Oh, Hello There Gunny

Not too much going on this week in Cyprus.

A Gunnery Sergeant did break up our party that we threw for a twenty-first birthday. You can probably imagine my surprise, as I opened our door at 3:30 in the morning wearing a sheet toga and leaves in my hair, only to find the boss of the marines that had broken curfew. Unfortunately my sweet charm, winning smile, and ravishing looks didn't win him over, and instead they all marched right out of apartment in complete silence.

Oops.

Went to the beach today! It wasn't one of Cyprus's most picturesque beaches, but it definitely sufficed for the day. I must say I felt a little silly running past a women wearing a winter coat and scarf while I was wearing a bikini and jumping into the Mediterranean sea. I swear it really wasn't that cold, these Cypriots are just crazy and bundle up until 23874918734934 degrees outside. Silly people.

In more general news...I'm currently living under a communist government. I guess power hasn't officially been transferred, but the left-wing communist party member just won the presidency. Cyprus is now officially the only country in the European Union with a communist country. Pretty neat.

I've also met some Turkish Cypriots, so hopefully I'll get a more balanced story of the "genocide of 1974" (which it was not). We've met some interesting people through the Marines, one being Brian who does economic development work in the north. He's actually moving tomorrow, but before he left we got to meet the people he works with in the North. I'm pretty excited to hang out with them more. We also met the woman in charge of investigating human trafficking in Cyprus. Along with being the only European Union member to be under a communist leader, it is also the only country that is on the human trafficking watch list. It's actually one of the worst countries in the world, which I find rather fascinating.

I also finally got to see the Cypriot police in action. It has seemed that traffic laws are few and far between here on this island, and those that do exist are seldom adhered to. We see police all the time, and always with their lights flashing, however we have never seen a driver even attempt to drive safely around them. Today our taxi was pulled over tho. It was interesting, since the policeman just pointed at the driver and then pointed to the shoulder. The cop didn't even have a car to go chasing our taxi, so I'm not really sure what would have happened if our driver had decided not to stop.

Love you and miss you all!!!!