AEGEE weekend in Gozo

I have just returned from a lovely break in Gozo kindly organised by AEGEE Malta. 

Gozo is Malta's sister island and the second largest island in the archipelago. It is home to 31,000 people and is known as Ghawdex (pronounced 'aw-desh') in Maltese.

Around 50 of us (international students) left the University Residence on Friday evening to go to Cirkewwa to catch the ferry. The crossing was quite rough and everyone was pleased to set foot on dry land. 

Once at Mgarr, Gozo a coach took us to our new home for the weekend: Tal Fanal apartments in Ghasri. 

The committee then organised a BBQ and drinks by the pool before bed. 

Breakfast was served at 9am and we left Ghasri at 10am for a day of sightseeing. Our first stop was Ta'Pinu Sanctuary. (www.tapinu.org)

We visited the Citadella in the capital Victoria which was renamed by the British government in 1887 to celebrate Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee although Gozitans still refer to the capital by its old name Rabat derived from the Arabic for suburb.

A narrow street near the Citadella.

A view from the Citadella. 

A view through a peephole in the bastions.

Gate near the Cathedral.

A Gozitan bus - Grey and red as opposed to the yellow and orange buses found in Malta.

The Azure Window - as used in the film The Count of Monte Cristo

Leaving Gozo on Sunday morning.

The Malta Experience

On Sunday afternoon I took a bus into Valletta and visited The Malta Experience.

We arrived just in time for the last show of the day which was at 2pm. 

Student tickets cost 6.50 Euro each and I must say it was worth every euro cent!

After purchasing tickets in the gift shop we were escorted to the theatre where we sat in comfy seats in front of a wide screen and selected one of 15 available languages for the commentary. 

The show began and after a few minutes (once the large group of elderly Italian tourists had worked out how to use the headphones and had settled down) everyone was captivated by the show's entertaining presentation of Malta's unique and varied history. 

7000 years of history was somehow squeezed into 45 minutes without feeling rushed. 

Walking back to the bus station up Republic Street I looked at the city with new eyes as I tried to digest the sheer volume of history and tried to imagine the stories the streets could tell...

A couple of lengths after lectures...

The cakes and pastries here are delicious and I fear I am indulging in a couple more than my jeans will allow... so, in order  to save my seams I have joined the national swimming pool (as a university student I enjoy a heavily discounted membership fee).

The national pool complex is located just off the university campus in Tal-Qroqq and enjoys a 50 metre olympic sized heated outdoor pool, a diving pool, squash courts and a fitness centre. The pool also hosts waterpolo matches during the summer months.

Linguistics Circle

A view of Valletta from the University of Malta campus:

Last week I went to a talk organised by the Linguistics Circle. The talk was given by a German translator working at the European Commission. As Maltese is now an official language of the EU he was given the opportunity to learn Maltese and now translates the few documents the commission receive in Maltese into German (he explained that most Maltese documents sent are written in English).

During his talk he outlined the difficulties he faced whilst learning the language and gave some suggestions for current students of Maltese. He highlighted a common problem students face in that whenever they try to address people in Maltese they get a response in English - I have not yet really tried to speak to strangers in my basic Maltese yet but judging from the response from the audience his point was a valid one.

Most people in the audience were from the Maltese for Foreigners course held in the evenings at the University and I was pleasantly surprised at the number of Brits in the audience. 

Fast Facts (courtesy of Lonely Planet)

3rd Edition - Published April 2007

Malta:

Population: 400,000

Area: 316sq km

Population density: 1266 people per sq km

Number of registered vehicles: 325,000

Number of mobile phone subscribers: 334,220

Inflation: 2.8%

Unemployment: 7.3%

Number of tourists per annum: 1.16million (465,000 from the UK)

Most popular name for males: Joseph (14,523 men named Joseph)

Most popular name for females: Mary (12,056 women named Mary)

Hike: Anchor Bay to Gnejna Bay

Popeye's Village (aka Sweethaven)

Ray, (one of the receptionists who works at the residence) kindly organised a hike for us all along the North-East coast. 110 of us prepared packed lunches and met in reception at 11am ready to get the buses to our starting point: Anchor Bay. 

We started with a perfect view of Popeye's Village also known as 'Sweethaven' which was built as a set for the 1980 hollywood musical Popeye starring Robin Williams which was filmed in Malta.

We then walked along the cliff tops and over the rocky terrain stopping just before Golden Bay for some lunch. Once at Golden Bay we had some time for swimming (yes the sea was still warm) and an ice cream before heading on to Ghajn Tuffieha to catch the sunset, finishing at Gnejna Bay where our minibuses were waiting.

AEGEE Halloween Party

AEGEE is one of the biggest interdisciplinary student associations in Europe; it is represented by 15,000 students, active in 232 academic cities in 43 countries across Europe! AEGEE is a secular, non-profit organisation, not linked to any political party and all projects and activities are based on voluntary work of its members.

The aims of the organisation are:

1) To promote a unified Europe without prejudices

2) To strive for creating an open and tolerant society of today and tomorrow

3) To foster democracy, human rights, tolerance, cross-border co-operation, mobility and European dimension in education. 

Here in Malta AEGEE are working really hard to make sure we international students feel welcome. So far they have organised a Maltese language lesson/orientation, a diving course, the trip to watch the football at the national stadium and plenty of parties. Their latest party was the Halloween party - we started off in Buggiba and then went on to Paceville, return transport was provided for a small fee and everyone had a great time! Viva AEGEE!