We started Day 2 by going on a site visit to Vassos Eliades Ltd. (VEL), which is one of the oldest and largest import and trading centers/companies in Cyprus with over 400 employees. VEL handles food (Nestlé), luxury goods (Cartier, OMEGA, Swarovski), and sports goods (StairMaster, NordicTrack). As soon as we arrived, I felt immediately welcomed, as there was gift bags for each of us, as well as free Nespresso drinks made to order if we liked (cappuccinos, americanos, shots of espresso). I honestly had no idea that Nespresso was a Nestlé product, but in hind sight, it makes a lot of sense, and I definitely should have connected those dots on my own. I can tell based on the atmosphere that VEL is a comfortable and favorable work environment and that management really cares for the employees. The detail that stood out to me by far is how environmentally conscious and sustainable this company is, with their Nicosia warehouse being specifically engineered/built to maximize environmental efficiency, alongside participating in sustainability in the office (as plastic free as possible) and outside (Nespresso Pod recycling initiative, clean up efforts around the island). I was absolutely floored when we found out that VEL has no electricity costs! I truly felt like VEL enjoyed educating us on their company, and this site visit has definitley set the bar pretty high for the rest of the experience!
After a delicious lunch of chicken souvlaki, we headed to the University of Nicosia for 2 lectures, one on the history of Cyprus, the other, a crash course on the basics of Greek language. I think it is so interesting that in the Greek language, a semicolon is used as their question mark (How are you? = Τι κάνεις;) Our lecture on history with Dr. Solomou from UNIC had some similarities and differences to the ordinary business lecture at Pitt. You could tell that he was extremely knowledgeable and knew what he was talking about, which I feel is similar, but the way he presented the information was quite different. There was no type of crowd participation and his slideshow was pretty old-school, more closely related to the style my AP teachers in high school adopted. He was very informative, but definitely likes to ramble, which doesn’t correspond with everyone’s learning style. I personally did not mind this style, but I also am a fan of history, so that helps. I did not realize that the Turkish Northern Cyprus has basically no rule of law and the Greek government of Southern Cyprus can’t really control the north, but it does explain why the UN buffer zone is so strict. I also found it very interesting that when the British Empire to took over from the Ottomans in 1878, it was in an agreement, not by any kind of violent force. All in all, it has been a long, but fulfilling day!
