Alright, so, I know I’ve been away from the blog-o-sphere for a while, and I apologize. It’s been a while since I’ve updated my blog, and because of this, I’m going to skip out on writing about individual days and give you a general summary of the past couple of weeks.
The day after I got back from Barcelona, my classes started. Yayyyy...haha. [Okay, actually, they’re not that bad.] For those of you who need a refresher, I’m taking Greek, Photography, Brain & Behavior, Cognitive Psychology, and Research Methods. All of my classes are taught in English, so that’s been really nice. :) I’ll give you a brief summary about each of my classes.
Greek: The Greek class that I’m taking is through the GLS program, not the University of Nicosia. Therefore, I have class with some of the other people that are studying abroad with GLS this semester, so that’s been fun! My Greek teacher’s name is Christiana. She...is something else. haha. She reminds me of one of the Kardashians, that’s for sure. She has very long, dark hair, is similar in appearance (in my opinion anyway), and always comes to class wearing her big sunglasses and looking ever-so-fashionable, so it's hard not to think of her as their long-lost sister! She is super nice, and very helpful; if we have any questions or if there is any amount of confusion on something (which, it’s Greek, so there always is some to some extent...lol), she makes sure that the matter gets addressed and solved before we move on. I’ve learned quite a bit in this class; as of right now, I can read Greek at a basic level, and I know how to have a basic conversation. I’m still learning, but I feel like I’ve accomplished a lot so far. Actually, I had my Greek midterm today--aaaaaand, I aced it! Seriously. I got a 100%!!!! I made a few mistakes on the exam, but I think Chrisitiana felt that I knew the concepts well and that I had just made some silly mistakes, so that was awesome!
Photography: Photography is also taught through GLS. I chose to take these two courses through the program because I thought it would be beneficial to divide my time between both the program and the university: this way, I get to spend time with both my fellow study abroad students, as well as with normal Cypriot students! Anyway, my photography teacher’s name is Nicholas. He is quite contradictory in his nature; he is someone that I’d consider to be very soft-spoken, but also very hilarious. :D He is definitely knowledgeable in the field of photography (he has both a BA and an MA from his time studying in the UK), and he owns lots of cameras...jealous! ;) Story time: one time in class, he asked us how big we thought our field of vision was (in degrees). Of course, out of all of the students, I have the stupid answer (or at least, it’s the only stupid answer he heard...). So, he grabbed me by the hands, took me to the front of the class, turned me around, had me look straight ahead, and repeatedly asked me if I could see his hands (on either side of my head) in my field of vision. Well, it took me awhile before I could see his hands, so OBVIOUSLY, our field of vision is not 180 degrees like I thought...(it’s only about 40 I learned). However, it’s slightly unfair because I had my thick-framed glasses on and couldn’t see out of my peripherals! lol. Anyway, I’ve been a lot more careful about my answers now...
Brain and Behavior: This is definitely one of my favorite classes so far. (By the way, for those of you who don’t know, Brain and Behavior is essentially Biopsychology.) My professor’s name is Dr. Marios Constantinou. I really like him as a prof. so far (and I knew I would when I saw the popular picture of Homer Simpson’s “x-ray” with his tiny brain at the end of our syllabus). :D He knows how to command attention in the classroom and keep the material interesting (and I definitely find the material interesting in general), so it’s definitely been one of my favorite classes!
Cognitive Psychology: This class is...interesting. My professor’s name is Dr. Maria Hadjimarkou. She is quite softspoken, but funny in a “cute-funny” sort of way. Like, her facial expressions and the way that she says some things or reacts to some things is quite comical and amusing. The material of the class so far though is....meh. For some reason, this class isn’t capturing my attention quite like Brain and Behavior, although, Maria said that we’re going to start talking about more interesting stuff next time, so maybe it will start to intrigue my attention a little more.
Research Methods: This class is...surprising. My professor’s name is Dr. Menelaos Apostolou. He is a genuinely nice professor, and very eager to help anyone who may need it. I stayed a little late after class today to work on my homework, and he was still helping one of the women in my class when I left about 20 minutes later! The way he says things sometimes reminds me of the father from My Big Fat Greek Wedding too (with his accent and everything), so I get quite a kick out of that. :D For example, he (and my photography teacher actually) say “zzmall” for “small.” I think it’s pretty funny, and I really like their accents here. As far as the class itself goes, I’m quite surprised with it. The material isn’t anything exciting, but I’m picking it up a lot faster and easier than I thought I would. This course is statistics-based, and for any of you who don’t know, statistics was (and still is) my LEAST favorite kind of math. Ever. Either way, I don’t know if it’s just more elementary to me for some reason, but I always seem to be one of the first ones done with our exercises (not to brag of course). All of our exercises are done on the computer, so I usually just find something to work on online while Menelaos goes around helping the other students. I’m just glad that I’m understanding it. We’re using a program called SPSS (it’s used back at Bethel too--it’s a universal program used for anything psychology/research-related), and the big thing that we’re learning right now is how to use the program and how to interpret the data that we are finding. Overall, I don’t mind the class as much as I thought I would. I just wish it weren’t a four hour long class (though we’ve been getting out a little early the past couple of times, so I guess it’s not that bad).
Other than my classes, I haven’t been up to much since I’ve been back from my travels. The GLS group went to Ayia Napa last weekend; that was great! Ayia Napa is the most touristy part of Cyprus because it has some of the islands prettiest beaches. :) We left last Friday for Ayia Napa. On the way, we stopped at a few places. The first stop was the Hala Sultan Tekke mosque, the third most important pilgrimage site for Muslims after Mecca. It was built there because, according to legend, Muhammad’s aunt fell of a mule and died at the site. It was cool to see, but there wasn’t much to see. I really enjoyed seeing the cats at the mosque though! Oh. My. GOSH. There was a VERY cute kitten there. Literally, it was probably a week or two old--very tiny. It made me miss my kitty very much. :) After the mosque, we visited the Church of St. Lazarus. According to history, after Lazarus was raised from the dead the first time, he came to Cyprus (present-day Larnaca) where he was ordained as a bishop by Paul and St. Barnabas. When he died (for the second, and final, time), he was buried in Larnaca, and the church was built over his tomb. So, I got to see the tomb of Lazarus! It was really cool, even though I wasn’t able to figure out which tomb was actually his. (There were a few sarcophagi, all of which are empty, so it’s hard to tell which one is his, but either way, I saw his tomb!) After we were given a little time to explore the church, we left for our final stop before Ayia Napa: a Famagusta cultural center. Famagusta is a city in Cyprus that was taken over by the Turks when they invaded the island. Today, it literally sits as a ghost town; very few people are allowed to enter (apparently, it would even be hard for our president to visit!), and everything is apparently left the same as it was when it was invaded (like, apparently there’s newspapers from that day and toast lying on a kitchen counter...that type of stuff). It’s quite a sad thing, and I believe there have been efforts to get it back and to re-inhabit the city. They’re quite a ways away from accomplishing this, but there’s always hope for the future.
After our stops, we arrived in Ayia Napa where we were set free for the rest of the weekend. And boy, was it fabulous. I was definitely in paradise! The rest of the afternoon and that night, was mainly dedicated to swimming. :) That night, almost all of the group went out together to sing karaoke. Which...wasn’t really karaoke because everyone always sang each song together..lol. But I sang half a song at the mic. when Shami pulled me up to sing with her. I have “do karaoke” on my bucket list, but I’m not crossing it off since I didn’t sing the whole song and it wasn’t really karaoke...someday though! The next day, after a fantastic breakfast, a group of us decided to go out to Cape Greko, a serene cape where there is some pretty good swimming and beautiful views. The water was a beautiful teal blue, and very clear. Shami and I decided to go back into town quick and buy some goggles--it was a great investment and super cool to see the bottom! We even saw some little fishies! :) That night was spent exploring the city and eating in a place that specialized in making fish (ish...I didn't get any obviously. Although, I tried one of my friend's swordfish, and it wasn't too bad!). The next day, we left to go back to our apartment early in the afternoon, so the rest of our time was spent eating breakfast and sleeping. :)
Overall, everything’s been pretty great so far (if you can’t tell by how much I’m writing!). My classes are all going well and I’m having a lot of fun with everyone! Well, I think that is all I’m going to write for now (because I’m pretty sure my fingers are about to fall off!). But, don’t worry--I’ll be updating my blog again very soon because tomorrow...I’M GOING TO EGYPT!!!!!!!! This is my first surprise destination for those of you who I've been keeping it a secret from. :) Have a good day/night everyone! I’ll be writing again soon!
Dont pee in the Nile!
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