The Learning has begun . . .

Not too many exciting things have happened since I "blogged" last time but I've been couch ridden by Lauren this afternoon because surprise, surprise, I've hurt myself. No worries, I'm just a clumsy fool and dropped a liter of Coke on my toe so well it hurts.

But that's alright cuz now I have time to catch up on here!

Today is Tuesday and its my first day of classes because I don't have any classes scheduled on Mondays! : )

A Bunch of us GLS kids! oh and Anwar. ->

I've only gone to one class so far but I already noticed so many differences. I went to Introduction to Hospitality Management this morning at ten except class didn't start till 20 minutes after the hour cuz the teacher was late and unfased. Hmm . . . well anyways there are only 6 other kids in my class. Two from Russia, one from China, and three Cypriots so I guess I blended in. It still feels weird to introduce myself as "being from America", usually thats understood. But anywho, the teacher seemed nice enough and very laid back. Class was short but I managed to make a new friend on my very first day! Her name in Angela and she has always lived here in Cyprus but her mom is from Pennsylvania and she wants to study in New York! So I spent the rest of my morning with her and actually I think she is my first Cypriot friend. So I'm off to a good start. I have my Greek class tonight at 6 probably mostly with Americans but you never know here.

Oh I almost forgot to tell you about yesterday. Well it was great! I borrowed Anwar's bike for the afternoon while everyone was cooped up inside and I set out to explore. I was probably gone for a little over two hours. I tried to get lost but my keen sense of direction prevented that from happening. It was fantastic being outside in shortsleeves all afternoon soaking in the sun. This is what they call "Winter". Its insane. Its not humid at all, just beautiful. I rode mostly through some residential neighborhoods and found a park or too. And some bike paths that I would take for awhile and then they would suddenly stop but I guess thats a "Welcome to Cyprus" moment.

The picture to the right - > thats right. I self timered it! Thanks for all the skills Baby!

Oh and I think Kelley and I convinced our neighbor, Martin, to take us to the beach next weekend even though he claims we are insane and that the beaches are closed. We just want to get our toes in the sand! Also, the water temperature in their "Winter" is slightly warmer than the Jersey shore ever gets. Bottom line . . . can't wait!

I guess I'll go sit on our balcony now and read and soak in the warmth! Haha. Hope you are all enjoying your slush! Love everyone!

I know some of the pictures are random but I wanted to share them anyways!

Oh and I hope you enjoy a sampling of my artistic abilities that can be seen below!

Click on the one below to see everything I labeled for you!!!

Casa de Gatos!!!!!

Thanks for being sprised I can ride a bike Mishy > : o

One week in and so much more to do!

So now its Saturday afternoon! And let me tell you, it just keeps getting better! We spent tuesday night watching the inaguration at a group of students from Nigeria's apartment. It was very interesting to hear their views on Obama and they were all very excited. After that, they took us to a bar in the old city where we played pool for hours. It was very fun and we even managed to go to bed before 3 . . . I think.

Oh and probably the highlight of the night was when we were waiting for Ousman (one of our Nigerian friends) to pick us up. We played with one of the hundreds of cats that roam the streets. It made me so happy!

Wednesday, we have some more orientation presentations in the morning that were alright and we even had a Greek cooking class that was delicious. After that we spent the afternoon cleaning our casa because apparently we live like pigs.

At four we had a scavenger hunt starting on our campus here and ending at an adorable cafe in downtown. Our group wasn't too successful but it helped us find alot of things to know for the future. Once we finished the hunt me and Kel had dinner with some of new friends. It was delicious. Once our early evening had commenced, it was time to get ready for our continous late nights.

We ended going up to this small club with our friends from Spain for an international party which was alot of fun. We drank and danced and closed the place down around 3. I'm pretty sure we would have stayed all night if they didn't make us leave.

The following day, which I guess would be Thursday, we got up early to go to the group organized trip to the Cyprus Archaeological Museum. There are thousands of artifacts recovered from over 8,000 years ago to when the Byzantine Empire ruled Cyprus. Not all of the artifacts can be kept at the museum though because its located so close to the Green Line (the line that separates the Greek south from the Turkish north) that if another invasion was to occur, it could all be lost.

Regardless of the fact that I was enhuasted from our never ending long days, I opted to play basketball with some neighbors rather than nap. We convientantly have a basketball hoop on the side of our apartment building and the kids downstairs invested in purchasing a ball. Let's just say I haven't lost my touch, I came in second in Horse out of about a dozen people. It felt great to be outside in the late afternoon. Oh and other great news is, our friend Anwar, has a bicycle which I invited myself to use and ride around of area. Its also great to see that as the weather continues to get warmer and the days get longer, were going to spend so much time outside. I really can't wait.

Later Kel, Anwar, and Me went out to a small cafe and had a great time with some of the people from our GLS group. By the end of the night we were anxious to go bed because we had a long day of mountain traveling ahead of us.

The trip to the Troodos mountains started out as a bust. It was rainy when we got to the top and very cold. We had lunch as a small resturant and luckily the weather slowly improved. We went to another small town that looked like a touristy area with lots of small hotels and resturants that overlook the mountains. It was great to take in the scenery and it is so strange that you can go from sunny beach town to snowy mountain tops in under an hour. The whole country in such a unique place and we are all in an agreeance that its well kept secret. I've yet to get to the Meditteranean Sea but I'm sure we will soon.

On the way back down the mountain we made one more stop at a picturesque town called Omodos that seemed to be centered around this gorgeous church in the middle. Oh and of course I can't forget mentioning that fact that taking a full-scale charter bus down a mountain side on roads that can barely handle a small car is probably not the best idea. It was an adventure but I guess thats what this trip is all about!

We all slept on the way home and since we were too lazy to cook dinner for ourselves, we called ahead and informed Anwar, we would be coming over to his apartment for dinner. I've been trying to very good on this trip and try new things. I must say I'm doing a great job.

After dinner, we came back to get ready to go out for one of the girl in program's birthday.

It was a really great night full of free drinks and entrance fees. The club gave us free champange and cake for Francina's birthday. Our feet were aching and there may have been some dancing barefoot which would explain the late night washing of feet.

Another couple of succesful days here. It's hard to believe we have only been here for a little over a week. So much has already happened its hard to take it.

Well today is Saturday and we've yet to do anything except make two batches of french fries and watch the latest epsiode of the Office but I guess we will see what tonight brings. Love everyone and hope all is welll!

Welcome to Cyprus!

It's been five days since I got here and everything has been great!

We only got the internet yesterday so I need to catch everyone up on what I have been doing. Well first of all I'm pretty sure none of us have fixed our jetlag because we continue to go to sleep in the early morning and lets just say now I have just woken up from a nap. "We" is the four of us girls in our wonderful apartment, Kelly, Kelley, and Lauren (my roommate : D). We have been so busy since we got here that I have barely noticed the lack of television or internet.

We landed in Lanarca on Thursday afternoon and took the group bus to Nicosia, the captial, which is where we live. Some of the advertisements are in Greek and some are in English, and some are in both. Its kind of luck of the draw but we have been making out well so far. This most likely due to the fact that our next door neighbor had been helping to show us the ropes. His name is Martin and he is from all over, including Cyprus, Bulgaria, and Jamaica. It makes for one very interesting and entertaining accent.

Our program coordinators are all extremely friendly. They fed us Pizza Hut twice so far : P but any free food tends to be appreciated greatly because everything is expensive here. I've been adapting to the Euro and trying to budget myself so I have the money to travel places.

Our first night was an early one but we still managed to swing by the bar for our 'Welcome to Cyrpus' drink and then we returned home because someone was coming to fix our heat.

We also had no hot water for a few days but we've been working it out. You also can't flush toilet paper and we have to conserve water because there is only one tank for the whole building and is refilled three times aweek. Oh and you have to "turn" on the hot water about a half hour before you want to take a shower. These are things we were so grateful to have Martin around for otherwise we would be lost.

We spent our first full day sleeping until two and then we set out to explore our new city. Everything is extremely safe here with the crime rate being about 1/6 what it is in the United States. However everyone drives out of control so we always have to remember to look right, left, right because they do drive on the left.

Going to the grocery store was an adventure all in itself. Apparently you have to get a scanner sticker before you go to ring out so instead we were laughed at. O well were just stupid Americans : P. They also have convientant escalators for your shopping cart which I still think are fantastic. The weather is wonderful so far. Its been sunny everyday and usually I just wear a light coat when we go out. It feels great to want to be outside and not huddled under my cubbers all day : )






After our shopping adventure, we spent sometime getting to know Martin next door. He invited us to go out to a club called Bling. Alot of the other American girls went too and it was alot of fun but also exhausting probably because the clubs here don't even open at all until midnight and stay open until 4 am. We were also introduced to Martin's friend Anwar, half Irish and half Jordanian, who has also been helping to show us about. And if 4 wasn't late enough, the 24 hour bakery, Zorba's, is a great place to go at all hours of the day. Bottom line, me and Kelley watched the sunrise from our balcony at about 8am. Sorry if I'm including too many details but I just want to tell everything about everything because it has all been so amazing thus why we never have the want to sleep.

On Saturday we had an afternoon tour of downtown and the old city. The streets were adorable with little shops and cafes. It was our first real exposure to some of the ancient architecture. The old city is a few km in diameter and is sourounded by venetian walls built in order to keep invaders out. It even had a moat that has now been turned into a park. Our tour guide took us to a Byzantine church that was beautiful.

After our tour we came home to make dinner and hang out with some our new friends. I haven't laughed that hard for that long in I don't know when. I'm not sure if it was all that funny or if we are all dillusional from never sleeping but either way it was the start of another great night.

Martin has a little green hatchback which Kelley, Anwar, Martin and myself decided to take to go to McDonald's! And let me tell you, it is the cleanest McDonald's I've ever seen. They even had a parking attendent which didn't go well when Martin parked half in a handicapped spot. O welll . . . the fries we just as delicious and of course they had a playplace : ) I have more pictures than things to say so I'll put some more pictures at the end.

After our road trip to the M.C. Donald's, we all went to the ice cream place down the street thats kind of like a huge arcade also. The highlight was the bumper cars which are outdoors and open year round.

The nights here last forever. After bumper cars, fooseball, airhockey, and icecream, we spent time at the bar and then more hanging at our pad. It was another 4 or 5 am night, I think.

Sunday was a long day of orientation which wasn't that exciting but our cooridnators are hella funny so it was good. After that, we had a free dinner at a nice Greek restaurant which was basically shut down for all of us.

Afterwards we went to Anwar's apartment and broke our promises of going to bed at a reasonable hour.

Monday was mostly free with just a short tour of the campus in the afternoon. We went grocery shopping again which is super convienant and less than a block away. We also only live about 2 mins walking from school, maybe even less.

We decided to cook our first real meal which was delicious thanks to Lauren. During dinner we were invited by some other international students from all over to their house for a party. We met tons of people from Spain to Nigeria and are planning to go to one of the guys house tonight to watch the inauguration. Last night we were up till about 5 again. O geez we never ever sleep. Today we had some History of Cyprus things this morning and now we haven't been doing much. Time to shower now that the hot water should be heated up. Hope its not too much detail and that it took so long. Hope everyone enjoys it and I will try to do my best to keep up with it. Scouts honor!

Oh and there are cats everywhere and I love it.