Malta has, like every else country as well, typical things such as food, self-made things and of course architectural characteristics. We show some of them in this article.

One architectural characteristic which you find often in Valletta. The typical Maltese balcony. They were built because in summer it's cold in there. The hot air goes out without letting the hot sun inside. Since 1996 exist a special help to restore the old balconies. The balconies are as beautiful as expensive - to expensive for a lot of people. With this help the government tries to help people to restore the balconies and to save the cultural heritage. The first person who built it was a spanish grandmaster. Until now you find them in nearly every Maltese city. 

Here a typical street of Valletta. The main street (Republic Street) in Valletta comes from the busstation and goes down to the sea. In the streets are more of the typical Maltese balconies. 

This nice special fishing boat is called Luzzu. Luzzus are painted with a lot of colours often blue, yellow, green and red. On the bow they have eyes, which shell illustrate the eye of Horus or the eye of Osiris the egyptian god of death. It shell help the fishermen against danger. The boats have normally christian names. The Luzzus were often shown on the back of the Maltese Lira. 

Typical Maltese bread called "Hobz biz-Zejt" what means something like bread with oil. It is often made with olives, capers, tomatoes and kunserva, something like tomato purée.It is a really delicious kind of eating bread. The breat is very special because it is crispy outside and soft inside. 

The Mdina glass is a typical thing from Mdina. The glass blowing is a special thing, which makes every piece looks different. They have some really nice things and it is even nice to just look at them. The prices are quiete high, but it is nice enough to just look at the different things.                                                                         

Other very interesting souvenirs are the bobbin lacemaking things, like shown in the picture. Some of them look really nice but they are not anyones type.                              

Typical as well are the doors. Even if a house looks terrible the door looks nice. The doors are made really nice. They have really nice door knockers and they are in a lot of different  colours. Another special thing are that normally you find next to the house number a name, which is the name of the house. 

The National Museum of Natural History is a really interesting place. First are some animals shown, which you can find in Malta, then you can see different butterflies and insects from Malta, which look really nice. When you go upstairs in the building you find a lot of different interesting things. It is a really interesting and not very expensive museum. It is really good for people which likes animals and biology. And for people that like chemistry as well because in another part of the museum are a lot of different kind of stones shown and the some of the elements. A very interesting sight when it's raining. 

Some of the shown butterflies. 

Different very interesting stones. The stones are in the second part of the museum. After you finished with the one building they say to you, to go in there and it is really interesting to see. 

Today we went Christmas-shopping in “The point” in Sliema. It is the biggest shopping mall on the island.

The Point was opened on Monday 29^th March 2010. With three floors, over 50 shops and 14.000 square meters it is the biggest shopping mall in Malta. There’s ample parking at The Point and the mall opens Monday- Saturday from 9.30am to 7.30pm.

The group of boarders:

Federico, Alberto, Hayley, Josy, Abdul, Taher, Mr. Sammut and Alex.

The christmas decoration in The Point in Sliema. 

J.Piccinino - one shop in The Point. 

Here a list of shops in The Point:

Debenhams
Celebrity Brands
Chain Food Store
Fotovision Imaginist
Guess
Hilfiger Denim
J.Piccinino
TKS – The kitchen Store
Millie’s Cookies
New Look
Prenatal
Segue
Sophia
Sterling Jewellers
Vodafone
Aldo
Intercomp
Agenda Bookshop
Cioconat Lounge
Dr. Juice
Franks
Junior’s Fun and Learn Centre
Lacoste and Grant
Me Accessories
Primo Emporio
Sisley
Springfield – Man & Woman
Sun Lab
Terranova
Thirty-Six
United Colors of Benetton
Adidas
Bata
Fergi
Lotto
Reebok
Skechers
Esprit
Piazza Italia
The Crogs Kiosk
Punt Roma
Lui Jo
Mango
Nine West
Massimo Dutti
Oysho
Pull and Bear
Stradivarius
Nike Store
Urban Culture
Cinnabon

The official website of The Point: http://www.thepointmalta.com/

Today we went to the feast of the immaculate conception in Bormla. The feast of the immaculate conception is the feast for the blessed Virgin Mary. It is a dogma of the Roman Catholic Church. It was kept for the orifinal sin from her moment of conception and it was filled with the sanctifying grace normally conferred during baptism. It is one of the four dogmas in Roman Catholic Mariology. When we arrived in Bormla it was very full and full with food stalls with sausages, candy floss and donuts. Bormla is a very small city but this time a lot of people were there. It was very nice to see how all people come together for a feast like this. They had a little orchestra which walked through the city and played music. After we saw the orchestra we went to the church of Bormla, the Cospicua parish church. Cospicua became a parish in 1586 and the parish church, dedicated to the Immaculate Conception, was elevated to the dignity of a collegiate church in 1822. The image of the Blessed Virgin above the high altar was crowned by Cardinal Ferrata in 1905 and, fifty years later, Cardinal Tedeschini adorned it with a halo of twelve stars. The parish population is 5,657 and the families are 1,600. After we visited the church we went to the firework near there. It was really nice to see with all the nice colours. All people went there to see it. During we watched the firework it started raining, but it was for no one a problem. It was a really nice evening for all of us. 

Now in nearly every country of the world the christmas time starts - in Malta as well. Every one starts to decorate the houses and every one is in an christmas mood. The radio's playing christmas songs and the little children can't wait to have christmas - even in our boarding school. To not bore the children we start decorating the (class)rooms during we listening to music and having fun. 

Jorge, Gleb, Hamed, Alex & Mr. Sammut having fun during decorating the room. Alex, Hamed, Gleb and Jorge "decorating" the room.