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