Feb 24, 2008 - Cyprus Saturday Night

So, for the moment, good bye to all that. My time in Cyprus ends with a long day in Larnaca. My flight leaves at the slightly unbelievable time of 0350 tonight, so for now I exhaust the battery in my laptop writing you from my cheery cafe hard by the church of St. Lazarus (motto: "Always Here, Except When I'm Not"). I'll take a few hours to peer at the sea and then head off to the airport for what I'm sure will be a sleepless night. My students in 4843 will bear the fruits of that. Heh heh. Yesterday I took a "service taxi" to the capital,...

Apr 18, 2006 - Cyprus

Soooo, I decided that Cyprus is like a big chunk of northern greece that somebody cut out and deposited in the eastern Med - which makes sense. It's really green and... northern greece looking and I saw a real shepard today with a flock of sheep!...Anyway, I arrived yesterday night and, I am really serious, had I-am-out-of-egypt culture shock. Do you know how wierd it is to walk by a group of guys and not hear comments being made at your expense??? Do you know how weird it is to have toilet paper it bathrooms???? Do you know how weird it is...

Aug 30, 2004 - Cyprus

We had a long (10 hour) layover in Cyprus. Well long for a layover, short for a stay. We rented a car which sounded like a great idea at first, but then we realized that it is a manual, which would be all right, but it is driven on the other side of the road than we are used to. So I made Michelle to drive. [Yes, I had to drive on the left side and shift with my left hand. It was quite a challenge. Charlie kept gently warning that I was drifting too far to the left. Well, gently at first - by the end of the day it was a little more urgent...

Jul 9, 2004 - Conflict, Admission, Reconciliation

Nicosia. Hot. Sunny. Sticky. So, here we are once again in Nicosia where sweat is collecting in unusual places on my body at an unreasonably late hour of the night. This morning we had a session on conflict resolution efforts in Cyprus. I won't say that all of my questions were answered (they weren't), but a lot of the points I've found myself raising over and over were at least addressed. For the first time, we had representatives of both the Greek and Turkish communities here making solid admissions on points I've noticed - yes, Cypriots...

Jul 6, 2004 - Walking with the ancients

Nicosia, 45 degrees (let me English that up for you: 113 degrees) If it's Tuesday, it must be Byzantine churches and Neolithic sites. That wasn't the title of the movie, but it will have to suffice. Early morning meeting at the Cyprus American Archaeological Institute today. Cyprus is pretty much old. Human settlement goes back to nearly 10,000 years BCE on the island, but our last stop on the day's excursion was a visit to a relatively young site, Chirokitia, which dates from around 8,000 BCE. There's not much to see at Chirokitia except a...

Jul 4, 2004 - Champions

Nicosia, 27 degrees, clear skies with fireworks Greece won the European Football championship tonight, 1 - 0 over Portugal. It was the first time that either country had made the finals, and the ecstasy in the streets of the Cypriot capital is indescribable. The mayor of Nicosia turned out to watch the finals, broadcast on big screens set up in the middle of Plateia Eleftherias, occasionally waving the crowd on to cheers from below the old Venetian walls that ring the old city. With the proliferation of Greek flags all over the place, one...

Jul 1, 2004 - Pandemonium

Nicosia, cloudless, nearly full moon, 25 degrees Just back from Plateia Eleftherias (Freedom Square) where we watched Greece score an amazing 1-0 win in overtime over the Czech Republic along with 5,000 other Cypriots. Pins and needles for two hours right up to the winning goal, followed by celebration and pandemonium. The pride that the Cypriots feel over the Greek victory is overwhelming - the television stations have all broken into programming, showing the celebrations here, in Athens, and in Porto, Portugal, where the game was played....

Jun 29, 2004 - Cyprus

Nicosia, Cyprus. Sunny, 36 degrees. Well, I'm here and adjusting to life as part of a group (a very, very, very tired group expected to make an appearance at a reception in nary half an hour). Lots of adjustments today. Adjustments to being away from home - unexpected homesickness and single-dom (even if temporary). Adjustments to the way things work again - no toilet paper in the toilet, for example. Adjustment to things I was really never used to in the first place - my shower has no cold water during the day unless one lets the water...