The Last Blog for Cyprus

The final 48 hours in Cyprus seemed to pass in slow motion and the speed of light simultaneously.

It is hard to realize that five weeks could have passed so quickly.  Who would have expected that in such a short amount of time I would have made friends from all over America, studying at the university?  Who could fathom that I would begin to feel at home in a place where I barely speak any of the language?

The only order of business on Monday was the final group dinner, during which time we viewed the rough cut edit of our final documentary. 

I have to confess that I was concerned as to how cohesive the final product would be with so many proverbial chefs in the kitchen, running camera, sound, lights, etc.  But my fears proved to be unfounded, largely thanks to the editing genius of Whit, Kim and Lance.  As a group, we watched ourselves sit down to a traditional Cypriot meze and, as the bread, cheese, kleftiko and dessert courses came out, we saw pairs of students leave the table to learn about where these courses come from.

During the course of the last five weeks, we conducted some side interviews, asking Cypriots where they were from, what a meze means to them, what a meze is, what their favorite part of a meze is, and where Cyprus is.  These mini interviews will be the lead at the beginning of the documentary, particularly the explanations as to where Cyprus is located and what a meze is, so that the viewer has a frame of reference for the documentary.  Then, before and after each pair of students learn about their course, an interview will be inserted so that the viewer can get to know some of the Cypriots that we met along our journey.

 Unfortunately, piecing so many parts of the documentary together, interweaving the meze, interviews and excursions, proved too time consuming for the limited time we were left with at the end of our trip.  So the rough-cut edit was very rough, despite Whit’s best efforts.  There just wasn’t time to insert the interviews.  But I sincerely hope that I am able to see the finished product that most of us worked so hard to create and, moreover, that it is a product I can be proud to include in a portfolio of my work.

Tuesday morning, everyone headed into the Old City one final time to finish their souvenir shopping.  Dr. Legg wanted all of us to meet at 11:30 AM at the Freedom Monument so that we could take a group picture like the ones he has taken of his groups in the past.  So that was a fun little trip.  Lindsey wanted to purchase a knock-off Burberry suitcase, so we crossed over into the TRNC one last time.  I finally found a magnet for myself (after searching every place we visited during the previous five weeks).  And then we headed back to our apartments.

The rest of the afternoon was spent packing and cleaning and letting it sink in that we were actually leaving this place that, to my genuine surprise, had begun to feel like a home. 

I could sit here and try to vocalize how much I learned during my brief time on this tiny island, but I’m not sure how successful I would be.  Hopefully, if you’ve read any of my other blogs, you’ll at least have gained some amount of insight into the profound ways that this culture, country and its citizens have impacted me. 

In our orientation, Thanos said that he hoped we would become better citizens of the planet by the end of our journey.  I suppose that might be the best way to describe how I feel.  When you are in a place for long enough, you begin to find the idiosyncrasies (a word that actually has a Greek origin) that people have in common.  There are things that bring us together and enable us to relate to one another, things that transcend any language, cultural or religious differences.

I think it’s only fitting that we left for the airport in Larnaca at 11:30 PM, under the cover of darkness.  My time in Cyprus seems like a crazy, amazing, enlightening, unforgettable dream.

I guess we all have to wake up sometime.