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!!