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03 January 2008
Today we slept quite late. I was awake at 4 again, as was Isabelle and Rachel. I sat and wrote up our first blog entry for future posting. We were up until around 5:30 and then back to bed until 11 a.m. -- so we're still jet-lagging. We all got up shortly before lunch time. Dave made oatmeal, and I did wash and took a shower. Dave took the boys down to the soccer fields, but they couldn't get in one and the other was being used, so they went down to throw a football around at the track. I prepared to go walk for groceries, and to see if we could meet with the apartment manager and ask about phone and net service. By the time we were ready to go out, we ran into Salvador, the maintenance man, who came to assist us with some issues we reported through Joanna of the Embassy. He fixed the bathroom light and gave us a couple sink stoppers, and showed me how to use the settings on the washer. Rachel, Isabelle, Ian and Addison and I went for a walk to see if we might find the hotel office where our apartment manager was...we walked a long ways, and found a sporting good store with futbols, which we hope to purchase soon. We asked a man who was closing down his shoe shop if he knew where the place was, and he said it was much too far to walk. So we stopped at an auto parts store and borrowed a cell phone and called the manager. Our main concern is getting Dave connected with the MCAST campus, so I asked if he knew how we could get set up with phone and internet service, and he told us we had to wait until the end of the month. I said that wasn't going to be acceptable because Dave has to have internet to do his work. He said he would try again and that we should call him again tomorrow. So that's where it is at. The reason this is frustrating to us is that Dave requested the service back in October, because he knew it would be something he would need upon arrival. Feeling awful that nobody at home knew if we'd made it safely to Malta, we were hauling my laptop along in case we'd find a free wifi place. On the way down the hill back toward our apartment, I decided to just sit down somewhere and see if I couldn't get a connection. Lo and behold, after a little configuring, and a lot of praying...we connected! Then the raindrops started, so the kids covered the laptop with one of their sweatshirts! Isabelle and I each took a turn getting our email and sending quick reports, and we were then off to the grocery. The grocery in itself is an experience in foreign affairs. Tiny little place, people lined up at the check out, and 2 prices listed for each item. Malta Lira and Euro price. Malta adopted the use of the euro currency as of January 1, so they are all learning to translate their denomination into euros, too, so we don't feel like the only slightly confused ones at the checkout. Most of the items are labeled in Maltese, so we have to do some figuring before grabbing things. Had a nice dinner at home and watched “How to Eat Fried Worms” (thanks, Tricia!) and now everyone is in bed, except Bobby and I. We're headed there, too, hoping we can all sleep through the night! Send us an email about this post! dgibbs at uwsp dot edu or dedegibbs at gmail dot com |
