Orientation Begins!!

Saturday night was the first night I got some sleep! It felt so much better, but I'm still not completely accustomed to this time difference. 7 hours is a pretty long time! Its been my hardest struggle here so far.

Sunday was the first day of orientation. We got our pictures taken for our photo ids and had orientation from about 9-5 that day. It was extremely long, but a lot of helpful things were said. They talked about everything we needed to know here; classes, internships, our phones, what the Cyprian culture is like, but everyone seemed to perk up when they discussed places to travel!

Egypt is only about an hour flight away from Cyrpus, so many of us are already planning on taking a trip there possibly sometime in February. The Greek islands apparantely look thier best in May when the weather is much warmer and there are more things to do, so taking a cruise and going what is called "island hopping" looks very promising. There are some other trips being planned to Israel and Turkey and some in Europe; like England and Ireland. I know I wont be able to go on all them because of money, but I'm so excited for what the next 4 months holds!

Later that night, the program directors took us out for a welcome dinner at around 8:00. Greeks eat a lot later here, so that is going to take some getting used to. The dinner was wonderful; so many choices and such good food! Ivanhoe's (the local bar) was playing the football playoffs that night, so we all went there to watch the game and hang out with other students.

Monday was the second day of orientation. They gave us an introduction to the history of Cyprus which was very interesting. I did not realize how complicated thier history actually is. Cyprians are very proud of their country, which is now a province and is apart of the European Union. We then had a quick tour of the University of Nicosia which is where I will be studying. The tour guides went very fast and the campus has a lot of different enterances and exists, so I'm pretty sure I will be lost on the first day, but it looks easy enough to navigate around. My roomates and I then went grocery shopping a little more and with all the signs in Greek, it gets extremely complicated! One of my roommates, Jeana, made us an amazing dinner that night! (she is an excellant cook!) We then went to our friends apartment and stayed there for the rest of the night.

This moring, we had a lecture on the history of art. Everything this woman told us was so interesting and it made me really excited to take the class which starts next week. She showed us classic pieces from Greece and Italy (sadly I am not in the program that goes to those places, but it was incredibly interesting). She told us when looking at these classic pieces that were made years ago, to completely let ourselves transform to what it says to you; to take absolutely everything in! She was absolutely adorable!

Then, I had a meeting with the program director to discuss the classes I will be taking here. While I have not heard back from UNH as to all the credits that will transfer over, I am deffinitely sure of a few of the classes. As of now, I will be taking: Gender Issues in Society, History of Art, Modern Europe, European Cultures and Photography! This schedule could possibly change within the next few days, but that is what it looks like for now. I also talked to him about possible internships here. He told me to email him my resume for two possible ones that the program offers, but then told me specifically to talk to my "European Cultures" professor. Apparantely, she is very well connected in Cyprus and knows a lot about anthropology. That will be extremely helpful for my major!

Later this afternoon there was a presentation from this group called "Peace Players International". They run basketball games for children on the Greek and Turkish to try and unite the different sides of Cyprus. My roommates and I were thinking of volunteering with this organization to get know the children of Greek and Turkish Cyprus. We then had another lecture on Cyprus Geography which was also very interesting. We learned that Cyprus is actually about half the size of Connecticut (very small!), but is a strategic location. It connects Africa, Asia, Europe and the Middle East, so it holds great significance. It was amazing to learn how fast politics changes and influences the lives of those all around us!

Tonight, my roommate, Bekah, and I walked around the city of Nicosia. It was a beautiful night and felt good to walk around a city. We came across a bakery, called Zorbas. I bought traditional rice pudding for about 1 euro, which was not bad at all and brought it back to our apartment. It was absolutely delicious! I know I will deffinitely be going back there soon; especially since its open 24 hours and is so close to where we live. Perfect!

While I was skyping with friend who is studying abroad in Nicaragua tonight, a stray cat just walked right into our apartment! It was a complete shock to both my roommate and I, but there are stray cats all over this city! They are adorable.

Tomorrow, we are going to Cyrpus archaeological museum and then have a scavenger hunt around the city which we are all really looking foward to! I love everything about this city already!