The Cyprus Way of Life

Wednesday

This was an uninteresting day because I only had Greek class in the morning and the rest of the day was free.  To be honest, I had a negative feeling all day about where I am.  There really is not much to do here and we're in kind of an isolated location, which is strange to say being that we are right in the city.  I can walk two minutes to the grocery and home goods store, two minutes to the university, and five minutes to just about everything else I need.  That is extremely convenient and so unlike home, but there is still not much to do.  I need to go outside the city limits and more into the old city to explore.  So my new goal is to find cheap transportation, like the bus, to explore this country that I will be calling home for 3 months.  

Thursday

Wednesday I was feeling negative about how vastly different this country is from the states, but today I am feeling blessed and extremely excited, and it's only 11 30am!  I just got back to the apartment from my Social Psychology class.  We were let out an hour early, yet I still took so much away from it.  They say here that Cyprus is unlike any other place and it is so very true.  Yes, I could have gone to Italy or Spain or France and seen beautiful views everyday...but I would not have experienced the culture quite like this.  People drive on the wrong side of the road here, they speak Greek (a very difficult language to learn), they eat very different food, everything is closed on Wednesdays, there are debates about whether Cyprus is part of Europe or part of the Middle East, and most importantly they have a history unlike any country in this entire world.  I have learned about their history more than I care to share but today it really meant something to me.  In my class our professor asked the Cypriots to talk about what it means to be from Cyprus.  The first word someone gave was 'invasion'.  That was amazing to me.  Their history is apart of who they are everyday, in a much broader way than it is for the US or any other country.  They are divided here and still feel the pain of that division and the war and the rape and the take over.  It's so sad but it is also a huge factor that they must deal with everyday.  This was a great country to take Social Psych in and I'm sooooo excited for it.  Yes the university is small and I feel like an outsider...and it's just not what I was hoping for, but I am going to be fully immersed in the culture and learn so much more.  It really will change who I am and change the way I think about the world-it already does.  I cannot wait!!  This is what studying abroad is all about and I am so ready to jump right in!

Espana

Friday

We arrived in Barcelona in the evening and immediately had a 3 hour walking tour.  Barcelona is nowhere near what I was expecting.  It's a huge city the size of Texas and the inhabitants do not consider themselves  part of Spain.  They are actually Catalonians and speak Catalon, a version of Spanish.  Our walking tour was more about architecture, so we visited the Sagrada Familia, a huge church in the city that is very important to it's citizens.  Afterwards, we went looking for food and I had my first authentic Spanish dinner of seafood paella and Sangria.  It was worth every penny.  Yum.

Saturday

We had a free day so I went around the city with a friend.  The first thing we did was a cable car tour, where you get an entire view of Barcelona.  That was great.  It takes you up to the top of a mountain where there is also a castle.  We walked around and looked at the view of the city and the ocean.  Beautiful.  Since Barcelona was not exactly my favorite  city, I just walked around the rest of the day and mentally prepared myself to go back to Cyprus and start classes!!  It was Barcelona day so there was a big celebration at night.  I saw fireworks from my balcony and one of the city's large towers was all lit up.

Sunday

We spent the day on planes, making our way back to Cyprus!  Yay!

Monday

This was my first day of classes!  I only had GLS classes (my program is called Global Learning Semesters and some of our classes are just in their building, not in the university).  My first class was Greek, and in two and a half hours we learned A LOT.  I feel really good about actually learning the native language now!  The big chunk of my day I spent grocery shopping.  I'm finally able to feel at home here now that we aren't traveling anymore and have time to get used to our surroundings.  The local grocery store is just a two minute walk and has a lot of local foods.  It's still somewhat frustrating to not be able to find certain things that I have become accustomed to at home, but I'm ready to embrace the culture!  At night I had my photography class, which I'm very excited for.

Tuesday

Today I had two classes, both in the university.  A lot more people have moved into our apartment complex since school started and we're all excited to meet some locals.  The classes are very different here but I feel like I will be able to make friends in my classes and also learn a lot and participate a lot, despite what I was expecting.  It was great to start classes!  Tomorrow is my first Greek quiz!

Florence

Tuesday

This day we left for Florence via bus.  On the way there we stopped at the leaning tower of Pisa.  It was really cool to see something that I've always heard about like that.  It was a pretty area but very touristy.  Then we got back on the bus and finally arrived in Florence.  We made a stop at a beautiful panoramic view of Florence that was breathtaking.  We arrived at the hotel at night and I met up with Hannah from school, who is studying in Florence.  We went out to dinner and walked around the city to see the Duomo and the many statues and buildings.  It was a great night and I fell in love with the city immediately.

The leaning tower of Pisa (trust me it is leaning).

3 gorgeous views of Florence.

Wednesday

This morning we went to the Uffizi, a famous art museum that houses Michaelangelo's only painting and some of Leonardo DiVinci.  I am not usually interested in art museums but this was so intriguing and our tour guide was excellent.  It was a great museum.  Afterwards, we went to a nice italian restaurant and met up with Hannah again.  We window shopped, a popular thing to do in Florence, and enjoyed all the narrow streets and buildings all around the city.  At night we went to the opera!  It took place in a church and featured a man and woman that alternated and also preformed duets.  It was a beautiful walk and we found a great place to eat dinner underground with great ambiance.  The opera was a great experience!  It was something new for me to do and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Thursday

Today we left for Venice.  When we arrived we a took a boat ride to central Venice.  The view looked just like that of the scene from Casino Royale when they are sailing through Venice.  It was so expansive.  Unfortunately, it is very touristy, but it is a beautiful and picturesque place.  While walking around, we stumbled upon a helicopter tour guide and decided to see Venice in a helicopter!  I went with two other friends from my program.  It was definitely the best 40 euro I have and will ever spend.  Even the boat ride to the airport was a great experience.  It's hard to explain the helicopter ride in words, but it was so so amazing.  Venice is not one island, but many.  Like all the other parts of Italy, it was breathtaking.  After all of this we went back to the island and walked around.  The boat ride back to where we are staying at night was very pretty.  Tomorrow we leave for Barcelona, Spain!

I promise to post pictures once I get back to Cyprus in a few days-the internet in the hotels does not work well enough for me to be able to load them.





View of some of Venice from our helicopter ride!

When in Rome

September 20, 2010

Saturday

We went to a beach in Greece via the tram.  It was about an hour long and very uncomfortable.  When we arrived I forgot all of that.  It was by far the most beautiful beach I have ever seen.  The water was so incredibly clear and blue, the beach was made of white rocks, and there were beautiful trees everywhere.  I spent all day swimming in the ocean and floating because of the high salt content.  It was a great day.  On the way home we watched the sunrise from the tram.  That night we ate at an authentic greek restaurant that served us meze, meaning an entire meal of greek food.  It was a great way to end our time in Greece.

The first Grecian beach we went to.

Sunday

This was a long day.  We had to wake up at 5am to leave for Rome.  As soon as we arrived we left for the Colosseum.  It was AMAZING.  I was blown away.  Then we went on a 3 hour walking of Rome.  This city completely exceeded my expectations.  I have no words to describe it so I will put up pictures.  I could not believe what I was looking at.  There were ruins surrounding us everywhere we looked.  It was beautiful.

View from the Colosseum

The Colosseum

Overlooking part of Rome (pictures do not do it justice).

Monday

Today we took the metro to the Vatican Museum.  We also saw the Sistine Chapel and the Vatican itself.  It was another beautiful thing to see and very interesting in history.  We leave Rome tomorrow but I wish we weren't.  This city is astounding.  But Florence is next and I am very excited for that city as well!

Athens!

September 17, 2010

Thursday

This was the first day of our ten days in Europe.  We arrived in Athens in the morning and drove to our hotel.  Immediately, I spotted the differences.  Here, they drive on the correct side of the road.  In Cyprus they do not because it is a British colony, and they also used to use pounds rather than euros.  The scenery is very different, too.  There is a lot more foliage here and mountains-it’s beautiful.  The city itself is huge and bustling.  The driving is still pretty crazy and scary at times, but definitely something I will get used to.  After we arrived we walked around the shopping distract, Plaka.  I felt like the quintessential tourist, going in every store and buying postcards and trinkets.  It is strange to say, but it feels much more greek in this city, as opposed to Cyprus.  I’m really enjoying it here.  At night we attempted to make a trip to the temple of Poseidon, using the metro and public bus.  Unfortunately we missed the last bus, but it was nice to get around the city and see things we might have missed.  We went out to dinner in the Plaka on a street with a lot of romantic restaurants.  It was beautiful and had a very European feel.  We even watched street vendors being chased by the police!  Only in Europe. 

Friday

Today was an early morning.  We ate breakfast on the top floor of our hotel where you could look over the entire city of Athens.  It was the most beautiful thing I have seen thus far.  Our program took us to a Greek mythology and history museum that I found very interesting.  It reflected a lot of the things I learned in my Classics course.  After that we went to the Acropolis!  It was beautiful, despite the many stairs we had to walk up.  The view was even more amazing than breakfast.  I really enjoy learning about the history and mythology of this culture.  Afterwards we walked around for awhile.  We even met a man who was very interested in us being American and proceeded to take a picture with me to show his friends that people who have pale skin and red hair truly exist….very bizarre.  But all in all it was a great day.  Walking around Greece is so fascinating.  Tomorrow we’re headed to one of the islands or a beach to relax and enjoy the gorgeous scenery!

View of Athens from the Acropolis

So this is what culture shock feels like...

September 14, 2010

Wow, what an interesting few days!  Sunday was merely an information day, being the start of orientation. But learning about all the free travel we can do was GREAT.  Cyprus is in a very strategic location for traveling to the Middle East, Europe, and Asia.  My group has already decided we'd like to travel to Jordan for a few days and Amsterdam on a week long trip.  Weekends trips with consist of traveling to the different cities within Cyprus that have amazing beaches or places where we can hike beautiful mountains. During the informational session we also learned a lot about Cyprus's history.  We learned about the war that led up to the divide of the island into the Greek Cypriot side and the Turkish Cypriot side.  It's a sad story involving refugees and many people who can no longer see their homes again, but it was interesting to learn the history of this unique island.

Monday we went to a cooking class with the University of Nicosia's Greek version of Emeril (not really but that's how I would describe him).  Learning more about the food only instilled my negatives feelings towards most of it, but I am certainly open to getting used to it!  After the cooking class we took a tour of the university (2 minutes from our apartment complex) and just about the same size as my school, with an even smaller feel.  At night we had a welcome dinner at a nice restaurant that served all kinds of food, buffet style.  And later that night we met our Cypriot neighbors that live in the apartment across from us. Finally some locals!  We really enjoy their company and are excited to learn a lot from them.

Today we had more informational meetings.  Afterwards my two roommates and I took a taxi to the old city to go shopping for things we need for our upcoming trip to Europe.  That's when the culture shock really set in.  Unfortunately, Cypriots are not the best/safest drivers.  We had to cross the street more than usual and had many close calls!  We walked around for a few hours because any directions we can manage to get in English don't seem to be helpful either way.  It's another world here, that is for sure.  When we were ready to leave we called a taxi and spent at least ten minutes on the phone trying to explain to him where we are.  The streets are not well marked and if they are, they are mostly in greek.  It truly brought new meaning to 'it's all greek to me'!  Getting back to our apartment was a relief!  Although many things are different and somewhat frustrating at times, I know I will begin to like it more here when I am more accustomed to everything and start traveling to other cities.  I promise to put up photos once I take ones that are interesting enough!  I miss you all and hope every one of you is doing well!

Getting to know the city

September 12, 2010

Day 1: As most of you know, I finally made it to Nicosia!  My apartment is actually in the suburbs outside Nicosia, in Makedonnista.  As soon as I made it to my apartment I felt right at home.  It's in a great location, convenience wise.  I love my roommates and have already made great friends with the people in the program.  The first day we all went to eat gyros and shop for groceries and such.  This is about a five minute walk from Maro, our apartment building.  Crossing the street is not exactly something I enjoy, but I'm sure we will eventually get the hang of it so we all feel a little safer!  Unfortunately, not as many people speak as much English as I had expected, considering Cyprus was colonized by the British.  Because of this, I think I have decided to take Greek.  I have learned a few words like Yasus (pronunctiation, not actually spelling) is hello for older people, goodbye, etc., Yasu is for younger people, and that is all I can really remember at the moment!  A language with a different alphabet makes things difficult!  The rest of the first day we spent getting to know each other and later we went out for dinner.  The local food will definitely take some getting used to, but we all want to immerse ourselves in the culture as much as possible.

Day 2: Saturday our program took us on a tour of the city.  We took a bus tour and also did some walking around in the old city.  We rode along the wall originally used to seperate the Greeks from the Turks, called the Green Line.  We are on the Greek side but eventually we will take a trip to the Turkish side, which I'm very excited about.  We also saw the Arch Bishop's mansion and went inside a greek orthodox church, which was elaborately decorated.  Next, we went to what we would call a farmer's market.  If I could speak greek I would have asked what all the different kinds of fruit were called.  I have never seen so many strange looking fruits and vegetables.  I am already enjoying how different this island is from anywhere I have ever been before.  I love walking around and seeing the locals.  We came to Cyprus at a great time because there are essentially no tourists.  This way we can observe the island in it's natural state.
Still struggling with jet lag, we all took it easy the rest of the day.  Sadly, we have already gone back to our american ways and ordered Papa John's for dinner.  Greek food will definitely take some getting used to!  After dinner my luggage came!  I felt like a kid on Christmas morning.  Now I have everything I need and feel so much more comfortable.
Today we start orientation.  It's going to be a long day of listening and taking notes.  I'm looking forward to more adventures!  Before I know it, we will be on our way to Greece, Italy, and Spain in four days!

The Beginning

Sept. 10, 2010 10:12AM (Cyprus time)

So I will start my first blog off once I had arrived in the Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris, from Philadelphia.  I felt like I had already been traveling for days.  Wow.  I think my flight from Philly to Paris was about 8 hours, and of course I did not sleep at all.  I was too excited!  The Charles de Gaulle airport is something else.  It's not as glamorous as I would have expected...and no one seems to speak english!  My four years of French did not do much to help me, but I got by.  Security in other countries is pretty different than ours, so I took a long time getting through.  I definitely learned a lot about what goes in the bin and what doesn’t!  So after my 4 hour layover I was off to Frankfurt, Germany.  After that short flight I had a long layover of 8 hours.  The airport was nicer than I remembered, mainly because they had lounge chairs so I was able to find a place to sleep.  There were so many different languages being spoken around me and so many different looking people.  It was incredibly interesting.  As I have found with my previous travels abroad, I find many of the Europeans or natives of whatever country you find yourself in, to be extremely helpful to us outsiders.  Thank goodness for that.  Finally it was time to go to my gate for my flight to Larnaca, Cyprus!  That’s really where my trip began.  I found myself in a gate (in a closed off room, very strange) with tons and tons of Greeks!  I felt like I was in My Big Fat Greek Wedding.  Everyone was loud, people were even dancing, and I’m pretty sure the only language I could pick up on was greek.  I sat there, feeling like an outsider but not in a bad way, I just watched all these people, the culture of the people that I will be spending 3 ½ months with.  I smiled to myself.  That was the moment I knew I had picked the right location for this journey I have ahead of me. 

My flight was about 5 hours.  Imagine 5 hours of loud, fun-loving people.  Although I wanted to sleep, I couldn’t help but laugh and smile at them.  It was strange seeing kids who are clearly younger than me, ordering beer on the flight.  One of the many differences I will experience in Cyprus and the other countries I visit.  It was definitely an eventful flight.  Unfortunately, so was the afterwards.  I get off the plane and go to baggage claim, immediately nervous that my bags will not be there.  Sadly, they were not.  I tried not to freak out internally, but it was hard to prevent it.  I spent a lot of time at the baggage claim desk with some very helpful people.  These foreign countries are full of hospitable people and that is something I am so greatful for.  I was also supposed to meet my taxi driver at the airport.  He was to have my cell phone and the key to my apartment in Nicosia, about an hour away from Larnaca.  I did not stumble upon him.  This was my worst fear!  After admittedly a lot of tears, I found a taxi and a hotel.  I stayed here in Larnaca, and that is where I am now.  I am waiting for my taxi that will take me to my apartment in Nicosia, where I will truly begin my trip!  Although there were some bumps in the road, it was a great learning experience and a nice time to be alone and reflect on what is in store for me.  Next time I update my blog I will be in Nicosia!