Jumping at the beach!

We got up at 5 am, the morning of the lunar eclipse, and watched it from our roof. I was really surprised that we all got out of bed because before we got up all of us were yelling at each other from our beds saying, "there is no way we are getting up!" But we did, and it was cool.

Flintstones, have a yabadaba doo time! This was in Agia Napa, the biggest tourist city in Cyprus. It is a ghost town right now because everything starts to open up at the end of April, but we walked through the town had dinner at one restaurant that was open right on the water. Every place is themed, so when you are walking around, it kind of reminds you of Disney Land or Universal Studios. Can't wait for it to open!
In the town of Protaras, we took a lot of pictures!! But you can sure get a good idea of how beautiful it is!


When we (Liz, Madge and I) went to Protaras we stayed at our friend David's (seen above, and the only boy in our pictures) beach house. (his parent's house of course) He is from Austria and went back there this week for school. His parents live here, and we got to meet them and his dogs. He lived in the same apartment complex as one of the ladies that works for our program, so she introduced us to him. A group of us might go to Vienna, Austria for part of our spring break now!
This is the beach house--really cute!

A view of the town of Protaras.
This tree, as you can see, has a lot of things tied to it. People put up things on it when their loved ones die. It was really cool to look at. It is located right next to a little church.

Jumping on the beach!

Totally went swimming and the water was not bad. Probably what the Pacific would be in the summer. But this water gets to be bath water by summer time!

I started using the black and white setting on my camera, which I forgot I had.
Here we were on the south eastern most tip of the island. We could see water on both sides of us. We stayed and watched the sun go down. It was gorgeous.

We started taking pictures while we were jumping, because they look so cool! Especially with this background.

Timer shot.

Another timer shot.

David had a guitar, so we played songs while watching the sunset. What a photo shoot!

The colors.

Living on island time, or should I say, what time?

So I am a few weeks into classes now. Basically have been here a month--nuts!! It is going by really fast. The weather is getting warmer, and it is especially looking nicer in the 10 day forecast! However, it did snow here two nights ago for like 15 minutes and the locals were going crazy because I guess it hasn't snowed here in like 50 years! whoa! But today it was back to being nice and a few of us tanned on the roof. Everything is so laid back here. People really are on island time. Like you think Europe is laid back, Cyprus is way more! (say the other international students from Euro countries) I guess you are supposed to show up 45 minutes later than you are told when making plans with someone! haha. And in our 3 hour classes people will walk in 25 minutes late and the teacher just smiles! Don't worry though, I have still been on time....at least for now!!
Any ways, here are some more pictures!


Us at the 24 hour bakery--Zorbas. The bakeries are the only places that are open 24 hours and Sundays here! Thank God!
View from our apt. top. The mountains in the back are on the Turkish side. If you look closely you can see their white flag that is on the mountains--it flashes at night.
A view of the University of Nicosia from the rooftop of our apt. (It's the big white buildings in the back) Long walk, huh?
Above:Outside of Bennigans, like an Irish form of Red Robin. HA!
And below: is us at a food festival called Gastronomia. We got so much free food, it was ridiculous! We ended up staying there for 4 hours and wandering around to all of our favorite places--shoving our faces! We got a free ticket into this place from a chef that teaches at our school. He gave us recipes and cooked for us during orientation. I kind of cook Greek food now.
Me enjoying the free food!
A really cool shot of me in mid air. We were being creative picture takers while waiting for a taxi to take us to dinner!
Miss Everyone!

Around Town and Trip to Northern Cyprus!

Super Bowl at the bar about 2 minutes away from us. The bartender was nice enough to keep his bar open until the game ended at about 5am for us loud Americans!

A friend of mine, Elizabeth, and I toasting to the Giants....even though I was thinking Go Seahawks the whole time....

Papafilipou Ice Cream!! Just a 30 sec walk from our apartments, and the best ice cream in Nicosia! Can you see a tan coming??

One of the Islamic Mosques in the Turkish part of Nicosia.

The remains of a shipwreak from the time of the Byzantine Empire.

A view of the town of Kyrenia, on the Turkish side.

The beautiful Mediterranean Sea in the background. We were at an old castle that was built into the side of the mountain. Pretty cool.

This is where we ate lunch in Kyrenia, hard life huh? I ordered a cheese and tomato toated sandwich, an order of fries (or chips as they call them here) and split a chocolate shake with Madge and the waiter on mulitple occasions was like "oh you very hungry, huh?" I am like, give me a break!! The portions here are the size of my big toe! hahaha. It was funny.

Barbie by the Sea, eating ice cream.

Palm Tree.

I just wanted to post some more pics. I'll write cool stories as they come up. I have been lying on the rooftop of our apartment, tanning the last couple days. Yesterday was my first day of school! I only had one class yesterday, Travel and Tourism. The teacher is really nice, and hopefully I will come out of it being a super tourist. She said we are going at some point in the semester to tour a cruise boat. Field Trip!! Today I had Linear Algebra, my teacher seems nice as well. Tonight I have Ethics, and the other 2 classes I am taking are Educational Psychology (which I am really excited to take), and a Film class. I was going to take Greek, but there was a group of us that went to the class today and the teacher basically told us that if you are an American student it will be really hard. So since none of us are going to pursue a Greek major, we are transferring out. We did, however, learn the alphabet today, so that actually helped a lot for reading signs around town!! Oh and I don't have class on Fridays---3 day weekend!!

I hope everyone is doing well!