Brussels/Turkey/I'll Be Home Soon!

It’s been a while since I’ve been on here, so I have TWO trips to update you on!  First, Brussels!  Here’s a quick re-cap:

Day 1, Wednesday: This was a day consumed mainly by transportation.  A group of nine of us all hopped in a service taxi together and were dropped of at Larnaca airport.  We  all booked tickets with Ryan-Air, so we were all on the same flight.  When checking in and getting our boarding passes, I was a little nervous: I heard that they were kind of picky beforehand, but I kind of brushed it off.  Well...they are picky.  VERY picky.  Many of us, including myself, almost had to check our baggage because “it was too big.”  Thankfully, all but two of us were able to prove that our luggage met the requirements by shoving our bags into a cardboard box...after that little fiasco, we just went through security, and waited for our flight.  The flight was pretty uneventful.  Not the comfiest, but, uneventful...  Our group landed in Belgium at around 5:30pm.  It was SO cold, and it was raining when we landed.  Brrrrrr!  From the airport, we took a 45-minute bus ride into Brussels where we were dropped off at a metro station.  This is where many of us parted ways (a lot of people were only flying to Brussels because it was cheap, and easy to catch connecting flights to other countries).  So, four of us (Rose, Alexis, Mindy, and I), continued on our journey: we decided beforehand that we were going to partaking in couchsurfing together.  For those of you who don’t know what couchsurfing is, it’s basically staying in a local resident’s house for whatever length of time you need to.  We were lucky to find a host pretty last minute, that would take four of us.  However, he did not live in Brussels: he lived in a village outside of the city called Overijse.  So, this meant trying to find a way to get from Brussels to Overijse.  It was a long process, let me tell you.  In short, we ended up taking a metro and two buses (in addition to the other bus ride that we had from the airport to Brussels).  It may not sound like much, but we ended up arriving at Overijse about 4 hours later than we had anticipated.  AND, we were dropped off at the wrong bus stop.  We called Konstantin, our host, when we arrived in town, and he was gracious enough to pick us up despite the fact that it was at the wrong bus stop.  When we arrived at his house, he let us settle in--we stayed in a guest room with its own bathroom, and he had laid out chocolates on each of our pillows (how sweet!); it was better than a hostel, that’s for sure!  After we had gotten ourselves settled, we headed back downstairs where Konstantin had a nice, warm, homemade meal waiting for us!  It consisted of a pumpkin soup and waffles!  (Did I mention that everything was homemade?!)  It was delicious.  After talking to Konstantin for a while, we headed back upstairs to go to sleep: we were exhausted!  I forgot to mention: Konstantin didn’t really heat his house...he heated maybe two rooms with a heater...therefore, our room was not heated.  And, like I told you, it was FREEZING in Brussels.  Soooo, I ended up sleeping with four layers on top, three layers on bottom, and two pairs of socks on my feet.  Did I mention that I had two down comforters on top of me as well?  With all of that, I was content.  Honestly, I did get a good night’s sleep for the most part...it was fabulous.  

Day 2, Thursday: After getting a decent amount of sleep, we woke up, got ready for the day, and enjoyed a nice breakfast with Konstantin.  He had already taken his two daughters to school, so once again, we did not see them!  And Mindy had left early in the morning to head back to the airport because she was flying to Ireland on this day!  So we were missing a few people, but breakfast was still good!  For me, it consisted of bread and nutella along with cereal...filled with Nutella!  See a pattern?  haha.  Mmmmm, Nutella.  The night before, Konstantin informed us that he was planning on heading into Brussels that day, so he offered us a ride into the city.  He had to get ready for the day first, so we waited in the dining room while he got ready.  His dining room has a big glass wall/door to the outside, which shows a small little courtyard of sorts.  This is where his cat, Bridget, stays!  Well, Bridget was in the courtyard, so while we were waiting for Konstantin, we played with the cat through the glass and took some pictures of her.  hehe.  When Konstantin was ready to go, we headed into his van and made it into the city in a matter of 30 minutes (a lot faster than the 4 hours it took us the previous night!).  Might I mention that everyone in Belgium is SUCH a courteous driver?!  Seriously.  EVERY time he needed to get into another lane, people would let him in right away.  So different from the US!  When we arrived in the city, we made our first stop at a flea market.  There wasn’t much there though, and it was really cold, so after looking around for a little bit, we hopped back in the van and drove to the palace.  We got out there and walked around a bit.  Konstantin took us through a really cute part of Brussels, and then we stopped at...dun dun dun...the first shopping mall in the world!  JUST my type of place.  haha.  There actually weren’t really any stores that I’d really shop at..mainly just chocolate shops and cafes, with a few high-end stores interspersed throughout.  We walked around some more and got our very first chocolates in Belgium at Leonidas!  It was really yummy.  After that Konstantin had to leave us.  The rest of the day, we just walked around and explored the city.  This included seeing Manneken Pis, buying a “sugar waffle,” trying some fries (I tried mine with half ketchup, half andalouse sauce--a local favorite, or so I read online..), buying hot chocolate from Godiva (probably the best hot cocoa I’ve ever had, with the exception of my dad’s homemade hot cocoa of course!), running into Stuart and Kyle (a couple of the guys in GLS with us), and hopping back on the metro and then the bus back to Overijse.  This time it didn’t take us 4 hours, so that was nice!  When we got back in town, we stopped at the grocery store and picked up some groceries to prepare a Thanksgiving meal for Konstantin and his girls as a way to say “thank you.”  (We bought him a box of Cyprus Delight, but we didn’t feel like this would suffice!)  We were all missing our home-cooked Thanksgiving meals anyway, and we wanted to share a tradition from the U.S. with them--it was really fun!  We made chicken and veggies, green beans, cranberries, VERY salty mashed potatoes, and we bought buns and a cherry tart as well.  Although it wasn’t the same as what we’d normally have, we were pretty impressed with ourselves.  Konstantin and the girls enjoyed it too (well, minus the potatoes...lol).  After our meal, conversing for a bit, and doing the dishes, we headed upstairs to go to bed where I made a quick call home.  Then, after I had my multiple layers on, it was lights out!

Day 3, Friday: This day started out like the day before: we all woke up and ate breakfast with Konstantin once we were ready for the day.  Today, however, we took the bus into Brussels.  We had to take an approximately ten minute walk to the bus stop, and boy-oh-boy, is Overijse a picturesque village or what!  We hadn’t really seen it in the daylight yet, and I thought it was gorgeous!  Today was another day of mainly walking around.  However, this day was special because it was the first day of the Christmas market in Brussels!  All kinds of vendors were setting up their booths, trying to sell their crafts and foods.  I ended up buying a pair of gloves from a booth that sold knitted things because my fingers were really cold!  While walking around, we got waffles (this time, I got mine with Nutella, and Alexis got one with strawberries, chocolate, and whipped cream).  We also stopped at a place where Alexis got a monster sandwich filled with fries, meat, and globs of mayo.  I’m wondering why this isn’t a staple in American menus yet!!!  Amidst buying food and more hot cocoa, we just took our time strolling through the market and looking at the different types of items that the vendors had to offer: the market was really cute!  Our walking also took us to the Magritte museum, one of the places that Rose had really desired to see while we were in Belgium.  For those of you who don’t know him off of the top of your head, he was a surrealist painter.  One of his famous works that you might recognize is a painting of a man whose face is replaced with/covered by a green apple.  His works were very interesting to see!  Finally, near the end of our time in the city (and when it was dark out), we went on the giant ferris wheel in the Christmas Market.  It was SO gorgeous at night--the entire city and the market were completely lit up!  After seeing all that there was to see, we headed back to Overijse where we were welcomed with another homemade meal: mussels (with potatoes thank goodness!).  Alexis mentioned earlier this week that she’d like to try some because it’s a Belgian delicacy of sorts (and that if you’re invited to eat mussels with a Belgian, “you’re in”).  So, the night before, Konstantin asked us if we’d like to try some.  We replied that we’d be up for it, so he made a HUGE pot full of them.  And yes, I did eat them.  I actually ate all of the two plate-fulls that he gave me!  Thankfully, the shells take up the majority of the room on the plate, but still...and for dessert, we had cake that one of his daughter’s made for her class (she told us that if you forgot something three times, you were required to bring in a cake to class...I wish we had had that type of rule at school!  ha).  It was actually quite delicious, considering that an 11-year-old made it.  After dinner, we played a board game with Konstantin called “The Dance of the Witches” I think.  It’s really simple, but quite tricky.  However, I totally won (which Alexis did not appreciate.  haha)!  :)  After playing and a little more conversing, we said our goodbyes and headed up to bed.  Little did we know........

Day 4, Saturday: Waking up slightly before 5:00am, we were in for a treat (*insert sarcasm here).  It turns out that the shuttle service that we had hired the day before to take us to the airport had decided to change our time...to 4:20am!  Even though they had tried to contact us, Rose didn’t really pay attention to her phone after we had gotten the original text telling us what time we’d be picked up.  It turns out they sent her a text with the time change sometime the night before, but she never saw it.  Therefore, we missed it.  Frantically, we woke up, quickly finished packing up, and tried to contact the shuttle service.  After doing so, and finding out that they wouldn’t come for us, we had to resort to waking up Konstantin.  He tried to help us find a taxi that could take us to the airport, but since time was running out, he ended up driving us the ~1 hour drive to the airport so we could catch our flight.  We felt so bad!  However, we got to the airport just in the nick of time, so we were quite relieved!  After thanking Konstantin profusely and giving him a bit of gas money, we ran into the airport, got through passport control and security, and got in line to board the plane just in time.  We all ended up sitting next to each other, and after an uncomfortable 3+ hour flight (noisy/cranky/screaming babies included), we landed in Larnaca.  When boarding the plane, we noticed that some of our other friends from GLS were on the same flight, so we ended up hiring a cab and riding back to our apartment together.  For the rest of the day, I just relaxed and did busy-work.  Overall, I had a blast on this trip!  It was freezing cold, but totally great!  :)

Now for my next trip...this past weekend, I went to Turkey!  Four of my friends and I traveled to Istanbul together, and we had a great time!  Our group consisted of Rose, Stuart, Jade, Leah, and myself.  Here’s a re-cap of our experience:

Day 1, Friday: After getting a half hour of sleep, I met the others outside at 3:30 am.  We called a taxi from the street, and he took us to the border crossing at Ledra Street.  Let me tell you, seeing Ledra Street when no one is on it is pretty crazy!  It is NEVER empty when I go, so it was kind of weird to see it so still!  We crossed the border, and then found another taxi to take us to the airport that we were flying out of on the North side.  We arrived at the airport a lot earlier than we expected, so we just waited in a little cafe area until we could get our boarding passes.  After waiting for a while, workers started to appear, so we went and got our boarding passes.  After, we went through passport control and security one last time, and waited another hour until it was time to board our plane.  Luckily, Jade, Stuart, and I got seated by an emergency exit (aka, I had lots of extra leg-room!)  After an uneventful flight, we did all of the usual, necessary things when landing, and then hopped on a bus to the city.  We got off at a stop that wasn’t near our hostel, so we decided to explore a while and then find a way to get to our final destination.  Finally, we hopped in a cab that dropped us off near the Hagia Sophia, just a short walk to our hostel.  After quite a bit of searching, we found our place, checked in, and then headed back out to walk around a bit.  We started out by walking around the Hagia Sophia.  When we were in the area, we came upon some locals who decided to show us a lovely surprise: puppies!  They were SO cute, and I’d say that they were just born within the last week or so.  After seeing them, we started walking in the area by the Topkapi Palace.  It was gorgeous!  We also saw another dog here, and Jade and Stuart pretty much fell in love with him.  (They even named him “Dixon!”)  haha.  After spending some time around Dixon, we walked around some more and then made our way to the Blue Mosque.  This is one of the most beautiful and impressive mosques that I’ve been in so far in my travels.  Seriously, I can’t even comprehend how someone decorated that ENTIRE place.  The intricacy of the details alone is enough to make your jaw drop.  After walking around the mosque a bit, we decided to sit down for a little while and just continue to look around in awe for a little longer.  However, this was somewhat of a poor decision: all of us were getting so tired, that we almost fell asleep!  As soon as we realized this, we decided to walk back to our hostel where we occupied ourselves until 8:00pm--we collectively decided that we couldn’t go to bed any earlier because we’d wake up too early the next morning!  So, once everyone was ready to sleep, I watched an episode of one of my new favorite shows, the Buried Life, on my iPod, and was ready for bed by 9:00!  It was a long day, and felt super nice to get to sleep!

Day 2, Saturday: After getting around 12 hours of sleep, all of us were up and ready to start the day.  We all got dressed, and then started to make our way to the Grand Bazaar.  On our way, a few of us got a bite to eat for breakfast on the street (I got an apple pastry).  After our quick pit-stops, we headed on in to the Grand Bazaar.  THAT was awesome!  I really like to go explore in bazaars and barter with the vendors.  It’s super fun, and a really cool way to shop!  I got quite a few things for a pretty good deal, but most of them were gifts, so no worries!  haha.  After spending about three hours in the bazaar, we decided that we needed a breather.  So, we made our way back to the hostel where we dropped our stuff off in our room and took a short break.  After our break, we made our way to yet another bazaar: the Spice Bazaar.  It was filled with spices, and the aroma of the air was fantastic.  I tried dried kiwi at one of the vendors.  It was veryyyyy yummy, and I’m going to keep a lookout for some when I get home for sure.  After we all made our purchases, we stopped for a few minutes to call one of Rose’s friends back home to sing “Happy Birthday.”  I feel like we got quite a few looks, but it was really fun!  We ate a early dinner, and then made our way back to the hostel where we took another break.  When it was dark outside, we decided to make our way to the sea.  We stopped at an “exercise park” we found along the way: it was a park filled completely with exercise-like equipment!  We had quite a bit of fun playing around at the park, and then we continued down to the seaside where we just sat on a ledge near the water and chatted for a while.  On our way back to the hostel, we walked in the direction of the Blue Mosque and the Hagia Sophia so we could see them lit up at night.  It was quite funny because there were a bunch of seagulls circling the top of the Blue Mosque, but we couldn’t figure out what they were for the longest time (I thought they were bats at first!).  On our walk back, we also made two new friends: a couple of dogs that we ended up naming Mikael and Ashley/Darla (there was a disagreement on the names..haha).  They walked with us for a long time, at least fifteen minutes--almost all the way back to our hostel!  They were really cute.  :)  When we got back, we just relaxed, got ready for bed, and then hit the hay!  (But I didn’t do so until I had watched another episode of the Buried Life of course!)

Day 3, Sunday: This day was pretty uneventful, mainly because it was REALLY cold and kind of rainy.  We checked out in the morning, and then walked to a big bridge that connects a couple parts of Istanbul.  There were many fishermen scattered about on the bridge.  It was quite interesting because they put multiple hooks on their lines!  The rest of the day, we just walked around for a while, got lunch (where we stayed for over an hour because it was nice and warm inside), and walked back to see Dixon and the puppies (I got to hold one and its eyes weren’t even open yet!  It was so cute!).  When we walked back to the hostel, I watched an episode of the buried life while the others just read or listened to music.  Our shuttle came and picked us up, and then took us to the airport (traffic was HORRIBLE because a major sporting event was going on!).  We still got to the airport with plenty of time though, and we just ended up eating dinner and waiting to board the plane.  I ended up watching the remaining episodes of the Buried Life that were on my iPod in between my time at the hostel that afternoon and the time that we landed back in Cyprus (about 5 total!).  We got back around 10:30, and were back at our apartments by 11:00pm.  

All in all, this was a great trip as well.  We didn’t do much sightseeing, which I’m kind of happy of: it gives me a good reason to go back someday!  I loved Istanbul--it’s a beautiful city, and the locals there are very nice.  I hope I’ll make it back that way sometime in the future!

Well, that’s all I have to update you on I guess.  Not much else has been going on here.  I’ve just been getting ready for my few finals and for heading back home.  Let me tell you...I’m getting SUPER pumped for Christmas!  They constantly play Christmas music at the mall/grocery store, and Christmas decorations are popping up in a lot of places.  I can’t wait to be home for the holidays!  

I'm probably not going to post anything on here until after Christmas, but feel free to check back in a couple of weeks if you get the time: I'm going to probably post a reflection on my time in Cyprus, and I’ll try to figure out how to post pictures on here too for the people that aren’t able to see them on my Facebook page.   Other than that, I guess I’ll just be back to updating my blog about travels until I head back to Europe in January!  I can’t believe that a month from now I’ll be in Europe again!  It's so crazy how FAST time flies!  In case I don’t post anything else before Christmas, I would like to wish you a very Merry Christmas!  I hope your holidays are blessed, and that you get everything that you wished for this year!!!

12 days until I'm home!  

:)

My Latest Adventures Around Cyprus!

So, I guess it’s time that I update this bad-boy again.  haha.  Two weekends ago, Friday through Sunday, GLS took our group around the island a bit.  I’ll describe the experience by city to make it simple.

Pafos:  Pafos was our first stop.  On our way to the city though, we made a couple of pit-stops.  The first two were to see some castles.  Our tour-guide from the beginning of the program, Dimetria, came with us again to show us around.  She explained some things about each place to us, and then would set us free to go explore it for a while.  They were really interesting, and the view from the top of both was gorgeous!  Next, we made our way to a site containing ancient Turkish baths and a well-preserved amphitheater.  It was right next to the sea, and the surroundings were quiet picturesque.  Can you imagine being able to bathe, outside, overlooking the sea?  How great!  lol.  After visiting the baths, we made a pit-stop on the side of the road to see what is considered the birthplace of Aphrodite: “Aphrodite’s Rock.”  It is said that here, the mythological goddess of beauty and love, was born out of the sea foam.  After seeing it, you could definitely understand why!  The colors of the unbelievably clear water were beautiful blends of turquoise and sapphire blue, and the sea seemed to stretch on for miles and miles.  Sadly, we were only able to stop for about five, maybe ten minutes.  After leaving the site, Dimetria told us about a legend: it is said that, if you swim naked around the rock three times under a full moon that you will have good luck in love for the rest of your life (or something along the lines depending on the variation you hear).  She said that the waters are warmest in August, so that when there’s a full moon next August, to think of her and know what she’ll be doing.  lol.  :D  She’s so funny...finally, our group reached Pafos.  After a lunch-break, we all met up to see the infamous “Pafos Mosaics.”  They really are quite something.  They are very intricate, and they all tell a different and unique story.  After visiting Pafos, we made our way to Limassol.

Limassol: We spent two nights in Limassol (Friday night and Saturday night).  The first night, we just checked in (some of us, including my room, got to stay in “Executive Housing” across the street--it was pretty neat!), and we explored a little and ate dinner.  Rose, Shami, and I ate at Nandos, a restaurant that specializes in chicken dishes.  I got a chicken wrap, and it was delicious!  After dinner, we all just headed back to the hotel and turned in for the night.  The following morning, after breakfast, my friends and I decided to hit the beach for a little while.  It was nice, but the water is definitely getting colder!  It reminded me of summer waters in MN lakes...  :/  eh, I’ll take what I can get...it’s better than being in all of that snow I hear we’re having back home!  hehe.  After swimming for a bit and relaxing, we decided to go to the mall.  I know, I know...we’re in another city, we should get out and explore more...but honestly, Limassol is a really touristy town.  With tourist-season over, there’s not much else to do but shop there!  And besides, we’re a group of girls...what do you expect?!  Anyway, so, after quite a bit of confusion waiting for a bus, we all squished into a taxi and headed out to “My Mall.”  We were told that this is Cyprus’ best mall, and in my opinion, it’s Cyprus’ equivalent of MOA.  At this mall, there is an ice-skating rink and a bowling alley, amongst many stores of course!  The first thing that we did when we got to the mall was to find the island’s ONLY Taco Bell!  Many of us had major Mexican food cravings, so of course we stopped there.  Afterwards, we all spent the day shopping.  No worries, I only made one purchase: a light, black sweater of sorts.  I’ve already worn it more than a few times, so it was definitely a good purchase.  :)  After the mall, we went out for some Chinese food (I know...Mexican?  Chinese?  What can I say?  We were all hankering things that we haven’t really been able to eat since we’ve been here!).  After, we all just went back to the hotel and turned in for the night where most of us either just watched a movie or fell asleep.  The next morning, we had a relaxing breakfast, walked down to the beach again, and then departed for Lefkara.

Lefkara:  This was definitely my favorite part of our weekend trip (and sadly, the shortest part as well...we only had about and hour and a half to explore!).  Lefkara is a small village, situated in the Troodos Mountains.  It was so quaint and absolutely beautiful!  Lefkara is mainly known for its lace.  It’s been said that Leonardo Da Vinci brought back lace from Lefkara to Italy: they even have a special “Da Vinci” pattern that they embroider on their lace!  There were lace shops every few feet it seemed, and most of the shop-owners we ran into described the lace-making process and the differences in all of the products.  For my friends and I, the time that we spent in Lefkara was mainly focused on walking around and exploring.  I got some great pictures of the village, and had a wonderful time being in a different atmosphere than the city-atmosphere that I’m used to!  It was sad to leave, but it inspired some travels for the following weekend...

Last weekend, two of my friends (Maggie and Alexis) and I decided to explore the village of Kakopetria in the Troodos Mountains, and we decided to make a day-trip back to the town of Kyrenia with our friend, Faith, as well.

Kakopetria: It’s hard to say, but I think I liked this village even better than the village of Lefkara.  We took a bus to Kakopetria, and after a little over an hour of driving, we arrived in the mountain-village.  Like the weekend before, our time was mainly devoted to walking around and exploring (to be honest, two of my favorite things to do when visiting a new place).  We started by exploring the higher part of the village: one of the highlights of our time in the village was the fresh grapes that we came upon on our way up.  They were very big and warm from the sun, and soooo delicious.  We couldn’t help picking a bunch off of the vine once we saw them!  :)  We also saw a couple of small waterfalls as well--they were beautiful!  After exploring the higher part of the village, we made our way back towards the center and went off in another direction.  We found ourselves on a street that led to some cute side-streets: we came across a small church, with an olive-tree (I think?) in the courtyard outside of it, a woman that tried to sell us some of her homemade preservatives, and a small snack/souvenir store of sorts, run by an old man who was with his friend.  I bought a little clay vase/pot at his place, and we all took a bathroom break there.  His little store overlooked a stream, and he told us how we could get down, so after we were all ready, we made our way down to the stream and decided to cross it.  After a little exploring in the wooded area surrounding the stream, we found a little vineyard!  We grabbed another bunch of grapes and walked around the area for a little while.  It was fun, especially because it seemed like such a secret--our own little vineyard!  After exploring for a while, we made our way to the outskirts of the village (or quite possibly to another village) so I could photograph a set of stairs for my photography project that I saw on my way to Kakopetria.  It was quite a walk, so we stopped and played at a park on the way there.  On the way back, we ran into a woman carrying a few bags of groceries while we were walking up to the village-center, so we decided to help her take them to her house.  She ended up inviting us in her house for some juice as a way to say thank you.  Although there was quite a language barrier between us, we were able to make some small-talk.  She was very nice, and it was great to experience some down-to-earth Cypriot-hospitality.  :)  After visiting with the woman for a while, we made our way back to town where we ate a meal at a little trendy restaurant, and then hopped back on the bus to go home.  I fell asleep on the way back, and when Alexis woke me, I accidentally left my phone on the bus!  (I didn’t realize this right away though, since I was so disoriented, so I was without a phone for a while.  Luckily, I was able to get it back yesterday!  Whew!)  Anyway, when we got back into the city, we had to wait for our bus to take us back near our apartments.  To kill time, we grabbed some ice cream and then checked out a little carnival that’s currently in town.  (Think “Columbia Heights fair” around the 4th of July.)  It had some rides, games, and an ice rink!  We didn’t do anything though because it was overpriced, and because we had to get going!  When we got back that night, we decided to pull out the henna kit that Maggie had brought with her from the states.  I drew a cute flower and butterfly on myself, and I used my “artistic talents” and drew some designs on the other girls.  It was really fun, and they all turned out great!  After our “henna party,” I turned in for the night.

Kyrenia: I don’t really have anything new to say about Kyrenia.  Maggie, Alexis, and this time Faith, and I went to Kyrenia together.  We took a taxi there, and then stopped at our favorite restaurant where we picked up some food and ate it at our spot on the wall on the sea.  After, we made our way up the mountain to St. Hilarion castle since Faith hadn’t seen it before.  We spent the afternoon exploring it again, and I took a lot of pictures (as usual...ha).  One new thing this time was that I climbed to the peak of the mountain and castle--that was pretty neat!  We made our way back down the mountain when we were done exploring, and hopped back on a bus to Nicosia.  It was quite a walk from the bus-stop to the border, but we eventually made it back.  It was a great day, but again, nothing too “new” to write about here.  

The rest of the weekend, I spent my time going to the city-center of Nicosia (where I went to the other side with Maggie, and picked up my phone).  I haven’t had much class this week, so I’ve pretty much been relaxing.  Today, some of my friends and I made a visit to the hospital though--one of the girls on our trip is being hospitalized for some severe burns she got this past weekend.  Her and some of the other people in our study-abroad group went camping in the North this weekend.  They made a fire on the beach, and she was trying to move a log or something, and she lost her balance somehow and fell in!  She got burned pretty bad (but not bad enough to get skin graphs, thank goodness!).  Although she’s in pain of course, she seems to be doing fine, and she’s in pretty high spirits.  But if you could please pray for her, that would be wonderful!  (Her name is Liz by the way.)  She’s had quite a few visitors since she’s been hospitalized, and some people have even spent the night with her.  We are all hoping she will heal quickly!

Alright, well, I need to hit the hay because...I’m leaving for Belgium within a matter of hours!  My secret destination #2 is Brussels for those of you who were wondering.  I’m going with a few friends, and we’re couch-surfing, so we’re pretty excited!  I can’t wait to get my fill of chocolate, waffles, and fries!  :D

Before I go though, since it’s Thanksgiving week, I just wanted to say that I am VERY thankful for so many things--especially all of YOU, my family and friends.  Thank you for who you are, for always being there for me, supporting me, and loving me, and for just being so wonderful!  I love you all, and I hope you have a blessed Thanksgiving!  Enjoy your wonderful Thanksgiving feasts and pumpkin pie--I'll sure be missing it!  Oh, and do me a favor and do a lot of Black Friday shopping for me, k?  ;)

ps-Less than one month until I am home!  CRAZY! 

M.I.A.

I know that my title best describes what I've been lately, and I'm sorry!  I can’t really use the excuse that life has been busy...in fact, the two weeks after I got back from Egypt, I had a total of four class periods (two class periods of Brain and Behavior, and two class periods of Research Methods).  Now, I know it may concern some of you that I had two five-day weekends in a row, but there’s no need to worry--I’m still getting an education, I’m still learning, and I’ve still got exams to look forward to (yay..).  Obviously I’ve had a lot of free time though, and since I've been horrible at updating my blog lately, I feel that it's time to give you a quick re-cap of what I’ve been up to!

The week after Egypt, I just took it easy for the most part.  I wasn’t feeling too well after getting back, and for those of you who actually talked to me, you know that I barely had a voice for about three days straight.  Not fun.  (Probably a time of rejoicing for everyone else though!)  ;)  lol.  The weekend after I returned from Egypt, however, I decided to go on another [small] trip.  This time, some of us traveled to the North side of the island.  There was about seven of us, and we traveled to the town of Kyrenia.  For those of you who don’t remember, the Northern side of the island is under Turkish occupancy, so we had to show our passports and exchange money after crossing the border, just as if we were going to another country.  And my-oh-my, it almost is a different country over there.  The island has an entirely different atmosphere in my opinion.  I don’t really know how to explain it...to be quite honest though, the people actually seem to be a lot “warmer” than the Cypriots on our side of the line...I'm know why, but they definitely seem more welcoming!  Our hostel owner was beyond nice, we had a wonderful taxi driver whose services we called upon two days in a row, and any other locals we met treated us very well for the most part!  

Anyway, after getting to Kyrenia, most of us ate a quick lunch by the sea and then took the time to explore a castle called St. Hilarion Castle (a couple of the girls went paragliding instead and had a blast!).  The castle was a very interesting piece of architecture and definitely beautiful.  The views from it were magnificent too!  You could see all of Kyrenia from the castle, mainly because it’s situated at the top of a mountain.  An interesting fact about this castle is that it is supposedly the one that Snow White's castle is modeled after!  Now, I’ve officially seen the “Cinderella Castle” (in Segovia), and the “Snow White Castle” (in Kyrenia).  :)  After exploring the castle, we all met up again and watched the sunset from outside another castle called the Kyrenia Castle.  Our spot was overlooking the lovely port, so it was quite exquisite.  After talking amongst each other and just watching life go by, we decided to go and find a place to eat.  The restaurant we chose to eat at was alright...most of us got hot dogs because they were cheap and seemed like a good choice at the time.  However, the Cypriot version of a hot dog is very different from the American version (toppings-wise at least..).  I’m not quite sure what was on it, but I’m thinking it was mayo and chili?  haha.  It was interesting nonetheless.  After dinner, we went back to the hostel where we just decided to call it a night and rent a movie & tv-use from the hostel owner.  Sadly, we weren’t able to get it to work, but it turned out for the best.  We just had a wonderful time talking together and enjoying each other's company!  After a while though, the hostel-owner came up to our room and told us that some of his friends from Turkey were going to be playing their instruments and that we were welcome to go and listen!  We ended up going down to the port and sitting at a table outside one of the restaurants, and listened to some beautiful guitar and violin playing.  It was such a great experience--I had one of those “I-can’t-believe-I’m-really-here-right-now” moments for sure.  Sadly, we were sort of “booted out” (politely) after a couple of songs because none of us wanted to purchase anything from the restaurant..oh, well!  Most of us had wanted to go by then anyway, so we headed back and turned in for the night (for real this time).

The next day, we had breakfast together and then headed up into the mountains to visit Bellapais Monastery.  (This is the second time we called upon our awesome taxi driver!)  It is a monastery that is situated in the mountains within site of the castle we visited the day before, and it was quite beautiful.  After exploring it for quite some time, as well as a cute little gift shop not far from it, we headed back down the mountain where the group split up again.  My friends Leah, Rose, Alexis, and I decided to explore the Kyrenia castle while the others decided to try to go and find a beach to swim at.  The castle was great (there was even a dungeon!), and like all of the other places that we visited those couple of days, it offered spectacular views (especially of the harbor).  Finally, we went back to the hostel, claimed our stuff, and headed back to Nicosia.  It was certainly a fabulous weekend!

The only other "big" thing that has gone on the last few weeks was Halloween.  My neighbors hosted a potluck where everyone who wanted to come brought fall or halloween-themed food.  With the pizza we ordered from Pizza Hut, it was definitely a treat!  Then after we all ate, a bunch of us transferred over to my apartment where we watched a series of movies: Hocus Pocus, The Exorcist (a WEIRD & creepy movie...), and No Reservations (some of us needed a happy note to end the night on after watching The Exorcist...haha).  It was definitely a great night spent in good company.  :)

Other than these few things, there hasn't really been anything too exciting.  I had my first of three exams last Tuesday in my Brain and Behavior class.  It was my midterm, and, although I’m still waiting for the results, I believe it went well!  My professor even commented that one of my responses was great while I was taking the exam!  haha.  I have another exam on Tuesday in my Cognitive Psychology class, and then an exam next week in my Research Methods course, so hopefully they'll go well.  Other than preparing for my exams and going to class of course, I’ve just been hanging out with my friends and relaxing!  A few of my neighbors and I had a day of shopping on Friday, as well as yesterday...hehe.  I only made a few purchases though, and I love them all!  And today a group of us went on a walk around the city.  It was fantastic!  

Anyway, I guess that’s all I really have to update you on at the moment!  I'm headed out to the cities of Limassol and Pafos next weekend with GLS, so I'll have an update within a week or so for sure.  I hope that all is going well back home!!!!  Goodnight!  

<3

"My Life Be Like Ooooh, Ahhhh.."

I honestly have no idea where to begin describing one of the best weekends of my life.  First, let me just inform you that the title of this post is a line from a song that some of us dubbed our “Egypt Song” (in case you were wondering).  I feel like the line itself is pretty fitting; there is so much to “ooooh” and “ahhhh” at in Egypt, it’s unreal.  So far, it has been one of the most amazing/different/chaotic places I’ve ever visited in my life.  Here’s what I experienced in Egypt:

October 14th: This day was pretty uneventful.  Our group (sixteen of us total), left our apartment for the airport at about 5:00pm.  We arrived at the airport and checked in with plenty of time to spare, so we all grabbed a bite to eat while we waited.  We eventually took off and had an uneventful flight to Cairo.  It was really cool to see the city from the sky at night though (and I got lucky enough to be assigned a window seat on the way there!).  When we arrived, we all exchanged some money, bought our visas, and collected any checked baggage.  [*I forgot to mention: the ONLY thing I packed was my backpack!  Other than that, I only brought a small purse!!  You should all be proud.]   Then we made our way out to the pick-up area where we found our taxis waiting to take us to our hostels.  (Since there were 16 of us going, we split up into two hostels--ten in ours, and six in another).  Ours was called the Jamaica Hostel...haha.  (I know, right?  In Egypt?!)  It was located right in downtown Cairo, so that was pretty awesome.  When we got there, we checked in, and then one of the hostel workers took us walking around the city for a while.  The nightlife is Egypt is so chaotic!  EVERYONE comes out at night, and you can easily find things open at all hours of the day: we were even passing by clothing and shoe stores that were still open at 11:00pm!  Some of the Egyptians we encountered on our stay told us that Cairo is Egypt’s New York City: it’s the city that never sleeps.  After walking around for a good deal of time, we were taken back to the hostel where I promptly changed into my makeshift pajamas of yoga pants and a shirt (since I forgot to pack my actual pajamas), brushed my teeth, and went to sleep!

October 15th: The night before, during our long check-in process, one of the guys in the group kind of took charge and told the hostel staff about things we were looking to do.  So, on this day, we arranged to take a day trip to Alexandria!  Our group of ten, plus one of the guys from the other hostel, decided to go.  The hostel set up all the transportation for us, and it was pretty cheap!  We left pretty early in the morning since it was a 2.5 hour taxi ride, so I slept part of the way.  On the way there, we saw a car on fire--I don’t think I’ve ever actually seen a car on fire before, so that was pretty crazy to witness.  After a about an hour and a half of driving, we made a pit stop at this restaurant/zoo.  They had a wide variety of animals: lions, ostriches, monkeys, a baboon, mini horses, and lots of dogs...ha.  I went and pet one of the mini horses (he was really cute and friendly, so I had to), and then I diverted my attention to an ostrich across the fenced in area from the horse.  A couple of minutes later, I felt a strong tug on my shirt and I shrieked; the little horse had grabbed the back of my shirt with his mouth!  One of the guys from our group happened to be near me, as well as another small group of tourists, and they all started laughing at me...I would have too if I had seen me.  After my little horse experience though, my roomie Kassidy got slapped by a monkey!  LOL.  It was really funny.  That place was neat, but also really sad.  A lot of the animals looked so sad and unhappy--I wish I could have set them all free!  :(  After seeing the animals and taking a bathroom break, we all piled back into the taxi and kept going to Alexandria.  When we got there, we first stopped at a place called Pompey’s Pillar.  Not all of us wanted to see it, so we split back up and then met back at the taxi after a while.  My friends Rose, Shami, Danny, and I decided to explore the area we were dropped off in instead; it posed as a great opportunity to take pictures.  :)  When we all met up again, we were dropped off in the city center for a few hours to explore.  We ended up wandering around for a while looking for food, and eventually decided to eat at a pretty fancy restaurant.  I ordered a couple of small side dishes, but a few people got the buffet and shared with everyone, so I got to sample a little bit of everything.  hehe.  After lunch, our group set out to walk along the sea-side for a while, however, we ended splitting up along the way.  Some set out to a fortress of sorts, and Rose, Shami, and I decided to walk around the city.  We ended up walking to a bazaar-type area.  That was interesting...let’s just say that it was here where the first of many compliments were given not only to me, but Shami as well.  It was quite hilarious actually.  We all had a lot of fun joking about all of the things that people said throughout the trip to me and Shami.  Anyway, after roaming around for a while, we all met back at the van to go to the Library of Alexandria.  It was a very impressive library, but definitely not what I was expecting; it was very modern!  It was state-of-the-art (mainly because it’s used for research now I believe), and the exhibits reminded me of being at the Walker back at home; they were pretty artsy, and there weren’t too many antiquities.  I know it’s not the original library, but I still thought it was cool seeing one of the largest and most significant libraries in the world, and I’m glad I went.  After the library, we all piled back into the van and headed back to Cairo.  When we got back, we all went out to dinner.  After that, I just laid low at our hostel with some of the girls and went to bed.

October 16th: This was a looooong day.  It started out by us piling into a taxi again for a full day of sight-seeing (with an English-speaking guide, thank-goodness!).  Our first stop was Memphis, once a capital of Egypt, and the sight where a giant statue of Ramses II was discovered.  We got to see a lot of cool things that had been discovered, and we had a little free time there as well.  There were a lot of little kiosks filled with souvenirs, so during our free time, Shami and I went to visit one.  Here, the owner showed us his cat and gave us free beads that were supposed to bring good luck (this is because they were supposed to be carved into the scarab beetle that was said to bring good luck in ancient times).  After seeing everything, we headed toward our next stop, the Step Pyramid.  The step pyramids in Egypt were the first kinds of pyramids that were built in the country (before the typical smooth-sided ones were built), so that was pretty neat to see!  We got free time to roam around the ruins for a while, so a few of us decided to actually climb on one of the pyramids.  It was pretty neat!  And Shami, Kassidy, and I wanted to say that we’ve ran in the desert, so we did a little running too!  :)  After visiting the Step Pyramid, we went to a papyrus museum!  Here, we were shown how papyrus paper was made, and how to tell it apart from counterfeit papyrus (because a lot of cheap souvenir places try to sell “papyrus” made from banana leaves or sugar cane).  I already have some beautiful papyrus at home from my grandma, so I just bought a little bookmark of sorts and got my name written on it in hieroglyphics.  After the papyrus museum, we stopped for a quick lunch along the way.  I got some falafel (one of my favorite things to eat in Egypt!), and of course, water (I drank SO much water that day!  It was very hot!).  After our pit stop, we made our way to the Pyramids of Giza.  I still can’t believe I was actually there.  They were gigantic!  It’s so crazy to think that they were all built by hand!  After a few photo ops, Shami and I decided to climb down into one of the pyramids where you could climb in for free.  It was quite an experience!  The ceiling was super low, and the shaft leading down to the burial chamber was really long.  I can’t believe that people actually climbed in those things back in the day!  I got all the way down in the burial chamber, but Shami wanted to turn back, so we left pretty quickly.  She didn’t really like being so far down in the pyramid..haha.  It was very hot and the air was really heavy, so I can see why she didn’t want to stay long.  After climbing in the pyramid and having some free time at the pyramids, our guide took us to a place where you have a panoramic view of all three pyramids together.  It was so cool!  We had a group photo op, and then...drumroll please...WE GOT TO RIDE CAMELS!  It was SO AWESOME.  Shami bartered with the guide to let us ride the camels for 30 EGP for 20 minutes (about $6--not bad, eh?!).  My camel’s name was Champion.  :)  It was a pretty exhilarating experience to ride a camel.  I kept thinking that Champion was going to throw me off or roll over or something, so I would shriek every now and then; the guide kept going “Why you do that?  There is nothing to be afraid of!”  Haha.  Poor guy.  My friend Maggie rode a camel connected behind mine; his name was Moses.  Apparently, Champion liked running into Moses (not my fault, I swear!!).  After that amazing experience, we hopped back in the taxi yet again.  This time, we went to go see the Sphinx!  That was really neat to see, and I took one of the classic “kissing-the-Sphinx” poses.  I also took the time to gather a bit of sand as well.  After visiting the Sphinx, we had one last stop: a perfumery!  We got the opportunity to learn about how it’s made, and to smell a lot of the oils (which is what they sell).  The oils that they sell are essentially pure extracts from flowers/plants.  You can either use the oil (only using a drop or two on the skin), or you can make your own perfume (they gave a list of ingredients and the amounts with your purchase).  After taking a long time to contemplate which ones to get, I bought a few oils.  Finally, after the perfumery, we made our way back to our hostel where we had some downtime before we went on a dinner cruise on the Nile!  That was so fun!  It wasn’t the most organized of things though (there was a lot of confusion concerning our reservation when we got there, and the dinner was a buffet...with no specific lines...so everyone just smooshed together when they tried to get food), but like I said, it was really neat.  We spent some time on top of the boat, just taking in the Nile and our surroundings at night.  After a while though, I ended up making my way back downstairs and sitting with some of the group.  When I got back downstairs, there was a dancer doing some crazy dance; he was really good at it!  After he was done dancing, two more guys and a belly dancer came out and started dancing.  And oh boy, was I in for a surprise.  One of the guy dancers came into the audience at one point during their dance, and grabbed my hand and dragged me to the dance floor with him!  I wasn’t the only one that they brought up (THANK GOODNESS).  So three other random girls from the audience and I helped make beats and stuff for the belly dancer.  I had NO idea what I was doing, and I looked so stupid (not to mention my group found it quite hilarious), but it was fun!  And the belly dancer lady was actually really good too!  It was definitely quite an experience...haha.  When the cruise was over, we walked one of our group-members home (she was staying in the other hostel).  After we got back to our hostel, my friend Maggie invited some of us out with her and some of her Egyptian friends!  Of course, we decided to meet them, and was that a good decision or what--I think that this was one of the highlights of the trip!  Shami, Rose, Alexis, and I went to hang out with Maggie and her three Egyptian friends (she knew them from a German camp she went to in Germany for a while), and we hung out at the famous Khan el Khal Li Bazaar.  They helped a couple of us barter with some of the venders that were still open, and Rose and Shami made some purchases (and got some really good deals since we had some Egyptians with us!).  They also took us walking around the bazaar (which was like a maze by the way) and near the big mosque at the bazaar, and then we sat down at a little coffee place of sorts.  I ordered a fresh-squeezed mango juice; it even had some of the mango bits in it, so it was really delicious!  We all just chatted a while, and then a couple of Maggie’s other friends came and joined us.  Sadly, we left pretty much right after they arrived since we were all getting tired.  It was a great night, and the guys were so nice.  [*Seriously, American guys should hang out with them for a while and get some lessons from them on manners and what-not.  They payed for everything (like, all of the juices that we ordered), helped cover the price of Shami’s purchase since she didn’t have enough money, drove all of us to and from our hostel, and were just complete gentlemen!  And they told us to tell them if we ever came back because they’d help arrange everything for us too!!*]  Anyway, it was a fabulous night.  When we got back to our hostel, we all just crashed and went to bed because we were exhausted!

October 17th: This day wasn’t nearly as packed as the day before.  We all slept in, and after taking time to get ready, I quickly rated our hostel stay online for the owner (while he watched me...that was nice of him).  I gave them a good review though because they were super great with everything, and very hospitable.  After getting ready and writing my review, Rose, Alexis, Shami, and I headed on over to the Cairo museum.  That place was very interesting--there was just stuff everywhere.  Like, it looks like someone found a bunch of things and didn’t know what to do with it, so they just put it all around the museum!  I guess you could say that it was an organized chaos of sorts.  It was very cool to be in such a historical place though.  I was literally able to touch many of the sarcophagi and hieroglyphics...it was unreal!  I couldn’t believe I was actually touching all of these artifacts from such an important place and time in history, things that were so old!!  We didn’t end up touring the mummy exhibit because it cost quite a bit of money, but we did see some mummified animals, so that was neat!  I guess I’ll just have to come back to see the mummy exhibit someday!  :)  We took a quick break in the (overpriced) cafeteria and chatted for a while, and then after doing a little more exploring and going into the gift shops, we left to go back to the hostel.  When we got back, Maggie told us that one of her friends, Wael (one of the ones that came right as we were leaving the night before), could take us back to the bazaar and then to the other side of town for the day.  We were all totally up for that, so we packed up, left a note for the others at the hostel, and checked out.  When we got the bazaar, we had a quick lunch; I had the BEST falafel EVER.  Seriously, it was amazing.  Also, during lunch, a couple of Egyptian women saw me and started smiling and pointing and what-not...well, they asked Maggie’s friend if they could get a picture with me.  I didn’t want to be rude, so I said yes.  It was really funny because they couldn’t really figure out their cell phone camera, and they were really nice.  I had Maggie take a pic for me too to remember the experience.  Gotta love having blonde hair and blue eyes!  haha.  After lunch (which Maggie’s friend treated us to by the way!), we walked around the bazaar for a while and I got quite a few goodies for a really good price!  (I also got an offer to have an Egyptian boyfriend as well, which I quickly declined and walked away...haha).  We also visited the big mosque that we saw the night before; it was very beautiful, and I loved the intricacy of the architecture.  After staying in the bazaar for quite a bit of time, we headed towards another part of Cairo called Rehab.  We ate dinner here, got some ice cream, and had some amazing donuts.  Once again, Maggie’s friend paid for everything (except for the ice cream because we refused to let him pay!...seriously, they were all way too nice to us over there!).  After our food extravaganza, Maggie’s friend took us to the airport.  We went to the wrong terminal at first, but we got to the right one eventually.  We said and waved goodbye to him (he waited for us to get through our check-in before leaving), and met up with all of the others.  Then, we just waited for our flight to depart, got on the plane, and went home!  We got back to our apartment around 2:00am I’d say, but we none of us could sleep.  Shami, Kassidy, and I exchanged stories with Kayla, who spent her weekend on the Greek island of Rhodes.  After showering and unpacking, I stayed up for a while and I skyped with Kirsten and Mandy!  It was a little difficult because I didn’t really have a voice, but it was so great talking to them.  After that, I finally went to bed.  (No worries: for those of you who were wondering, I didn’t have class the next day, so I got to sleep in!)  :)  

And that’s the gist of my time in Egypt!  It was seriously one of the best weekends I’ve ever had.  It was really great to be immersed in a culture that is so different from the United States, and to get to experience a place that I have never been to before.  As amazing as my time was in Egypt, I’m very glad I did not study abroad there (for those of you who don’t know, it ended up being my second choice for studying abroad).  The city is HOT, very filthy (can you say smog anyone?), and you would have to dress very modestly, covering knees and shoulders all of the time (which, I don’t have a problem with being modest at all--you just get very hot when you were long pieces of clothing.)  Not to mention, I don’t think I could handle all of the attention that I tended to draw over there for that long either.  ha.  But really, it was an amazing place, and I definitely would LOVE to go back again someday.  Well, keep tuned for another blog post in the near future.  Hope all is well at home!!!  <3