Is it Greece? Is it Turkey? No, it's Cyprus.

So I arrived in Cyprus yesterday afternoon around 3:30 pm (which is 8:30 am EST).  After the rest of my study abroad group landed at 4:35 (there are 14 of us, including the professor), we boarded a bus with a gaggle of other study abroad students to travel from Larnaca (pronounced Lar-nuh-kuh) to Nicosia (pronounced Nik-ah-see-ah).*

When we got to our apartments in Nicosia, I.... um .... guess I didn't know what to expect?  It's not tragic or third world, it's just my first encounter with a place like this.  I have one roommate and we share a bedroom in a 1 bedroom apartment, kind of like a dorm.  Except the living area is almost three times larger than the bedroom.  So my roommate and I decided we'd move the armoir and a bed into the living room, and one of the two desks into the bedroom (which has a built-in closet).

This way we have our own private bedrooms.  He just also happens to have a love-seat, a folding table with four chairs and a balcony in his as well.  But that's all for the best I figure, because he's more likely to entertain guests here than I am (who knew I was so crotchety and old at 27? But I figure it's a fairly safe assumption since this is the second night we've been here and it marks the second time he's gone to a bar...), and we don't have to tiptoe around if one of us wakes up before the other.  I'm sure we aren't supposed to move the furniture around, but it's easy enough to move back if we are chastised.

Don't get me wrong, he's perfectly nice.  It seems like everyone on this trip is, which is a good thing.  But I don't want to be woken up at midnight every night as he comes home.  Especially not when I'm trying to get my circadian rhythm back on track from traveling.

Today we toured the University of Nicosia which is where we will have several of our "classes" (I put this in quotation marks because it seems like the majority of our class time will be out in the field writing or shooting footage for our final documentary).  It seems to be an incredibly tiny university with a knack for the obvious (they have auditoriums named "Red," "Turquoise," "Blue," etc that match the color of the wall, there is a building called the EU because it was completed the year Cyprus entered the European Union and another building called the Millennium Building.  I'll let you ponder that last one.

My fellow grad student (and only other grad student on this trip besides myself), Kendra and I wandered around today and found what they call the Green Grocer (which is a less expensive grocery story than Carrefour at the "mall" (which has approximately 5 stores in it) but is still overpriced) and a bakery.

Tomorrow we are meeting at 10:45 am (3:45 am EST, for those who forget the time difference) to take a bus to the Old City part of Nicosia.  We're visiting a museum and a wall.  Haha.  It's my understanding that this Old City portion of Nicosia borders the territorial line of Cyprus between the Greek and Turkish sides (we are on the Greek side, apparently the Turks aren't so friendly).

For now I have to go read a text for tomorrows adventure titled Toward a Unified Cyprus: The Myth of Turkish Cypriot "Isolation."  As well as Cyprus at a Glance.   I'm sure I'll be a fountain of knowledge afterwards.  And quite possibly fast asleep.

I'll let you know tomorrow :)






* I am not an expert when it comes to linguistic spellings, I'm just trying to give somewhat of an idea of how to say these names.