpful pharmacist and went out for my seaside stroll back home.

I think that 90% of what a doctor has to do is reassure you. I immediately felt better just from such a positive interaction, which gave me the energy to walk back up the hill to the flat.

One of the things that I personally find interesting about life in Malta is the number of international products available. A trip to the supermarket proved to be like a day at the United Nations. Every other item on the shelf seemed to come from another country, mostly European but not always. Malta joining the EU a couple of years ago has meant there are no import duties on European products, though I am told that it was this way even before. All of these food items are packaged with multilingual labels. Since I am a bit of a language nerd, I spent way too much time reading the different languages and just being amazed by it all. In some cases, however, it comes in handy being multilingual myself, since the languages vary from label to label. Sometimes it is faster to just read the Italian ingredients list because it is the first one listed. Other times, there are many languages that I cannot figure out, and so it becomes a hunt for a decipherable language on the package.

Along with this comes my international breakfast. I have just had Cypriot orange juice, Italian toast, half Belgian and half British soya milk (the first package ran out), honey from “Croatian and Latin American” sources, English tea, Maltese water, Danish butter, Italian cereal and the bananas were not labeled, but the last time they said Colombia. The Italian yogurt did not turn out to be very good, or was it the German one? In any case the Malaysian soya milk is out of the running.  I think I will have some soup from the U.S. for lunch, along with those tasty Italian potatoes. And some fresh local fish is still in the refrigerator.

Malta will surprise you in many ways. The local currency, the Maltese lira, is one of the strongest currencies in the world! (Second strongest, according to Wikipedia. In case you’re wondering, only the Kuwaiti dinar tops it). In fact, it takes nearly US$3 to make one lira (UK£1.57, €2.32). To this, add the fact that the lira makers just love coins. Paper notes only start at the Lm2 level. Which brings me to today’s conundrum…

I really don’t know what to do with so many coins! In other countries, coins have little value, so I got used to just emptying all my small change into a jar in order to keep my pockets from bulging. But you simply cannot do that with the Maltese liri. Empty a day’s worth of coins into a jar, and you might wind up with US$15 (UK£8, €11). Not exactly small change! So I am still trying to figure out how to deal with carrying so many coins. I am trying a small change purse in addition to a wallet, but it is getting quite bulky. Any suggestions will be highly appreciated.

Next there is the challenge of learning to recognize so many coins. There is 1 cent, 2 cents, 5 cents, 10 cents, 25 cents, 50 cents and finally 1 lira. Having to pick out seven different coins is new and a little bit daunting. I know that I will eventually get used to it, but it is still a bit overwhelming when a cashier hands me back a small mountain of coins. Or worse yet is when I hand over a large sum in order to get change, and back comes the dreaded question “oh, don’t you have 15 cents?” Yeah, I probably do, but do you really want to wait that long?

Only one year, three months and 17 days until Malta adopts the euro. At least then, the whole population will join me in being puzzled by new coins.

With moving to Europe comes the sense that so many places that I would like to visit are now within easy reach. Almost as if to illustrate this point, the pilot on my flight to Malta seemed even more excited about this than I was. Shortly after take-off from Frankfurt, he came on the plane’s PA system to announce that we would be flying over the Alps, and just a few minutes later he informed us that Lake Cuomo was visible from the left side windows. At this point I looked over and saw that the young man by the window seat had closed both windows and was fast asleep. I looked around, only to discover that my aisle seat had a perfect vantage point in which to have no line of sight with any other window.

A few minutes more, and the announcement came that Corsica and “the tiny island of Elba” could be seen to our right. Yes, the very Elba where Napoleon was exiled. My eagerness grew, and this time I unbuckled my seat-belt and got up. I seemed to startle everyone around me, as I felt many pairs of eyes suddenly turn towards me. I went up the aisle trying to catch a glimpse out the windows, but from my angle I could only make out water. Defeated, I sat back down. Sigh.

Nature called me to the windowless lavatory, and so I used my imagination when the “tiny island of Monte Cristo” was pointed out. Upon exiting the restroom in the rear of the cabin, I found that the beverage service was blocking my way. It was a one-aisle plane, and my seat was near the front. The flight attendant asked if I would wait a few minutes, and I agreed. So I made myself at home in the kitchen area, where I had my own private window on which to gaze at, as the pilot put it, “the magnificient city of Rome” on the left side. Sure, I could not see the Colisseum from 33,000 feet, but there was Rome before me! I sat there gawking as Naples soon followed, and soon after that, Sicily.

I was back at my seat when Gozo and Comino (Malta’s sister islands that make up the country) were below us. At this point, I had had it. Courtesy or not, UP went the window and displayed before me was Malta, the island that was to be my new home. I recognized many of the landmarks from my visit the year before. Now, before we go any further, Malta *is* quite small. And while it did take a good twenty minutes from when Gozo reared its head until the end of Malta, it does strike you while landing just how small this place is. To start, the plane has to “overshoot” the island, over the water, and turn around at the last minute. “Wait,” an inner voice yelps, “you missed the island!” Secondly, as the plane gets ready to touch down, there is a coastline on the left and… a coastline on the right. This visual effect is quite stunning. Then, something almost magical happens as the plane touches down: the view of the sea disappears, the horizon is suddenly land, and it no longer feels so small.

In fact, once you land, it is deceivingly large.

I have just moved to Malta, allured here by my partner, who calls this island home.  This blog will attempt to capture my thoughts and observations on this country, its people and the experiences of starting a new life in a new country.  My reluctance to blog has been broken by great insistence on the part of my friends, so as they say, here goes nothing…

I hope you enjoy, and do check back regularly!