An afternoon at the beach :)

L-ewwel darba fis sena!
(The first of the year!)

This afternoon I joined my flatmates for an afternoon at Għajn Tuffieħa beach (near Golden Bay) in the North West of Malta. We also tested the underwater setting on my camera...

International Fireworks Festival

The weekend started with public holiday in aid of May Day/Worker's Day celebrations.
Valletta had various outdoor concerts going on and the Grand Harbour hosted the first day of the International Fireworks Festival.
There were stalls selling food and drinks and we had a perfect view from the roof of the Deaf Club. There were even 'subtitles' - text was projected onto the bastions across the Grand Harbour.
On our way home we met some other students from the residence and went to Zmerc pub in Balzan before heading home.

EFSLI Spring School and Ta'Marija, Mosta

With colleagues from Finland and Greece at Ta'Marija

Ta'Marija's resident musicians

Last weekend I attended my first EFSLI (European Forum of Sign Language Interpreters) event - a Spring School held here in Malta where Kyra Pollitt, an extremely experienced and well-respected interpreter from the UK delivered a wealth of training relating to voiceover skills.

It was a fantastic opportunity to meet other sign language interpreters from all over Europe and to learn about how the profession is developing in different countries.

On the Saturday evening we went to Ta'Marija restaurant in Mosta (www.tamarija.com) for a sumptuous buffet of traditional Maltese fayre followed by dancing!

I'm already saving up for the next one and looking for an excuse to go back to Ta'Marija!

http://www.efsli.org/efsli/efslischools/

Home for Easter

I went home for a few days over the Easter holidays to see my cousin who had her first child - a bouncing baby boy called Alex.

On my way back to Malta I split up my flight and was able to join my friends Steffi and James from university at Steffi's home in Heidelberg, Germany before we all came back to Malta.

Spring Awakening!

I was fortunate enough to get tickets to see the much awaited production of the new musical, Spring Awakening. The quality of the whole show was incredible and the professional young cast seemed to have a limitless supply of energy! Despite being set last century in small-town Germany the freshness of the music coupled with catchy lyrics and the rebellious personalities of the teenage characters resonates with audiences both young and old across the world.

The show is currently running in Malta and London simultaneously and the casts of each production met in London a couple of months ago.

Another outstanding production from MADC.

It was so good - I actually tried to get tickets for the following weekend although it was sold out.

http://www.springawakeningmalta.com/

RMLV Treasure Hunt

Last weekend Rotaract Malta La Valette and the Deaf Association organised a Treasure Hunt in Valletta. The proceeds of which will be split between the National projects: purchasing air conditioners for the association's premises and the District's Emergency Appeal to help victims of the recent earthquake in Italy. Our team didn't win any prizes (there wasn't a wooden spoon!) but the hunt was well attended and I learnt a great deal about the capital, thanks to one of my Maltese friends Roberta who remembered many of the answers from her history classes at school. :)

Another Mediterranean Island...

Thanks to a long weekend, a deal from the travel agent and a friend's birthday I was able to visit another Mediterranean island for a couple of days: CYPRUS!