IT’S RAINING 🙁

We’re too busy anyways with all our assignments due next week.

We’re in the last few weeks of the last module here in Malta. The last months we’ve spent with Linda Mitchell and Vanessa Paki from New Zealand. Linda left over a month ago and Vanessa is flying home this week. Today we got to meet Sally Peters who will be our professor for the next few weeks. I’m telling you, I love going to school.

I was talking to Vanessa about her teaching here in Malta. I didn’t realize that in order for her to be here she committed to teaching double her workload back at home, which also included summer school. That makes having her here even more special, it not only meant a lot to the IMEC group, but also for her. AND getting here was a challenge too, because she is terrified of flying…

A group photo with Linda above, with Vanessa below.

Te aroha

Te whakapono

Mē te rangimarie

Tātou tātou ē

(Love, faith, peace be amongst us all)

…my allergies are keeping me up at night.

Every day for the last months I have woken up with itchy eyes & nose. I don’t think I can put Malta down as my first preference for next semester, I need to sleep again at night.

I can’t believe I’m allergic to Malta!

Our teacher Vanessa arranged a study session for us in a conference room in her temporary home, the Waterfront Hotel. We got lots of work done, were able to talk to our colleagues to clarify some details, and also had time to meet with Vanessa. Now we’re prepared for our assignment, it’s just a matter of putting the words on paper! This time we’re comparing selected aspects of our curriculum framework (e.g. image of the child, role of the teacher, teaching & learning, assessment) to 8-10 other countries.

The view from the top of the hotel is stunning. I can’t believe I’m in Malta… how did I get here again?

A few of us are taking a photography course at the University. Our teacher invited us to the opening night of his exhibition. We loved mingling with Maltese intellectual crowd, enjoyed the wine and finger food, and got new inspiration for our photography class as well. I personally like the title of the exhibition Traces of Traces and might use that theme to think about the photos I take.

Today reality hit hard… We received an e-mail that the IMEC consortium (representatives of our program from Oslo, Dublin, & Malta) will meet here in Malta in less than two weeks from now. This isn’t a surprise of course, but it’s still going to be on all our minds.

We will be presenting our research proposal  to the consortium along with our 1st and 2nd preference regarding the country/institution where we would like to conduct the research. I’ve been working on my research proposal and am much happier with it then I was back in Dublin. But choosing a country is quite painful. I know, I know. It shouldn’t be painful, I GET to decide where I would like to do my research. What an opportunity! But I don’t enjoy the thought of the IMEC family getting separated 🙁

Today was our first Thursday Cultural Trip, we went to the Maritime Museum. I learned about licensed pirates, or corsairs, a strange concept if you ask me. Doesn’t that defeat the idea of a pirate?

Here is what the internet tells me:

A corsair was a French privateer who attacked enemy shipping in the Mediterranean. The difference between privateers and pirates is important, because the two enjoyed a different status in the eyes of the law. Privateers were officially licensed by the crown to raid enemy shipping, returning to their home ports with the prizes and splitting them with the crown. Pirates, on the other hand, operated beyond the law, raiding all shipping indiscriminately and not being granted any legal protections.

Oli and Antje at the Azure Window, Gozo.

Thanks Metha for offering a different angle. What a cute couple… lol

A Halloween trip to the Popeye village in Malta. It was so much fun being scared all evening. We laughed and screamed like crazy. They really put a lot of effort into decorating the village and scaring us. It was amazing. Especially the haunted house.

Here is a picture of the village during the day. Not scary at all 🙂

The Popeye movie was filmed here back in 1980.

A day trip to Gozo.