Just finished my first week of class. Everything seems like it's gonna be alright. I'm taking Greek Art, a video production course, a communications class on gender and media, and a PR course.

So far, my favorite class is the PR class... Mainly because my professor is energetic and easy to understand. His name is Nicholas Nicoli, but I will be referring to him as John Stamos.













Here is my PR Professor, John Stamos.


I also made a new friend in that class, a little French girl named Maud, from Paris. We're going to downtown Nicosia with some Finnish girls that she met on Saturday. Yay!


In 2 of my classes, I am the only American. Everyone is nice though, so it's alright. When I have to speak, which is often, I find myself speaking in a different accent- I hate it! I also can't seem to help it, I can't remember how I normally talk when I get in a room with a bunch of people who are speaking differently.

But don't worry, it goes back to normal once I get back around other Americans. I hope.

My Address

Just in case anyone wants to send me miscellaneous presents, here's my address...


Lauren Smith

c/o GLI Global Learning Institute
P.O. Box 24842
CY 1304 Nicosia
Cyprus


Annnd in case you wanna call me, here's my phone number!  (I would get an international
calling card first, for a much better rate)

011-357-99-10-14-35

Troodos and First Day of School!

Took a trip to the Troodos Mountains! Stopped at three of the little towns ... all adorable and beautiful. There were little lace shops everywhere- a Cypriot specialty. It was rainy at first so we had to wear some babushkas : )


There was also this cool church that was very pretty and had intimidating chanting coming from it. The inside was gorgeous, but no pictures allowed :(

There's also lots of blue doors. I dunno why.



















Also had my first day of school. Was kinda scary and intimidating to be "the foreign kid." My professor told me she didn't recognize my "foreign name" on her list. Smith is foreign?

Then even though my English was the best out of everyone's, no one could understand my accent (accent??) so it felt like I was the one that was having a hard time speaking.


And- everyone dresses up! All the girls were in heels and full makeup. So I felt like a bit of a schmuck. But everyone was really nice and smiley and curious so it was alright in the end : )

Welcome to Cyprus!

You know how when one day it's beautiful, warm, and sunny and the next day it is freezing and cloudy and probably snowy, we tend to say something like, "Well that's Michigan for ya"? Well, they have something similar here.

It's becoming obvious here that most things here... well, they just don't work at all. We mention that our hot water (which you have to turn on with a switch a half hour before you shower) does not work, and they say "Welcome to Cyprus." Our washing machine goes on and on forever, in an eternal cycle of never ending clothes washing, without ever getting anything clean. Welcome to Cyprus. Not a single person in town can tell you where the post office is, and not because of a language barrier- just no one has any clue. The response is, "Welcome to Cyprus."

That last one played a large role in my latest adventure. Yesterday, we had to to a large scale scavenger hunt in which we ran all around the immediate town and university, and then were supposed to take a cab to the Old City, finding landmarks and various places. Well one of these places was the post office, AND NO ONE IN TOWN HAD ANY IDEA.

Finally a local bartender gave us directions to a post office about 2 km away... pretty far to be the local one, but we were determined to win so we set off. Needless to say, we got horribly lost. We got so lost that we could not even call a cab because we didn't know where to say we were. We tried to follow our noses to the Old City. Fail. Finally we found a young man who spoke English (turns out the older generations are not so good- welcome to Cyprus) who got us a cab.

We took it to the restaurant on our list where we were all supposed to meet in the end (as we were exasperated and had given up on winning hours ago). We got there and it was empty. We sat down anyway, and before we knew it they were bringing us food. We realized... this is so not the right place. But the food... it was just so good. So, we just decided to go with it.

It turned out awesome, we couldn't have been happier to have gotten so lost. The place served traditional Cypriot meze. You don't order anything, they just bring you course after course after course of traditional Cypriot food. It is as if you ordered the entire menu at a normal restaurant. And it's wonderful because you get to try everything without trying to decipher from a menu what everything actually is, let alone how to pronounce it to a waiter. Here are some pics!





















































That's not even all there was. It was all so wonderful... except the snails. They look the same alive as they do dead and cooked, little eye nubbers and all. SICKKK. And they taste like pond.














Thinking about it...













BAD DECISION!!! Welcome to Cyprus.

Team America!

Last night I was invited to watch the Presidential Inauguration with some young Nigerian students that are studying at my school. It was so cool to see their reactions. I asked them what they thought about it- they explained that at first, they didn't think that Obama, as a black man, had a chance. Then when he beat out Clinton they thought, well maybe... and now that he is President, they say that it makes them feel like anything is possible for them too. They were so enthusiastic and happy. Whether or not he will be a good President, I'm not sure. Still, it was really inspiring to see it happen through their perspective.

They also told me about what it is like back in Nigeria. They said that though the country is rich in natural resources, none of the wealth goes to the people. But they said the people are happy... they said that those who do have money live more in fear than the rest, and have to build high walls around their houses for protection. They explained how good it feels here in Cyprus to walk the streets freely.

Between monday, hanging out with a large group of international students, and yesterday with the Nigerians, I feel like I have learned more about the world than I ever have in school.

CYPRUS!!!

Hello everyone!!! Welcome to my little blog : )





So I made it to Cyprus... eventually. My first flight was canceled, so I was re-routed and my luggage got lost. Sat by fat stinky people on my first flight, Russel from Arkansas on the second, and a young Brit on the third.

Walking off the plane in Cyprus felt great... It was a balmy 70 degrees and sunny. Drove on a bus with my new friends that are also on the program (about 60 of us) from Larnaca to Nicosia where I live (pronounced Nee-coh-see-yah). The drive was lovely... palm trees and mountains and those skinny pine trees you see in Hercules!

My apartment is small but nice... my roomies are great and we became friends right away. We have a really nice view... we can see the mountains on the Turkish side of Cyprus from our balcony.

So in case you didn't know, there is a border between northern and southern Cyprus that runs through the capital city of Nicosia. The northern portion calls itself the Turkish Republic of Cyprus... but Cyprus doesn't recognize that it's a seperate country. So they fight in really immature, albiet very non-violent ways. For example, the Turkish Cypriots carved out a huge Turkish flag on the mountains (that we can see) that face the Greek side, and light it up at night... just to annoy everyone.









So far I've become friends with many Americans. Our next door neighbors are local kids that go to the same school, and we have become friends with them too. Their names are Martin and Anwar...they are as cute as they are helpfull (which is very). But don't worry Matt- I am happy to let the other 50 American girls fight over them. they have thick accents so it's hilarious to hear them speak... We teach them American phrases, most recently "That's what she said!" so now Marty is always saying "She saiid thattttt!" He's almost got it.

We have also met and befriended a lot of international students from places like Spain, England, the Czech Republic, Jordan, etc. Everyone is so nice and very eager to be our friends. I have noticed ZERO animosity towards Americans.

The neighborhood I live in is very safe, and I'm having lots of fun and learning a lot. I got lots more to say but I will save it for later, cuz this is turning into a novel.


I love you all and miss you lots!