Malta - a Fascinating English-Speaking Island in the Center of the Mediterranean

It was a magical time for me, when I was 16 and 1/2, to go on a 3-week summer study program on the island of Malta - a pivotal moment towards my eventual bilingualism.   

My first time abroad on my own!

To the astonishment of friends who have grown up in a world of digital cameras, I didn't take a single picture at that time, alas...

Ah, the days before handy digital cameras!  Hard to explain to anyone who hasn't lived thru them!  Teenage me didn't feel like lugging around a relatively heavy, pricey camera that needed expensive film - film to carry, safeguard and later spend more money that I didn't have, on developing...  Assuming that my dad would have loaned his camera to me in the first place!

So, how to illustrate this grand adventure?  Well, I managed to pull off the Internet a number of images that adequately match my memory of the place.  Theses are NOT generic images - they are images that best approximate Malta, as close as possible to the way I remember it.

The capital - Valletta

I arrived on a large ferry, from Italy.  The host family I was staying with, was expecting me at the airport...  A taxi ride, to a nameless street simply referred to as "New Street off Railway Junction" - and a bumpy start of my language immersion!  But all was well, and the beginning of 3 unforgettable weeks...

Valletta is a beautiful, fascinating city, full of history : in particular medieval, and history related to the order of the Knights of Malta, and the crusades.

Something charmingly out of character was music-related.  A musical piece was rather popular and was played around a lot : the Cancan - yes, the energetic French dance!  Hard not to like it, true...  But why such popularity in Malta - of all places! - that summer?  It'll remain a mystery!

The school where I studied English

I got assigned to an "intermediate" level, like my the level of the Brazilian Portuguese class I'm taking at the present!  My English was as shaky back then, as my Portuguese is at present, haha.

But the immersion made a world of difference, which I elaborate on here.

St. Julian (not me!)

In, or near, a town appropriately named like me now !!!

I tried to go swimming in a public pool, quite possibly the one shown in the image... but I didn't go far - I barely left the pool edge in the shallow end!  I had learned how to swim only months earlier, from a course at a pool in my home town... and my skills were still rudimentary at best!   It wasn't until a few years later, while attending the University of California at Berkeley, that I took 5 semesters of swimming classes - and finally nailed how to do the various strokes!

Amazing waters

On a school excursion, we probably went just where those boats are!

Incredibly beautiful 😍   They didn't let us go swim - probably a good thing for me if you read the previous section, haha.   But, years later I got my "revenge" by writing a fictional story were the characters sneak off to swim there...  Maybe a topic for a future blog entry!

Crazy old buses

The bus depot just outside Valletta.  Buses now look much more modern.  I had to dig out to find photos of the older ones!

Neolithic temples

Amazing - what a magical place!  It contributed to a lifelong fascination for ancient civilizations...

Of all the course I've taken, the one that best coverage of the transition between the Paleolithic and the Neolithic is this one.

Alas, those 3 weeks went by far too quickly.  But it was an amazing, unforgettable summer.  And of great help when, the next summer, I was off to New York City!