Sometimes, being a foreigner is really hard...

So, for the most part, I've really enjoyed being a foreigner in Malta. Everyone has been really kind, I seem to be able to view the annoying things as funny, and generally things are going well.

Enter Maltese bureaucracy. To be honest, I am still entirely unclear as to why I'm in Norway this weekend. Yepp, I'm in Norway. While away at a conference in Canada I received a call from the office that the Maltese police were threatening to block my re-entry to Malta, because they didn't believe that I had the right to be in the Schengen (as a result of my Norwegian work permit). Again, I'm not entirely sure what this has to do with me being in Malta, but when the police threaten to block your entry, you don't have much choice, and I rapidly changed my plans to fly to Norway instead of Malta to get proof that I was legal to be in the Schengen.

I know what you're thinking, this could have been solved by anyone at the Maltese police picking up the phone and calling Norway.... but they refused, and similarly refused to accept Norwegian documents, or anything less than an official sticker in my passport. So Friday morning at 09:00 I was queued at the police office in Ulsteinvik (yes, had to be Ulsteinvik, nothing as simple as jumping off a plane in Oslo).

In retrospect, I'm lucky that I wasn't able to shift it so that I did a fly-by in Oslo, because the police officer who I needed to submit a scan of this sticker to was "not available" on Friday.

So, the silver lining and end result is that I ended up spending a lovely weekend with my husband in Norway, all the Maltese authorities are happy that I have been obsequious enough that everything is apparently now a-ok, and I'm off to Malta tomorrow morning.

And Birkirkara wins!

When we moved to Norway, Ashley and I were amused by how popular 'football' was. It is NOTHING compared to how popular it is in Malta.

Pretty much every weekend at some point there is some yahoo driving around beeping his horn and waving his favourite club's flag out the window. This weekend was extra special, as the local club (Birkirkara) was slated to win the national championship. People have been talking about it for weeks. Children in gangs singing outside my apartment the Birkirkara pep songs. Finally, last night the big match was on, and before the game had even finished there were police ready to handle the crowds, street vendors ready to sell air horns and beer, and people all standing ready to celebrate. And as soon as birkirkara won, I witnessed these diehard supporters rushing to their vehicles to DRIVE AWAY beeping and waving flags. I assume they came back.

Oh, and right after this picture, a bus hit the red beer stand and beer flooded the street. No one was hurt, so it was just hilarious.