My New Life in Malta

It is getting harder to come up with inspiration for the blog. I suppose it was bound to happen… as I get more settled in my new life and surroundings, things begin to look less new and unusual, and therefore I get less inspiration to blog about life in Malta. What would be the appropriate metaphor here, a blessing in disguise? a victim of its own success? You get the idea.

Just the other night we were out with friends of many nationalities, and the waiter asked where everyone was from. M gave a quick rundown but forgot to mention me, and when I pointed this out he said that he now has begun to think of me as Maltese. In fact, when people ask me if I am Maltese, I often answer “yes” just for pragmatic reasons. I know that what they really mean is, “would you know how to tell me where this street is” or perhaps “do I have to explain how X works or should I assume you know already” and so I just cut to the chase.

But then there are the frustrating moments, like this morning when I kept answering my neighbour and the repairman in Maltese, but they kept answering me in English. I know, I know, the Maltese say they find it rude to speak Maltese to a foreigner, but I still find it rude to be answered in a different language, especially when I have made such an effort to learn it and use it.

Anyway, this entry is a bit disjointed. So to continue with non-sequiturs… Sabine tagged me to come up with seven random and/or weird facts about myself. That should not be so hard, seeing as I hardly ever fit the norm!!

To start with, the rules of the game are:

1. I am a gay Jewish Peruvian living in Malta. That is pretty random in and of itself!!!

2. I like to sit through the credits of a film. Often, I am the only one who stays in the theatre to watch them, but I do it anyway. You can learn a lot of neat little facts about a film in this way (and if you are reading this, you clearly like to learn lots of little facts…)

3. I learned Maltese. Most foreigners who come to live in Malta do not. I was appalled to find out that there are people who have spent 30 years here and cannot speak a word of it. Then I learned by experience that even when one tries, it is extremely difficult to get locals to speak it back. I had never been to a country where people go out of their way for foreigners NOT to speak their language and/or assume that it is not something worth doing.

4. Having said that, I am a big language nerd and love learning them. With Maltese, I now speak eight languages (to varying degrees).

5. People ask me for directions wherever I have gone in the world. Either I seem to have some type of universal look, or I seem to exude an incredible amount of confidence in my orientational abilities. Once someone got angry that I did not know how to work the ticket machine at the Barcelona train station. He thought I knew but was just being rude.

6. I have been to Machu Picchu three times, and it was just as magical every time.

7. I have been to every continent except Africa and Antarctica. And with the former so close to Malta, I hope to remedy that sometime soon!

I hope that was interesting for some of you! It was my first time playing one of these blog tag games.

I hereby tag the following people (click on their names to be taken to their blogs, as the blue font does not seem to be working):

1. Jess (perhaps a good excuse to finally update that blog…)
2. Steve
3. Wen
4. Mrs. Maltagirl
5. M.L. Liu
6. Himmeldunst
7. Jay