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21 January 2008
We are comparing Malta with Stevens Point. We want to share with our classmates the differences and some likenesses, so they will understand what it is like to live here in Malta. We will compare the city, the food and daily life, as well as the money (currency). City Life in Malta by Ian Gibbs The city of Msida, in Malta, and the city of Stevens Point in Wisconsin, USA, have lots and lots of differences. First of all, Msida has many dirty streets. There aren't very dirty streets in Stevens Point. Here, there is garbage all over the street and sidewalks. It's like people don't care! The guys who do pick up the trash on the curb don't use gloves. Yuck! Another difference is that there are so many brick buildings here. We can see 12 cranes out our window. We can see even more if we went over the whole island. The cranes are used to build new buildings. Because of all the construction there is pollution in the air, and the drilling of the machines is noisy. There is one construction sight right on the corner near our flat, and we wake up to loud pounding and banging every day. Finally, there are many historical sights here in Malta. In Valletta, there is Fort St. Elmo. It's really big, and it has lots of booby traps, where someone fell through the floor. It's very dangerous. We saw people burning stuff down at the center of the fort. It was scary. We didn't go down there because our mom thought it might not be safe. There were people living in the old prison rooms there! Scary!! Msida and Stevens Point are very different, but the nice thing is we can find smiling faces in all the different places. I can't wait to get home to my friends! Daily Life in Malta by Addison Gibbs Life in an apartment in Malta is much different than life in a house in Park Ridge, Stevens Point. For one, we don't have a Bulgarian women living below us at home, who yells at us for being too noisy! The walls in our apartment echo because it's brick and the floors are tile. We have to try to be very quiet because of our neighbors. We don't worry about that in our house in Stevens Point. Here we have an elevator to get to our floor. We are on the second floor. We only have steps in our house in Stevens Point. There are steps here, too. We use the elevator when we push the stroller. There are these different kinds of food, like they have waffle cookies that look like Honey Comb cereal only bigger. The labels on all the food have different languages like Maltese. They actually have Pringles just like the ones at home! Our refrigerator and stove are smaller, here. Here in the city, we have a soccer field across the street. We like to go there to play, when it's not being used by teams. Sometimes it's locked, though, so we can't get in to play. We miss having a front yard, backyard for playing games like soccer and football, and having a driveway to play basketball. The apartment is okay, but I like my home better. Malta Now Uses the Euro by Rachel Gibbs Malta had their own form of money (currency), the Malta Lira, until January 1 of 2008. They are all adjusting to using the Euro now, so we are not the only ones who are getting used to these coins around here. Euros have no paper 1 dollar currency; they have a 1 Euro coin instead. Euros have the shape of Europe on them. Everything costs a lot more in Malta than in the U.S. The Euro coins are hard to tell apart. They are confusing. The tooth-fairy gives euros here not US money. The coins all say Malta 2008 on them. We will probably take some home as souvenirs to remind us when we were here. Summary In conclusion, Ian says he likes Stevens Point better, because it is cleaner and there is not as much pollution in the air. This place is really cool, but he doesn't have many friends here. Addison wishes he could be here and not be here. That is, he wishes he could be here as many days as he wants and then go home. Rachel would rather be at home, even though she knows it is much colder there than here. They all enjoy seeing the interesting places, and they know there are more fun places to go yet. It's just hard being away from everything that is familiar to them. The moral to the story is, as Dorothy would say, “There's no place like home.”
Send us an email about this post! dgibbs at uwsp dot edu or dedegibbs at gmail dot com |
