In Malta, I lived in an area near to Valletta city, called Msida. Msida is located almost in a center of the whole city so it was easier for me to get from that location to the other parts of the city. There is a lot of residential buildings, high school, shops, pharmacies, post office and other services. The thing that can surprise you (and I suppose that this is on a whole island), there is a lot of foreigners - from India, Pakistan, Africa..., so sometimes this location didn´t look as the safest place on the island, but no one was behaving bad or in a way you could be scared...
I was living in a new residential building, the flat was in a first ground. That location was really good, it was just 3 minutes from Lidl and 9 minutes from a bus station. It was a new, full equipped apartment for 3 people.
Another thing. Don´t be surprised, in Malta there are not containers for a trash on a streets as we know from our country. Every morning all the flats are taking trash bags and putting them in front of their doors so the dustmen can pick it up. So the streets are sometimes a little bit stinky or dirty.

The capital of Malta is called Valletta. But Valletta is just a small historical part of the city on a small peninsula, then it´s divided into smaller cities such as Msida, Floriana, Gzira, San Giljan, Hamrun, Birkirkara etc. Valletta, Floriana and 3 cities on the south of the capital (Birgu, L-isla and Kalkara) are more historical, you can find a lot of churches and domes there, and also remains or an original fortification, which goes around each historical city. You can find there a lot of beautiful parks and gardens, romantic streets and restaurants or caffeterias.
Gzira, and San Giljan (north part of the city) is more modern, you can find there administration buildings, clubs and shopping malls. Each week, some of the cities have a Festa (religious event), where people from that part of the city go to the streets, there are big processions or big parties on a squares. You should definitaly check it out. :)
In San Giljan there is a place called Pacceville - place full of bars and clubs, definitely worth a visit!

Malta is not a big island, however it takes you at least one hour to get from one side of Malta to another by bus. Be prepared that you will spend some time on a way.
This island has a lot to offer. You can find a lot of beaches, it depends which one do you prefer. There are at least 3 sandy beaches, the most famous ones are Ghajn Tuffieha, Mellieha beach or a Paradise bay beach. Others are mostly rocky or with cliffs, the most famous ones are St. Peter´s pool or Coral Lagoon.
If you stay there longer, I recommend you to visit small town on the south of Malta called Marsaxlokk. Every Sunday there is a big fish market happening and you can also buy there a lot of other stuff except of fish. It´s also possible to go for a boat ride around the cliffs and beaches such as St. Peter´s pool. Mellieha, St. Paul´s bay, and Popaye village are also places that are worth to visit.
On the north of the island, there are two other islands - Comino and Gozo. Comino is famous for it´s Blue lagoon with beautiful crystal clear water and cliffs and caves. Apart of that, there is not much to see, maybe it´s better to explore the island from the boat. It´s not that green as Gozo, so it´s not gonna be comfortable to walk in that hot weather.
But you should definitely visit Gozo. My recommendation is to go for at least 2 days. There are two options how to get to the island. First is to go from the capital to the north harbour and go by ferry to the island (it cost just 5 euros - you pay just on a way back), but it last at least 1 hour and half... or the second option is to get a speed boat from Valletta to Gozo, which costs 9 euros but you´ll be there in 45 minutes. On Gozo, you can visit famous "red" Ramla Beach with the window in a rocks above it, Dwejra Bay on the west side of the island, place, where part of Game of Thrones series was filmed or Ir-Rabat Għawdex, the biggest city on Gozo with Maltese citadel. I highly recommend to rent a scooter or four-wheeler, Gozo´s roads are not that busy as in Malta, so it´s safer to drive there and you are able to visit all the parts of Gozo in just one day.

The place where I was working was called Restoration Directorate (now Restoration Department). It´s a big architectural - restoration company with aprox. 150 people from different carreers etc.
In the office, we were working under Norbert Gatt, who was our boss. But there was another employee, Amanda DeGiovanni who was spending most of the time with us (interns), she explained to me what kind of work I should do and she also took us to a different places around Valletta to show us, on which projects are they working on.
It was absolutely great environment, everyone in the company was really kind and they helped me with a lot of things.

Me and another intern from Romania were working on a project called Cottonera Lines. The purpouse of this project was to connect parts of the city (Birgu, L-Isla and Kalkara) with the historical fortification which goes around this three cities. We had to make a better connection to the higher levels of the fortification, so we were creating ramps and bridges for inhabitants and turists to get there easier and with better experience. We were also designing some landscape architecture around these ramps and some sitting areas and shading systems on top of the fortification. We also designed one caffeteria in one part of that fortification.
It was really an interesting project and it was a really enriching experience.
During our internship, they took us to a different places to see other projects, which was also really interesting.

In my O-form, I had a salary of 792 euros/month, after two weeks (before my internship) they changed the amount of money on 625.8 euros/month because the higher salary was for winter months... In the end I was getting 578,2 euros (for 4 weeks), which definitely wasn´t enough to cover all of my expenses in Malta (just my rent was 470 euros)...

On the other hand my accommodation wasn´t the cheapest one, you can still find a really nice place to stay around 300 euros.

The employer required B1-B2 English (good) and it was enough. Malta´s official language is English and in the office everyone speaks both English and Maltese. :)

The accommodation was a really big struggle from the beginning honestly. It was really hard to find some place to stay, there was a lot of scammers... Unfortunatelly IAESTE Malta doesn´t provide an accommodation anymore.
I was lucky that I´ve got contact on other intern from Romania, who was coming on a same internship on a same period of time, so we could search together. In the end we found a new flat in Msida (I really recommend this location, it´s close to other parts of the city) provided by an owner from Poland. We had 2 separate rooms and one shared bathroom. It was a nice place, but the price was a little bit expensive. We payed 470 €/month (bills included).
This place was close to Lidl (just 3 minutes) and to the bus stop (9 minutes).

IAESTE Malta committee is a group of 8 people, so it´s not that big, however, they were really kind and tried to help us with everything they could. They picked me up at the airport when I arrived, they gave me instructions on where I should go on the first day of my internship and they tried to organize some events every week for us.
They also helped me a lot when I had health issues during my stay... So big thanks to them! :)

I met other foreign students during some events that IAESTE Malta organized. We also had a Whatsapp group where we could easily contact each other and plan some events.

There are a lot of activities you can do. You can rent a bike and travel around Malta by bike (however some of the Maltese people don´t recommend it because of the traffic and the weather), you can go running, swimming, etc. The University of Malta has its own places where you can practice any kind of activity, so if you are interested, you can check their website. :)
Malta is a religious country. You will see a lot of Festas and celebrations of Saint´s, which are always really colourful and they are usually followed by a lot of fireworks. Don´t be surprised, there are fireworks every day, even during the day :D
And the best thing, Malta is famous for its parties and festivals! You should definitely visit the SummerDaze festival (this year there were Zara Larson, Black Eyed Peas or Farruko), or Isle of MTV Malta - this one was free and the headliner was One Republic!

In Malta, you can find almost any kind of cuisine. From pizza, to kebab or asian food. Prices are normally between 7-15 euros for one meal, it depends what kind of food do you prefer and in which part of the city do you eat.

But it would be pitty to eat just these things when you can try traditional maltese food and drinks.
There are few meals and food, that are traditional for Malta:
Passtizzi - maltese pastery filled with Ricota, peas or chicken - they are very rich and a little bit oily, but they cost just 0,5 euros!!! Other pastery cost from 0,5 euros to 2,5 euros.
Octopus or other seafood - you must try it at least once, you are on the island and all the fish are fresh
Rabbit - definitely one of the most popular food on Malta (a little bit more expensive in a restaurants)
Ftira - traditional maltese sandwich with vegetable and tuna - it´s really tasty and big

Drinks:
Kinnie - nonalcoholic drink with herbal flavour and bubbles, it´s really good!

But honestly, the best way how to save money is to cook at home...

I was in contact with our national exchange coordinator from IAESTE during the whole stay, but I wasn´t in need to contact them. I also registered in a system DROZD, so I could be informed about aby kind of danger or important situation from our embassy.
I had to contact my insurence company once when I was sick.

First thing I would recommend is to find an accommodation in the area of L-Msida or Sliema. It is close to every other part of the city and the public transport si very frequent here. Another thing, regarding to the accommodation, is to start looking for it in advance (like 3-4 months). It ´s not that easy to find a nice place for a normal price and you will probably meet a lot of scammers. I personally recommend to search on FB groups or Erasmus groups on Whatsapp. :)
If you will go for 2 or more months you should apply at least 1 - 2 weeks before you will arrive to Malta for your Tallinja card for public transport https://www.publictransport.com.mt/en/register-now (it costs around 17 euros). Bus tickets cost 2 euros for two hours, with that card you can travel for free and it´s really worth it. :) Another recommendation is about the weather - Malta´s climate is very hot and humid, so you can bring a lot of summer clothes, but also don´t forget to bring some jacket or sweater - in the office they always use AC, so you can come to the office from 32 degrees to 17 degrees and you can easily get cold...

Definitaly some sunscreen and sunglasses, repelent against the mosquitos (there is a lot of them...)..

For me it was a great combination of work and holidays. During my stay, I met so many interesting people with different kinds of experiences. They showed me a lot of interesting places and projects. I was also working in a team with other intern from Romania, and it was a really nice cooperation.
We spent just 6 hours at work and after that we were exploring the island or just chilling on a beach. What else do you need :D

Without any problem. We had a Whatsapp group where we write whenever we need anything or when we just wanted to organize some event. :)