Welcome back the Srabs! A post-confinement opening on our feedback from Malta, where the Team went in February. KIKI the dictator was there, featuring Sébass: a few days in Malta, meeting you (yes!), and meeting the companies; because at International Horizons, we don’t just find you an internship in Malta: we find you THE internship abroad, and go make surprise visits to our partners to check that everything is going well! In short, Welcome BACK: at last. A return of experience in Malta, guaranteed without too many COVID!
We left from Nantes, direction Luqa Airport: we were hesitating between two destinations, but we wanted to visit Dominique de Villars’ team of young people, whom we sent to Malta for an internship [small thoughts to those who were on an internship in Greece, South Korea or Croatia]. Personally [Seb]: it’s the last country in the European Union that I hadn’t been to, and Papi was from there, so I had a lot of expectations of Malta.
First day we landed at the end of the day, in February, under a good 20 degrees: a nice welcome! Taxi direction the AirBnb in St Gilijan: we get well, ideally located between all the partners we planned to go and see, and a few minutes walk from all public transport: we will start with a small visit of the island! The same evening, it’s direction Pachéville: for those who don’t know it, it’s like THE neighbourhood to party in; bars, bars, clubs, and even strip clubs that a certain Jéméry (cuckoo!) seemed particularly fond of :3 We’re going to meet our 8 young people: Nicolas, Jérémy, Théo, Anthony, Sylvain, Julien, Florian and Julien again. A lot of pleasure to exchange with them, to meet them (and then to meet them again several times during the week!) Moreover the exchanges continue (hello Nico & Théo!) and soon, Anthony should visit us in Nantes now that COVID is going to leave! In short, excellent evenings in their company!
The weekend: we take the opportunity to skim the island! Without spoiling you too much, because the goal of leaving is still to discover: Kiki El Dictador loved it, me … not at all. Malta has many spirits, and there’s something for every taste: recent cities, old towns, UNESCO, beaches, even the Game of Thrones! It’s a bit expensive in terms of local salaries: there must clearly be affordable places, but they are not for the tourists that we are! Alcohol is cheaper than water, a bit like in Eivissa! And what I didn’t like: it looks like a crossroads between France, Italy and the Arab world: as a result, it’s hard to escape the tourists, even in February. Then, the French in particular invested massively in Malta and made property prices explode, the French community there is VERY active, impossible to miss it. In the end, my family name doesn’t have much exoticism left: I feel like I’m in the south of France, and I’m also dirty: because Malta is still very dirty, a bit like Rome. And, Malta’s big flaw: it is not at all adapted to people with reduced mobility. Afterwards, if you are between 18 and 25 years old, if you are in good health, and if you want to party and speak a lot of languages: this is the ideal place. EF has invested so much money there, you ask if they’re not the ones running the Malta Archipelago haha. Anyway, I’m not going to denigrate the competition: it wouldn’t be fair play (hmmm).
As far as business meetings are concerned, it was at the top: we got invited everywhere, people are very welcoming! Not surprisingly, it’s a bit of a rush: the Maltese spirit is still there in the end, it’s not very hierarchical, and as I push you, I like this atmosphere 🙂 Most of the students we send to Malta are satisfied with their experience: the only downside is that they don’t appreciate not having a precise program, or not being restricted to their field of expertise. WELCOME in Malta: versatility guaranteed!
Malta, if you love the sun, partying and not getting lost: go for it! It’s nice, it’s not very big, it’s welcoming, the people are chilly: so no stress! We take care of your internship in Malta, contact us!