Life As I See It

Now it’s just my lower leg. I wonder what the hell I did to it. No matter, as long as it gets better… Just checked my retirement funds, I’m almost at 19% return for the year! That’s one hell of a good investment. If it just keeps up like that, I’ll retire rich…early! Of course it won’t continue, and there have been some serious ups and downs this year, including one of my funds dropping over 6 bucks a share in one day, ouch! That might be expected with an individual stock, but it’s pretty unusual with a mutual fund… I’m heavily invested in foreign funds, almost a half of my portfolio is in foreign funds. Yeah, that’s a little risky, but damn, 19%! The other half is in a small cap fund. Gotta take chances if you want to make some money, of course I’m not crazy. Well, not that crazy, but 19% crazy:-)

Isaac

Stayed in my room most of the day, stayed in bed really… Well, I can now walk the equivalent of 5 or 6 blocks with only slight discomfort. Not sure if that’s due to the pain killing aspects of the medicine or if I’m actually getting better. In either case, I consider it a good thing. Trying to stay positive, I even went back to the casino, now I’m only down 25 lira instead of 30:-) I’m hoping to be much improved by tomorrow morning and I’m hoping to get out of this f___ing town. It is rathewr nice, but I’ve seen as much of this part of the island as I need to, I wanna get out!!!

Isaac

Well, The good news is that my back feels better, but my right hip and knee feel worse. Yesterday, my whole lower back hurt and the pain traveled down my right leg. Now it’s my right leg.. I’ve been looking for some Motrin or something at the various connivence stores, but none of them even carry aspirin. I asked someone today where I could get some and he said there was a druggist around the corner, but they were probably closed, it being one o’clock and all.. I asked when they would be open again and he told me 4 o’clock! What the hell kind of hours are those? Anyway, being in a contrary mood, I checked them out and they were open Got some European equivalent of Motrin and promptly took 600mg of it…

I think the Maltese have inherited the British food sensibilities. A couple of places offer a breakfast fry, sausages, fried wonder bread, baked beans(!?), fried pudding and an egg or two. Today, I got my first pizza. While I was waiting for it to cool, a waiter came by and asked if I wanted any ketchup for my pizza. What the hell? I have to say, so far my impression of Maltese food is not too good. The lasagna I’ve gotten from two different places is really bland, the pizza I had today was not very good, and the price of the chinese food is crazy. They charged me almost 3 bucks for white rice! I paid it cause I was desperate, but I’ll be looking for some other place tonight.

SIGH, good thing I came to Malta to sit around my room and an internet cafe… I’m really hoping that a regimen of rest and anti-inflamatories will cure me so that I can enjoy myself a little. 3 days of that ought to do it, don’t you think?

Isaac

I’ve been hobbling around today, mostly from my place to the internet cafe and back. It does seem to be getting better, but it still hurts. I’ll watch some Battlestar Gallactica and do some Arabic homework. Tomorrow will be my first time out of the St. Jullian’s area. I want to get a good feel for the bus service and go take some pictures! Here’s hoping for a healthy gait tomorrow.

Isaac

Just took a look at my accounts, I was charged $8 for withdrawing 200 Maltese Lira at an ATM yesterday. That’s not actually what I’m mad about. I got an exchange rate of around $3 and change per Lira, the exchange booths are charging $4 per lira! Just goes to show that you need to do some research before using services like that…

Isaac

I went to the internet cafe to try to download the new Battlestar Gallactica season. Turns out that everyone and their dog must have gotten an iPod or gift cards for the music store because it was operating at a crawl. While i was waiting to do that, I was sitting kind of funny and I think I pinched a nerve or something because it is now painful to walk around. Nothing too bad you understand, more of an annoyance than anything else. In any case, I didn’t get too far with my exploring today, I’m hoping a good night’s sleep and some pain killers will take care of it.

I have noticed something that I’m having a hard time getting used to. Not only do they drive on the “wrong” side of the street, but all the doors are confusing me to no end. For example, the sliding glass doors in my room have the handles on the outside edges. You grab the door at the outside edge and pull away from the center. It makes it so that you can’t open both at the same time. Noticed these same doors on a couple of places with patios. There are also a lot of places that the door only opens inwards, I keep trying to pull the doors open because that’s how they look, but no. And the food place around the corner has doors that you pull, but they really look as though you should push them. So I look like the brain dead American pushing and pulling in vain across town…

Isaac

I’ll post more When the day is done, but I’m having fun and eating well. Hope everyone’s Christmas is a great one!!!

Isaac

It was an odd day…

This really is an amazing place as far as wealth creation and economic activity. Keep in mind that 10 years ago, Dubai was almost entirely sand. There is no oil there, there are no natural resources to speak of. So how have they created this incredible wealth? The guy that was in charge (can’t remember his name) decided to make it. He set up the entire Emirate as a business friendly place. There is a massive free port there which helps get all the goods there, there is no income tax, no sales tax, no import or export restrictions (other than illegal drugs and people of course) and very little fees involved with starting and operating a business. They do not manufacture anything there (except buildings) and the vast majority of people working there (78%) have been imported. In other words, it is the textbook example of how to create wealth, and they have done very, very well. There is no crime to speak of and unemployment is almost unheard of. They took what was essentially a pile of sand and made it an attractive tourist destination and it is now worth trillions of dollars. Well done!

Isaac

I flew into Dubai on my way to Malta and was preparing to spend another 14 hour period of my life at the airport. Luckily Dean (a British former student of my school) offered to show me around and let me sleep on his couch. What a guy!