21st March-28th March
This week my parents came to visit me and it was brilliant to get to see them. On the down side I missed two days of classes as I had a bit of a bug, which meant I had to get a sick note from the doctor also. Being sick is never fun, but being sick in another country is definitly worse and did make me feel homesick, so it was great having my parents about. The classes I did make an appearance for were buisness management, softball and volleyball. During our buisness management class we began discussing the impact of money within sports organisations. This was particuarly interesting as we compared how the organisations in N.I and malta varied in relation to wealth. In many ways, football is similar, especially in the top divisions of each country, however it is evident that N.I invests significantly more money into it's sport. This is reflected most in the standard of facilities. One guy in our football team informed me that he played his football matches on concrete up until about four years ago, and this was the same for all football teams with the exception of the teams in the premier division. Furthermore, in softball we moved on to learn the best ways to teach fielding to young children. This consisted of a variety of different games but the main point to be made was that the fielders should remain focussed and consistently plan their next move before the batter makes theirs. Keith, Kayleigh and I also had another meeting this week to finalise our sports day arrangements. We had our activities plans, so it was just a matter of allocating our helpers to each station, discussing how the children would move from station to station and also organising our plans for the actual day.
Outside of class, I managed to see some more of Malta with my parents, which was made easy by the fact they had rented a car. One day we even just took off and drove around the whole island. Needless to stay this didn't take too long as Malta isn't the biggest country, but it was great to see the culture and architecture of the country, which completely contrasts that of Northern Ireland. We also went to Mdina, which is the previous capital of Malta. This is definitly one of the most cultural areas in Malta and is completely enclosed by massive walls. My dad was fascinated by the history of the place and lectured me all day on how the walls were built to protect those that lived there. My favourite part of the town was the view, which showed the majority of Malta. There is a restaurant in this location and I was informed that the Maltese celebrities pay to eat their on Old years night, just to enjoy the view.

On another day, we ventured off to Golden bay beach to enjoy the sunshine. Little did we know that we would be followed by about forty of the other erasmus students in our residence. I laugh when I think about how others see us on our outings, as forty of us get off a bus and dander to the beach. Anyway, my mum and dad were taken back by how kind and friendly all of our friends were and were particuarly fond of our Irish chums. Denise and Jean decided they would have a private conversation in Irish, totally unaware tha my mum understood every word, they were just a bit embarassed when my mum let them know.
At the weekend, Becca, Matthew, my dad and I attended the Malta versus Greece European qualifier match. This was a great way to see how passionate the Maltese were about football. I thought that due to the standard of football being mediocre, the support wouldn't be great....boy was I wrong. One man had a microphone, there was numerous drums and waving flags. They didn't shut up for the whole ninety minutes. It was great to see how such a small country united to support their team despite being total underdogs. It reminded of The Northern Ireland supporters. The stadium was quite small, but very nice and differed from any British sports stadium I have been to.

All in all this week has been great, not just as I seen my parents but also because I managed to learn more about the way of life in Malta. I was taken back by the fans at the football game, and this was definitly the highlight of my week.

14th March- 21st March

The next week both Matthew and Becca had family visitors, so I wasn’t expecting to see much of them, although by this stage we were so friendly with the other residents that this didn’t bother me too much. I did however manage to visit St.Pauls’ cathedral with Becca and her cousin, which was an amazing sight and again emphasized the country’s passion for religion. This week consisted of SEC exams for the students in our practical classes, so we were not in university much, with the exeption of our business management class and a hockey session, which was based on the basic teaching skills of passing the ball. Most of us even found this difficult due to the uneven playing surface. I also managed to celebrate St.Paddys day on the Thursday. Everyone from the residence joined in our celebration and the whole place was decorated in Irish colours. It was great to see everyone appreciate the Irish culture, although I did run up a big phone bill after ringing my mum back home when the Irish songs came on.

The week ended in my second game for our new club, which Matthews mum and dad, as well as Becca came to watch. We were comftorably beaten needless to say, were not best pleased in the changing room after. The Maltese players got their first glimpse of our Northern Irish temper. Next week my parents are coming to visit, so hopefully I will get to see more of Malta then.

7th March-14th March
After our weekend in Gozo, the next week we decided to take it easy, so its was just attending class and training sessions for the week. During our hockey class, we moved on to begin learning the basic dribbling skills. Our lecturer clearly thinks that Becca is a professional due to her hockey shirt, as  he keeps using her as an example. Personally, I reckon I would give her a run for her money anyday! This week also consisted of my group’s first meeting with the primary school we would be carrying out our sports day with. Our lecturer ensured that the three of us were split up, so we were all with two other Maltese students. As I arrived with the other two students, we got to watch a P.E class as we were early. It was great to see a P.E class carried out in Malta and it did enable me to learn a few new activities which I will definitely use when I am coaching again back home. The thing that fascinated me most was the fact that the class (which was being taught to 7 year old’s) was being taught primarily in English, with the students having no difficulties understanding their teacher. Once the session had ended, the three of us went with the head of P.E in the school to her office, where we began discussing our ideas for the sports day. She seemed to know her stuff, although was very open to our ideas. The first priority was to establish the three different age groups and what activities they would be doing. These activities had to include teambuilding as the theme of our sports day was co-operation. We found this easy due to our class in team building. However, I did find myself having to try harder to become involved in the conversation and I could not help but think that this was due to being an international student. The meeting lasted one and a half hours and we scheduled another one for the following Monday at the same. During this week, our business management class was particularly enjoyable as we were discussing how we would organise a sports event with relation to funds, location, sponsorship etc. Our lecturer then enabled us to compare this with how similar events would be organised in Northern Ireland, which raised some interesting contrasts. The main contrast being that sports facilities in Malta were not of the same standard. During our day off this week, we decided to get the long bus trip up past St.Paul’s bay and visit Popeye’s village. Here we got a few good photos with Popeye and Olive and even managed to get a short boat trip around the bay. We were also shown how Maltese crosses were made in the village, which was interesting as we had seen the symbol in so many places, due the country being so religious.

21st Feb-7th March


This week, classes ran as normal, and we actually had a full week in class, with the exception of our Wednesday off. This week, the introductory theory classes had been done, therefore all our practical classes were held in the university sports hall as we got to show off our skills. This included a third badminton class, which was great fun as usual, although I encountered some difficulties mastering the overhead volley, providing great amusement for Becca and Matthew, at least I only have to teach how to do the move, not actually perform it. We were also taught the best teaching points on how to serve the shuttlecock in this session. Our team building activities session also continued, again helping us to become more comfortable with the other students. In one game, where we had to be carried through a hoop without touching the ground, Matthew’s dodgy knee began to give him trouble. So far, many of the Maltese have found it difficult to understand Matthew’s accent and he often gives me stick for the way I talk so slowly and clearly to be understood. So, when Matthew was being carried and his knee started playing up, he shouted ‘Simon! Tell them about my bad knee!’ They could all understand him perfectly at this stage, I couldn’t stop laughing and Matthew was forced to suffer on through the hoop. During each team building activity, the class was split into groups, with each person having a specific role in that group. The role’s were leader, praiser, encourager, recorder and summariser. We all had a turn at each of these role’s, and was particularly good when we were leader as it helped to push ourselves further outside our comfort zone with the class. Our lecturer put a strong emphasis on praising and encouraging, and when any activity went wrong, we would start again until we succeeded.
The three of us attended our practical hockey session, which proved a challenge as the facilities were not exactly the best, as we were playing on a terrible gravel pitch. We just went through the basics of hockey such as how to hold the stick. Much of our first practical sessions were similar to this, introducing us to the implements we were using.
The best part of this week was the annual Gozo carnival at the weekend starting the 4th march and ending on the 6th, although the carnival actually went on from the Thursday. We had been told tat this was the biggest festival in Malta and has been celebrated since 1530. Becca and I had decided to travel early on Saturday instead of the Friday as we didn’t want to miss class and I wasn’t feeling the best. This turned out a great plan as I got plenty of rest (knocking back about 5 lemsip’s) and it persuaded Matthew to join us, preventing him from having one of his ‘douvet’ days, where he decides to hide under the covers all day doing nothing. In total, there were about thirty people that decided to make the trip to the Maltese island, all of which were crammed into an eight person house. Becca thought she had it bad sharing a bed with a few people, me and Matt had to share a small sofa with another person, and it was freezing. Before going to the carnival, we took a bus trip to the Calypso caves. We went about ten feet into the cave before we turned back as they were tiny and in complete darkness. This lead to a walk along the beach which made for some good photo’s. Back at our one night ranch we began getting ready into our costumes that we bought at the 25c store. All of us decided to go us pirates and as we all went to the same store, we all looked identical, which turned out to be a good thing, as the carnival was so crowded, we needed to be easily identified to prevent getting lost. The costume consisted of a old smelly gold shirt, tank tops, eye patches, a big hoop earing and even makeup, we looked ridiculous!

After a barbecue at the house, we headed to a town called Nadur, which was the main spot to be. The streets were filled with bright colours and massive floats with people in crazy costumes dancing on top. They even threw fish from the floats, the place was stinking, I certainly wouldn’t to be living in those streets the day after! The carnival really showed us how serious the Maltese take their festivals and the extreme efforts they go to, they can certainly throw a party! On the Sunday, we got the ferry after a massive clean up at our rented house. The ferry was just a bit rocky to say the least, but at least it didn’t last long.  

Matthew and I have been training regularly with our new football team and Matthew made is debut this week, unfortunately I could not as my clearance is yet to arrive from the IFA, although it is looking good for next weekend! They lost that game comfortably, despite Matthew’s best efforts. I’m hoping I can have an impact next week, a clean sheet would be nice!