My New Life in Malta

Another silence implying busy days, but this time pleasant ones.

The play will be repeated again (mark your calendars for May 11 and 13 if you missed it), and soon rehearsals will also begin for Episode 2, but meanwhile the director gave us a few days off. Which worked out perfectly for me, as I was able to devote time to my mother’s visit. We have covered Malta far and wide, and while it is impossible to see everything we got pretty close. This little country is full of surprises and variety, and it has been a pleasure to show it off and at the same time discover even more of its hidden corners.

Mummy and I also hopped over to Sicily for a couple of days, which was a nice treat. I still love being able to go to a different country so easily. This time we took advantage of an Air Malta fare special and actually flew instead of taking the catamaran (which again worked out nicely for me, ever since that eventful ferry ride). The flights were ridiculously short, only 35 minutes from Malta to Reggio di Calabria and on the return only 27 minutes from Catania to Malta. Ironically, waaaaay more time is spent waiting at the airports than actually flying. We spent an intense two days seeing Reggio, Messina, Taormina and Catania and taking it all in while enjoying delicious Italian food. I managed to convince my mother that for an overnight stay one need only take a small purse, so we were able to roam around without any luggage restraints. I am a master in packing light.

Then back to our favourite island nation. It was interesting to hear my mother say that when she first arrived a couple of weeks ago, she had the pre-conceived notion that Malta would be just like Italy (as many people mistakenly do) but that after the Sicily visit, it was evident that Malta is its own and very distinct nation. On the plane back she looked around and said that the people did not even look Italian. Many people who have not been here ask if Malta is similar to Italy, or if it is more British, but the answer is simply that despite its small size, this is a unique country.

And so we managed to see quite a lot of what Malta has to offer, and even a side visit to Sicily. I think my mother liked it here, because she is already talking of her next visit. That time we will have to cover the few things we missed during this trip.

Meanwhile, I get a special treat. Mummy has to fly to Madrid in order to return to Peru, and she invited me to spend a few days in Madrid with her! We went to a travel agency and managed to get me on the same flight as her, so tomorrow I am off to España for five days! You have to love how close things are in Europe. I have not been to Madrid in nearly a decade, so I am very excited. Though Malta is now feeling more and more like home, it will be nice to have a bit of a holiday.

Then it was a bittersweet feeling, a sense of achievement coupled with saying goodbye to the cast. The director has actually arranged for us to put on the show again in a couple of weeks, so there will be more (and if you missed it, there will still be a chance!) but I know that not everyone will be able to continue. It was been a very big commitment rehearsing every day, and some cast members will have to drop out.

On the achievement side, I am very proud of myself because this weekend I attended an audition for a TV show in Maltese! I was, of course, petrified at the thought, but I pushed myself and went for it. I showed up at the Super One television studios yesterday morning and luckily ran into one of the cast members from my last play so I had someone to chat with while waiting. I had learned the lines ahead of time and M helped me practice the cadence so that I sounded as Maltese as possible. I was worried that my foreign accent might get in the way, though it is also something that could work to my advantage. Mostly I was afraid of being able to conduct the whole audition/interview in Maltese. However, I managed! I kept my answers brief so that I would not stumble in trying to come up with long sentences, and only once had to ask for something to be repeated. At one point I was asked to improvise lines in character, at which point I simply freaked out inside, but I remained calm and collected and somehow was able to do it.

Most likely, I will not get the part. But the experience was a big confidence booster. I had never auditioned for television before, nor in Maltese! I came out feeling proud and ready to take on the world.

The good news are, I am finally feeling better. My eye is still seeing WEIRDLY but at least the pain is gone and it is slowly getting better. I have stopped coughing and sneezing and can breathe normally again.

In other news, it is production week for the play and we have been rehearsing until nearly midnight every day. Tonight is the technical rehearsal on the actual stage of the Manoel Theatre, and that should run quite late as well. I feel that there is still so much to do, and so many mistakes that we all keep making… but that is the nature of theatre! As soon as the curtain comes up and there is a real audience present, the magic will take over and things will be just fine. I hope!

Anyway, I am pretty exhausted at the moment so I just take this opportunity for some shameless advertising.

MALTA RESIDENTS: Come watch “The Old Testament, Episode I: Creation” at the Manoel on Friday, 13 April and Sunday, 15 April 2007 at 8:00pm. Simply point your browser to www.teatrumanoel.com.mt and choose your seats!

GOZITANS: come and watch on Saturday, 14 April at 8:00pm at the MBC Theatre in Nadur. Tickets are available from the Nadur Local Council Office on 21 55 80 80 or nadur.lc@gov.mt and also from the Culture Office Victoria on 21 55 61 25 or info@gozoculture.com

Come out and see something different! It is not a religious play at all, bur rather it presents the stories of the Old Testament from a literary perspective. This first episode covers the creation story, Adam and Eve, Cain and Abel, and Noah and the flood, shown in a very innovative and unusual way.

I hope to see you there!!

My silence on this space is due to a very eventful couple of weeks.

Right as my friends left, I thought my cold was over but then… it came back with a vengeance. I have been sick as a dog and it has been very exhausting. Such a ”simple” illness, and yet so debilitating! My mother arrived, and the first days I was not able to show her much due to my ill health. I had to miss a few rehearsals and then worked hard to catch up. And then things got interesting.

A couple of nights ago, as M was turning around to give me a hug, one of his fingers which had at its tip a nail that really needed clipping went directly into my eye! At first it hurt in such a way that I could not even open it. When I finally was able to, the world seemed very cloudy. I blinked and blinked but it was not getting any better. M could not see any damage, but something was not right. We wound up at the casualty department (emergency room) of St. Luke’s Hospital at nearly 1 a.m. After some formalities at the check-in area (which took several minutes of filling out forms) I was made to pay a deposit of Lm15 (€35, US$45). Maltese citizens are allowed in for free, but at least I did not have to pay an exorbitant fee, which had slightly worried me on the way to the hospital. After several more minutes walking through a maze of corridors (good thing I was not in a critical condition!) we made it to the ophthalmology department.

I knocked on the door, and a very scary old nurse reminiscent of the old Soviet Union told me, or rather barked at me, in a deep voice to wait while she went to get the doctor. A very tired and yawning doctor, whom we had clearly woken up, soon came and examined me. She said that I had a very minor scratch in the exact middle of the eye, which explained why I was seeing cloudy. After much insistence on our part, she reiterated that there would be no permanent damage. She then checked the inside of the eyelid for damage (ouch!) and then covered me up with an eye patch that I was to keep on until the next day at noon. She then prescribed some anti-bacterial eye drops for the next several days and sent me off. The doctor was not exactly nice, but she did seem to know what she was doing. Walking out with that patch was very strange. Half of my field of vision was gone, and I clung on to M the way blind people do. I was able to remain quite calm throughout the whole ordeal, but poor M was extremely worried.

The next day we informed my mother of the event, since I came out of the bedroom looking like a pirate. Luckily she had slept through the whole thing. And so, here I am, with a very surreal condition. If I look out of the bad eye, it hurts and the world seems blurry. If I open both eyes, it still hurts a bit but I am able to ignore the weird vision. I really try not to think about the fact that I have a cut ON MY EYE because it gives me the shivers if I focus on that too much. Several people have told me that they have gone through the same thing, and that I will heal fine. I sure hope so!

I am happy to report that a trip to the Maltese emergency room was efficient, expedient, and relatively inexpensive. I am now at ease knowing that if I ever have another emergency, a trip to St. Luke’s is not to be feared.

In other news, I am really enjoying my mother’s visit, and it is great to be showing her around my new country. It was also lovely having my friends here last week. It was surreal seeing them here, but now I miss them and look forward to their next visit, which they promised me. To round things out, out of the blue my friend A came for a holiday in Malta with his parents, and we met up last night. When it rains, it pours! If only I had more energy for all of this, it would be perfect.

Now to wait for my eye to heal, hopefully on time for the play’s premiere this Friday! And if I stop coughing, that would also be wonderful.