My New Life in Malta

Today I will attempt something new: a posting in Maltese. Bear with me as I try this experiment.

Illum ser nipprova nikteb bloggata bil-Malti. Nispera li ma serx nagħmel ħafna żbalji.

Wara l-klassi tal-bieraħ, għandi fiduċja ġdida dwar il-Malti tiegħi. Ma rridx  iċċekken l-istudenti l-ieħor jew niddandan, iżda fl-ewwel darba stajt nara li verament għamilt ħafna progress fiż-żmien żgħir. Għandi bżon nistudja il-grammatika u ngħalliem kelmiet ġodda. Speċjalment, ikollni nipprattika NITKELLEM ma’ ħadd ieħor. Forsi nista’ ssib Malti paċjenzuż li jrid jinkontra miegħi darba fil-ġimgħa biex nitkellmu bil-Malti biss, bla eċċezzjonijiet u bla Ingliż. Hemm volontieri?

Illum kelli ħafna pjani, iżda ser ikollni nibqa’ fid-dar. Sfortunatament imbokkajt riħ u vera ma niflax. Ma jogħġobni nkun marid. Niekol tajjeb, immur lill-gym, u ġeneralment għandi ħajja saħħieħa. Għalhekk nirrabja meta ssir marid. Issa naħseb li ser naqra’… jekk għajnejja nistgħu jiqgħu miftuħin.

Naf li din il-bloggata ma kienetx vera interessanti, iżda kelli bżon topik sempliċi!

Tonight, I tried out a Maltese class for adults. First I got on a bus to Valletta, where all of the buses wind up, and then figured out the connecting line for Mosta. I have gained a lot of confidence in getting around by myself, and I am pretty proud of the fact that I was able to get there on time without having ever been there before.

I was invited to the class by Jessica, a fellow blogger (and reader of this blog) whose blog I enjoy reading. It was our first time meeting in person, but since we have read about each other's life in Malta it felt like I already knew her! We met up in front of the Mosta Dome, which is the third largest dome in the world. Of all the places in Malta, would you believe that I had not yet visited this major site? So we popped in for a minute and, what can I say, it was literally breathtaking. I definitely have to go and visit it properly.

The class was fun. There were about ten people there and it was a lively atmosphere. A couple of them I had read about on Jess' blog, so it was like watching characters from a book spring to life. One has to be very dedicated to learn Maltese because, as I keep writing about, most foreigners here will be spoken to in English. So I admire everyone in this class, and in fact I could feel their enthusiasm. I think I am at a more advanced level than the class, but it is still a great opportunity for me to practice. And tonight they were doing the past tense, with which I still have a lot of trouble, so that was perfect!

The class is held at a secondary school, so it reminded me a bit both of my teacher days and of my own student days. Something that was funny to me was that the last time I was ever in a classroom, students did not have mobile phones, so it was a bit odd to see people sending text messages during the lesson! Also, some students were finishing up their homework before the class started. We might grow up, but we never change!

Afterwards, I got a lift home from another student, and we chatted a bit about how we each wound up on this rock. The topic, of course, then went on to how one can live in Malta for years and never learn the language.

I look forward to the next class, and a grazzi ħafna to Jess for inviting me and for convincing the teacher to let me join halfway through the year!

We received a postcard from Maltapost a few weeks back. It wished us a Happy Christmas and informed us that we now have a new postcode. Up until now, Maltese postcodes have consisted of three letters which indicate the city or village, and two numbers. For example Valletta residents could have VLT03 or a Birkirkara address might have BKR12. But under the new system, there will be three letters and four numbers. This brings the total to seven characters. SEVEN.

The city of Lima, with approximately two-and-a-half times the surface are of the Republic of Malta and roughly 16 times its population, manages to deliver mail with a two digit code. Big and wide Australia gets by with four digits. The highly populated USA has a pretty reliable postal service using five digits. And Canada with its huge size uses a six letter-and-number combination. So somebody please tell me why MaltaPost feels the need to use SEVEN letters and numbers. According to the postcard, the new code identifies addresses down to a specific building on a street. If that is the case, we should be able to leave out the rest of the address! For example: Mr. Joe Borg, VLT01, Malta. I am so often baffled by bureaucracy’s attempts at “simplifying” things.

Moving on. Yesterday we had a nice family lunch at M’s parents’ house to celebrate M’s birthday. As I think I mentioned before, the Maltese take their politics very seriously, and it even influences which newspaper they read and which TV station they support. Interestingly, M’s father is of one party, and M’s brother-in-law is of another party, so when the conversation turned to politics yesterday, things got a bit… lively. I was amused to watch it all, as the Maltese can have very passionate and loud discussions. I did, FINALLY, manage to convince them to go at each other in Maltese instead of switching to English for my supposed benefit. And so I took it as a language lesson and quietly enjoyed my baked salmon while everyone else was too busy talking to actually eat. At one point they wanted to know my opinion. I was most amused when M’s father asked which party I supported. I have only been here for a few months! I am not even Maltese! Not to mention my disdain for politics and politicians. I watched it all as great entertainment and a cultural experience. Italians and others also talk loudly, but in a very different way. There is a particularly Maltese way of speaking loudly and passionately.

In other news, we renewed our gym membership. In fact, it expired a month ago but nobody seemed to have noticed. From the looks of it, we could have continued going indefinitely without anyone noticing, but both of our consciences were beginning to poke a finger. I went back to the gym today after a couple of weeks of laziness. Let us just say that halfway through the workout I had to admit defeat. How quickly one’s body loses its fitness!

I was walking a few days ago and slipped. I landed on my hand, which would have been injured except for the fact that it was holding my mobile phone. So, my trusty phone sacrificed itself for me and took the beating. As a result, I am fine and my hand is fine, but the phone ceased to be. I managed to get my old mobile working, but it is giving me signs that it is very elderly and on its last legs, so it appears I will have to buy a new one.

Can someone suggest a place in Malta where I can get a cheap mobile? It can be old. In fact, I probably would prefer an older model, as I really do not want all of these complicated bells, whistles, and cameras. Just a simple phone that makes phone calls and sends text messages and fits in my pocket will do.

Thanks for any suggestions!

M and I were driving a couple of days ago, and just when we were on the Msida roundabout, I recognised the car in front of us. M's mother's car had just broken down and we happened to appear right after her! Quite a bad place for this to happen, as it was also rush hour. We tried starting it and nothing worked, but it was impossible to push it on an uphill, on a roundabout, with cars everywhere. Luckily some friendly policemen drove up and stopped traffic while they helped us push the car out of the way. As we waited to get the car towed, M's brother-in-law appeared on the roundabout and spotted us. Now, Malta may be small, but it is not THAT small! The fact that we all happened to be in the same place at the same time when M's mother needed help is pretty eerie. Coincidence, or higher forces at work?

In other news, we finally have a street name! We live on a small side street with only a few buildings. Apparently it was only officially named a couple of years ago. Until then it was known on official documents as "New Unnamed Street Off of XX Road" (with XX being the name of the main road). I have yet to find a map where it shows up with the new name, and this causes a lot of confusion to find our flat when we need something delivered. It further confuses our friends because of the lack of a street sign. Several times we have had to walk out to the main road so that we can signal them in. M and I kept saying we should write to the local council and insist that they label the street to make our lives easier. A few weeks ago I was mortified to discover that they had put up the street sign... down the road on the wrong street! Now, how would anyone ever find us? But then, about a week ago, everything was magically put in place. The sign was taken down from the wrong street and put up nicely on ours. It is even on both sides of the road, so that it can be seen no matter from which side you are approaching. This is pretty unique, as in Malta I usually have to hunt all over the place to find a street name, if there is one at all. Our street sign is a very nice ceramic tile and it even explains who the obscure historical figure that they named the street after actually was. I only wish he had a shorter name.

And in further observations of Maltese culture, I can report that politics here is the same immature name-calling that it is everywhere else on the planet. I was listening to the radio the other day, and there was this long tirade against one of the main parties. Their awful crime was that their party newspaper has incorrectly converted the euro equivalent of the newspaper's price! What a horrible thing to do! They are lying and cheating the Maltese people over a price that they are not yet paying! I waited to see if the accusing party would highlight some of its own achievements, but no, it was all about how horrible the other party is. I had flashbacks to my days as an elementary school teacher and breaking up the fights of five-year-olds in the playground.

Really I wanted to smack both parties on the head. The world is currently going through wars, famine, drought, genocide, poverty and disease, to name a few. I choose the country where the big deal is a miscalculated newpaper price, any day!

Well, the play is now over, after a lot of hard work. This past week has been exhausting, but fun. Rehearsals ran late every night, going past midnight several times and once I did not get to bed until 3:30am! There was also some running around trying to get the right costumes and the like, but eventually everything fell into place.

Things are a bit backwards when one is on stage. It is really the backstage area where one spends most of the time, and the stage is this place where one goes on, does a scene, and leaves. I had not acted in several years, and it was a great feeling. I did not feel nervous in front of an audience of a few hundred people. Rather, I could feel their energy and drew on it. It is quite an experience.

Also, to the audience everything seems to flow seemlessly, but backstage there is constant running around, changing of costumes, fixing problems. It never stops! Actors will come running down the side of the stage whispering an obscenity because they had to rush and then immediately transform into the character while walking onto the stage. We had some crazy challenges come up. For example, the director decided to add a new scene, but he came up with this idea DURING THE INTERMISSION. So I spent the opening night's intermission practicing with two others a new scene that we were to do in Act II. Only in the world of theatre!

The performances went really well. Minor mistakes always happen, but everyone managed to cover things up so that the audience did not even notice. (With perhaps the exception of the cast member who had left her mobile phone switched on, taken it on stage with her, and then proceeded to receive a text message. It was rather comical!) 

As for my world of learning Maltese: if you want to get exposure to the language, there is no better way than getting the Maltese under pressure! Commands about going on stage, hurrying up, bringing this, getting that, were all whisper-yelled bil-Malti, even to me! Hearing all of this was great for my ears, and I even got a lot of practice in using the commands "oħroġ! ejja! imxi! stenna!" (go out! come here! walk! wait!)

After the performances the cast and crew went out for a coffee. There were two Germans working on the stage lights, who also came along. When the conversation turned to Maltese, it was ME who had to remind everyone that we had foreigners present. How ironic!

It is now over, but it was a great experience. I got to see the making of a professional production from learning the lines to the final performance. Along the way I made new friends, and lived some intense and stimulating weeks.

Thank you everyone for the comments and encouragement. I definitely wrote that last posting in a moment of frustration so it might have gone a bit over the top, but I had to get it off my chest. (And yes Sabine, I am human an do get angry... ha ha! Perhaps I will make the blog more colourful by focusing on some of the negatives of Maltese life).

It is not so much that I care what people think, as I do not let my life be dictated by that. It is just that getting the same reaction over and over again gets really old really fast. If I ask "sejra?" instead of "yes, I am leaving" I get "did you hear? He said sejra!"... sigh. I have discovered that I really have little patience for repetitive social interactions.

On a more cheerful note, opening night is only two days away! Gasp! Last night we were rehearsing until after midnight. There are still a million things that need work, but that is the nature of theatre and I know that it will all come together when the curtain goes up on a room full of people. The director asked me to be in charge of all the background actors and make sure that they come in and out at the correct times. So I made a nice little chart with everyone's entries and exits, but then yesterday he kept changing everything! Now I even get to be on stage for a few seconds all by myself. On the stage of the Manoel Theatre. In front of a few hundred people. I am getting a bit nervous just thinking about it.

During all the waiting times, I get the chance to wander the backstage area. The dressing rooms still have some signs up from the panto of last month, as well as other leftovers from other performances. The funniest thing I found is an official looking list of all the fire extinguishers in the theatre, with all of them due for inspection in September 2002. Someone has handwritten on it "isn't it now November 2002?"  Well, it is now January 2007, so let us hope that a fire does not break out this week.

I hope some of you can make it to the play tomorrow or over the weekend! 

Up until now, I have tried to keep this blog positive by sharing the good things and leaving out the bad things. I must say that overall I have a positive impression of Malta and the Maltese, and I am quite happy here. But today I am feeling frustrated, so I will now use the blog to vent and complain.

My current frustration stems from my attempts at carrying out conversations in Maltese. I have written about this before, but my irritation about this has reached a boiling point. Here I am making a big effort to actually learn and use the national language, something which, let me point out again, many foreigners do not bother to do. And what do I get in return? I get treated like a circus animal who just juggled a few balls, and/or there is an exaggerated surprise… and then I get spoken to in English for the rest of the conversation.

Just yesterday I asked someone how old her grandson is, and the answer was "oh you understand Maltese?" which was then followed by a long explanation about how Maltese is so difficult (does she realise how hard it is to learn English?) and on to life in Malta and why she would have moved overseas. I never got an answer to my question.

A few weeks ago we were at a social gathering, and I participated in the conversation for well over an hour. I was replying to comments made (in English, but obviously I was understanding) and we got into some heated debates. Then I say is-sena t-tajba (happy new year) to the hostess on the way out the door, and she makes this little squeal like I just pulled rabbit out of a hat. I could not believe it and I got quite irritated. I wanted to yell out "I have been following your conversation for AN HOUR and answering you, did you not notice?" but of course I remained politely silent. Someone else then said to me, in English, "oh, next time I'll speak to you in Maltese!"  Why next time, why not start then?

I know what the Maltese will say: that they find it impolite to speak to foreigners in Maltese. Frankly, I am tired of hearing that excuse. Because it might seem impolite to you, but let me tell you how it feels like to a foreigner trying to learn your language and integrate into your society. It comes across as extremely unwelcoming. The message is: "do not learn our language, do not try to integrate into our society, do not try to join in our conversations."

Grrrr!

We are back in Malta after a lovely long weekend in London. All of the Maltese seem to know it well but for me it was all new and exciting. I really did not know much about it, other than some films and books that take place there, and I was very pleasantly surprised. It is such a vibrant and exciting place with so much to see and do, but at the same time it is not terribly overwhelming.

My trips to Europe in the past have started after a long overnight flight across the ocean, so normally I feel a bit tired and “out of it” when I arrive. But the trip from Malta to London is relatively short and there was no need for early rising or lack of sleep. It might not make sense, but I felt disoriented at NOT feeling disoriented when I arrived!

The Tower of London was a big highlight, as we spent hours there and did not even manage to see the whole thing. We also managed to fit in main places such as Trafalgar Square, Leicester Square, Covent Garden, Buckingham Palace (outside), Portobello Road market in Notting Hill, Primrose Hill and Camden Town. I think that covers everything.

One damper in the trip was that the bag I had with M’s digital camera and a few other less important items was stolen from under my nose. I do not understand how it happened, as we were four people sitting at a café looking at each other, but somehow someone managed to walk away with it. It was the first time in my life that I had anything stolen, and luckily no one was hurt and there was nothing else of value in the bag. But it did make me feel very vulnerable. Alas, there are no pictures of this trip.

It was also delightful to see my friends I & O again after so many years. It was as if not a day had gone by! M and his sister got along very well with them too, so a nice time was had by all as we explored the big metropolis.

London is not only multicultural but also international. I think I only actually spoke to one British person the whole time. Everyone seemed to be from somewhere else, and all sorts of languages could be heard in the tube trains and streets. The security guard at Gatwick turned out to be… Maltese! How do they get themselves everywhere? It was funny because he began asking me questions about my going to Malta, and I thought I was in some kind of trouble, but it turns out he just wanted to chat because he was born in Floriana.

Speaking of Malta-UK connections, I learned that our pedestrian crossing lights here are the same as in Britain. I thought of Maltese streets whenever I had to cross the road, and now maybe I will think of London when I walk to the seafront.

I had quite a day today! First, the director came by to pick me up for rehearsal. He has been very nice in offering me rides several times, since I do not have a car and the rehearsal place is a bit out of the way. He had told me that today he needed to make a stop, but he had not told me what it was. We went to a non-descript house in Floriana, where I was introduced to people. It turns out it was a shelter for recovering drug addicts run by a Catholic charity. The staff chatted with me a bit about how the place is run, while people kept coming in and out of the office. I actually would not have guessed what the place was because it had a very lively atmosphere and everyone seemed to be friends. This was completely unexpected but very interesting for me. Some people live in the shelter, while others come during the day only. Others have been released from prison and do not have a plce to live. A side of Malta that one does not normally see! Every place has its problems, and one of the things I briefly talked about with a staff member was that in the grand scheme of things Malta is doing quite well. At least that is my opinion when you compare it to the rest of the world. I pointed out that in my country of birth there are homeless people going hungry on the streets, while this simply does not exist here. We left the shelter and I was really inspired by the hard work they are doing to help others.

Then on to rehearsal, where a television crew had come by to do a small piece on the play! Tune in to Net TV on Sunday, January 14th at 6:00pm to see a little bit of the rehearsal and the director. I might possibly appear off to the side, if they use those few seconds of footage. The interview was carried out by Maltese television personality Claire Agius, who, it turns out, spent a few months doing missionary work in Peru! Her camera man also spent a few months doing missionary work in Peru! (I keep meeting more and more Maltese who have done so or know someone who has. Apparently there is a Maltese priest in Arequipa who arranges these exchanges. I am intrigued and will have to look more into this). Claire showed off to me how she had learned some Spanish, so I showed off how I can speak Maltese. I have seen her show a few times, so I felt like I was meeting a famous person.

Alas, I will not be able to see the interview when it airs, because this weekend... we are London-bound! Tomorrow M and I leave for a long weekend in the British capital. Here in Europe it is actually possible to do such a thing. Outside of Europe it sounds so very decadent to use a phrase like "I am going to London for the weekend" (so I just had to work it into this posting). I was only there once before for part of a day, so it is basically my first time there and I am very excited. I will also get to see two dear friends whom I have not seen in SIX years, so I am doubly excited.

The blog will thus take a break for the next four days.

And tomorrow my Maltese friend and faithful blog reader P heads off for her new job in Brussels. Good luck, and I hope to visit soon!