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.