27-09-2007 – Frustrations
I slept wonderfully this night, but unfortunately I couldn’t sleep until 11.00. I ate cereal and walked to work with Marien. I had to finish the rest of the list of cassettes and after that I needed to copy files; that’s what I did for the rest of the day. I wanted to go home again at 16.00 or something in that direction, but they made me stay till 17.30, a big disappointment. At the end I got frustrated because I think they’re letting me work way too long for a volunteer. Everyone at the office gets paid except for me and Marien, but we’re the always amongst the people that need to work overtime. When I walked home I walked into Marien so we did some grocery shopping together. We also ate together; we had potato slices with vegetables and chicken with mayonnaise!!! Yay! Marien and I watched another part of 10th kingdom so we can finish the series in the weekend. Malta, the places where you appreciate cheese and mayonnaise even more!

28-09-2007 – Mistakes
I talked to the big boss to see what I can do for EC. I thought, well… finally, perhaps I’ll get a chance to teach! Unfortunately I made a (1!!!) mistake when I spoke so Nadya immediately said: Well, this is the reason why we can’t let you teach. Students notice these mistakes immediately and then we’ll have a problem.” 1 mistake ruined my teaching plans for the forthcoming weeks. We’ll see how the rest of the time in Malta will go; I will suggest teaching again in a couple of weeks. I don’t really mind the office work anyway. Most of the work is quite simple but everything needs to happen at supersonic speed, so you’ll never be bored because you’re doing 20 different things in one day. Everything went quite ok. Nothing really special happened, but I have good and bad news. The good news: I haven’t been stung in over a week, so I’m finally getting the nightly rest that I need (mohaha mosquitoes go suck an elf!). The bad news: I have a lot of headaches lately; at home I never have headaches!!! It must be the weather in combination with not drinking enough. I’m trying to do something about it, but it seems quite difficult. Malta, the place where one mistake can kill you.

Malta weblog week 3

01-10-2007 – Exhausted
Anna picked us up at 6.30 this morning to go to work. It’s only a 10-minute-drive; it’ll take you 30 minutes to walk to EC. I had to invigilate with Alex from 7 to 8.30, but we had 2 latecomers. They entered the room at the end of the test. I had to invigilate them as well. I was finished at 10.30 so I could continue my normal routine. Surprise! At 13.00 60 Spanish junior students needed to be invigilated and who needed to do that? Exactly, ME! When I was finished I still had to do a lot in the office, Mondays are always the worst day of the week. Best thing was that I had finished everything by 16.30, but because the computer didn’t work we couldn’t print the last things we needed to finish today. I had an hour to completely bore my ass off. Fortunately Paula told me that I could go home and do the work the next day. If she told he that an hour earlier!

02-10-2007 – High heel adventures
Today I thought, well, lets dress nice today. I wore nice white trousers with a white top and shoes with heels. I learned to never wear shoes with high heals to school again. Just my lucky day, because the school is too full we “rent” some rooms in the Westin Hotel; a fancy place. It’s a 10-minute walk from the EC and I had to walk that twice today. I also had to run up and down the stairs uncountable times. I was thinking of walking home bare-foot, but the glass on the streets prevented me. When I got home I was too exhausted to get some groceries so I made some spaghetti with cheese. We all went to bed early (22.00), everyone was probably still tired from yesterday. Malta, the place where you definitely do NOT want to wear high heels to work.

03-10-2007 – Yay, tickets!!!
Time flies, I’m here for almost 3 weeks now if I survive the next two days! My mom also called, so it was nice to have a conversation with someone in The Netherlands again. I had to be at the office at 7.45, 45 minutes earlier than normal, for three students that still needed to make their test. They didn’t show up (great!). It was just another office day. I like the feeling that I’m getting the hang of things in the office. When I was finished working I did some grocery shopping and bought some really disgusting pistachio nuts… I need to bring them back to the shop tomorrow. I finally booked a ticket for the 27th of November so I can go home. Mario also booked a ticket for the 27th of October so he can come to visit me in Malta. We went to bed early. Marien and I both had a headache and I had some stomach problems (probably the pecan nuts!!!). I listened to some music and fell asleep. Malta, the place where you need to double-check your food before eating / buying it!!!

04-10-2007 – Heavy loads
The only “quiet” day of this week. I didn’t like that they let me walk to the Westin hotel (10-minute-walk) with 20 books. I couldn’t find the room the pupils were in for whom I’d brought books. Great! I had to work until half 6 before I was send home. I forgot my pistachios so I’ll have to bring ‘em back tomorrow.

05-10-2007 – Pink Maggots
Wow, I’m really looking forward to the weekend… I’m exhausted and I knew this was going to be a very long day. I had to stay until 18.45, a very long day indeed. Gillian is going on vacation next week, so I had to learn a lot since I’m going to be one of 3 who are going to take over her job. Today was pink day, all the teachers had to wear something pink (it was great!). I also had to return the pistachio nuts, and you won’t believe it! I put them in a seal bag and today 6 maggots hatched from the pistachio nuts bag!!! Absolutely disgusting! Fortunately I got the money back. Marien got us some food for amigos; I had a lovely salad. The rest of the evening Marien and I watched coupling and had a few glasses of whine. Malta, the place where you buy pistachios and get free maggots!!!

06-10-2007 – Noche Bianca
A typical weekend day, I haven’t done a lot. I bought a Maltese SIM-card and a new bikini’ it’s a really nice one! I heard that Gigi D’agostino probably is coming to Malta when I’m still here. I’d like to see him if I had the chance, but I couldn’t find anything about the show online. This evening we went to Noche Bianca (White night). It was extremely busy but we had a great time. There was so much to see: a medieval market, traditional food, photographs, lots of bands and the shops were all open. We continued the party at home, bought a bottle of wine, fried some burgers and watched coupling. Brilliant! Malta, the place where music really resembles Dutch music! Oh wait, it was a Dutch band!

Malta weblog week 4

10-10-2007 Holy crap!
A nice day at the office, except for the fact that I lost very important documents. Everyone searched high and low and I was afraid that they’d be angry at me, but they weren’t. Gillian was the one who took all the bullets. I have to redo the booklist (which I’ve lost) what will take me about 2 days! I know what I’ll have to do at work the forthcoming days… By the way, at work the superiors have a lot of faith in me. Getting compliments is my way to get satisfaction out of work! I ate the rest of my courgette with penne, delicious! The rest of the night I chatted with Mario and other people on msn.

11-10-2007 – OMG! The mosquitoes strike back!
OMG! This morning I had 5 mosquitoes sitting on my mosquito net, how funny! I killed 5 of them, but there are still at least 2 flying around in my room. We’ll see how the night goes… I want to bet I’ll have at least one in my net tonight! I had to do the booklist all over again at work. They have a big file with all the books and I needed to check if all the books are still in the cupboards (1500+!). I got lunch on cost of the boss, I had two lovely pastiches; one filled with peas and the other with cheese.  Because Marien is leaving in 2 days we went to this place near the beach to have dinner and some wine with colleagues. We had a great time but we couldn’t make it too late, the next day I need to be at the office early again. One more day and its weekend!

12-10-2007 – Marien’s last day
I killed 2 mosquitoes again. I don’t know how they get in my net, but it’s a lot easier to kill them like that. I had another relaxed day at work! Marien had the day off because he needed to pack his stuff. We did everything in a high pace, so I could go at 17.30, the earliest Friday so far! When I left the building there was a goodbye party because on of the teachers, Lee, was going to Thailand. There was cake, crisps, wine and a lot of fun! When I got home Marien and I bought some food at Amigos and some wine. We watched the last 2 episodes of coupling together and went to bed quite early because Marien needed to get up at 3.30. Tomorrow the new interns will come and live in this house. I’m very curious what they’re like!

Group photo!!!

Me and Tristan

13-10-2007 – Quit your dayjob – We have a problem with Sweden!!!
I woke up at four-ish because of two mosquitoes in my net (I still wonder how they get inside) and said goodbye to Marien who was leaving. At 9 I woke up again and couldn’t sleep anymore. I decided to clean the house (you can’t expect others to clean after theirselves if you don’t do it as well) and before I knew they were here; two girls, Lisa and Josefine, from Gothenburg, Sweden. They’re very nice and we spent the day buying food and other things they / I needed. I cooked penne regatta alla Rence for them and they liked it. I’m looking forward to tomorrow. They expect that it’s going to be nice weather so we’re going to the beach!