Monday morning started nice an early with our first traditional Cypriot breakfast at 7:30. We enjoyed eggs, Greek yogurt, halloumi (squeaky cheese), and fresh coffee as a group before hopping on the bus to ride up to Nicosia for our welcoming classes. Our first class was included going through our introductory slides, which was followed by a lecture on the history of Cyprus. Our professor was very engaging, taking us through Cyprus’s timeline of rulers. It was interesting to learn how many empires took interest in Cyprus as a spot to supply wars in the middle east, but didn’t actually set up communities on the island. Despite never owning Cyprus, the majority of the island people come from Greek descent. Although his lecture may have ran a little long, the professor’s passion on the topic made it interesting and informative.
We then went to the universities dining hall, The Block, for lunch. It was intriguing to observe how different the students were from what we are used to back home. Rarely anyone wears school merchandise, which is very popular in America. After lunch we went back to the classroom for our last class, where we were taught some basic Greek words and phrases that would be useful for the rest of the trip. Kalimera means good morning, efharisto is thanks, and nai is how you say yes. The pronunciation of Greek reminds me a lot of Spanish, which was interesting to learn.
When we got back to Limassol, we finished the activities of the day with a walking tour and a group dinner. The tour took us around the marina, cathedrals, and many ancient structures. We learned about many of these locations that we walked passed on our first night, giving us answers to our previous questions about the area. For dinner, we we treated with seemingly endless sausage, chicken, and pork that were all fantastic. I also got a European Fanta, which is much better than the American version. The meal was great and definitely made me sleepy. Overall, the first full day in Cyprus was packed full of information and new experiences, and I can’t wait to kick back at the beach on Tuesday!
