Today was our last day in Cyprus! I woke up feeling a mixture of excitement for going home, travel anxiety, and sadness about leaving this beautiful, culturally-rich country.

We began the day by eating breakfast and walking to the Bernard Schulte Shipmanagement Training Center in near the new Limassol Marina. I loved observing the Bridges Simulation room because of how immersive and realistic the environment was. For example, the monitors reflected what would be observed on a real ship and each cadet had an assigned “role” on ship. Observing the cadets run through the simulation made me feel like I was on the ship with a real crew, working through a real, imminent challenge. I would love to see similar simulation technology integrated into the healthcare industry for surgical trainings. This is because, such a simulation is beneficial for both practical skill and teamwork development.

After the site visit, we traveled to the Omodos Village in the Troodos Mountains, 800 meters above sea level. There we had a group meze lunch. Afterwards, we toured the Omodos Village Timios Stavros Monastery and had free time to go shopping in the area. I bought boxes of traditional Cypriot sweets for my friends and a cat themed pillow-case for my little brother. It was fun to simply be tourists for once and explore the beautiful village leisurely.

After our last cultural visit, we went back to Limassol where Dr. Streiner and Jodi bought us gelato. I am extremely grateful for them to have clearly communicated my nut allergy to the store tenders because it enabled me to enjoy gelato one more time before the end of the trip. While eating out ice cream, we walked around the marina and observed the boat show from afar.

Then, we traveled back to the hotel to pack all my stuff and change for the Dionysus Mansion farewell dinner. This dinner was particularly intriguing because several Pitt alumni who had resettled in Cyprus joined us. While I thought this was an interesting idea, it was difficult to communicate with them because they sat at a different table. This added an odd sense of pressure to network at the dinner, which felt out of place for a farewell dinner. Even though this was not my favorite meal on the trip, I did appreciate the opportunity to dress up and spend a relaxed evening with everyone before we departed.