Kalimera! We have arrived in Nicosia, in a fabulous smart hotel!  We went to the University of Nicosia to hear two different lectures.  The first lecture was on the history of Cyprus and the second lecture was about the Greek language.  

During the history lecture, we learned about the different people who have passed through or conquered Cyprus overtime.  Most recently, Cyprus was ruled by the British after being handed over by the crumbling Ottoman Empire. The British struck a deal with the Ottomans in 1878 A.D. to help them defend against Russia and in return the British would rule Cyprus.  During British rule, Cypriots had a number of uprisings.  Around the 1930s, a new movement emerged, and became especially popular with young Cypriots, to reunite the island with Greece.  In some pictures of this movement that we were shown, protesters were beating the Greek flag showing that they wanted this reunification.  In 1955, this culminated in an armed struggle against British forces.  Then in 1960, the British, Greeks, and Turks came together and gave Cyprus their independence with a predetermined constitution. 

Overall, I thought the historical lecture was very informative and interesting.  I liked how Dr. Solomon compared Cypriot history to American and other European countries’ history.  Similar to America, Cyprus is a relatively new country, but has had many events and struggles.  I also like how he connected some of the sites we have seen so far to the culture in power in Cyprus at the time.  For example, yesterday we saw the Romanesque mosaics in Paphos; today we got to learn more about how the Romans took over Cyprus and in some ways emulated Greek culture that was already prevalent on the island.  We also learned about the Byzantine empire, and its influence on the Orthodox Christian church in Cyprus.  I think it’s interesting that even though the Byzantine empire ruled thousands of years ago on the island, the Byzantine flag still is displayed in front of some Cypriot churches.  I will keep an eye out for these cultural influences that we learned about today in Nicosia!  

After the historical lecture, we got a crash course on Greek.  Some of the Greek letters are familiar to me from science classes, but unfortunately I knew no Greek before this trip.  Something I learned was that the dialect of Cyprus, Cypriot Greek, is actually very similar to Ancient Greek language.  Although the Greek alphabet has evolved a bit over time, many of the origins of Ancient Greek are still seen in the language today.  In fact, Greek has the longest history of any Indo-European language!  We learned a few phrases, including how to count up to 24 and how to order coffee. My favorite word I learned was “Etsi ketsi” which means “so so” as a response to “How are you doing?” I can’t wait to try out my Greek phrases at dinner!