There is so much to share so let me start with a few essentials:

My parents are Maltese from the country of Malta, and I am a first generation American. My grandparents are Italian and French. Tifla is also a Maltese and her name translated from Maltese means "my little girl". In finding my grandmothers family tree dating back to 1600 ac, we discovered we are descendants of the famous California Missionary Junipero Serra. My grandmother, Mary Serra, who just past on at 101+ was one of many of the women in my family who has had a long life. Long life among women is not uncommon in my family. Grandma's grandmother lived to be 110 and my fathers grandmother lived to be 102. I come from a very large family, the oldest of 42 paternal grandchildren and 14 maternal grandchildren. I was blessed with 2 brothers and sisters and a courageous and determined mother to do the best by her family as a single parent.

Born and raised on Long Island, New York. Enlisted in the United States Navy in 1972 as a Radioman. I spent 7 years on active duty (RTC Orlando, FL; RMA School, Bainbridge MD; NATO Naples, Italy; CNO Staff, Pentagon, D.C.; Ponce, Puerto Rico; and Buffalo Recruiting Station NY). I then transferred to the United States Naval Reserves till 1992.

Traveling is my favorite thing to do, love discovering new places, and meeting new people. My travels have been to many places in the United States and abroad. I have traveled to the the following places in the United States and I invite you now to visit their sites and discover them for yourself: Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Louisiana, Maryland, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Mexico, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia, Wisconsin, and Wyoming

I have also traveled abroad to many places Australia (I lived in Tasmania for 3 months), Canada, Croatia, (where I sailed the Adriatic Sea for 4 days), Denmark, England, France, Germany, Italy (where I lived in Naples for a year), Malta, Mexico, Monaco, New Zealand, Puerto Rico (where I also lived for a year), Slovenia, and Sweden. I traveled most of Europe by EuroRail which I highly recommend for everyone to try. I visited many of the families of the students I hosted during their exchange; Mateo of Italy (who just got married and graduated college with an Engineering degree), Peta of Australia, Mica of Denmark(who is in law school), Sara(a computer major) and Sasa of Croatia, and Katrin(who is now in medical school) and Katia of Germany. I loved visiting the many countries through the eyes of my students and their families. This allowed me to learn more about the culture and meet many people. I enjoyed this international exchange so much, that my current goal is to have my international exchange program in operation by January 2000, "All One World Student Exchange Program."