Finally we
had time to add some new text to our blog. We have been so busy with
everything that we haven’t had time to do our blog. This post is about our first
two weeks in Malta (March 29 to April 12). This was written on the second week but we posted this now.
On 29th of
March we arrived at the Helsinki-Vantaa Airport at half past 4 am in the
morning. Our flight to Munich was due to leave half past 6 am. We changed the
plane in Munich and arrived at the Malta International Airport around 11 am.
When we had collected all our luggage, we met a guy who picked us up and took
us to the place which we would call our new home for the next eight weeks.
When we
arrived at the apartment, we were little bit surprised. We were greeted by a
group of guys. We learned that we would share the apartment with one Italian
guy, three Spanish guys and one Venezuelan girl. The house was full of Spanish
speaking people. What a coincidence! Thankfully we didn’t have to share a room
with the boys and me and Henni shared a room with the Venezuelan girl. The
other surprise was the condition of the house. The boys had had a party the day
before and they had not cleaned up at all. There was also items broken, mould
on the walls, sheets dirty etc. A lot to take on at the first time but we agreed
that we would wait and see how things are in the next couple of days. The
apartment is located in Attard, in the middle of the Island. The street name is
Triq Is-Salvatur.
On the
first day we wanted to go out and explore some of Malta. The guys in our flat
told us that we could walk to Valletta. So that was what we started to do. At
the end we had walk over six kilometres and we were lost, because there was no proper
streets for pedestrians to walk. Finally with some help of the locals we found
a bus and ended up in Valletta. After spending some time there we went back to
our apartment to get ready for our first day at work. We were exhausted for
travelling all day and went to bed early.
The next
day it was Monday and we went to work. Our workplace is located in Valletta and
it is called Ellul Wines and Spirits. It is a winery, which sells mostly luxury
wines and other bottle spirits. The place also includes a cafeteria, so they
also sell coffee, sandwiches, chocolate etc. With me and Henni there is also
Peter from our class working with us and doing his internship also. The place
is owned by two brothers and the store has been runned by the same Ellul family
over 150 years. The brothers also opened up a hotel around the corner eight
months ago, but we´ll probably not be working there at all.
For the
last weeks we have mainly fed data on new systems that the workplace wanted to
be installed. We have entered barcodes and descriptions to two different
systems and have gone through the whole store and its items three time already.
The store contains about 4000 different bottles so you can image the
frustration we have had. We haven´t really done much of customer service yet
which we came here to do. That being said we have tried to serve coffee to
customers and help them with their shopping but we haven´t had almost any
introduction to the spirit selection or anything else.
Henni got
sick during our first week here and was gone from work couple of days. She
luckily got better even though the condition of our apartment is not good. The
beds are terrible, dirty and bad for the back but the main problem is the mould
on the walls. At the moment we are trying to cope with everything but if it
gets worse we we´ll contact Paragon about it. We told them about the apartment
and its condition but so far nothing has changed.
Henni’s
boyfriend came last Thursday for a vacation for a week so I stayed alone at the
apartment. The Venezuelan girl changed the apartment to another one after
talking to Paragon so there was no one else here except the boys and me. This
week we got another new Spanish resident to our apartment so now here is four Spanish
guys and one Italian and us Finnish girls. Yesterday though we got a new girl
sharing our room, a girl from Holland so I didn´t get to stay alone in the room
for that long after all.
Meanwhile
Henni is spending time with her boyfriend, I have explored the Island on my
own. On last Saturday I went to Sliema for shopping. I had to take two buses to
go there and change the bus at Valletta because we are living in the middle of
nowhere when speaking about the public transport. But the good thing is that it
takes only 20 minutes to go to our workplace every morning. Niko, Roope and
Peter from the same class are living in a better place, near to all the
happenings but it takes Peter almost an hour to get to work. Today, on Sunday I
went to a beach called St. George’s bay which is near to Paceville. All the
night life happens mainly in Paceville and we were there on the first week with
a bigger group of new friends.
Prices in
Malta:
public
transport for a week: 6,50€ and for one day 1.50€
big
mac-meal: 5.95€
wines: from
2.50€ to 2500€ in our workplace at Ellul (alcohol and food are cheaper here in
Malta than Finland)
water: 0,5l
about 0,50€
-Krista&Henni
Helmi Business College
