Jack and the Beanstalk... the GIANT of all performances!

Tonight I had the pleasure of watching the Masquerade production of Jack and the Beanstalk at the Manoel Theatre in Valletta with my friend Steph and her family.

We sat in a box with a perfect view of the stage and (given the intimacy of the theatre) other members of the audience!

The quality of the show was superb: the costumes were stunning and plentiful, the songs were current and well known (so we could sing along if we wanted), the actors were professional and there was a sufficient amount of audience participation.

The cultural references were interesting to see and I learnt a couple of new Maltese words...

I can't wait for their production of Aladdin next year!

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. 

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!