I visited Valletta, the capital of Malta. At night I went to Paceville and St Julian.s, a nightlife place with discos, bars, restaurants; it was really fun and interesting and very different from the night life in France.  I also decided to go and dance in a disco with latino dances.

17/Oct/09

Today was the last school day for one of the other three students in the class so we took some photos to remember them. In the second part of the course we watched a film named “White chicks”. English courses are very varied and interesting; we learn new vocabulary, expressions and grammar points and sound tracks or films allow us to discuss different topics.

In the afternoon, Tanya, the Accommodation and Welfare Officer of the school, explained to me a job to do with the accommodation section and I made a couple of templates for office purposes.

In the evening I visited Mdina and Rabat; Mdina is a pleasant city because it’s very quiet and the architecture is very nice.

16/Oct/09

In the morning, during the English courses we learnt a Maltese habit. At one moment, we heard someone arrive by car, and shout “Lampuki, Lampuki” …..  Lampuki is a fish and Sarah our teacher explained it’s a way to sell fish in the street.  In the afternoon, I went on with my work in the office. It’s funny because French is my native language but now I’ve begun thinking in English and I have to double check at time to be sure that what I am writing is in French!

15/Oct/09

It was a day with “experiences”.  In the afternoon,  I answered the phone twice - I know it’s not exceptional, but I’m pleased to have succeeded to be understood and take messages. Then, I  went in an estate agent’s office with someone that I met in Malta and who wants to change his accommodation.  It’s interesting to see how they set about it with different requests and to make a comparison with France. In the evening I went to Mellieha. It’s a special tourist town thanks to its closeness to the biggest sandy beach in Malta.  I also tasted Kinnie for the first time, a local quinquina and bitter oranges based drink.

14/Oct/09

When I got off the plane I was happy because the weather was sunny and warm. Someone was waiting for me to drive me to the flat and in the car he spoke to me about Malta and answered my questions. Arriving in the flat I met the three Spanish people who lived there at this time; I was given a warm welcome and had a chat even if it was a little difficult to understand each other very well because of our different accents.

During the weekend, I tried to take in some landmarks; then I went for a walk in St Paul’s Bay, Buggiba and Qawra, neighbours of St Paul’s Bay and Malta’s second largest  seaside resorts.

- 10/Oct/2009

My name is Carina, I’m 29 and I’m a French intern at Alpha School of English. I will stay here for 6 weeks. I am a Personal Assistant and I think this journey in Malta will let me improve my English, discover a new country, meet and discuss with different people about our way of life.

How can one spend a weekend without going to Paceville? That’s why we went there with our colleagues. The evening began badly with an annoying hour and a half waiting for the bus which we never caught so we finally decided to pay for a van service. There were 10 of us so it was not that expensive after some negotiation…  The night went on well, we had lots of fun but returning back was awful as we missed the last bus…We finally arrived at the hotel at 7a.m, and I won’t give any details about that adventure… Anyway, on Saturday we just had the strength to go to the beach and lie down. In the evening I went for a nice walk at St Paul’s Bay. On Sunday we visited Valletta, walked around, swam, took great pictures and went to the cinema to watch Ice Age 3. That’s an easy film to understand In English and a hilarious one, so it was a good choice. Good weekend after all.

I went to Paceville with some friends from Alpha School one evening to discover the place everybody was talking about… I was very surprised by it because there was many young people partying and behaving like adults. However, it is a very good place to go with friends and it is safe. We can go to clubs for free and meet people from all around the world. On Sunday we met friends from our school in France and went to the beach in St Julians to get a tan. On Monday it was a public holiday so we chilled out the whole day and contacted our families and friends…

Today was my first day working at Alpha school of English.

We arrived yesterday evening at 7.35pm at Malta International Airport. The journey was good and time went by pretty fast. We were very excited to leave France so as to discover a new country, its inhabitants, its culture and its treasures. It is our first experience abroad and one of our first working experiences within a company, so it’s really interesting. I was really pleased to see such a beautiful landscape, breathtaking coast and I enjoyed the warm air and the shining sun.

We arrived at the Solair Holiday Complex, where we were going to stay for 6 weeks. My mate Simon, with whom I will share the studio, will be staying for 8 weeks. We are attending the same school, so we found the same work placement. It is really reassuring not to be alone when traveling. Being two foreigners in a country that you don’t know is also more enjoyable. We like the hotel because the room is quite big and we feel independent. So today we took part in our first English lessons. I’m in the Advanced level class and I’m glad about it. The level is high, the teacher is good.  I think I won’t get bored but, on the contrary, with 3 hours a day I’m positive I will improve. We practiced speaking English a lot, which is very useful to feel at ease when talking to other people. I met Pauline and Marianne, the French interns that we are replacing. They gave us good advice, told us about interesting sites to visit… I also met a Belgian girl, Russians and the German intern… After the break we went to the office and we were introduced to the staff. Then, the interns explained to us many things about how to use the photocopier and the computer system, names of the files, pieces of information about the school, the work they’ve done etc… Then we talked with Maureen who explained to us what she wanted us to do during the summer. She gave us many tasks concerned with marketing in 2010. I was really happy to notice that she wanted us to do things that we enjoyed, are good at and which are related to our studies… Moreover we were told that each day we had to compile a report. That’s very useful for us as it will be easier to make our work placement report and to remember what tasks we’ve done.

- 25th June 2009

This week has passed very quickly!

We met Tobias, a German student and walked by the sea with him on Wednesday because he wanted to visit the city.

Tonight we will go to Paceville because there are some students in our French class who are in Malta for an internship too and today, it’s the birthday of one of our friends! Tomorrow, we will go to Comino and the Blue Lagoon.  I don’t know if I will swim in the sea because I hate salt but look forward to going anyway. Probably, we will go to film Tobias who will be kite surfing on Sunday. So our weekend will be great! We want to visit Vittoriosa, Gozo and Mdina, we have one month to do so!

This morning, we watched “Slumdog Millionaire” during the English lesson, it was very nice! And all that I am asked during my internship is very pleasant work!

- 29th May 2009