Today was our first day in Nicosia. We listened to a great lecture on the history of Cyprus from Dr. Emilios Solomon. He took us through each of the eras of Cypriot history. I enjoyed how he was able to connect it to the present day, and even tied in a discussion of American and global politics in relation to this history. We learned about the British takeover of Cyprus in 1878. I thought it was interesting that the British were embraced when Cyprus was given to them from the Ottoman Empire. Before the British rule, most Cypriots were peasants. Cypriots thought the British empire would help them develop and gain national liberation. Many Greek Cypriots wanted to be unified politically with Greece—an idea known as enosis—and thought that the British might eventually aid this unification. This was not the case however, and many Cypriots were unhappy under British control. As it became clear that enosis was not supported by the British, and Cypriots yearned for their own power, civil unrest stirred. In 1931, the Cyprus Revolt let to the destruction of the Government House in Nicosia. A key leader in the push against the British empire was Archbishop Makarios, who went on to become the first president of the Republic of Cyprus. After years of unrest, including student protests, the Republic of Cyprus was granted independence from Britain in 1960. This lesson was interesting because we have discussed a lot of modern history surrounding the Turkish invasion up until now. Dr. Solomon did an effective job of demonstrating the role that the British rule played in the invasion, as the Cypriot people did not have a hand in creating the constitution for their newfound independent nation. This task was undertaken by Greece, Turkey, Great Britain. Dissatisfaction with the Constitution’s distribution of power is a huge reason that there was, and still is, so much tension between Greek and Turkish Cypriots.

We also listened to a lecture on the Greek language, which covered the basics of the Greek language. I was interested to learn that the Cypriot dialect of the Greek language is extremely similar to Ancient Greek. We learned that Greek is a very expressive language, in the sense that a lot of emotion is used in pronunciation, facial expressions are important, and most Greek speakers use their hands when speaking. I thought it was interesting that there used to be many different versions of stress symbols but it was simplified to one stress symbol in 1981. They semicolon is also the symbol for a question mark in Greek! My favorite phrase we learned to say is how to order coffee. Phonetically, I would say “Thelo enan safe gleeko cryo parakalo,” which is specifically a sweet, iced coffee.

We had a delicious lunch at the University of Nicosia’s dining hall, which might have given The Eatery a run for its money. This evening, we had a walking tour around Nicosia. We went into the old city, which is surrounded by walls built to protect the city from invasion. We stood in the moat of the walls, however they were never filled with water. I loved walking around all of the colorful streets as our tour guide pointed our various historical points. We ended up eating dinner at a gyro place that she recommended on the tour, which was delicious! Overall, it was a great first day in Nicosia!