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!
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