Slowly slowly I’m settling in. Sunday I cooked for myself, although I must admit that I wasn’t that happy with the result. Mind you I’m not doubting my cooking abilities :P. It’s just that the food here tastes so different. Bread is really sweet, and everything looks so artificial. At home I had the pride of eating mostly home grown vegetables. Here they come from across the whole country – can you imagine what chemicals they spray on them to keep them fresh? Besides I’m finding the food you buy in supermarkets quite expensive. I don’t think that my mother in Malta buys a can of tuna for about €2. Maybe its because I still haven’t found the right places where to shop from. Time will tell.
I’m slowly making the apartment Home. I’m quite happy with the view.
Here's a picture of the view when it snowed. You can see on the building there’s LOYOLA. It is in fact a University building. I have some lectures here. The other lectures are held in the other building across the street. So I really can’t complain. In our building we also have a laundry and a gym, and I’m trying to make use of both, especially the gym. One of my targets when I moved to the US was to lead a healthier life. Up to now, I’m doing this with the food but at least I’m doing some fitness exercises.
With regards to my room, I think it still needs some more work. One of the first things I decided to do was to get a plant. Which has become like a friend. I named her Tina, short for tursina.(parsley) I met her in one of my supermarket tours. I’m really taking care of it and do hope it survives for a while. First thing I’ve done was to trim it. I’ve put all the parsley in a box in the fridge and do hope to use it in my cooking. Meanwhile I’m keeping the plant on my desk, in the light and watering it regularly in the hope that it flourishes. I’ll keep you posted about Tina in my following blogs.
I’ve also realised that there are plenty of opportunities here where you could get a free dinner/lunch, by attending to some conference or group activity. Which is good because you don’t spend money or time preparing the food, and you nourish your body and soul. So when I see such opportunities I grab them, and no it’s not a Maltese mentality, everyone here does so, since the best way to use your time here is to study or socialize.
This week was also my first week where I had to start studying seriously, and my first assignment was due. It wasn’t much, just formulating a question, but believe me it wasn’t as easy as it sounds. I spent a whole night reading and researching but it was worthwhile because I got full marks for it.
The Dollar Shop
This week I also discovered a dollar store (sort of our Tal-lira – €2 shop). The difference here is that items have different pricing, not like our version where everything would cost the same.
The thing of the pricing reminded me of a funny episode I had with some old friends back home in our teenage. When ‘Tal-lira’ came to Zurrieq, on our way back home from some lessons, we decided to venture into the shop to see what they offer. We were quite a funny bunch and needless to say we were passing remarks about everything in the shop. Now I don’t remember all the details of the episode but someone was wondering about something concerning the shopkeeper. You know how adolescents are, and what they constantly think of….. Needless to say it was something embarrassing. To cut the story short, when the shopkeeper came around I nudged my friend –
“Why don’t you ask her?”
The shopkeeper turned on my friend,
“What do you want to know?”
My friend obviously froze, the only thing he could think of was:
“How much does this cost?”
Her reply
“??One pound Dooh!!!”
My friend blushed and we ran out laughing our heads off. Hope I didn’t loose you but I remembered this anecdote when I realized that in the American dollar shop, not everything costs one dollar. The point with the pricing is that it is cheaper. I got some plates and bowls, and some other stuff. Including a shocking pink bath matt for my bathroom. I choose the colour which I thought, would liven up most, my otherwise dull grey bathroom. And whilst at it, I got matching bath towels and hand towels. It’s a pity that they didn’t have matching pegs. (Those who were with me in Madrid, know what I’m referring to.)
caw
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