Livin' the Life :)

The title to this post couldn’t explain the past couple of weeks any better.  For those of you who don’t know, the program that I chose took me and the others that signed up for my specific program to three different countries in ten days.  The first country was...GREECE!  Here’s a recap of my time there.

September 16th:

At the lovely time of 4:45am, my alarm went off (although I hit snooze once or twice, so I didn’t wake up until more around 5:00...), I had a little bit of time to get ready before we were supposed to be downstairs, and then we left for the airport and checked in.  Random sidenote: before we got to security, I saw a sign that illustrated that you couldn’t have turkeys (?) with you (imagine an illustration of a cooked turkey like you’d have at Thanksgiving with a red circle with a slash through it).  I thought it was really funny, and I wished I would have gotten a pic of it.  Anyway, when I was going through passport control, the man that I gave my passport to kept asking me if I was from St. Paul (since he saw that I was from Minnesota).  He kept saying “St. Paul?  St. Paul?”  For some reason, I took this as “It’s cold?  It’s cold?”  And of course, I responded “Yes, it gets cold!”  When I finally realized what he was saying, I felt kind of stupid...haha.  He was really nice about it though.  After my friends and I got through security, we went and grabbed some breakfast.  I got the most AMAZING chocolate croissant that I have ever had.  Oh. My. Gosh.  So good.  We finally boarded the plane around 8:30; I sat in a row with my friends Faith and Asha.  I got a window seat, and it was great!  We had an actual breakfast too, so that was nice.  When we arrived in Athens, we hopped on a bus and were transported to our hotel which was located in the heart of the city.  We checked in and they only had a couple of rooms ready; luckily, mine was one of them.  :)  So, my roommate (Kayla, one of my roommates back in Cyprus) and I put our stuff in our room, and headed back downstairs and met up with some of the others in our group.  We had the rest of the day free, so a bunch of us decided to explore Athens.  My group went to a square in the city where there was a couple of streets that were like a bazaar/flea market.  I had a wonderful time there.  We found a great place to eat, and I ended up making some purchases while I was there.  After we got back to the hotel, we decided to try to go out to a famous site in Greece called the Temple of Poseidon.  However, we got delayed and didn’t know where we were going, so we gave up.  The group split up after that, and the group that I went with ended up exploring the city a little more and finding an amazing little restaurant for dinner (and we got a free dessert out of it too).  :)  After, we walked back to the hotel and I just called it a night.

September 17th:

To start off the day, we had breakfast on the top floor of our hotel...where we had a gorgeous view of the city and the Acropolis.  It was so beautiful!  After breakfast, we headed over to the National Archaeological Museum where we had a tour.  It was very big, and we didn’t get through all of it, but I saw some amazing things there.  After the museum visit, we headed over to the Acropolis.  Here, we had a tour of the entire site; it was so cool to see the Parthenon in person!  We learned that it’s an optical illusion of sorts; the structure looks like it has very straight lines, but really, none of the lines are straight and the columns are slightly curved out.  Those ancient Greeks sure were clever, weren’t they?   After spending a good deal of time at the Acropolis, a group of us went to find lunch.  On the way, we stopped outside the new museum by the Acropolis; here, we were able to walk on and look through a glass floor and see an excavated part of the old city of Athens.  It was pretty neat!  :)  After that, we stopped for lunch and then went back to the hotel.  The majority of the group decided to re-try going to Poseidon's Temple.  This time, we had more of an idea of where we needed to go and when, so we were able to get there this time.  We walked to a specific bus stop where we hopped on a coach bus that took us on a two-hour bus ride.  Along the way, we saw so many picturesque things; the water, the costal towns, a beautiful all-white church...Greece is beautiful, and I hope I can go back again someday to explore the country more.  After our bus-ride, we finally reached the temple.  The temple itself wasn’t the most spectacular (kind of like a smaller structure we saw at the Acropolis), but then I found out why it is rated as one of the top three things see while in Greece: the sunset.  The sunset was absolutely gorgeous, and we had the best view you could imagine.  After the sunset, the bus returned and we hopped back on.  When we got to Athens, a bunch of us decided that we wanted to have a night out on the town.  We were all starving since we didn't eat dinner, so we got dressed up and ended up going to a restaurant where we were able to sit on the rooftop.  It was beautiful, and you could see part of the Acropolis.  At the restaurant, I ended up ordering an amazing chocolate and banana crepe.  It was heavenly.  :)  After enjoying my crepe, I headed back to the hotel and turned in for the night.

September 18th:

On this day, we were given a free-day in Athens.  So, after eating a quick breakfast, my friends Kayla, Ben, Faith, Leah, and I made our way to one of the major ports in the city where we caught a ferry.  Now, we had planned to go to the island of Hydra for our free day, so we were frantically trying to find a ferry to take us there.  We saw this huge ferry and there was a man who was hurrying some other people on the boat.  Kayla asked him if it was going to Hydra, and he replied with a “yes, yes!”  So, since the boat was untied and leaving, we ran and jumped on the boat just as it was pretty much pulling away.  When we got on, we asked some of the crew members, and they said that the ferry was indeed NOT going to the island of Hydra but rather the island of Poros.  Yeah, okay.  It ended up only costing 13 Euros, which isn’t that bad in my opinion considering that it was a three-hour ferry ride.  After stopping at two other islands on the way, we finally reached Poros.  As disappointed as I was at first that we weren't able to get to Hydra, that disappointment quickly diminished once we reached our destination; the island was exquisite.  We didn’t see any beaches, but we stopped in a small shop and quickly got directions to a beach.  When we got there, I could not believe what I saw.  It was sooooo beautiful; we were in a small cove of sorts with a wonderful view of a village on the hillside and the sea.  We set up our stuff on the beach and all hopped in the water.  Let me tell you, the Mediterranean is SALTY.  Thankfully, I didn’t get a mouthful of it, but I sure got a taste.  Oh my.  I seriously forgot about that little pointer...ha.  After a while, we decided to get lunch.  A cute little boy, maybe around ten years old, helped serve us; he was so great.  There were a few cats roaming around too, so I really liked that restaurant.  ;)  The rest of the day, we just swam some more and laid out on the beach.  I also gathered a lot of rocks and such because the beach was scattered with some amazing rocks, sea glass, and shards of pottery.  UGH!  It was so great there.  I forgot to mention--there were virtually NO tourists either.  There weren’t many people people on the beach, and there were mainly locals around, so it was a great experience.  After our day in paradise, we bought a returning ticket and hopped back on the ferry.  When we got back to the hotel, I just showered, relaxed and packed for my next stop...ITALY!

Updates & September 15th

I am back in Cyprus, and I finally have the time to blog, so here's how I'm going to do it:  

I will make this post for September 15th only because it's a random day that I didn't have time to write about before I left (and it doesn't really coincide with the other things I'm going to post within the next couple of days).  After that, I will put up a series of posts about my travels to break it up (since it will be about two weeks of information!).  I know that it's going to be a lot to read, so I thought breaking it up would be easier for any of you who don't want to read it all at once!  (That's the nice thing about blogs--you can read a little, and always go back later to finish reading it!)  Sorry it's so much, but after these, I probably won't be writing such long posts because I'm in class now!  :P  I hope you enjoy reading them!

September 15th:

The day started out with the group going to the university where we were given a lecture on the “Cyprus Problem.”  I know that many people didn’t really know where Cyprus was when I told them that I was going to be studying abroad here (it’s okay, I didn’t really know where it was at first either..just a general idea), so I’m sure a lot of you don’t really know about the Cyprus Problem.  Basically, the Cyprus Problem refers to the division of the country.  Over the centuries, Cyprus has been conquered multiple times, mainly because of its ideal and strategic location (it’s located at the center of three continents--Europe, Asia, and Africa).  The most recent invasion in Cyprus happened in the 1960’s by Turkey.  In 1964, the island was divided, and thousands of people were relocated to their homes.  Greek Cypriots who were living in the North of the island were forced to leave and re-locate to the South, and Turkish Cypriots who were living in the South were forced to re-locate to the North.  It is a very sad story, and many people went missing, many of whom were never found.  An actual border was created, and neither side was allowed to cross; it was basically the Berlin Wall of Cyprus.  This buffer zone is referred to as the Green line because it was drawn on a map with a green pen when the country was divided in 1964.  The border was finally opened up for the first time in 2003: Cypriots from both sides were finally allowed to cross.  People were allowed to be on each side of the Green Line for 24 hours, and many Cypriots from both sides took that time to visit old homes and friends.  We were told something that I found really amazing; apparently, some people who went to visit their old homes visited with the Cypriots who had taken over the property.  The cool part is that these Cypriots had saved things like photos, jewelry, and money that they had found on the property just in case the previous owners ever came back.  Isn’t that neat?!  :)  I think that shows a wonderful side of humanity that is seldom seen these days.  Currently, the island is still divided, however, Turkey is the only one that recognizes the northern part of the island.  The European Union (and the rest of the world for that matter) only recognize the Republic of Cyprus (the southern part of island that is Greek) to be the legal country.  According to some of the GLS staff that lectured us, the Greek Cypriots are very welcoming to the Turkish Cypriots and are very much in support of Turkey’s joining the European Union (I found out that apparently Turkey is considering joining the EU).  That being said, the Turkish Cypriots really get a great deal: since the Greek Cypriots are in such desire of peace-making, the Turkish Cypriots get all kinds of benefits including free health care on the southern side, the ability to work on the southern side, and access to E.U. passports (at least, something along these lines).  Okay, enough of the history lesson.  After our morning lecture and a small break, the GLS group went to visit the archaeological museum in Nicosia.  It was a lot bigger than I expected it to be, and I saw some really neat things.  After our visit, the group had a bit of free time, so a bunch of us went to the center of the city and had lunch and shopped around.  My roommate, Shami, and I went to a place that served some amazing pasta and split a plate; it was pretty much like gourmet mac and cheese, and it was ah-mazing.  When we shopped around, I saw a bunch of things that I liked (especially shoes), but [unfortunately] I was able to restrain myself.  ;D  When we all met back up, we started the last activity of the day: a scavenger hunt!  We were given a list of things to complete in the city of Nicosia, in the university area, and around our neighborhood.  We hired a taxi for part of it, and when we were let off, the driver said “Good luck with everything, and God Bless you.”  I thought that was pretty neat, because I wouldn’t normally expect a taxi driver to say something like that!  Overall, the scavenger hunt was super fun, and although my group didn’t finish everything, we were close (and we didn’t cheat either!).  The winning team is supposed to be treated to a Cypriot dinner; we’re still waiting on the results.  The rest of the night, I just spent time relaxing, skyping Kirst, watching Gossip Girl, and packing!

Orientation Week: Busy, busy, busy!..

It's been almost a week since I’ve arrived in Cyprus, and do I LOVE it or what!  I absolutely love being in another country--there are so many things to explore and see and find out about!  :)  The temperatures have kind of fluctuated a lot since I’ve been here; I’ve worn anything from a sundress or shorts & a t-shirt, to jeans and a longer-sleeved shirt (though, I did wear that outfit at night).  It’s funny, we don’t even have the air conditioner on in the apartment that much: only during the hottest part of the day.  Anyway, enough about the weather!  Here’s what I’ve been up to the past few days:

September 12th: I woke up around 8:00 (THAT was brutal..haha).  I was so tired!  I just got ready for the day, and then walked on over to the GLS office with everyone else.  Once we were there, we got our ID pictures taken...ish.  (I never like my ID picture.)  After that, we had free time until 10:30, so I went back to the apartment, worked on creating some pictures for my 365 project on picnik, and went on Facebook for a while.  At 10:30, we went over to the university where we had a looooooong orientation.  We went over every possible thing you could think of relating to studying abroad, being in another country, Cyprus, and GLS.  We were given a break for lunch (we got pizza again), and ended around 5:00.  After orientation, a bunch of the group went to get ice cream at an ice cream place by our apartment: I got hazelnut, and it was SO delicious.  After eating and chatting with people for a while, some of us decided to head back to the apartments.  At the apartment, Shami, Kayla, Kassidy, Leah, Faith, and I did a little research and booked a flight!!  Other than my family, no one else knows where I’ve booked it, and it’s going to stay that way for a while...I want it to be a surprise for everyone!  All I’ve got to say is that I’ve REALLY wanted to go there for a LONG time.  Now I am finally going and I am BEYOND stoked!  :)  For the majority of the night after that, I did some busywork and Skyped.  I got the pleasure of Skyping with both Angie and my family.  When I talked with Angie, we caught up with each other, and started talking about something else that is also going to stay a secret for now.  ;)  Don’t worry though--you’ll find out what I’m talking about when the time is right!  After I was done talking to Angie, I got to Skype with the family as well; it was good to hear everyone’s voices and see what’s going on in life back home.  And, I got to show them my apartment as well!  After I skyped with my family for a bit, I showered, did a little more busy work, journaled a bit, and went to bed.

September 13th: At about 10:00, I woke up and got ready for the day.  After I was ready, I headed on over to the GLS office to meet with Thanos, one of the staff members at GLS.  He helped me figure out my schedule and answer any questions that I may have had.  I officially have my class schedule figured out!  I am taking five classes: Research Methods, Cognitive Psychology, Brain and Behavior, Photography 1, and Greek Language and Culture.  I honestly don’t think I’ve ever been so excited for my classes before!  As you can (probably) see, three of my courses are for my psychology major.  Things having to do with the brain really interest me, so I’m excited to take both cognitive psychology and brain and behavior (research methods, not so much...but that’s okay, it’ll still be good)!  And as many of you know, I LOVE photography, so I’m excited to take an official course on it.  I thought that my final class, Greek Language and Culture, would be beneficial and applicable to my stay here (not to mention very interesting)!  Those are the classes I’ve decided on & I canNOT WAIT for class to start!  After my meeting with Thanos, I had some free time, so I headed over to the Mall of Engomi (the mall near my apartment that has the Carrefore grocery store I wrote about earlier).  I ran into a few of my friends (and next-door neighbors!) from the program: Rose, Maggie, and Alexis, and we looked at a store called “Peacocks.”  Now, before you get all panicky, I only bought ONE thing--a purse that was 10 Euro (originally 38 Euros!).  You should be proud I was able to commit such a feat--it’s good to see that my bargain-shopping skills haven’t diminished since I’ve been here.  :)  I saw a bunch of other things that I wan too, but I decided to be a smart shopper and wait in case I find anything that I like better (especially when I’m traveling next week).  Besides, I have about 3 more months here, right?  I.  After I had made my purchase, I said my goodbyes to my friends and headed to Carrefore where I just picked up a few groceries.  After that, I just headed back to the apartment to do some busywork before our next activity: a cooking class!  We met at the university where Chef Charis told us about some of the main Cypriot cuisine...and made some for us too!  It was very interesting, and very delicious.  We tried traditional Cypriot meatballs (different than the Italian ones we’re used to), ravioli (stuffed with haloumi cheese and mint), and (of course), pita stuffed with haloumi cheese and tomato.  You should also be proud because I ate HALF of the tomato slice with my pita and cheese (though, after half, I still couldn’t really handle it, so I picked it out).  But STILL...I ATE TOMATO.  [*ish.]  After the cooking class, we were given (another) lecture on Cypriot history.  Unfortunately, I found it very hard to pay attention...we’ve learned about Cypriot history (the same things I might add!) a few times now, and I’m getting a bit overloaded.  (Not to mention that I read up on it this summer.)  Soooo, that was a little difficult to sit through.  After an hour and a half of lecture, we took a tour of the university.  The university is actually quite small, probably about the size of Bethel (maybe even smaller); about 5,000 students attend the school.  After the tour (which was only about 20 minutes!), we were free until dinner, so I may or may not have went back to the mall...but don’t worry!  I didn’t buy a single thing!  (Well, except for some paper towels, but we needed those in our apartment!)  I also bought some minutes for my cell phone on the way there.  After the mall, my friend Leah and I went to one of the apartments kitty-corner to us.  There, I dropped off a package for a friend of mine back in the US--she gave it to me to give to her friend here in Cyprus when I arrived.  He wasn’t there, but his roommate was, so I gave it to him.  After that was taken care of, we went back to the apartment, and I just did busy work before dinner.  For dinner, we dressed up a little bit (I actually just wore jeans and a nice shirt because it was cold enough, in my opinion, for me to do so).  Then, the group walked about 10 minutes from our apartment to a fancy restaurant for a welcome dinner of sorts.  Dinner was a buffet, and for the most part, the food was delicious!  (I wasn’t a big fan of the curry pasta or the oregano (?) salad...haha.  THAT was strong!)  The desserts on the other hand, were fantastic!  :)  After dinner, we headed back to the apartments, going a different way this time--and almost every store we passed was a furniture store!  It was crazy!  When I got back, I worked out a little bit, did a little busy work, journaled, and went to bed.  It was a long, but good, day.  :)

September 14th: After waking up this morning and getting ready, Kayla and I headed over to the school for an art history lesson: any of the students that are going to be traveling with the program next week were required to go to this.  It was VERY interesting (I even took notes!), and the woman who lectured us was a British woman, so it was very fun listening to her as well!  After our art history lesson, we transferred over to the GLS offices where we went over our travel itinerary for the upcoming week and a half.  I am very excited because we are going to be traveling to most of the main sites in each of the cities we’re visiting, but we also get a lot of free time too!  I’m glad that it’s structured that way because as fun as it is traveling in a group and seeing the main attractions, I also like being able to explore places on a more intimate level.  That way, you can become more connected with the place and see it for what it really is.  Don’t get me wrong, the tourist-y places are awesome, but it’s fun being able to see places in your own eyes, not just they way the world sees them.  After going over our itineraries, we had some free time until our next activity together.  Soooo, my friend Leah and I decided to take the opportunity to do some shopping!  :)  Don’t worry, don’t worry.  Again, I didn’t buy a single item!  I saw a lot of things that caught my eye, but not enough to spend around 40 Euro on!  However, on the way back, I did buy some fantastic sorbet (a scoop of passionfruit mango, and a scoop of raspberry-strawberry).  It was heavenly on the super hot afternoon we were having today!  At 2:30, we were all back at the school where we had a presentation from a group called Peace Players International.  For those of you who don’t know what this program is, it is a program that seeks to unify children from conflicting backgrounds; it was originated in Ireland to unify  Protestant and Catholic children.  Now, it has become a multimillion dollar group, and has groups in places throughout Ireland, South Africa, and the Middle East.  In Cyprus, Greek-Cypriot children from the south and Turkish-Cypriot children from the north play together.  It sounds a great program, made to unify so many people!  We were given this presentation because they need volunteers; many of us (including myself) are really interested in taking part in it, so hopefully I’ll be able to!  I really wanted to do some sort of activity here, especially if it involved volunteering/service, so this is perfect!  I’m definitely considering it.  :)   After the presentation about PPI, we were given a lecture on the geography of Cyprus by an Australian professor.  Oh boy, was that man AWESOME.  He was very funny, and I loved his accent!  If I had room in my schedule, I would have signed up for a class from him, but I don’t!  We learned a lot about he geography (and economy) of Cyprus in this lecture, and it was pretty interesting.  After the presentation and going back to our apartments for a little, Shami and I decided that we were really hungry, so we went and got gyros together!  (Sidenote: It started to SPRINKLE a TINY bit!  I took a picture of the raindrops on the sidewalk because this is pretty momentous for Cyprus...if it rains, by an hour after it ends, you wouldn’t have known that it had rained unless you had seen it...that’s how dry it gets here.).  Anyway, this was my first time having a real gyro; other than the massive amount of oregano (like the salad last night), it was really good.  Buuuut, it was really messy.  Think Chipotle, but 3x as messy...I wish I had used a fork!  ;D  [*For those of you who don’t know, I usually eat my Chipotle burritos with a fork..my friends like to make fun of me for it.  ha.]  Shami & I brought them back to the apartment and ate in our neighbor’s room.  They offered us some curry veggies and chicken as well, so I tried a bite--it was delicious!  :)  The rest of the night, I’ve just been doing some researching of sorts...but more on that later.  I’m getting kind of pooped, so I think I’m going to head to bed in a little bit.  Goodnight! 

ps-I might be retracting the promise I made about keeping my posts short...it's a lot harder than I thought!  I hope you don't mind; I'm honestly trying my best to keep them short!  

The Adventure Begins!..

Well, I am FINALLY in Cyprus, and I thought I should start my blog.  So, here goes!!

I’ll just write a recap of what’s been going on so far:

September 8th: I arrived at the airport, got my boarding pass, checked my bags (one of my bags was exactly 50 lbs., Delta's weight limit..talk about LUCKY!), went through security, and made my way to my gate.  The plane that I was taking to Toronto arrived late, and once we had boarded and had been sitting for a while, we were told to get off.  Needless to say, our plane took off at about 5:25pm--four hours late (due to mechanical issues), and literally at the time that my flight to Vienna was supposed to be taking off from Toronto..great.  I got to Toronto at around 8:00pm Toronto-time, went through customs, got my baggage, and went to talk to someone from Delta.  I was told that no more flights were going out to Vienna that night, so Delta re-scheduled my two remaining flights for the same times the next day, and booked a night for me at the Sheraton that was connected at the airport.  I just relaxed there, and had a good night’s sleep.  :)

September 9th: I woke up around noon Toronto-time, and just relaxed some more and re-organized my stuff before my 2:00pm check-out.  I was allowed to stay in the lobby & use the internet for a little while after I checked out, so I stayed until about 3:00.  Then I headed over to the airport, and after going to the wrong terminal, I found my way to the right terminal, got my tickets, and went through security.  After all of that was taken care of, I grabbed a bite to eat and shopped a little, went to the bathroom, and then made my way to my gate.  We boarded not long after, and soon, I was on my way to Vienna.  I sat next to an older gentleman; we didn't really talk much, but he was nice though!  When I was at the ticket counter earlier, I asked how much it would cost to upgrade (I was just curious...it was way too much!), but the person who issued my tickets said he could get me seats by the emergency exits, either in the aisle or by the window (which I totally accepted...more leg room anyone?!...and chose a window seat).  All in all, it was a good flight.

September 10th: I arrived in Vienna at around 8:45am Vienna-time.  When we got there, we got to walk down the stairs that they bring to the exit of the plane (like the kind the president walks down when he disembarks from his plane...lol), so I thought that was kind of cool!  We were then bussed to the main part of the airport.  There, I went to the information booth quickly because I noticed that there was a different gate listed for my flight on the departure screen, and found out that my gate had been moved...good thing I looked.  Then, I just went through passport control and found my gate.  Since I got there early, I decided to go to the bathroom--THAT was interesting.  The water in the toilet was constantly running, so you didn’t ever need to flush it (and it sounded like there was a little waterfall in the bowl!).  haha.  I got back in line at my gate after (I was the first), went through security, and boarded not too long after.  I landed in Cyprus at around 2:50pm Cyprus-time, made my way through customs (they didn’t ask me a SINGLE question!), picked up my luggage, and went to go find where I was supposed to be.  I saw three other students, and I figured that they were with GLS--they were.  Our bus driver came over to us, helped us get our luggage in the bus, and informed us that our program coordinators were running a little late and were going to be there shortly.  So, we went back inside (where it was MUCH cooler), and got to know each other a bit.  Finally, the coordinators came, we waited for two more students to arrive, and then we headed to our apartments!  When we got there, they gave us 15 minutes to put our stuff away and freshen up.  I dropped my stuff of in my room where I met my three other roommates (my direct roommate, Shami, and my other roommates, Kayla and Kassidy).  They are all super great girls, and I’m excited to live with them for a semester!  :)  After we met and I had dropped my stuff off, I headed out to the front of my apartment (which is super nice by the way!) where the airport group & a few others met up and walked over to the GLS offices for dinner.  They provided us with a meal of pizza and pop, answered any questions that we had, and gave a short introduction.  After that, the rest of the night was spent unpacking, organizing, blowing our electricity out...yup, you read that right--I blew out our electricity..figures (I WOULD be the one to do that...).  Kassidy and I decided to try to plug in the power strip I brought using an adapter, and when I went to turn the switch to the “on” position after she had plugged it in, it sort of blew up in my hand--no worries, I’m fine, but there are some scorch marks on my power strip now..ha.  Anyway, the power went out, and we called one of the coordinators.  We got our lights back on after not too long, but the outlets in our main room and kitchen did not work (meaning, we had to move stuff in to other people’s fridges for a while), as well as the internet.  Oops.  Guess we won’t be trying THAT again.  After that fiasco, I just filled out some forms, kept unpacking/organizing, showered, went on the internet a bit, journaled, and went to bed.  Since I hadn’t slept in about 29 hours, I had a fantastic night’s sleep!  :)

September 11th (today): Today was awesome!  I woke up around 9:15, finished filling out some forms, got ready for the day, and then loaded the bus with all of the other GLS students.  We took the bus to the main part of Nicosia (pronounced “Nick-oh-see-ah” by the way) where we got out and walked around a bit while we were given a brief history of the city.  We saw some of older parts of the city, the buffer zone (the zone between the Greek & Turkish parts of the island), a church (which smelled strongly of incense & is the oldest Greek Orthodox church on the island!), a tiny studio of sorts where a woman makes religious icons, a cultural center, and a market (think “farmers market”--there was fresh produce everywhere!).  We hopped on the bus again and they took us to the heart of the city--here we walked around as a group and explored a side-street/alleyway of sorts (it has a name, but I’m not sure what it’s called); either way, it was my favorite part of the day!  It reminded me of Spain a little--we walked through the alleyway which was pretty tiny in some areas, and had all kinds of little shops and restaurants.  When we got back to our original drop-off place, we had the option of going back to our apartments or staying and exploring.  Ummm...exploring, durrr!  So, I stayed back with a bunch of people.  I quickly made my first ATM withdrawal for Euros, and then we got on our way.  We ended up going to a restaurant that we saw while we were walking earlier and tried Meze.  Now, that is an experience that I REALLY wanted to have while was here, so I was pumped that I got to have it on my first day--it was so great!  For those of you who don’t know, meze is pretty much a mutli-course meal that is meant to be shared with two or more people because it’s HUGE (seriously, the plates just keep on comin'!).  We ordered a meat meze, and this is what we got: salad, olives, pita, two dipping sauces, mushrooms, grilled haloumi (which was another thing I wanted to try while I was here--it’s Cyprus’ main cheese, and a staple in the local’s diet!  It was probably my favorite thing, and it was ah-mazing!), chicken, pork, ribs, sausages of sorts, fries, and of course, water (and LOTS of it!).  I tried almost all of it, with the exception of like two things, and it was SO good!  :)  After, our group got a quick picture together, and then we split up and went exploring for a while.  My group went walking around and we went to an observation deck where we could see almost all of Nicosia!  Other than that, we just explored the city a little more (no worries--I didn’t do ANY shopping there..boy, was THAT hard).  When we decided to go back to campus, I decided to try out the bus system here.  Some of the group took taxis back, but about six others and I decided that we wanted to get used to using the bus system, so we decided to try it!  It was really nice (a lot nicer than our buses at home!), and only cost one euro to use!  When we all got back, Shami and I went to Carrefore, a grocery store that is part of a decent sized “mall.”  I got the basics--milk, cereal, bread, jam, fruit, water...as well as some fun stuff: “Prince” cookies (also known as “Principes” in Spain!), some Kinder candy, and a Nutella to-go.  Yum yum.  We also ran into the bus driver here.  :D  For the rest of the night, I’ve just been relaxing at the apartment; I’ve been uploading pictures to my computer, checking e-mails, going on Facebook, and, of course, typing this blog. Shami & I went to get ice cream too (I got pistachio--my fave).  Now, I'm just going to finish writing, probably post some pictures on Facebook (I'll post some on here soon, no worries!), journal a bit, take a shower, and go to bed because we have to be at the offices at 9:00 in the morning tomorrow!  :/

Things I love about Cyprus so far:

-God--seriously, He’s already been doing some great things & showed Himself in different little ways, and I love it!!  :)

-The amazing old architecture (I especially love the old buildings which overflow with bright flowers on the outsides!).

-NO MOSQUITOS!  Seriously, other than some flies, there are no pesky bugs here.

-Speaking Greek--I’ve only said “thank you” in Greek to a few people, but I really like to say it (and they seem to like that I speak it!).

-The beautiful waters surrounding the island (seriously, it looked so gorgeous when I was landing!).  I cannot WAIT to go to the beach.  :)

-The people--I’ve met so many great people on the program already!!

-Not having jet-lag.  I don’t get really get it, but either way, it’s been nice not having it!

-Hearing American music almost everywhere I’ve been.  I've heard a lot of the current hits while I've been here.

-The light switches.  Ha.

-Our deck!  It’s super great to sit out on!!  At night, it's the perfect temperature. :)

Things I don’t love about Cyprus so far:

-The fact that you can’t flush toilet paper: the septic system here isn’t too tolerant of anything other than, ehem, what comes out of one’s body, so...you can’t flush the toilet paper or you will back it up and have water overflowing in your bathroom in a few days!!  Yikes.  So we have to throw it away in a special trash-thing..it's lovely...  :/

Well, I hope all is going well in all of YOUR lives!  Feel free to leave comments--I’d love to answer any questions you may have, or just hear from you!  And if I know that people are reading this, I’ll be more motivated to keep writing in it.  :)  Have a fabulous day!!  I miss you all!  Night!

ps-I promise I will try not to write as much in upcoming posts!  I got it down to about three pages single-spaced...and that’s pretty good considering I started a draft earlier that was already four pages, and wasn’t even done!!