A month in Malta

Wow, time has passed so quickly here in Malta. Just realized I have completed my first month.

I met with the Mr. Frank Edwards, Principal of MCAST, last week and we had a very productive talk on the role of IT in the Malta economy and on some ideas on how I can contribute.

Nimfa and I have been invited to a dinner party on Saturday by Mike and Maria Rosner at their home in Mdina. Mike is the head of the CS/AI department at the University of Malta. We tremendously enjoyed the party and met new Maltese friends! The food was excellent and the wine was great! We stayed late until half past midnight and since public transport cease to operate after 11pm, Mike graciously drove us home.

We went to Marsaxlokk, a fishing village, last Sunday and found a huge market of clothes, shoes, vegetables, and all sorts of fish! We did get some fresh fish and brought them home. We made sure that they would not smell too bad while we were in a bus going home--several plastic bags did the trick! We found the fish that Battalia cooked in one of his shows on the Food network and prepared it the same way he had it done(if my memory serves me right :-)). Truly, it is one of the best fish dinner I had eaten in my life!

The lectures are progressing very well and I find the students very enthusiastic and eager to learn.

The Carnival Ta Malta, where kids dress up in costumes, was celebrated last week. It was sort of a combined mini-Mardi Gras and Halloween. They had giant floats and long parades in Valletta. Unfortunately, we did not manage to take pictures of the festivities! However, we got pictures of the catacombs at Rabat and the cathedral at Mdina. I'll publish them next time.