What I've Missed as an Expat in Malta
My Favorite Museum in the US
Of everything I missed being in Malta, this is the place I missed the most. There's nothing like it in Malta. So I had to wait to come back to the US to see it.
There's no admission fee, but it can end up being quite costly to go there and look at all the exhibits. Is it the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston? The Gardner?
No, it's Staples. Yes, Staples-the giant office supply shop. No, it's not a museum to most normal people, but it is to me. Most of the products I love-fancy paper clips, special Post-Its (even gigantic ones), colored index cards-don't exist in Malta.
Malta does have office and school supplies, of course. But they're the bare minimum and they're carried by small private shop owners. They lack the variety, color and imagination of the Staples supplies. I even love the staplers at Staples. These are the touch-staple types that can just go through 20 pages like nothing.
I usually hate chain stores, but Staples is one of two exceptions. The other is Best Buy where I've gotten all my computers in the past couple of years. That's not in Malta either. And there's a third-The Body Shop-which is in Malta.
Anyway, I never saw the staff at Staples in Brookline, Massachusetts, so happy: I told them I came all the way from Malta to shop at their store. They couldn't believe that someone would come from abroad to shop in a chain office-supply shop. But, what the hell...I let them think it was just like that. I didn't go through the whole story that I had left the US to move to Malta, or that I had shopped at Staples all my adult life.
I got all the things I wanted to use for teaching EFL in Malta. Except for one thing: any paper supplies or folders.
Guess why not?
Wrong. It's because Europe's paper sizes are different from that of the US. Everything is different by a half-inch or so. I don't have the exact measurements, but the standard 8.5 x 11 inches in the US is a little thinner and longer (called A4) in Europe. And what we call the legal size (called A3 in Europe) is different. And so are business envelopes.
This really bothered me at first.
Being a writer, I thought there was only one paper size in the world. And I thought I would never get used to the wrong European size of paper. But I did.
Just goes to show you that you can get used to almost anything when you need to.
But I'll never get used to being without my Staples.
Resource: An-American-in-Malta.com
Published by Ilene Springer - Featured Contributor in Travel
EXPAT: I am an independent writer and EFL teacher who moved from the US to Malta in October, 2008. I specialize in writing about travel; health and wellness; pet health; teaching EFL; and lifestyle subjects... View profile
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2 Comments
Post a CommentIt's funny what we miss when we are expats, isn't it? I miss British supermarket chains like Tesco's and Sainsbury's. You're right about the difference in paper size. I once asked my husband to print out a paper for me while I was a student. It was meant to be A4, but the size was off (he'd used American sized paper!)
Sophie
Think of all the money you save w/ out a Staples....I have one close to me and I try not to go tooo often!