Week 4

Week 4 marked my last week at the hostel. At this point, I'd like to say that I'm very happy things worked out this way. Had circumstances not forced me to spend my first 3 weeks in a hostel, I would not have even considered it. However I now see, that this genuinely enrichened by experience. Having other people around me - even those who also went to work - really made me make the most of my free time. Even in such a small span of time, I still made friends to keep.

Work

For the work itself, I'm now comfortable handling the full-time certificates, as well as processing the payment for reprints. I've also prepared more certificates to be sent by post, including notifying all of the people involved. I still don't have a complete handle on the processes and organization, so I do have to ask for help more than I'd like to.

However, work this week was cut tragically short. On Wednesday morning I arrived at my office, to be greeted by someone sitting outside. Someone had tested positive for Covid, and the entire place was closed, to be cleaned thoroughly. While impressive how intensive the cleaning process is, the day turned out to be very stressful for me. Other than telling me to get tested, the regulations in place seemed a bit unclear. Being used to the very strict and direct guidelines from Germany, I was left feeling a bit unsure about the whole thing. I ended up booking with a test center for the same day, to get a simple swab, then later double-checking with the official Covid-Hotline to make sure I did not in fact need a PCR test. The test itself was fairly simple. While testing centers are generally set up to be used as a drive-through, and I had been warned I might need to book a taxi, the workers in place ushered me to stand at the side and walk through when called upon. After a bit of a wait, things went by fairly fast, and I was sent home to wait.

Luckily for me, the result came in quickly. I was left with enough time to get groceries, as well as accompany my friend from the hostel for lunch. He brought along another ex-hostel member from Austria, and we enjoyed taking the scenic route through a sunny day in Sliema. As it was his last day, we visited a favorite restaurant of his for something savory, then made our way to a café I'd been meaning to try for coffee and cake. Overall it was a lovely day, and while the circumstances were unfortunate, I do feel lucky that I got to send him off. He left for the airport in late afternoon, and his departure inspired me to start organizing my own move as well. Because of the cleaning process, I was asked to stay in home office for the rest of the week until otherwise notified. As most of my work relies on being present at the office, there was not much for me to do other than prepare for Friday. I did spent most of Thursday staying inside, just to stay safe; though this gave me the opportunity to finally make use of the hostel's rooftop terrace, a space I wish I'd had gotten more use out of.

The Move

Friday morning, I woke up early and spent a long time checking my emails for updates from work. Only at about 10, when I felt certain that no news would come, did I let myself relax. My bags had been packed the day before, and I was now in the home stretch of removing my presence from the hostel. Ready for my checkout time at 11:30, I delegated some remaining groceries to others, stripped my bed of its sheets and deposited all of my luggage to be stored under the hostel stairs. My check-in at the new place wasn't until 15:00, so I had time to kill until then. I chose to once again visit the café from Wednesday, spending as much time and money there as I felt comfortable doing. I then took the long route home, along the cliffside. This turned out to not be possible, though it did provide me with some stunning views. Unfortunately I eventually reached a point where I could not go on -- involving an open gate to a restricted area I didn't see the signs for, and a security guard shooing me out and redirecting me -- so I had to weave my way back into the city. This turned out to be a convoluted endeavor, and I arrived back at the hostel later and much more beat than intended. 

The travel to my new abode, subsequently, was a disaster. I found my luggage to be much more inconvenient, and heavier than when I arrived, and the combination of weight, heat and bus travel was hardly comfortable. Travelling an unknown route also made the route take and feel much longer than it should have. My landlord had also announced that work would keep him longer. So here I am, luggage stacked onto me, to find my apartment doesn't even have its house number documented anywhere on the building. In a stroke of luck, a woman exiting the building seemed to know my landlord, and arranged for me to get inside the apartment and wait there. She was inhabiting the room I would soon get. However I now found out that I would stay in a different, larger room for now, and then move to my actual adjacent one on Tuesday. The larger room was very nice, though definitely too much space for me. The giant double-sided closet had a sizeable TV in it, I had my own bathroom and shower, the internet access-point dangled from my wall and one of the light-switches turned on a ring of dark-blue mood lighting. 

How I still had the energy to go out after this ordeal, I don't know, but the lack of available food likely drove me. I did have a small chat with one of my remaining flatmates upon my arrival, so I knew approximately where to put my food. And having researched the area ahead of time, I knew I could walk to the local Wellbee's. Having at least the same size as the ones I'd previously been to, the shopping trip was hellishly overwhelming, and I was glad to be out. And being exhausted by the time I had finally made it back home, little memory remains of the rest of the evening. I enjoyed my double bed.

The rest of the weekend, I have to admit I mostly spent inside. I did originally intend to get up early on Sunday to catch the pope visiting -- he would drive by and stop just 5 minutes away from my new home -- but ended up sleeping in instead. I did want to make the most of having the 'luxury' room, and it was relaxing to finally have my own space. As highly as I think of the hostel, having your own four walls to live in really does make a huge difference.