So Long, Farewell Malta

I have honestly been avoiding writing this blog but I figured since we
are pulling into a new port in about 9 hours, I couldn't put the blog
off any longer. I feel bad for Malta. Yes, I understand Malta is a
country so it doesn't actually have feelings, but I feel bad for Malta
because I had such an awful experience and am so glad that we are now
far away from the tiny little island. In my last post, I wrote about how
excited I was to go to Malta because I didn't know much about it and had
no expectations so I'm really disappointed that it wasn't as great as I
thought it would be. I know that it has to be a great place because one
of our ship security officer's really talked it up as being awesome and
a lot of fun, but that was not what I got out of the country.

My guess is that not many of you have heard of Malta before. It is a
tiny little island located in the Mediterranean off the coast of Sicily.
I believe its only about 50 miles from Sicily, so it is really close.
For a tiny island it has had quite a rough time and a lot of different
countries have occupied it or had influence over it. The capital city,
Valletta, where we docked was built by the Knights of St. John who were
basically given the island as their home when no other European nation
would host the Knights. It has a heavy Catholic population with 365
cathedrals spread throughout the island. There is a mixture of Arabic,
French, Italian, and English influence in Malta and recently they have
been hit with the issue of people from North Africa who are trying to
illegally immigrate to Europe ending up falling short of countries like
Italy or France and ending up in Malta. This has led to a lot of tension
between the Maltese and immigrant population as well as high amounts of
racism on the island. Malta became an independent country in the 1970s
when it broke off from Great Britain, though it does still belong to the
larger Commonwealth of Nations (so a similar type relationship to what
Australia, Jamaica, and Canada have). Basically, Malta is a little bit
of a lot of countries which I think has led to some of the issues they
are currently struggling with.

Malta was probably the hottest place that we have visited so far. It was
absolutely miserable and in the height of the daily heat you really
couldn't stay outside for more than 30 minutes. This general
uncomfortableness attributed to my bad time in the country. So now I
guess I should let you know a little more about my actual experiences in
Malta. The first day I slept in which was really nice. Well, technically
I got up at 6:30am to watch us come into port because I had been told
that it was beautiful. It really was and I am very glad I got up to
watch us come in. After watching us pull in and having breakfast, I did
go back to bed for about four hours. In the afternoon I led a field
program to the Three Cities which are part of the ancient area near
Valletta and where the Grand Inquisitors Palace is. We walked a lot,
everything was closed that we passed, there were literally no people out
and about, and we didn't see as much as we thought we were going to. The
Grand Inquisitors Palace was interesting, but a little hokey to be
honest with you. It was also way too hot to be walking so much and I had
several older lifelong learners on the tour who really needed to go back
to the ship after a few hours. I stayed in the rest of the night after
grabbing dinner at the Hard Rock because I was on back up duty from 8pm
to 8am.

I've been cursed with duty since I got on the ship. I pretty much never
sleep on duty and get to deal with a ton of incidents. In residence
life, duty is part of your job anywhere and you learn to deal with it.
It is probably the hardest part of my job on the ship, but for me it is
still part of my job so I do it thoroughly and to the best of my
ability. I thought that maybe because I was backup things would be
easier this port. Well unfortunately, the students also didn't love
Malta and felt a little bored, so they decided to go to a beer festival
on the island and to the area with lots of nightclubs that have very
cheap drinks. I didn't sleep that night at all which was really
frustrating and pretty much ruined my original plans for the next day
and made me just overall super grumpypants the rest of the time in
Malta. We also had several students injured cliff jumping (even though
we warned them multiple times not to go) so a lot of our other staff
spent their entire time in Malta helping those students. I have four
more port duty nights left and I'm going to try my best to go into them
with a better attitude and then hopefully if I have rough nights they
won't affect me as much. I'm also on duty the very last night in port of
the voyage (in Lisbon) so that may be a rough night. We do have two
extra days in Lisbon that are class/study days where the students can't
get off the ship so I'm already planning to book a hotel or bed and
breakfast the night after my last duty for my own mental health and
well-being. If you would like to contribute to the Lynsey is going to
need to get the heck away from the ship for a night after being on duty
in Lisbon fund, please let me know :)

After getting a few hours of sleep on day two, I headed out to Valletta
which again is the capital of Malta but is situated on the top of a very
large hill. Luckily, they have built an elevator that only costs a euro
that takes you up 27 stories to the top of Valletta so that you don't
have to climb the stairs/hill if you are lazy like I was. Valletta is
actually really nice with some historic sites, beautiful cathedrals, and
lots of shopping aka my weakness. I just wandered around town and then
happened across a movie theatre that was playing Monsters University
which was the movie I was most upset about missing this summer, so I
decided to go see it and luckily walked in right after a showing had
started. It was also a nice way to escape the heat and the movie was
awesome. I walked around town a little more after the movie, picked up
some things in the shops and then decided to go to the nice waterfront
area by the ship for dinner. It was really nice to just sit by myself,
have a delicious pizza, and a pint of cider. I was also able to meet up
with some friends that night and go out for some drinks for a few hours
which was another nice way to unwind.

My last day was actually my favorite day in Malta. One of my co-workers
was supposed to lead a field program but because of having to help an
injured student he could no longer lead it. I volunteered to give up my
spot on the trip I was scheduled to be on and lead his instead and I'm
really glad I did. The trip was called "The Local Experience" so it was
supposed to give participants a glimpse into life in Malta. We had a
really small group, only 6 people in total. We started the day going out
to a market in Malta where locals were shopping for produce, meat,
household items, and other interesting items ranging from clothes to
touristy things. It was really neat to watch the Maltese interacting
with each other as they were going about their shopping. After that stop
we headed to what is called a "band club" which is essentially just a
bar that is open all day but it has bingo, pool, and mostly just old men
that are patrons. We were able to sample two local pastries and the
local soft drink while we were in the band club. The pastries were
delicious but the local soft drink was yucky. There was a cathedral
across the street so we ran over there and got to look inside which was
really nice. Every church and town in Malta has its own Saint and on the
Saint Feast Day they have huge parades and celebrations. During the
parade large, heavy statues are carried that either show some sort of
image of Christ or the Saint and this church had one of the statues on
display so that was nice to see after having talked about the festivals
and parades on an earlier field program. Our next stop was to the
Limestone Heritage Center which talked us through the history of
limestone in Malta and the progression that the industry experience.
There was actually a really neat display with and audio guide that was
very informative. Then there was a little petting zoo in the back with a
few animals including the cutest little baby donkeys. Our last stop was
to the cliffs on the west side of the island, so yet again I stood on
the edge of a country! It was a beautiful view and I'll post pictures
once the internet gets a little better. We then drove through parts of
the island that I hadn't seen yet including the ancient Medina and
Rabat. I really appreciated having the opportunity to see more of Malta
even if it was through the window of our minibus. I spent the rest of
the afternoon napping on the ship since I was still pretty tired.

If it hadn't been for all the incidents, my lack of sleep, and the crazy
heat I really think I could have liked Malta. I think I'm going to put
it on my list of places to come back on my own without students if I
ever win the lottery and have the money to travel. Malta is my least
favorite port up until this point, but maybe that means things can only
bounce back up and get better from here! I've spent the past couple days
having really important and productive general life/professional life
conversations with some folks on the ship so I think I'm at a really
good point to move forward for our last three weeks and have a great
ending to this voyage. Positivity and living in the moment are going to
be my mantras for the next 19 days. We get to France tomorrow and I have
plans all three days that I am excited about (though I'm not excited
about how much trains cost in France) and then we are off to Spain.
Voyagers have the choice to sail with the ship to Spain or travel on
their own similar to what we did in Italy, but I've decided to stay on
the ship for the journey. I'm super super excited about Spain so I'm
anticipating getting their like a little kid on Christmas Eve :) Even
with bumps in the road, and not really enjoying Malta, life is good and
I am so lucky to be on this ship right now.

Oh, on another note, we had the ship auction last night which raises
money for the Semester at Sea Annual Fund (the fund provides money for
scholarships etc) and I wasn't planning on buying anything, but somehow
I ended up coming away with a hairdo done by one of the shipkids. It is
my favorite shipkid who is either 6 or 7 and she is going to be styling
my hair for me and is so serious about it. She came up to me first thing
this morning and made me schedule my hair appointment with her and gave
me strict instructions about what I need to do with my hair that day so
that she can style it best. My hair will probably be super funny
looking, but I'm excited. She is going to style it on Taco Night on the
ship so I will reveal my awesome hairdo to everyone at Taco Night and of
course take a picture, with my stylist, to share with all of you on
facebook!