We watched the Godfather this weekend. Godfather 1 and 2. it took two nights, and i crave the day that i will be able to watch a movie without subtitles. Movies are a lot of work here too. First you must find a DVD. if the DVD is from a european you must then find a european with a laptop. if the DVD is from a north american you must find 1 of the 2 north americans with a laptop. its very hectic... and then chances are at least 1/3 of your movie watching group doesnt speak english as a first language, so its nice to turn on the subtitles so they can understand whats going on a bit better. some of the subtitles get pretty intricate too... for instance if you watch The Shinning with subtitles, not only does it tell you what the characters are saying but it provides a description of the background music... there's ominous music, suspensful music, worrisome music, etc... I also would like to lay on a couch that is not covered in some type of plastic, waterproof material. all of our furniture is lawn furniture and there for weather proof... VERY comfy let me tell you! a real couch will be a bit like heaven, i imagine...
Saturday, it rained cats and dogs. it poured and poured but only for 20-30 minutes. then it lightend up. the roads were flooded though. ankle deep in most places. i was going shopping with pavel and we reached an intersection and we could go right where a small gyser had formed in the middle of the street... yes, the center of the street was spewing water straight up, or we could go left, up-river. we went left. pavel could jump across the river, but i could quite make it and i almost lost my flip flop. i couldnt decide if i was happy i'd worn flip flops or not. the island isnt very clean... theres a lot of poo on the streets so basically i was wading through a giant cat toilet... but flip flops and feet can be washed a bit better than sneakers.
Sunday i had a giant breakfast at the neighbors-across-the-pool's place. bacon, eggs, crepes, juice, and potatoes. it was delicious! it was Chris's birthday so we were celebrating. Tomorrow is Brett's birthday. we're making him lasagna for dinner. On saturday we're going to Gozo, finally! it should be fun. hopefully the weather will cooperate. its weird though, no snow and all kinds of christmas decorations up. it seems like there should be snow. yesterday the guys were laying in sun in their swim trunks! its so weird.
18 days til i go on my vacation! i'm so excited! we're going to eat so much chocolate and sandwiches! yum.
thats all for now
Happy Thanksgiving, yesterday!
I went out and bought 2 3kg roosters. The turkeys here are ridiculously tiny... about 8lbs each and they cost more than 5 lira ($15). so, i bought roosters. i had a grand time cleaning them out, let me tell you! my roommates were all very impressed. they roasted up really well too. one was a bit dry, but you cant win them all i guess. there were about 25 people at our Thanksgiving. we had 2 boxes of Stove Top, sent by my wonderful mom. 3 pots of mashed potatoes, a dish of gramma beans, cranberries, 4 packets of gravy (also sent by mom), a bunch of steamed veggies, pumpkin, bread, apricot pie, cherry pie, apple crisp, triffle, chocolate roll, cookies, chocolates, banana bread, german pound cake, sooooo much food. we were all STUFFED at the end of the night. there was no lefse though. Almost everyone who came brought something to share so there was quite a lot of food. we all had a really great time, even if we werent at home with our families, we were with our malta family. its really nice, the sense of community we have here. everyone helps each other out, we look out for each other... i really like it.
I'm getting really excited for christmas now too. we've decided to go to Denmark first, then Holland, then Belgium and then back to Holland to meet with our friends. There will be a lot of people from the residence in Holland for New Years so we hope to all meet up and hang out... and maybe buy some clogs! yay wooden shoes!
This weekend went as expected. Friday night we went out to Pizza Hut for Rafaele's (italy) birthday. Most of us were quite shocked an Italian would choose to go to Pizza Hut for a birthday dinner... but really, i didnt complain. I miss the thick greasy crust. pizza and pepsi brings back good memories too. sitting on the pizza blanket watching the Simpsons. Then I went dancing with Zdenka(Slovakia) Ann (S. Dakota) and David (Texas). It was Zdenka's birthday too. We had a lot of fun.
Saturday was pretty mellow until the evening came. It was Daniel's (idaho) birthday. and we planned a surprise party for him. My job was to keep him away from his apartment. I had a lot of help though so it wasnt too bad. Emiliano (California), Phil (germany), Bret (canada), Pavel (bulgaria), Zdenka and I took him to my place to watch a movie. unfortunatly the movie didnt work. sooo that made things a bit tricky, but we were sucessful. He was pretty surprised when we brought him back to his apartment full of his friends and cake and balloons and candles. It was a lot of fun and everyone was very happy.
Sunday my french roommates made me some crepes and french toast. they were a bit disappointed that we have french toast at home. it was good though. We hung out together for a while and had fun talking and listening to french and american rap. i told them what the american rappers were saying and they told me what the french rappers were saying. Then i watched some TV. the first TV i've watched in a long long time. we watched the discovery channel and then some CSI. The episode with the dead clown.
they've been watching America's Top Model here. I watched the exact same show back home last spring. they havent seen it yet. its kind of funny how media travels. and why europeans would be interested in America's top model is beyond me.
We're having a Thanksgiving dinner on Thursday. I'm in charge of it all. I told Lori (New York) that i was hoping to have it outside of the cafe at the residence and she told me, 'if you have it there then anyone can come and eat.'
'yeah, so.'
'well, you have to plan for that.'
'yeah, i know. but its thanksgiving.'
'well, there might be a lot of people. and they'll just eat the food.'
'uuuhhh, yeah. It's
Thanksgiving.'
she wont be here but i think she'd prefer it to be a closed party with only a few people invited. which true, you might be more full when you leave... but its not the spirit of the holiday. thanksgiving is about sharing and being with your friends. who am i to deny someone who wants some food and company? especially on thanksgiving.
Yesterday I met a Norwiegian guy. When i told him i was from Minnesota he mentioned a lot of Minnesotans having Scandinaivan ancestors. and i said, 'yeah, like me!' He was pretty impressed i knew how to make lefse too. i thought that was pretty cool.
Thats about all i have to say for now. no new pictures because i havent taken any. Dec 4th we're going to Gozo. so i should have some then.
SCUBA
Its been an alright week so far. I had a nice time last weekend. we went out to a maltese restaurant for dinner and we had a wonderful time. Saturday we celebrated Canada Lori's Birthday. we went to a coffee shop and had some of the best hot cocoa i've ever had. it was super thick and they had about 2 dozen flavors. i got the dark chocoalte flavor. it was like hot pudding in a mug it was so thick and rich. Saturday night was the Miss Malta contest. Most of the residence went to see it. the judges were all people i knew from the residence. the contest was all in maltese so it got kind of boring. the girls tripped alot because there was something wrong with the stage. the audience laughed histerically everytime. one girl broke her shoe as she stepped on stage. it was kind of amusing... but i felt bad for her. they had an evening gown contest and a swimsuit contest. the swimsuits were hideous. they looked like they should have been tablecloths or something. the contest was really really long though. we were tired by the end of it all.
Wednesday I was in a basketball tournament. I hate basketball. It was put on by the university and the residence had 3 teams in it. i was on the last team formed and so we were called The Leftovers. we played 3 games. we won the 1st and lost the other 2. A team from the residence won the championship though. so we were happy with that. One of the teams they beat had a player from the Malta National team on it too.
yesterday i had my first open water dive for my PADI certification. (scuba) i saw a jellyfish and a starfish and a million little fish swimming around in schools. and i some scary looking fish (small but pointy) and i cut up my hands on the rocks. and i hurt my ear. i couldnt get my head equalized so there was a lot of pressure (think airplane) but it was really bad and it hurt alot. so i could only go on one dive instead of 2. last night it ached but today it feels much better, it just feels like theres still some water in there. hopefully it will get better by monday because i'm going diving again. Last night i went to an italian movie. it was very good and the italian teacher knows my name!! she said hi to me.
Tonight we're going to celebrate 2 birthdays. an Italian guy, Rafaele, he wants to go to Pizza Hut; and a Slovakian girl, Zdenka, she wants to get dressed up and go dancing. So, we're going to dress up and go to Pizza Hut and then dancing. I think it will be fun. Rafaele surprised everyone when he said he wanted to go to Pizza Hut for his birthday. Apparently, fast food isnt appropriate birthday fare. but i like KFC for my birthday. :-) It will be the 1st american restaurant i've been to since i left.
Saturday we're going out to celebrate Daniel's (idaho) birthday too. and sunday we will rest. i hope.
They've been remodeling the flat next to mine and they use a lot of saws and jackhammers at 7am. it sounds like they're in my kitchen. but we've been complaining to the manager and so now they use saws and jackhammers in the flat one down from us. so its a bit more tolerable. i got a heater for my room too. its very cold in the mornings and its easier to get out of bed in a warm room. I need to buy a rug though. the floor is deathly cold all the time. i've been using a towel but it seems a bit dangerous... it slides around a lot. I miss having speakers too. i dont like having to wear headphones whenever i want to listen to music. its hard to lay down and its impossible to differentiate a knock on the door or a flatmate clomping around in high heels. alright. enough for now. thursday is thanksgiving!!!
Sicilia
ok, i just finished a huge long post about my trip to sicily and wouldnt you know it... it didnt get posted. i have a few choice words for the internet right now, but i will keep them to myself.
i dont have time to rewrite the post so i will summarise my trip.
i went with Ann who's from UMD and we met with corey whos studying in sicily, also from UMD. we were all in ojibwe together.
we got on the ferry at 5:30 am saturday. slept most of the way. got sick on the boat. waited at the deserted port for an hour for corey. we got bored of that so we walked into town. we had giant backpacks and blonde hair and we were feeling really sick still. at the first pay phone we saw we stopped to try and call corey. ann forgot her phone card and mine didnt work. we found an ATM bought some gum and got some change. we stood outside the payphone contemplating how in the heck you use it for about 5 minutes. and who should walk up but corey himself. yay! so we sit and chat at a cafe for about 3 hours while we wait for the next bus. make it to siracusa. take a siesta. get some pizza. hang out with other americans. go to bed.
wake up. go to a greek theatre and dionysus' ear ( a giant quarry used to build the theater. the crevice is in the shape of an ear. it was used as a prision and. anything you say inside, even if you whisper, can be heard outside of the cave) we get some gelato. go to the bus station to look at the timetables for the next day... they're closed so we take a siesta. get some chinese food for dinner take a tour of Ortigia. go to bed.
wake up. go to Catania. try to get travelers cheques changed... we made 6 attempts and 6 different banks and we get 6 variations of, 'no, go to another bank' we say screw it, and i just loan ann the money she needs. we get some yummy pasteries filled with sweet ricotta chese and covered in powdered sugar. and some gelato. we wander around catania. realise we have no idea where the bus dropped us off. find a different bus station consider going to Taromina. end up wandering too far from the bus station. we didnt make the bus to taromina. take a siesta in a park. decide we've had enough of catania. go back to siracusa. do some shopping. buy some weird confectionary fruits that sicily is supposedly famous for.... they're way way too sweet. get dinner of bread cheese and wine. eat it by a fountain. go to bed early.
wake up. go to the market with corey's roommate russ. this market is 10000000 times better than anything in malta. if malta had a market like that i would never go to the grocery store ever. they had fruits and veggies that actually looked good. fresh fish and seafood, salami cheese bread clothes shoes cleaning supplies etc... we eat bread and salami for breakfast. then we go to pozzallo. its siesta so we chill out in a park for 2 hours. then we do some shopping. walk around broke try to find a gelataria that takes credit cards (none do) i bought a matching scarf and hat, we find an american who's on break from teaching english in Czech Republic, hes taking the ferry with us, we get a free shuttle to the port. we dont get sick on the boat. come home tell everyone about our adventures and go to bed.
the first version was much better and much more colorful... but this will have to do. you can call me and i'll tell you the extended version. :-) now, its is the weekend!
This weeks been okay... i'm still sick. yay. nothing better than being sick! I think it might have something to do with going from really really hot to really really freezing about 6 times a day. they have pretty decent AC here so a lot of people are getting sick from the rapid climate changes. I finished my paper work for scuba diving but i cant get my certificate until i get better. and its going to start to rain soon. this weekend Ann and I are going to Sicily. it should be a lot of fun. I've also decided to go to Denmark, Holland and Belgium for Christmas. I'm looking into air fare right now.
Yesterday was Halloween. they dont really do halloween here. But, we dressed up anyway. We had a group costume. Cinderella was our theme... I got to be Cinderella. My fairygod mother wore plastic grocery bags for a skirt my evil step sisters wore curtains for dresses prince charming wore a tin foil tie and our coachman was straight out of a John Wayne movie. My glass slippers were actually dress shoes covered in Seran wrap. it was really quite fun. Before all of the festivities we went on a hike organized by the Residence. It was really cool. We went about 12 Km. we stopped at the fish market it was really neat. the fish were VERY fresh... still flipping around some of them. I bought a bracelet and some hairclips. We went around to some of the sandstone beaches and i got some really cool pictures. then we went to St. Peter's Pool. there's a cliff there that you can jump off of into the water. it was FUN. wow. it was fun. I probably shouldnt be jumping off cliffs and stuff with this cold... but i dont know that i'll ever get back there so i had to do it. and then i had to have ann take a picture of it and when she did someone walked in front of the camera so i had to go again and that time she wasnt fast enough so i had to do it AGAIN and then she finally got the shot. i'll post it soon. after swimming we hiked some more... came across some squatters illegally trapping birds that was...cool? walked some more and then walked some more and for a change of pace we walked some more. we all saw the country side that we probably wouldnt have seen on our own. totally worth it. and there you go... thats what i've been doing.
There was a Halloween party on thursday too. I dressed up as jessica on a night out on the town... not very creative that night. we had a lumberjack, a pirate, a dead guy, a surfer, and a skiier. lots of fun. I posted some pictures on saturday so you can all look at those now. i put up somewhere around 90. You can see my flat, the island, the pool, all kinds of stuff.
