Got 85% mark! =D

Voila l'article que je devais faire publié. C'etait mon examen de fin de semestre de Basic Reporting, Merci à L'IUT de Besançon pour son aide pour la publication! =D

85 % !

Do ‘Frogs’ eat pastizzi?

Yes they do. And in fact they love eating pastizzi! However, eating pastizzi is not the only thing French people do while in Malta. Some of these activities include island hoping, sunbathing under the Mediterranean sun, learning a new language and meeting people from all over the world. I am a French student and live in Malta! Come with me on a tour of my experience so far!

« Je suis une étudiante francaise vivant à Malte, embarquez avec moi pour un petite apercu de mon experience ici. »

Malta lies between Sicily and North Africa in the Mediterranean Sea. The island is 27 kilometers long and 14 kilometers wide and -believe it or not- it is smaller than the city I come from. Malta looks like a huge rock with high cliffs and small inland hills. The weather for the most part is hot but it can be windy and chilly at times. It is an ideal place for visiting because of its sunny weather, close proximity to the beaches and turquoise waters. However some days are tempered by rain storms and high humidity. Trust me, when it starts to rain you’d wish you’d fly away with a Mary Poppins’s umbrella!

« Malta c’est un caillou au milieu de la méditerannée, plus petit que la ville d’ou je viens, et où il fait beau et chaud la plus part du temps »

The republic of Malta is made up of three islands, the biggest being Malta followed by Gozo and Comino. Comino is a hot spot during the summer because of its picturesque waters and crowded beaches. The landscape on the main island is dotted with fields, historical churches, cats, rocky coastlines, sandy beaches and more cats. Yes, more cats – they seem to be everywhere! Most are strays but for the most part they are healthy because the Maltese feed them. Don’t be surprised if one of the felines takes a nap on your lap while reading a book or sitting on a sunny bench or if you find another one sleeping on the back of a toilet seat. Do what you have to do, and don’t worry. They are not watching!

On the east side of the Island are big towns where most people live and where the tourists stay like Valletta, Sliema, St Julian’s and Msida. You can feel the Arabic influence in the architecture, but also a trace of all the different colonial traces. You can get that special feeling when you walk through the tiny streets that go up and down in Valletta, or along the narrow and magical alleyways of Mdina. The history is surprisingly rich, and is a huge cultural cache to discover for people interested in it. But I guess you’re not. You’re not listening to me. I may have lost you when I said pastizzi and you kept wondering what the hell this thing could be as it sounds like an Italian sweet!

« L’influence du monde Arabe se ressent beaucoup dans l’architecture, et l’Histoire de cette petite ile est étonnamment riche »

The word does sound like an Italian sweet doesn’t it? You are not far off! Pastizzi is a Maltese specialty. It looks like a croissant, but is fattier, and is filled with ricotta cheese, or peas. You cannot even begin to imagine how good it tastes unless you try it. There are lots of specialties in Maltese food, which once again come from the influence of other Mediterranean countries and if you know where to go, you can find wonderful meals for really cheap prices. Maltese cuisine is well known for its rabbit cooked in wine and garlic, ricotta cheese, lampuki – dolphin fish, sweet kannolli which is a pastry made with ricotta, and the famous Gozitan ravioli. Eating here the same way you do in France can be really expensive and buying food in the big stores is also costly as most of the products are imported. However, buying groceries from the “vegetable man” as Erasmus students would say is very affordable. The “vegetable man” operates a small vegetable stand near our residence. Sometimes I wonder if there is a place in the world where Erasmus students eat more vegetables than here!

« Les spécialités maltaises sont des héritages des différentes époques coloniales, et si les produits importés peuvent être très cher, acheter les aliments issue de l’agriculture locale est plus qu’abordables » 

Speaking of which (the Erasmus student, not the vegetables) there is no place else in the world where they can partake of such a wonderful experience. Being on a miniscule island, listening to Maltese and foreign people make it completely different than any other place. You enjoythe people, the country, the way of life, the cats (trust me!) and the studies in a very different way.

« On découvre et on apprécie les gens, le pays, leurs mode de vie, les chats (oui oui!) et les études d’une manière totalement différentes. » 

The University of Malta is the only one on the Island. It is a huge campus and because of the construction work going on, it looks more like the Cleopatra castle in the movie Asterix and Obelix. If you don’t die because of temperature shoc from the air-conditioner in classroom, the campus is a lovely place to be with friends. There are so many things to do especially the foreign students.

The standard of living makes it possible to afford a penthouse of 130 square metres for less than your accommodation in Besancon. Yes it’s nice, but in my mind it’s not worth it when compared to living in a residence with all of the other Erasmus students. It’s like discovering a new family, and living together in a bubble bursting with peace, love and laughter! OK stop it Alice! To be honest living in a residence when you come from a country like France seems really expensive. But you get so much of it with regards to meeting people who live around you from all over the world.

I could go on and on about the residence, the weather, Paceville… oh yes and Paceville, how on earth could I forget! The “Ibiza du Pauvre” – one street with bars filled on both sides where people go when they want to drink nearly for free and dance all night long. Oh, and the buses! Yes I could definitely tell you more about the buses, or the way people drive around the island, but it would be like spoiling the most crucial part of a movie! And after four months here, it is part of Malta’s charm. So if you still want to try pastizzi, spend your night in Paceville or adopt a cat, and if you are curious enough to find out by yourself all the things I did not talk about, book your flight now! Malta – it’s where everything happens!

« si vous voulez essayer les Pastizzi, passer vos nuit à Paceville ou adopter un chat […] Achetez vos billet maintenant ! 

Malta, c’est ici que ça se passe ! »