Iranian dancing?!?

Today it is my friend, Roya’s, birthday, and therefore yesterday she invited a couple of friends to meet up to celebrate. We met at Cafe Topolis in the city centre. With the help of a googlemaps printed map, Ross and myself managed to find the place quite easily. We asked about where the booked table is and they directed us downstairs hmmm. It seemed that Roya had booked the entire lower portion of the restaurant for our use (we were about 30people after all, and that is all that fit). Slowly other people joined us, including Zahra and her husband (and a couple of other Iranian people, who keep confirming my theory that Iranian girls are BEAUTIFUL). We had a great time chatting and then ordered the food. For starters I got to share a minestrone soup, and as main course got the Pizza Roma and got to try the Fettucine al Pollo E Funghi. Both were delicious, but I think the Fettucine were quite better 🙂

After the food however came the part I think I enjoyed the most. The Iranian dancing 🙂 I have been hearing about this. I have seen it being danced on Zahra’s wedding movie and have heard some Iranian music when I went to her house earlier on in the month. The music really get you moving, and I decided what’s the worst that could happen apart from me making a fool of myself? so I plunged in and had a great time. In particular I enjoyed it cos there was a Spanish girl too, who had never done any Iranian dancing. So we just had a great time with our interpretation. We also got a masterclass session with one i=of the Iranian guys who really seemed to know his stuff.

Then it was time for the cake cutting. But that requires a whole set of other dancing….knife dancing. These people really have a great time with everything they do. It was then time to go home, because this morning I wanted to be in Uni early enough. A great night. Thank you Roya. Tavalodet Mobarak. Bia Baghalan 🙂

 

The Gathering

 

Goodbye Peter :(

Peter is a trainee pastoral worker at the OLV church I go to. His first week in the parish was my first week there. His placement at OLV is coming to an end, with his last mass being the 630 youth mass tonight. Therefore, as is fitting we all went out to dinner yesterday. The place chosen was a few minutes away from Croke Park, and therefore Ian and myself just went straight in after the game. The restaurant was called Independent Pizza. Not many people actually did make it. It was Ian, Colette, Sinead, Peter and myself. But we were a great group and had an enjoyable evening full of laughs.

I had the Special Pizza…mmmmmm…and for desert the apple crumble MMMMMMm MMMMMm hehe. The other people’s pizza looked as delicious as mine :).

I also learnt some Irish. Learnt is the key word mind you…it means I knew it then. Does not say anything about remembering it this morning. Though I remember some things, namely (and I am writing phonetically):

Connish thought u…How are you?…written Conas tá tú?

Cecilia is anum dumb … my name is Cecilia…apparently it is written Cecilia is ainm dom.

I also knew… I was born and raised in Malta, I need to go to the bathroom, I am 24 years old, and possibly something else. But Oh well. Will ask them tonight and write them down 🙂 Apparently they said I could get the accent quite well, which is good 🙂 Possibly it is because I didn’t see them written down initially (that would be useless), but just copied the sounds.

Peter and myself (Peter is from the UK) were saying how strange it is that we both seem to have always tried to learn the language of anywhere we go to on holiday, but this has not been the case in Ireland. It is possibly because no one actually speaks Irish here, so it would be likely that no one understands me if I try and speak Irish anyways. But Oh well, I will try and put together my own small phrasebook. It might come in handy when we go on our Easter trip :).

Thank you Peter for all the time you spent with us…it was great knowing you 🙂 Thank you Colette, Sinead and especially Ian for a wonderful Saturday afternoon/Evening.

Cousin Meeting!

Back home after around 35 hours away…Feeling tired…but soon off again haha… Yesterday, the doctor gave me some antibiotics, and allowed me to go to work. After work, I met up with my Cousin Rachel and her bf Fraser. They live in the UK, but they came over for around 10 days so that Rachel can show Fraser the beauty of Malta 😀

I had asked them to come to the Valletta Bus Terminus at about 5:15pm. So after work I left to Valletta and I immediately spotted them…WEEEE…Rachel looks really good (Really loved her hairstyle haha). We then left immediately (I was parked in a taxi stand :S) and collected Bernard from his house. We then went to Birgu and walked along the marina. Did not really enjoy this part. Probably cos it was hot hihi…but enjoyed chatting along with them (although not Bernard I think cos he could not understand their accent :D).

Birgu Waterfront

We then took Bernard back home cos he had a meeting for the summer camp he is helping to organise next week, and I took them to Mosta. Whilst chatting I had gotten to know that they tried to go to the Mosta Church to see the bomb, but found it closed :S. At around 6:30pm, I figured it would be open cos of evening mass. It was in fact open, but we could not go to the bomb cos it is in the back part of the church. Oh Well…no probs.

Mosta Church Bomb: This is a bomb which fell on the church during World War II in the middle of mass celebration. But it did not explode, and therefore no one died 😀

We left Mosta and made our way to Mdina. But first things first…we stopped at Il-Veduta to eat. I really liked this place (have been there I think twice before…the restaurant is overlooking Half of Malta, and we stayed outside looking at the view). We ordered our food…yummy yum…I had farfelle with spinach and blue cheese, Rachel had Penne with Sun dried tomatoes etc and Fraser had Pizza Margherita. The food was really good (but we had too much of it…It always happens to me that I plan to take a starter portion, but then order a full portion and it is too much :S). Really enjoyed this part…we chatted and gossiped…WEEEEEEEEE.

 By the time we ate, chatted enough and paid etc, the sun was setting, and we walked into Mdina. I LOOOVE Mdina…if I am ever rich and can buy a house there I think that is what I would do :D…We walked through the narrow roads and felt as if we were back in time (and got lost once or twice hihi). We then went to see the view from the Mdina Bastions, and the proceeded to make our way back to the car.

Mdina aerial View

I drove them to their place at Mellieha. It was by now 9:30pm, and I did not feel like driving all the way to Zurrieq (around 45mins away). I had thought of this before, and had called my aunt who lives in Mellieha to ask whether I could sleep over (I have been there before…read all about it here)…she obviously said yes, so I had everything prepared to stay there. So after dropping them off, I went to aunts house, had a shower and settled down to read a bit and sleep. Then this morning I left Mellieha, took my aunt to work (she usually goes buy bus) and then went on to my work…WEEEEEEE…Hopefully I get to meet my cousin again soon 😀