The Adventure truly begins!

Officially 2 and 1/2 weeks into the experience I am still in love with Malta. It is an insanely beautiful chaotic little country bursting with surprises at every corner. The Maltese are a people who seem to be in love with the old and the new at the same time combining it into one big party.

As my mother reminded me, I am in Malta to go to school, and I'm glad to say that I finally have a permanent class schedule at the university. This proved to be a two week ordeal of bureaucracy at its best; endless stacks of paper work, miles of walking to find the signatures of someones secretary, and hours of waiting in line outside the international office. However, though exhausted I have succeeded in choosing the most eccentric and interesting classes in my college career.

They Include:

Women in the Bible

An Introduction to Islam

The Personification of Evil (taught by a real catholic Exorcist)

Slave Narratives

Medieval Malta

Shakespeare: Comedies

Romantic Poets

Sociology of Gender

Anthropology of Gender

You may notice that several of my classes have a fairly religious theme. This is largely because you can't walk ten feet in Malta without tripping over a church. On Gozo (the smaller sister island) the people take pride in the fact that from each and every church on the island you can see at least one other church. There are three very nice churches within five blocks of my residence. Since arriving in Malta I have actually only been inside one church, which has a maltese name I can not pronounce, but it is the big dome in Valletta. It was simply awe inspiring. I have never seen a place so lavishly decorated. The great domed room had the power to create absolute silence.

I have been enjoying the chance to immerse myself in Maltese culture. So far their have been two festivals which I have attended. The first was the feast of Saint Paul's Shipwreck. This was held in Valletta (the capital) and involved colorful banners hung in the streets and people throwing confetti and candy from their balconies to the children (The first few photos are from this) The second festival was Carnival on Gozo. Unfortunately there are no photos of this because it was explained to me that my camera would either be stolen or crushed in the chaos. They were right, Carnival is halloween for grownups. People crush into the streets where live music is being played and dance around large floats. The problem with the floats is that if you get to close to them someone will grab you, pull you onto the float and hand cuff you to another person until you dance for a while. Very fun!

Last weekend I visited Marsaxlokk (pronounce Marsha-slock) which is a fishing village. The village is particularly well known for its colorful boats called Luzzu which are the traditional fishing boats of the area. You will notice int he picture that the boats have eyes painted on them. These are supposed to be the "eyes of osirus" and are painted on the boats for luck.

Malta is an amazing place, I'm having an excellent time and will post more soon!