Wardija Village St. Paul's Bay

... about the knights of Malta. We learned a lot. The knights are of the Order of St. John. They still exist. The Grand Inquisitor lived here. Most buildings here are because of their efforts. This place has been under siege so many times the people are almost apathetic. They are beautiful people, swarthy but refined. They speak Maltese, and Italian, and French and English. A bit of everything. They ...

I've just popped over to Malta for a day & a bit (as you do!) to say a quick hello / goodbye to my parents (and bring them lots of goodies over for the last time in a while).

The weather is a little warmer than the UK, but not as warm as it's going to be in a week's time (ha ha ha).

Anyway, I'll keep this blog short so ciao for now!

Anita x

... the madness of the old Souk. The Souk is a rabbit warren of narrow streets lined with shops off all kinds, with every owner vying for custom. We walked past yet another vendor yelling “hello American, Dutch” and when didn’t reply pointed to Ryan and said “Mr Bean, Hey you Mr Bean, come and buy” we laughed and laughed and on our way back through pointed and referred to him as Mr Bean again. Chris tried to ...

... to begin disembarkation. Our tour is almost the last one to be called and we walk out the door to the fourth floor deck, put on the stickers with our bus and tour number, swipe our cruise ID cards and board the bus. From the ship it’s hard to tell how to enter the walled city but once we are sitting inside the bus we can see a ramp that enters the city. A lot of people are walking on the paved sidewalk beside the road and I ...

... silent city - as along the main drag there were plenty of people wandering around and it was anything but silent. Once we turned off the main street and into the maze of narrow alleyways, its name became clear. We barely saw another person walking these intricate lanes, so we had the silence and the detailed architecture all to ourselves. I don't know why everyone was staying on just the main street, but I'm glad they were. Its not a big place, so we ...

... all what I'd imagined. We're taking a tour of the actual island of Malta tomorrow so by the end of our two days we will have toured an entire country. I can't believe it. :) I will write more entries later about the specifics of what I did and I will of course post TONS of pictures. It'll probably take you at least a half hour just to look through the pics, so prepare for that. :) Miss you all!!

... of wine, good conversations, some new residence being thrown into the pool and some good music. Everyone around is amazingly open, free and excited about the semester ahead. I met a greaaaat Swedish guy that went to the Gambia last year and gave me some good bits for march. It makes me smile when I think about ive only been here one week(not even). Since most of us don't have formal classes yet, we're all a little more open to partying later, im sure in a week or so when classes settle ...

... and relied on Lillian to translate for me here and there. I am more determined than ever to learn the language properly now so that I will return fluent the next time I set foot on these shores! Throughout the day, and indeed the month I have spent here I would get many people saying I looked like my father whilst others would say I looked like my mother. Then they would say he sings like his father (well I don't sing like him but I do sing, just not as good as him!). The truth is that ...

... Whilst it didn't look far on the map, it actually took about 30 minutes for the bus to wind its way around the four or five bays and creeks to Valletta's bus terminus. I knew exactly when I'd arrived as well. Ever since I could remember, an old 1970's photo of the circular bus terminus and Triton fountain had hung in my parent's house. Scores of old yellow buses beeped their horns amid the chaos just as I imagined. However, I figured I'd be seeing plenty of this part of Valletta ...

... prisons, saw the light and is now preaching (quietly) around the world - making it to more than 35 countries so far. Now I doubt that the bible says things like 'It is not possible to find God personally by following Hinduism, Freemasonry, Islam, Buddhism, Worshipping Mary, Occult, New Age Movements, Mormonism or Hare Krishna', as I ...