Greek Dance Lessons, Kyrenia, and Carnival!

Sorry, I'm falling behind with my posts; I blame my computer that keeps crashing!!! :(
Anyways, last Wednesday we went to Greek dance lessons!! It was 5 of my friends, me, a girl from Romania, a girl from Cyprus, and the Cypriot instructor. It was so much fun!! We learned 2 traditional Greek dances - I have no idea what they are called (and even if I did there is no way I could write it) so I will just give you a rough description: the first one everyone stands in a line with your arms on the next persons shoulders and you move forward, backward, and side to side while you make like a 4 with your legs periodically (sorry, it is very hard to explain). The second one you have a partner and move in a circle to a crazy 11 count, then you go in another circle but do what I like to call a Greek C-walk: right leg forward, then you go up on your toes while your left foot comes behind to the other side of your right leg (again, sorry for the horrible explanation). But it was a blast!! Who would have ever guessed that Marie Boo would ever go to dance lessons...and like it!?

Thursday my Cypriot friend, Alkea, came over and we taught her how to make cookies - peanut butter, oatmeal, chocolate chip cookies = Marie's heaven! She has NEVER made cookies before; Alkea loved them! Then we went and did a secrete valentines gift exchange with other people in our program, also so much fun! Then we played card games and knives (spoons, but all of the other silverware was dirty).

Friday, we had breakfast on our veranda in the nice warm sun! Followed by frappe's at the university on the patio - so good! Plus it was in the 70s so we were wearing capris and t-shirts! nevertheless, we got some very weird looks all day for our choice of summer clothes during the "winter." Then we took the bus to the old city again walked around the shops on Ledras street and had doner kebabs! We were just leaving to catch the bus back home when we saw these police men running and yelling at this man sweeping the street, followed by a bunch of camera men, weird....then we looked up the street and the entire street (Ledras street is a pedestrian street) was filled with all of these men in suits!? We figured it was someone important, so toward the end of the parade of suited, political-looking men we asked this woman who it was - the President of Lebanon!! Crazy!

     After being in shock/awe for a couple minutes we got on the bus to come back. Crazy Cypriot driving as per usual; our bus driver pulls into a gas station...gets out...and starts having a conversation with a man! After a couple minutes of this, he begins to fill up the bus with gas...with a bus load of people! What?! So we asked a woman next to us if that was normal, she said, "Yes, sort of. At least it's in the afternoon. They sometimes do this in the morning when we are all going to work, then everyone is late." Now, I am not a frequent rider on the metro transit or any bus service in a major city (St. Joe does not count), but I'm pretty sure this would not fly at ALL back home. Oh Cyprus!

Saturday = Kyrenia, a major port city in the North of Cyprus. Before 1974 it used to be a major spot for tourists, especially for British vacations, but since the invasion of the Turks, it is no longer popular. We went to Saint Hilarion Castle - it is what Snow White's castle is based off of! It was built in the 7th century AD! It was very impressive how well it was made (it is still in very good shape) and simply the fact that in 600 AD they could build a huge castle at the top of a mountain and into the side of the mountain. On our way to and from the castle we passed some Turkish army bases/training camps (Jake, I covertly took pictures of it for you...while they had guns!) and heard gun shots while we were in the castle; it was like we went back in time because it was originally built as a watch tower for approaching Arab raids on Cyprus.

    

     Then we winded our way down the mountain to the Bellapais Abbey. A gothic church built in the 1300s AD; it was pretty, but I feel like we have seen every church in Cyprus already.

   

     We then went to the city of Kyrenia. We had frappes right on the harbor with lots of boats and the beautiful blue Mediterranean Sea as our backdrop - BEAUTIFUL! We are actually on an island, who knew! Then we got a tour of the Kyrenia Castle which was built in the 1100s and has 3 distinct periods of architecture by the Ottomans, Venetians, and British. Inside the castle was a little museum with the remains of a shipwreck (pictured below on the left); the oldest shipwreck to ever be found in the Mediterranean, built in 300 BC! We saw a reconstruction of the actual ship, vases, and almonds! Yes, almonds that have been preserved at the bottom of the Mediterranean since 300 BC! Crazy. Long story short, I loved Kyrenia!

Sunday was CARNIVAL! We all got dressed up in costume and the university provided a bus for us to go to Limassol (a port city on the south coast of Cyprus). We got out of the bus...crazy! Carnival is a celebration before lent where they can eat and express themselves in costume before lent - our European Cultures professor explained that the costumes are a way for Cypriots to make fun of something or someone or dress up like someone you would like to be. (But Alkea said people dress up like anything, it doesn't need to have a meaning). Basically it is like a mix of Halloween and a family-friendly Mardi Gras. Everyone is in costume, music, food stands, and a big parade. People were dressed up like everything from hamburgers and fries to Toy Story characters to men dressed up women (very popular actually) to the mafia. And everyone LOVES silly string and confetti; they would spray silly string on police cars or they would walk right up to a random person and just spray them - my friend Alessandra did NOT like that. It was quite the experience.

Monday was Green Monday, no school! It is the first day of lent, and apparently they go out into fields and eat a big family meal with meat. We celebrated by going to our favorite bakery, Zorbas, and trying new desserts! :) We got back, made dinner (sautéed vegetables with rice and pasta) and watched movies...7 of us in 2 twin size beds :)


Tuesday was my roommate, Kaitlin's, 21st birthday! We made a big family dinner with Mexican rice and peppers, bean, fresh salsa, and fresh guacamole! Soooooooo good!

Other fun facts that I forgot to mention before: there are no homeless people in Cyprus. Apparently there was one man a couple years ago that was living out of his bus? Everyone was talking about it and saying how humiliating it was. It was all over the news, and the next day, he had a flat to live in. Very interesting, very different.

     The plumbing in Cyprus is poor, so you cannot throw anything in the toilet...very hard to get used to, and gross.
     Also, there are stray cats EVERYWHERE in Cyprus! It’s disgusting! The ancient tale goes that St. Helen brought them to Cyprus to eat the snakes that were on the island and now they are everywhere! My friends love cats and they think the stray cats are so cute so they feed them all the time...no comment.

Well, one more class tomorrow and then it's off to EGYPT!! :D