Wedding Crashers

Fun facts about Cyprus:
1) You can't flush toilet paper down any toilet in this country.
2) You can crash weddings.
3) Their college employs adorable old me who make tea for us when we're trying to steal the internet signal from the college.

First things first...no toilet paper? Awkward...very. Especially in a bar late at night, when you have to fish the drunk girl before you's (awkward possessive-sorry) toilet paper out of the toilet. Maybe too much information there...but I feel like it's worth noting, so everyone in the US can more fully appreciate their bathrooms.

They also rank in the top three of Europe's worst driving records, and only know how to park on sidewalks which is dangerous for multiple reasons. The two top being you can't ever cross a street without running like a maniac, and in the night when you're walking you have to walk in the street because you can't walk in the sidewalk because the cars are parked there. Unfortunately you can't walk in the street because they're crazy and you're left with an awkward curb walk, leaving it somewhat doubtful if you'll make it through the night. And people were worried about me in Africa...silly silly people. When there aren't cars, there are trees smack dab in the middle of the sidewalk. You would think there would have been better planning.

Other than that things are going fabulously. I really like the girls I'm living with, especially my actual roommate. The heat is semi-working now, so I haven't had to sleep in my winter coat the past few nights. The gas stove worked for a day, but it seems that gas has run out. When it was working it crackled and boomed, leaving several girls jumping and diving away from the stove. So far it hasn't blown up, and I'm hoping it'll stay that way for the rest of the trip. You also have to heat your water every time you want to take a shower, and if you leave the heater on, that tank could blow up as well. So I'm eating cereal and peanut butter for now, wearing a lot of sweaters, and taking short short showers with no water pressure. But I swear my apartment is really nice, with a ginormous kitchen, and huge bedrooms, and really great house mates. The girls threw me a birthday party last night. We're celebrating everybody's birthday this semester, or half birthday if your birthday doesn't fall in the time span. One girl just made up a birthday. We had baklava and it was beautiful.

As far as orientation goes, we've taken a bus tour of downtown Nicosia. It's a strange little city, which is half deserted from the Turkish invasion. It consists of two parts- New and Old. The old part is walled in with ancient walls, and is really a cool place. Down in the buffer zone it's really eerie, but captivating beautiful in many ways. All of the buildings are deserted, there are buffers made out of random materials, and soldiers walking around with very very large guns. Our tour guide was obviously very very biased against the Turks, which made for an interesting tour. Other than that, the city consists of a lot of restaurants, cafes, and bars/clubs. Parts of the old city are being renovated now, and some trendy shops are going in. I think someone should invest and renovate a building, because it would be pretty sweet.

We also got to pass the headquarters for the Cypriot Orthodox Church, which has a statute that the tour guide said "is obviously too large for this place" as it is MASSIVE beyond belief, and rather disturbing on many levels. Our guide informed us that there was a wedding going on in the cathedral, so we began walking away. Then she turned around and told us that we just couldn't take pictures or talk, as she led us into the back of the cathedral while the archbishop was chanting through a Cypriot wedding. Fab fab fab.

Other than that we've sat through a lot of orientation meetings. We were taken out to dinner tonight, where the musician played lots of bad American 70s music on a synthesizer and continuously looked for our approval. We did a lot of shoulder shakes and head bobbing...even threw my arms in the air when he played "Hands up, baby hands up, give me your heart give me give me your heart give me". The song sounds even more fabulous than normal when it's down on synthesizer.

The internet is finally up and running in my apartment, but last night we were all becoming a little desperate for the web so we walked over to the college and sat on the steps, where the nice security guard made us all tea. I just needed to read GoFugYourself and The Superficial. He taught us some Greek, and we all promised to come visit him other nights. Adoreable!

Here's some pictures.



Having a great time, miss you all.