Work orientation

Jeff Anderson of the US Embassy formally introduced me to Dr. Gordon Pace of the University of Malta's Computer Science and AI Department. We talked a bit about their department and their needs and also how I can help in improving their curriculum.

Next, we drove to Paola for about 20 minutes to meet with Mr. Juan Manduca, Director of the ICT program at the Malta College of Arts, Sciences, and Technologies (MCAST).

Overall, we had a productive meeting and will meet again next week to finalize my schedule. Jan 22- Feb 3 is the exam weeks in Malta. Essentially, I won't be working until the 5th of February.

Moving around Malta

Malta's public transport system is great. Each ride is 0.20 cents ($0.60) for each area. The buses runs about 10-30 minutes and goes all around Malta. The first few days, I had some chest congestion because I am not use to the smoke that the buses emit and to aggravate matters, a lot of Maltese smoke in public places (I guess every European do).

We were in Valletta (the capital) almost every day last week to do some sight-seeing. They had a very big celebration last Friday--a new archbishop of Malta was installed! We went to Sliema a day after to look at the harbor and to buy some household goods. The problem with Malta is that they don't have big supermarkets like Winn-Dixie, Safeway, or Walmart. Most of the grocery stores are typically a mom-and-pop variety store.

Apartment Hunting

I arranged for a realtor/leasing company to help us find apartments prior to leaving the USA.

Our estate agent came at 10am and showed us 5 furnished apartments that are very close to the University. All of them looks great but we settled on one that is just across the University gate. The rent is LM140/month . ( 1LM = $3.00). We pay for the water and electricity. Something that I have not anticipated is the commission we have to pay the estate agent. The cost is outrageous! Both the landlord and the tenant have to pay 10% of the total rental for 5 months + tax. The landlord and I ended up paying LM 82 ($246) each for an hours work of the realtor.

The apartments are furnished with TV, sofa, bed, refrigerator, washer, oven, kitchen utensils, linens, tables, airconditioner, and cleaning equiment. Nimfa kept asking for a dryer and they kept on showing her a wooden frame (they call it a dryer stand), where clothes are hang to dry. During our move, they gave a key to the dryer--a key to get to the rooftop and in there are clothes line where one can hang clothes to dry under the sun!

I'll show you some pictures next blog!

On our way to Malta

We arrived at the Atlanta airport a good 3-1/2 hours before our plane is scheduled to depart. We check-in three luggages and found out that one of them is 25 lbs overweight. Either we pay $100 for that weight of get another bag where we can transfer some . (We are allowed 2 luggages per person and each should not exceed 50lbs). We decided on buying a nice $100 luggage at the airport and moved some of our stuff in there. And away we flew...

The 8 hour flight from Atlanta to London Gatwick airport was not a pleasant one. I flew so many routes around the globe and I found this to be the worst--too many air pockets and turbulences. I hardly slept on the plane. The food is not great either.

We had a 6-hour layover at the airport. we thought on going out to do a quick tour of London, but the security people advised us to just stay put. The security is must stricter in London. We are not allowed to carry more than one hand-carry so we had to check-in our other hand-carry luggages. Even Nimfa's small shoulder bag is considered a piece.

The flight to Malta took us a little over 3 hours. The British Airway's service is better than Delta. Also. the Airbus is much better than Boeing. We arrived in Malta at 7:20pm and was greeted by Jeff Anderson, the Cultural and Educational Affairs Attache fo the US Embassy. They drove us to the University Residence in Lija where a nice one bedroom apartment is prepared for us. We settled for the night and had a great sleep!

Confirmed Travel Itinerary

Confirmed travel itinerary today. Expedia did an excellent job on our booking. Electronic tickets were issued and we are all set! Except for the packing of course! She'll do that the night before we leave.

APT Completed

Shipped some books to Mr. Anderson of the US Embassy in Malta through diplomatic pouch after the Thanksgiving weekened. Hopefully, they get there before my arrival on the 23rd of January.

I have proposed three complete Applied Practical Training (APT) projects to University of Malta:

• Visualization of Security Logs
• Two Factor Authentication System
• Automated System Intrusion Discovery

After a series of email exchanges with Mr. Rosner of UoM, I took out the Two-Factor Authentication System so I can concentrate on the other two APTs.

Completed my lecture notes on JFree Chart, a free charting API for Java, just after Christmas.

Plan to complete all my lecture notes by the first week of January.