6/10/08

Update of extreme importance: I got my luggage...2 weeks ago. Though the idea of me not having luggage for the past 2 weeks is much more entertaining for all involved, I'm sure.

The internet here is in and out, and writing on here is far from a sure thing. I have, however, been keeping up (somewhat) with writing about what we've been experiencing here. Organizing it is another thing all together, but I will attempt to put together a chronologically appropriate account of the last few weeks. If I fail, the basics are: Class started, its pretty good, my Early Christianity professor is an awesome/mysterious/worldly/funny religious man, and I finally did my laundry today for the first time.

6/4/08
I got money today! We walked down to the main street a couple blocks away, called October 28 St. and found and ATM. My first Euros! Some of my roommates went to the grocery today...I would have gone too, but I was waiting for my luggage to arrive! The airport called me this morning and told me that they found it, and were sending it in a taxi. So around noon today, an older Cypriot man arrived at my door, didn't speak english, but kind of asked me if I was waiting for a bag and brought it in for me. UNDAMAGED. That is by far the best part. Now i just have to figure out a way to bring all the stuff I brought in 3 bags, home in 1 bag, or else I will need to buy another duffle of some kind. At least now I have clothes!


Nicosia (Lefkosia)- Such an interesting town. Well, city really, at about 165,000 inhabitants! Excluding stray cats, of course, of which there are surely 1 per capita.

Our excursions to the old city have been numerous in the first week, but Wednesday was particularly revealing.

Around noon the six of us living in Mark 7a made out first taxi phone call- and we all jumped at the chance to be the one to dial..Ha! Hardly. I think we were all a little nervous about talking to a strange, Cypriot taxi driver. I mean, I only recently got over my anxiety related to ordering pizza for delivery at home. I only beg someone else to do it about 70% of the time now...

Finally someone called... two taxis they said, for six people. A short time later, the taxis arrived, and we hopped in. "Where?", he asked us. "Eleftharia Square?" we said hesitantly. That is what we had been told to tell him by our program coordinator. "Eh?" he said. Oh dear. The rest of the conversation went about like this:
-Incomprehensible Cypriot
- "Eleftharia Square?"
-Incomprehensible Cypriot
-"Uh... El-left-thar-ia Square?"
-Incomprehensible Cypriot
-"downtown?"
-Ah! Something-in-Cypriot Square?
-"YES! sure!"
I can only imagine that he had just pronounced Eleftharia Square properly, because that's where we ended up.

The ride was our first glimpse of the city beyond our Makedonitissa neighborhood. and our first experience on the roads of Nicosia...Cypriots are crazy drivers! There may or may not be a speed limit, cars turn whenever they want, no signals, trying to beat the rest of oncoming trafffic. Why do I reel strangely comforted by that idea...? Oh! That's right. Its just like Pittburgh!

We turned left and right, and right and left, and through countless roundabouts...it was conveluted, butI could tell we were still headed toward the city center. I knew from the position of our apartment in realtion to the walled-city about how we might get there...and thena ll of a sudden, the UN was on my left and the road narrowed down, and a tan stone wall passed on my left and on my right- dead ahead was the blockade near the Paphos gate that I had so meticulously analyzed on my map at home. We had just entered the oldest part of the last divided capital in the world.

The blockade requires that incoming traffic turn right, hugging the inside of the Venetian wall- or what remains of it. Finally we arrived at Eleftharia Sqaure- the frontmost (southern) entrance to the city. We stepped onto the sidewalk, and someone says, "I thought we were supposed to go through a wall or soemthing! Is this where we are supposed to be?" Ok, so I guess our historic entrance was an isolated experience. I gave them the short story of where we were and how we had gotten there- and off we went to shop, or eat, or find a market... we didn't have too specific a purpose in our travels. I think we had initially intended to discover a quaint open air market that would provide us with yummy Cypriot fruits and vegetables... but that's another story.

We went into this little clothes store, and eventually talked to the woman who I assume owns it. She was so cute! A little older, Cypriot woman who spoke enough english to help us out, she pointed us down the street to a little streetside restaurant. Said they had great souvlaki. So we headed down there and there are like 6 really full tables on this narrow sidewalk and its a tiny place inside- the guy (who maybe runs it?) motioned for us to come in, but there wasn't room there either (there were 6 of us), so he told us "a couple minutes" and we waited. It was so awkward. Of course we look outrageously American, though not as bad as some of the people here, and as soon as we got there all the people outside kind of got closer and mumbled, and a couple girls definitely heard a distinct "American" from a couple different tables. Finally 2 tables freed up and we all sat down and ordered...kabobs. and he asked us if we wanted water (2!), salad (large!), and houlami. Houlami cheese is sooo good. Never had it before today, but I had read about it. This food was great though. Lots of chicken, dry cabbage and cilantro, 2 plates of pita, salad that was just cucumber, tomato and onion in vinagrette, and 2 enormous bottles of water. and houlami. holy cow, its like pan fried cheese, served hot. Lunch took all our time, of course, and we couldn't finish it all so we took the rest home. Idk if that's normal or not, but he gave us foild containers and didn't seem weird about it, so we have another meal out of it. For the 6 of us, it all cost 36 euro. Not bad.

After lunch, we went back to our apartment, and then met up with a bunch of other people for....a tour of downtown! We knew that it was kind of redundant to go there before our tour, but we got to do stuff that the tour wouldn't have let us. and without like 50 people. But it was neat to have a guide and hear the history of the city (which they call Lefkosia instead of Nicosia- Greek is the former and Latin alphabet produced the latter), and a firsthand description of the "Cyprus problem" which is the Turkish occupation of the North. I'm having a hard time figuring out exactly how terrible the current situation is. They gave us a pamphlet about it in our orientation packet, and while I don't assume the facts they present are inaccurate, I feel like there has to be a more objective story. Its hard though, because the people on this side of the city seem pretty bitter about it, understandably. We drove around the wall around the old city, and then went inside and walked around. We saw a cathedral, the Archbishop's residence, and then we started walking down these really deserted streets near the border of the division... it was like a ghost town. After a while, we arrived at the buffer zone- and saw the UN and Cypriot national guard. The national guard operates a lot like Israel's army... all men have to serve 25 months after secondary school and before college or getting a job. Some girls were taking pictures, which you aren't allowed to do, and we got yelled at by one guy- kind of scary actually. Ok, and after we got around the corner I took a picture too. Illegal, but I just wanted to remember it. So then we spent the rest of the time just walking around the busy and productive parts of the city- lots of neat shops and cafes and tavernas. And absolutely gorgeous.