Vale Melita

In 8 days and approximately 20 hours from now, (this is the link for the exact time Countdown Timer), I'll be landing at Heathrow Airport for a new adventure in my life, that is moving abroad for a Masters degree, and hopefully, eventual employment, in the UK. Well, UK ... till today at least, since today there's a referendum taking place for Scottish independence (see Scottish independence: Voting under way in referendum).  If a "Yes" vote passes, then the future of the United Kingdom as we know it can be anything. But that's another discussion, for another post. For now, I'm just focusing on the University of Surrey. 

Anyway, I still got to make sure that everything is fine with the University, and pack and so on and so forth ... but that's last minute stuff so I won't bother doing it, at least not until the last couple of days. Since I am  a huge Doctor Who fan, recently I was re-watching the final episode of the Tenth Doctor (David Tennant), where he regenerates into the Eleventh (Matt Smith), a scene which is accompanied by an amazing piece of music written by Murray Gold and played by the BBC National Orchestra of Wales. (The music can be heard in the YouTube video underneath this paragraph.) The song is in Latin and its name is Vale Decem, translating to Farewell Ten. Well I'm quite sure you're not dumb so and can easily deduce my train of thought from the name of that soundtrack to the name of this blog post, Vale Melita, which translates to Farewell Malta. 

I have to admit that even though I already did it once, when I moved to Nottingham for my Erasmus Exchange semester , I still feel a bit nervous at times. I know what I am leaving behind and I hate to admit it, but I'm definitely going to miss this place. After some time daydreaming lazily, I managed to identify what things I am going to miss the most, and listed them down (in no particular order of importance).

1. Cisk Lager. Yes, it definitely is the best beer ever. To my luck, it is sold on Amazon.co.uk with free delivery in packs of 24 cans. Yes, I'll be buying that multiple times.

2. Pastizzi, Imqaret, Twistees and Qaghaq tal-Ghasel. Those are the best four culinary items originating on our island. If anyone dares to disagree ... fuck off. On the bright side, some Maltese friends of mine had taught me how to make pastizzi when I was in Nottingham, and Amazon.co.uk sells Twistees too ! So there will not be any shortage of those, thank goodness.

Those who are reading might be asking themselves "Did he forget to mention Kinnie?" No. I did not. I hate Kinnie. Moving on ... 

3. My friends and family, definitely. I am going to miss my friends a lot. I never had any siblings, and thus I always considered my closest friends to be part of my family too. 

4. My dog, Skippy. I got her 10 years ago, and she's been always there, waiting for me to get home drunk at any time of the night, or after university, just to sit there next to me and be a man's best friend. 

That is what I am going to leave behind and miss the most, however, what scares me is what am I going to find over there. So far, all I know for sure is that I am going to find a box full of kitchen items such as pots and pans, and another one with  a couple of pillows and stuff for my bed, both of which I have ordered in advance.

I've been searching all over the internet to see what am I going to find in Guildford, and looking all over Facebook to from other people's photos about hows University life over there, and how much different is it going to be from what I'm used to in Malta. I already got an idea how English University life can be from when I used to live in Nottingham, but somehow I still cannot stop wondering about what am I going to find, after all, it still is a different place. However, I am going to take a lot of stuff with me that will remind me of Malta. My UoM hoodie and a couple of t-shirts of the local band club t-shirt are at the top of my list ! Hmmmm and looking at that photo on the right, I need to buy a University of Surrey hoodie as soon as I get there, you know, to keep up the collection.

Anyway, I ran out of stuff to blab about ... and so I'm off to watch more episodes of not-sure-which-series. 

Vale Melita ... soon ... very soon ...

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P.S. ... I know that it is a complete waste of money, but I am so gonna buy this eventually! It's so awesome !  Amazon.com: Spinning Floating Tardis