One for the Books

If there was one thing our parents told us, it was this.

"Whatever you do girls, STAY TOGETHER!"

And that's exactly what we did...

5:30 am came early Tuesday morning. We all lugged our suitcases downstairs, loaded the bus, and fell back asleep- but not before Constatia, our leader reminded us to check for money, passports, ids etc. We've got them, we're out. About halfway to the airport (30 mins down the road), Kam wakes up, looks at me and says, "I forgot my purse." She runs to tell Constatia, who does absolutely nothing to hide her panick. It's too late to turn back, so they decide that the only option is to call Kam a cab and have them pick her up where we are, take her back to the apartment to get her purse, and then bring her to the airport because we can't risk everyone missing their flight. So naturally I grab my thing too, and when I step off the bus behind Kam, Constatia panicks again. She asks me where I'm going (it should be pretty obvious) and says, "But what if she misses her flight!" "Well," I said, "I guess I'll miss it with her, won't I."

So, the bus drops us off, Constatia waves and basically hopes we'll make it. Best part, they didn't even bother dropping us off at the exit. They literally dropped us on the side of the highway. So we walked to the next exit and waited, for thirty minutes, for the cab to come get us. Of course, we would get the SLOOOOOWEST cab driver in Cyprus, who made countless wrong turns and refused to go faster, regardless of how much more money we gave him. When we made it back to the airport, we flew to the gate, only to be told we had missed it by five minutes. Our plane was still on the ground. Not what we wanted to hear.

So...we regrouped. Booked another flight to Athens, got some lunch, bought a movie, and relaxed. We jumped in a cab in Athens, told him the name of our hotel and hoped we got there. As we got into the city, we realized that the cab couldn't take us as far as our hotel when he more or less pushed us out and gave us "directions." So...we wheeled our suitcases through Athens, for a ways, and finally found our hotel. From the side of the road all the way to our hotel in another country...you should be impressed.

The city is more beautiful than we could have expected. We're right in the heart of Athens, and it's not hard to imagine what this place looked like centuries ago because so much still survives. Today we visited the Acropolis and Parthenon, or the Temple of Athena. It was so incredible to see the forum where Athenians met to discuss their future. This afternoon we hiked one of the highest peaks in the city, and it was worth it. The views from the restaurant at the top were breathtaking. You could see from the mountains all the way to the coast, and the city sprawled literally as far as the eye could see. We're heading out tonight for the downtown district with some friends to enjoy the nightlife. Tomorrow's free, so we're gonna do a little shopping and go see the Olympic stadium. Sorry there are so few pictures, the internet isn't so great (what else is new). We'll check in soon.

Love and Miss,

Kam and Christi

Leaving tomorrow!

Hey everyone,

well, it was an eventful day! We took our finals, and we're pretty sure we walked out of both classes with a perfect score. Kind of a joke. I had to meet with my Christianity teacher today to go over the corrections I asked him to make to his article. After his "Oh my God" comment the other day when he saw all my red marks, I started to feel like a teacher after all :) But we went over his revised copy today, and he asked if he could cite me as his editor. I feel very official now, and he's sending me a copy in September. So cute.

We had our graduation ceremony tonight...hard to believe we've been here four weeks. We also had our graduation dinner, which was said because we had to say goodbye to some friends tonight. This is the point in the program where we all go separate ways, and we were a little surprised at how close we became with everyone in such a short amount of time. We really have made some amazing friends.

We leave tomorrow bright and early at 5:30 am for the airport. We'll be in Athens for the next few days, and we should have internet, so we'll do our best to keep you up to date.

PS. Pics from tonight will be posted tomorrow.

Love and Miss,

Kam and Christi

Weekend in Protaras

We just made it back from our last weekend at the beach. It's hard to believe we take finals and go to our graduation ceremony tomorrow!

Leaving the city on Friday was a little more of an adventure than we had planned for. We reserved a travel bus to come pick us up. Basically, they pick a lot of people up and drive in one general direction (in this case, towards Protaras) and drop people off at their individual destinations. Sounds like a good deal right? We thought so too. Our cab driver ended up being the overweight, angrier version of Jack Sparrow. He drove like a maniac and was completely rude to everyone on board. Finally a 90 lb. Greek girl had the equivalent of a "Come to Jesus meeting" with the man in Greek (with much more attitude than we're capable of) and he straightened up pretty quickly.

We made it to the hotel alive, got dinner, and spent the rest of the night in a karaoke bar. I might mention that Kam did a lyrical interpretation of "Devil Went Down to Georgia." Alone. On the bar. The crowd loved her. Also funny....lots of people speak Greek to her. We tell her it's because she's brown.

Saturday was spent laying out, and last night we went and watched all three hours of the USA vs. Ghana game at an Irish pub. We opted for a private taxi today and made it home in much better time. We're gonna spend tonight studying for our finals, writing papers, and getting things ready for our trip to Athens and Rome. We leave on Tuesday at 5:30 am, so we have a lot to get done in the next day and a half.

Check in tomorrow for graduation pics.

Miss and Love,

Kam and Christi

Meze Night

Hello all! Well, last night was our last dinner with all the girls. We decided to go out with a bang so we went to this restaurant that was supposed to have the best meze in town. Remember, meze is the thing where you pay a set price and they bring you course after course after course. Well, it was definitely the best! We tried EVERYTHING including the snails you see above. Note: snails do not in fact taste like squid as some would imagine. They actually taste like mud and are not pleasant. We were all pretty tired (especially after we got out bellies full) and went home fairly early. We'll get to see the girls on Monday night at graduation so it's not too sad yet.

It's actually raining in Cyprus today, which never happens. I think I had actually forgotten what rain was. It's a nice change though. Well, we are off to Protaris for the weekend. It's a nice little beach town not too far from here and we're hopin to get a little R&R. On that note, however, we won't be able to blog again until Sunday afternoon. We hope ya'll have a good weekend and we miss and love ya'll!

Kam and Christi

Day Trip

Hey guys! Well, we went on our outing today. We had to drive 2 hours up in the mountains to get to this monastery! The driver was literally just turning his wheel back and forth. I didn't know if we were going to die or if I was going to throw up. Thankfully, neither one happened. When we got there, our Early Christianity teacher took us around this old monastery....first of all, let me preface this by saying that he is kind of a big whig around there. Two of his books are sold there, and we get VIP access to everything. Did we have to pay to see the museum? Nope. Did we get to climb up and see the icon of Virgin Mary drawn by Luke? Yep! The little monk wanted us to kiss it, but seeing as we didn't know what the heck we were doing we just scooted on by. The monastery was actually pretty cool. They are decorated with everything that they own, I think....almost to the point to where they look gawdy (no pun intended). We did find out that one of the monks there called Papou was kind of a player. In the words of our teacher he "Likes all the girls". When Christi asked if they were supposed to be celibate, he replied "Yes, but for a monk, he is a little shaky." We thought this was hilarious and we realized that we liked our teacher just a little bit more. Get him out of the classroom and into the monastery and we can have a good time! We wish we had a picture for ya'll but they would not allow pictures in the monastery. That was pretty much all that happened today. We're going to eat meze tomorrow night with all the girls, seeing as it is our last night with everybody. Sad times, but we probably won't get to our blog until later because of that fact. We'll keep it updated though!

Miss and love,
Kam and Christi

Tuesday

Hey, we're posting because we promised to keep it up every day, but we literally have nothing to report haha. We opted for a nap instead of class today, and that's about as exciting as it got. We're visiting a monastery tomorrow, so hopefully we'll have some great pics for you.

Night all!

Love and miss,

Kam and Christi

Monday Yet Again

Hello all! The start of yet another week..the time is flying by!

Before we begin, we'd like to make a revision to yesterday's blog. The women were not actually strippers in that they did not take their clothes off. No need for alarm. They only looked like strippers.

We finally gave into our American-ness and hunted down a Starbucks. Well, it's so damn hot here, that unless you ask specifically for hot coffee, they put ice in it. Not exactly what we were looking for, but we'll take it. We spent the rest of the morning shopping in Old Town, got the best sandwiches ever (Kam made a similar face to this one in the pic), and then we proceeded to take the hottest cab ride of our lives. Watching Elyse roll her window down, only to watch the cab driver roll it up (the game continued) reminded me of being five. I have no idea why he wanted us to die.

Greek class went great, our teacher continues to tell us that we make her "so happy...you are the best class ever I had!" Kam and I got A's on our midterm, so we were happy campers. We really like our teacher; some days she looks at us and says, "It is enough for today. I see you and you do not look happy. I only want you to be happy when you learn Greek." We've manipulated this a lil bit, but can you blame us? Today I did have to tell Kam quietly, "Hold on, she's trying to let the other children answer a few questions." Kam did not think this was fair.

Our Early Christianity class is as boring as ever, but today our teacher, who is German, asked if anyone was particularly good at English. Always willing to please, Kam actually pointed at me and yelled, "She is!" He looked at me and said, "Good, I need you for about two hours. I need help revising an article I wish to publish, and my English is not so good." Apparently knowing that my diploma is safe and sound makes me less willing to please the difficult teacher because rather than "Sure, I'll help you," I blurted out, "Look, I"ll make you a deal. I'll read your paper, but I'm only writing you 2 pages instead of 4 for my research paper. Deal?" He actually looked at me and said, "Deal." Best part- his idea of a 2 hr job took me twenty minutes. I should have started this years ago. Kam laughed and said she would have done it out the goodness of her heart. Number 1. We all know Kam is nicer than me. 2. Maybe I would have too, if I hadn't just spent the last four years of my life writing papers.

We spent the night relaxing with friends, and tomorrow should be a normal school day. We promise to check in though!

Love and miss,

Kam and Christi

Best. Weekend. Ever.

Where on earth to start? Well, I'll put it this way. We made it back to the hotel at 4:30 am this morning, made it home to the apartment by 2 pm and didn't even wake up again until it was time for dinner. Rather than telling you every detail of our fun filled weekend, we'll begin with this.

Top Ten Things from Agai Napa:

10. Fire twirling strippers.

9. The fact that our "chaperone's" bathing suit consisted of a thong. Minus the top. Europeans do it better.

8. The amount of beach-side nakedness that is apparently appropriate here.

7. Dancing ALL night long with great friends.

6. The fact that you can still get a full meal at 4 am. Dancing works up quite an appetite.

5. Having to wring the sweat out of your dress.

4. Our Canadian friend who some how finds every VIP deal at any club we want. We partied on a budget, without skimping on the partying. Responsible and fun- can't beat that.

3. Boat ride through the Mediterranean.

2. The fact that I actually asked if "Norwegia" was in the Netherlands. After graduating with a 3.9 and getting a teaching job. Good thing I'm not teaching geography.

2. Regional vocabulary lesson. We taught our friends to make "damn" two syllables (day-umm) and them teaching us the term "weiner bikiner" when referring to the men's speedos.

1. An unforgettable weekend with incredible friends.

In short, we layed on the beach, we danced all night, and we didn't sleep. Agia Napa is an intense city...the party lasts until the sun comes up. The hotel was beautiful, and the beaches were even better. The waters are crystal clear to the bottom, so we didn't mind bailing off the back of the boat one bit. It was our last weekend as one giant group, and we took advantage of every minute.

Here are a few pics from our fun-filled weekend....we miss ya'll!!

http://picasaweb.google.com/104316091412189031695/OurAdventuresInCyprus?authkey=Gv1sRgCMrLtYCfsIrP2QE&feat=directlink

Ready for the Weekend!

Yet again, we are sorry we have not posted in a while. Seriously, nothing has happened this week. We took 2 midterms, found out a place to get some seriously awesome ice cream, and, well, that's about it! We did get 100's on the first midterm, by the way.

This weekend we are going to Agia Napa, which supposedly has the prettiest beaches on the island. This is where most tourists come and stay. There is also a square where everyone comes out and has fun at night. Needless to say, I doubt we get much sleep this weekend, which is totally fine because we've just been sleeping for lack of something better to do anyways! We'll be stopping at a few places in Larnaca on the way as well. However, when we go to other places on the weekends, it is hard to find internet sometimes without paying a crap-ton of money; therefore, we promise to blog about all our endeavors when we get back on Sunday. I'm sure there will be lots to tell and a lot more pictures to see!

Until Sunday folks! Love and miss,
Kam and Christi

Just Monday

Well, I'd be lying if I said I had anything exciting to report. Turns out midterms and school days can be just as monotonous in Cyprus as they are at home. We did laundry, we grocery shopped, and we took a midterm. We cooked another fabulous dinner, and we're putting a movie in. Hate to say it, but there's something a lil comforting to know that life can go on as usual in another country...guess the grass isn't always greener.

We did have somewhat of a confrontational meeting with our inadequate Early Christianity teacher. Actually, we had a nonconfrontational meeting with our program director first. When we expressed our concerns, he actually responded with, "I know! It's like 'What is wrong with this guy?! We get these comments every semester." Well Thanos, Kam and I are no experts, but... maybe since you're in charge of this shindig, you should figure it out and hire someone else. He was no help, and our teacher was quite upset that we had "complained." We attempted to explain our concerns to him, but in his German accent he just kept reiterating that he was sinful, yes, but he was not a bad man. Now we feel like jerks for making him think we think he's a bad person, but we still hate the class.

We assume we did well on our midterm, but we have no idea really. We'll let you know. That's all for now.

Love and Miss,

Kam and Christi

Two Americans and a Canadian

Hello everyone!

Sorry we're just now getting to the blog, but we're in our sweats, we've gotten our ice cream, and we're fully prepared to tell you about our weekend now! Friday started early as we left the town around 8 am for a tour of the Troodos Mountains. It's hard to believe that in less than thirty minutes of leaving the city, we were in the mountains, and in less than an hour we had arrived at the beach. On our way we stopped at a 14th century castle that you can see in our pics. We all know overly romantic I can be, and during our tour guide's spiel I told Kam I wished I had been a princess. She responded with, "Number 1. I feel like we're being too loud." (ok the fact that she gives me information in a list says she knows me all too well, and leave it to Kam to be worried we'll get in trouble by the teacher). Number 2. (she continues) Poofy dresses are hot and uncomfortable. 3. All the princes I know are ugly." I had to admire her confidence in her sources...seeing as how she knows so many princes and all. The conversation sums up our entire friendship. Kam was also required that I tell you all about the jam she bought at a roadside stand. Anyone remember Mary Poppin's bag and how things just kept coming out of it...as if it was bottomless? Kam has one. Sunglasses-check. Money, camera, peaches, jam. check. check. check. It's all in there.

We also made a stop at the birthplace of Aphrodite. Greek mythology holds that she was born out of the sea foam and walked up on to land as the goddess of love and beauty. There is an actual cove where she was said to have walked up, and it was hands down one of the most beautiful places we've ever seen. Legend says that if you wait until a full moon and go into the water at midnight...as au natural as Aphrodite came out...then you'll be blessed with eternal beauty. All we're saying is...we're googling the next full moon.

We checked into our hotel in Limassol and headed out to dinner with friends. We ended up eating sushi at an outdoor restaurant literally steps from the water-- it was really incredible. We came home to realize that we had no air conditioning. If you're wondering how hot, just take a look at the photo where we have wet towels wrapped around our heads. No joke people..it was scorching.

We spent Saturday on the beach, and we'd like to pause for a small note on the swim wear customs of Cyprians. For those over sixty... the bikini top is totally optional; however, the Gilligan-style hat is not. Men, it is completely appropriate to don the speedo with your black dress socks and running shoes. But please, dear God, when you go running in this get up, warn someone. It was early, and Kam and I were not prepared for this on our early morning jog. The water was crystal clear, and the sun was insanely hot. We decided to swim out to some rocks, and halfway there we realized we had misjudged the distance a lil, but it was worth the haul. Kam sliced her foot open, but that didn't stop her from climbing all over the rocks. Apparently I did not spend enough time as a child climbing trees barefoot because Kam looked like Mogli from the Jungle Book and I was literally scooting on my butt (in my bikini mind you) for fear I would fall. I know how surprised you all must be.

We spent Saturday night at a pub watching the world cup game..always fun cheering on your country in a place that still scoffs at you for calling it "soccer." After dinner it was off to a club to dance of the calories, and by about three we were back at the hotel to brave the heat. Sidenote. We're very grateful for our Canadian friend who refuses to let us be ripped off by cab drivers. Kam would have given them her jam if they told us that's how much it cost, but Sarah's very diplomatic. She tells the cabi, "Look, we've got five euro. You can either take us home, or we'll walk." She's tough, so we made friends.

We've got to study for our midterm tomorrow, but we promise to keep up the blog daily now.

Love and Miss,

Kam and Christi

http://picasaweb.google.com/104316091412189031695/OurAdventuresInLimassolAndPafos?authkey=Gv1sRgCMC29OWJmfn1-AE&feat=directlink

Blinkers

Well everyone, one more day down. Sorry we have no picture....I did not take any pictures, and Christi is out with some friends at the bakery and has her camera with her. The bakery, as we have said before, is the best thing ever! I had my fill last night, but we told so many people about it that they wanted to go tonight. Since Christi did not get anything last night, she tagged along. I'll let ya'll know what she ended up with. My guess is that it's anything that has dark chocolate in it.

The day was pretty uneventful. We're getting pretty good at our Greek though! I finally had a gyro today. Verdict: not bad, not great. Ya'll know how picky I am about meat.....what I really need is a vegetarian gyro, then I'll be set. Yeah the chicken was different and we ended up feeding most of it to the stray cat. It wasn't terrible, but I don't know if I'll have another.

So, we got an invite out to this club tonight, called Blinkers, from some new friends. We met up with them in their room before and then headed that way. It was so much fun! We actually wanted to go dancing, but when nobody else showed up (it being a Wednesday and all) we just chatted with the crew. Everyone was so enthralled with southern life. It was funny. We actually talked about everything from religion to politics. We really got to know some new people and I think we're going to make some really good friends here. Turned out to be a great night.

We miss and love ya'll! Heading to bed and will keep you updated.

Until tomorrow,
Kam and Christi

Best Day Yet

Well, it didn't start out as the greatest day, but it certainly ended up there! Our Greek class was fun, and Kam and I are definitely the top students. That may be just because we're overenthusiastic, but hey, that's the Cyprian way. We did have to tell our teacher that our names are not Kamrine and Christine, but if she gives us good grades, we don't really care what she calls us. Our other class was not so eventful-- it wasn't eventful at all in fact. Our teacher actually dictated our notes to us (commas and semicolons included folks) only to ask us to read our notes aloud to make sure we heard him correctly. Wait, it gets better. At the end of class, he handed us a printout with EXACTLY what he had us write.

Dinner was perfect though. We went out to a great restaurant in the Old Town. Our faithful taxi driver arrived with two cars in tow because we have more friends now. We barely had time to order a glass a wine before complimentary drinks started arriving at our table...from the owner, from the head waiter, from the men down the street. And honest to God, our teacher told us it was offensive to refuse, and after all- we're here for the cultural experience. They also brought complimentary shots, which Kamri informed me tasted like Vodka with flowers. We're not sure what they think of American girls, but as long the food and drinks keep being free, we're happy. After complimentary drinks, it was complimentary watermelon and a Greek lesson from the manager. Dinner lasted four hours, but it was a blast...and educational.

We're heading to bed, but we'll be up early-- Kamri's on a mission to find a Gyros (it's like a sub sandwich) and she's yet to find one. We'll let you know how it goes.

Love and Miss,

Kam and Christi

Salmon on Fire?

Hey guys! Well another day down. We started the day out with a run around the city. It feels amazing here in the mornings! We may have gotten a little lost, but we figured it out pretty quickly considering how small this place is. Since we had to get up at 7:00 we went back to sleep for a couple of hours, then it was class time.

Our first class, Greek Language. was actually really fun! We learned the alphabet and how to read any Greek word....we just don't really know what those Greek words mean yet. Oh and don't worry. We are definitely the nerds in the class that are always the loudest ones repeating the teacher. I think she likes us....or we annoy her. Not sure. Our second class, however, was not as fun. The teacher makes us read aloud in class like 5th graders, and he tends to repeat himself quite often. Even though it's at 3 pm, we're gonna need some serious Cyprian coffee to keep us awake.

So after class, we came back to the apartment and cooked dinner. Earlier, Christi and Elyse (one of our roommates) bought some salmon and veggies at the supermarket. See parents, we are trying to save money :). Well, we got it all in the oven (which is in Celsius by the way) and low and behold the salmon actually caught fire! Luckily we caught it before anything bad happened but it gave "smoked" salmon a whole new meaning. It actually ended up quite tasty and our neighbors could smell the delicious aroma from their balcony. Well we may not get invited to the pool parties or anything, but we know who they'll come to if they want a good dinner!

After dinner we wanted dessert, obviously, so we went out in search of a bakery because they are apparently open 24/7. We pretty much just followed our noses and they led us straight there! It was the cutest bakery ever with everything you could imagine (and probably some stuff that you can't). I, Kamri, opted for a traditional American dessert: the Long John. It just so happened to be the best long john i've ever eaten. Christi had more self-control and I'm envious, but that bavarian cream was from a different planet so I don't regret my decision. Laura and Elyse opted for small cake-like desserts. I do not know the name but apparently they were pretty good as well.

Well, it's been another long day. Let us know if anything interesting is happening in the world, because we can't read Greek newspapers! Well, not yet anyways! PS: Kaci, your word for the day is calimare which means Good Morning!!

Love and miss,

Kam and Christi

Orientation Day

Hello all,

It was another fairly uneventful day, but we finally wrapped up all the orientation/paperwork part of our trip. We spent most of the day getting our pictures taken for IDs and getting "oriented." This mainly consisted of our program leaders saying, "So we don't exactly get drunk like you Americans do, and we don't really like it when you do either," followed by cautionary tales of drunken American students (from past programs) who fell asleep naked in police cars, stole garbage trucks in Rome, or hurled burning couches from apartment balconies. Kam and I don't really need this talk because, as it turns out, we're quite the grandmas of the group. For the first time in our lives, we're the oldest ones, so arriving to activities hung over appeals to neither of us. We tend to put our jammies on before getting out the wine. :)

We also learned some really interesting things about the city. It's the world's last divided capital. Turkey illegally occupies the northern half of the island, and has since the 1970's. There is a United Nations buffer zone separating it from the Greek side, but as the relationship has been peaceful for over thirty years now, most locals jokingly refer to it as the "United Vacations." The officials don't do much, but the buffer zone is still pretty scary looking. Because no one acknowledges the government in the north half, we lose all protection and rights if we cross over through one of the check points. Several students have visited the occupied territory, but Kam and I are just fine on our side of the line thank you very much. There are some cool sites across the line, but we've decided to see them via Google like the rest of you.

Sleeping is still difficult; neither of us have slept more than a few hours a night, but that seems to be everyone's problem. We all tend to take a nap around 3 in the afternoon, but it's great because the whole city shuts down for a siesta, so we're not missing anything.

Tonight was our group dinner -- more traditional Cyprian food. Oh, and parents-- yall think we college kids are crazy because we don't go out til 10? These people don't even start dinner til 10, so the clubs don't open til midnight. Crazy? We're with you on that one.

Classes start tomorrow, so we'll have more fun info to share. Til then, we'll try, once again, to sleep on Greek time.

Goodnight all!

Kam and Christi

We Saw the Pope!!

Hey everyone,

It's been another fun day in Cyprus. We started with a run this morning and got to see the beautiful residential area of the city, and this afternoon we took a tour of downtown. The "Old Town" still lies within ancient walls, and as we meandered through the streets, we noticed a gathering of people. Why? Because the Pope was arriving! He was randomly entering the embassy to the Vatican as we rounded the corner, so we were able to just watch him pass by with all his security and entourage -- very exciting.

We decided to stay in and cook dinner with our fun new roommates after such a full day. Tomorrow is all orientation and a group dinner, so we're getting plenty of sleep tonight!

Love and miss,

Kam and Christi

First day in Cyprus

Hey everyone,

We're ending our first day in Cyprus pretty early because we haven't completely caught up on sleep yet, despite the fact that we slept til noon. We went in search of some coffee and what we found was interesting. Someone else said it better than me, so here it is.

"Cyprian coffee is hot as hell, dark as night, bitter as poison or sweet as love."

Needless to say, it was different, but we're committed to liking it so that we can enjoy it on our lil patio. We also found the grocery store, which was fun because they don't have buggies (or if they do they certainly don't call them that), but instead they have little baskets that you wheel around with a handle like you do your suitcase. Best part is, it's two story and instead of stairs, there is a escalator without stairs (aka a conveyor belt) for you and your forementioned wheely cart to ride on. Moral of the story: Make sure you are fully prepared to ride the conveyor belt before worrying about your wheely cart. We almost gave the supermaket a show.

Tonight we took a taxi downtown -- the number was saved as "Best Taxi" in my phone (which someone in the program had before me) and when we got in the cab the man said, "Sarah?" She evidently is the girl who had the phone before me. When I responded, "Christi," he quickly changed the name in his phone so that he would know who was calling the next time we needed a cab. And we thought we left small town back home.

Dinner was really fun-- our first shot at traditional Cyprian food. They brought out dish after dish for us to try, and after a while we gave up trying to ask what we were eating. The gentlemen at the next table were charmed by the accents, bought wine, and (family get ready) told us they actually graduated college at NLU in '85. When they asked if I knew where Ruston was, I just smiled.

PS that is our new friend Rebecca in the picture :)

Like I said, we're turning in early, but it's off for a tour of the city tomorrow.

Love and miss,

Kam and Christi

We Finally Made It!!

Well, we're here in Cyprus! We left home Wednesday at lunch and made it here just in time for dinner on Thursday. Needless to say, our time's a little off, so we're hittin the hay early. Just a small recap of our day...in case you needed to laugh.

Situation #1: Making it on our first flight just as they say, "Last call for boarding."

Solution: This is not a problem for us; apparently we think everyone is on our time.

Situation #2: We wait patiently as a woman behind the counter searches for our names in London Heathrow. She looks up, informs us that we are on the wrong side of the airport, and that there is NO way we will make our flight.

Solution: Adorable airport employee with British accent who sees us in distress and whisks us behind "Authorized Personnel Only" lines, onto a tram with a man ready to hit the gas as soon as we climb in. We made it in plenty of time. Turns out a southern drawl and a "Please sir, we don't know what to do," is universal.

Situation #3: We were served "breakfast" at 1:00 am.

Solution: This is actually not a situation at all. We just graduated college and are completely accustomed to fourth meal.

Situation #4: After being given our apartment key, we find that it does not seem to work at all.

Solution: Apply universal southern drawl and helplessness with boys upstairs, and VOILA! Problem solved.

Situation #5: Blowing up the hair dryer with the so-called "international" plug adapter. Wrong. This is true for everything but hairdryers. The man at best buy forgot to mention that part.

Solution: Curly hair + Meditteranean air= Not too shabby.

Like we said, it's been a long day...or days. We're not sure at this point. But we're ready for our adventure. We'll check in with ya'll tomorrow!

Love,

Christi and Kam