Hash!!!

Yesterday was very low key. Carolyn had a very rough night of homesickness, so I went out the next morning and bought us crepes from Crepa Land to go and delivered her breakfast when she woke up. I secretly think I deserve the Best Roommate Award haha.

After that we had to attend a history class, then grocery shopping, and after dinner at a fellow classmates (pork chops, bread, salad, and broccoli). Pretty relaxed day in Cyprus.

Today was pretty relaxed and fun as well. We went to a presentation on volunteering, then took a bus to the old town for lunch and shopping. I got a new sweater and a scarf and am very excited about it. We took a siesta, as the Cypriots do for about an hour and a half and then went to our first ever Hash, with a club called The Nicosia Horrible Hash House Harriers.

Lunch cafe downtown

We met some wonderful locals and ran 2.63 miles following chalk/flour marks on the floor. Then once back to the starting point we circled up and sang songs. Between the songs they make individuals come in the center and drink for various reasons. The group I was with (Briel, Carly, Carolyn, and me) got called in as "Virgins" of the group and had to do what all new members do, tell a funny story. I told the story about the first time Colin and I danced...It went really well, everyone enjoyed it (luckily Colin can't figure out how to read my blog haha because I tell the whole story in a previous post if your interested in more details). After you tell your story they give you a nickname related to the story. My nickname became, 'John Revolta'.

Anyway after your story they sing a song and at the end of the song they count down from ten to zero and you have to chug a beer in that time frame. If you don't finish it time, you have to poor the remaining beer over your head. My dad would be so proud of me, this is the first time I ever (a) drank an entire beer and (b) chugged alcohol. I know I made my dad proud tonight!

After this we went and enjoyed food and great company. I learned so much at dinner from a fellow hasher. He told me police are called cops because they ware copper badges-get it cop. I hope I get to go again in the future. It was a great experience. I am going to share lyrics to some of the songs so you get a feel of the hash atmosphere:

Who Ate All the Pies

 Who ate all the pies? (x2)

You fat bastard, (x2)

You ate all the Pies!

Oh we do like to has in Nicosia

Oh we do like to has in Nicosia,

Oh we do like to follow all the trails,

Oh we do like to check out where the rout has gone, 

And call other hasher with an ON ON ON.

Oh, we do like to has in Nicosia, 

Oh we do like to follow all the trails, 

'Cos when we arrive back here,

Well then we drink our pints of beer,

'Cos we are hashers from Nicosia.

He's Alright

He's Alright, He's Alright,

He's got a little willy,

But he's alright!

She's Alright

She's alright, She's Alright,

She's a little flat chested,

But, she's alright! 

Hope you enjoyed, but off I go to hum these tunes while showering...

Orientation Week

Yesterday was the start of orientation week. We were presented a presentation for the duration of the day starting at 9 in the morning.

They served pizza for lunch and then we had a couple hour break before we had to meet up for dinner.

On our walk to dinner we met go girls in the program who live the the same apartments as us. They told us of their plans of going to Egypt for a weekend trip to see the Pyramids and other amazing things of Egypt. I am really interested in going.

They are looking at having two different guided tours each day, which makes the travel feel much safer to me, so that I feel comfortable going. I know it is not likely the safest place, but it is only an hour plane ride away and it would seem silly not to go. They also knew someone who lived in Egypt, which also made it feel safer to go.

I don't feel the same about Isreal or Turkey though. If you go to North Cyprus on a clear day you can actually see Turkey and Isreal is also close by, but those places don't feel safe to me so I think I will pass on that opportunity. Plus I only have so much money so I really just get to pick one excursion and I predict that to be Egypt.

Also, I must mention that Colin is thinking about visiting during my break for about ten days at the end of March. So if he wants to take three days and go to Egypt I will go with him and then spend the rest of the time showing him around Nicosia and other cities of the Island.  I really hope he is able to come visit and see what I get to see everyday. I already have been looking into things we can do if he does get to come....

Anyway after dinner we walked to a local Irish pub to hangout with other program members. This is where the pictures are from. I ordered a Rhode Island Ice Tea and it was strong so I gave the majority away. Then I walked home shortly after. The pictures are from the pub. Today we have more orientation classes on history at two. I'm hoping to get some shopping done before then as we only have fruit, cereal, and rice at the moment haha. So I guess I best get a move on.

Nicosia Tour Day

Carolyn I went to dinner and while we were eating we ran into other study abroad students in our program. They invited many of us and our group to dinner that night. Carolyn and I figured we would go for dessert to spend time with everyone and get to know them.

Unfortunately, we didn't know this place served Mezes. Mezes is really popular in Cyprus, it is a multi-course meal (small mezes is like 12 courses) that costs around 10-15 Euros depending.

We were kind of the awkward people who weren't eating and just sitting, because it was much more formal and detailed than originally thought, but in the end we had fun. The owner also felt badly for me for not eating and be gave me an apple, orange, and banana to take with me. Which was very nice because I didn't buy any of his food.

After food we were headed back and we were going to take an easy night because he had to get up early this morning, but then we ran into Martin (a local who we met the previous night), convensed us to go out for his going away party. He had already ordered cabs and everything so we decided to attend. It was a good decision because it is probably the only time I will get to go to a club and be VIP.

We got home pretty late and almost didn't make cab fair home, but all ended well and turned out just fine. Today we woke up and left the house at 9 for a tour of Nicosia and a trip to a local Museum. We saw lots of beautiful locations of the island.

We also saw many ancient artifacts that date back all the way to the days of Mesopotamia and learned a bit about Greek mythology. By the time I'm through with this semester I hope to have a better grasp of ancient history and be better at geography and other various things. Thus far I have really been enjoying myself and all the things I have been learning.

With that I must say goodnight! I'm tired! 

At a local church

Hello Cyprus!

I arrived in Cyprus yesterday, after some plane ticket confusion and three flights. It was quite the stressful day!

Once I arrived I took a taxi to my apartment. Here I met my roommate, Carolyn from New Jersey. We get along really well.

After getting semi-situated we had to meet the group out front and walk to the university where we got briefed on some things and ate pizza.

After pizza everyone went back to their rooms and a group of us got together and walked to a local restaurant for drinks and snacks.

The people here all seem really nice so far. I'm sure I'm going to make some great friends.

My walnut honey crepa

Carolyn with her chocolate strawberry banana

Today Carolyn and I woke and went to Crepa Land, which is a local restaurant that sells various crapes and sandwiches. It was extremely delicious. We decided it was our new place to be for breakfast and lunch. They even give you a card to earn points for discounts which is pretty impressive if you ask me.

After crapes we had to go shopping to get stuff for our very bare apartment. We had to buy things like batteries for the heater (as it had none), an extra blanket for the bed because we froze at night, toilet paper (there was only one roll), food, a new shower curtain (the one we had was not a curtain but the cover for a real shower curtain), laundry baskets (because they provide none), and hangers (Because they only provided six-three each-which doesn't really cut it if you ask me).

We didn't mind having to buy this stuff, but at the same time it is hard to believe that past students don't leave these kind of things behind. We also got groceries, but we are not sure quite yet how we are going to bake things in the oven as it is just a round applicance that sits on the top of counter. We do have a stove top however, which will be nice for cooking I suppose.

Well that's really it for now. Off to find some dinner!

Final Day in Berlin

Yesterday we took it pretty easy all day and in the evening we went to a variety show called Show Me! It is advertised all over Berlin so it was pretty exciting to get to go see it. Above is a picture of me with an advertisement.

 There was many different cool aspects to the show. Lots of music and dancing and some exciting additions as well like water dancing and a pole dancer who was amazing. The entire show was really worth it! I'm so happy Nicole had the idea to go. There was even a waterfall in the middle of the stage just falling into the center stage as well as the biggest 'can can' line i have ever seen!

As today was my last day in Berlin we wanted to make today count, but get back in time to get to bed early and get situated for my flight to Cyprus tomorrow. So for the day we went to experience the East Side Gallery which is the Berlin Wall still in place to remember the times. 

 There were many cool paintings on the wall the entire way down. This one was important to Nicole, because she grew up in East Germany and remembers rarely having access to bananas, so this photo represents that.

This painting was done to represent the famous photograph called "Brother Kiss". The actual photograph was taken in 1979 at the festivities of the 30th anniversary of the Deutsche Meomkratisch Republik (aka East Germany). Pictured is Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev and East German President Erich Honnecker. The kiss was customary, a normal ritual for socialist buddies. It later became an iconic photograph.

This picture here is also painted on the wall. It is notable because it represents another true photograph of history. The photograph is of an East German soldier, Conrad Schumann who was standing guarding on the third day of construction of the wall. There was no wall quite yet where we was guarding, only barbwire on the ground. A police care drove by and told him to quickly jump across to West Berlin, and he did. It is also an iconic image that represents the Cold War era as even the soldiers did not want to reside in East Berlin.

 The wall was very long, but Nicole and I couldn't take the cold any longer to complete the walk of the wall.

On our walk back, I thought it was important to snap this lovely shot, not only to show the city of Berlin, but to prove to everyone how cold it really is here. As you can see in the photo the water has ice chunks floating down it. It is freezing here!

Our walk concluded with lunch at a lovely pizza place called Pirate Pizza. Located in a gap of the Berlin Wall. It was really tasty and exactly what we needed. We stayed and chatted until we could feel our feet once more then hopped on the train and made our way home for the day. We decided it was far to cold to stay out and explore the city.

Meet Ampelmann!

This is Ampelmann. He was born on October 13, 1961, an East Berlin original. He was created because it is believed that humans respond more quickly to appealing symbols.

This is Ampelmann telling you to "STOP, do not walk under any circumstance!" Ampelmann was even created into a television series for kids to teach them about traffic safety.

Here Ampelmann is saying, "go ahead and cross now." At one time they were thinking about going back to the normal German crossing signs that West Germany used, but people faught to keep Ampelmann in East Germany and so he still exists. Many artifacts are available with Ampelmann printed on it including bags, lunch boxes, post cards, key chains, etc.

Gotta Love Ampelmann!

Funday Monday

La Moulin de la Galette by Pablo Picasso

 This morning started off pretty slow. I watched some movies then had a late lunch. After lunch Nicole and I started our day. First things firsts, the Visions of Modernity Exhibition. Their we saw paintings by Monet, Van Gogh, Picasso, and other famous artists. 

Landscape with Snow by Vincent van Gogh

Tourist shot with all the types of chocolate display

 After the Exhibit we went to a chocolate store where we learned the process of turning cocoa  into chocolate, saw opportunities for touristy photos, and ordered our style of hot chocolate in the flavor we wanted. I chose white chocolate, it was amazing.

Me with my white hot chocolate

My sad attempt at golfing

 After the chocolate break it was time for black light mini-golf. The course was extremely complex! I told Nicole that I have a bachelor's degree and she has a law degree, we should be able to do this, but she told me that we needed a golf degree to be successful. It was pretty fun none the less. In one room you even had to hit the ball off the wall to get it in the hole.

Atmosphere at Mini-Golf

The area we sat in for dinner

 After mini-golf we were so hungry so we went to try another Arabian restaurant. I'm so glad we did! Everything we had was amazing! I had tea, fried goat cheese, and felafel. The people were also really nice! We sat in the seating where you took your shoes off and sat on cozy couches with small tables. I loved every bit of the experience! 

Me at the Arabian Restaurant

The Stasi-Prison Tour

 The Stasi-Prison

Me inside the first prison building.

Today Nicole and I went to the Statsi-Prison Gedenkstatte (memorial) site. Nicole is very familiar with the state of Germany after WWII and the rise of the Soviet Union as she grew up here and was taught the history as well as lived some of it. But to me most of the information is new.

It is hard to think that right after one extreme, another extreme was presented to Eastern Germany. Many people left Eastern Germany to get to West Germany to prevent being under the ruling of the Soviet Union. I learned a lot from the tour, but be cautious because this is my re-telling of what I leaned and at some points may be misspeaking.

1939 Brick building turned into Special Camp No. 3

The first buildings rooms (cells)

The place where we toured was where the Soviet Union took people that were against them or had different political views that did not support the communist party. The people would just be "kidnapped" and taken to this place and have no idea where they were and would be interrogated. They Soviet Union worked out of this old brick building on the left that was once a kitchen and eventually it turned into a Soviet Interment Camp called "Special Camp No. 3".

There were 91,000 hired employees (Stasi's) who work as spies of the people breaking into houses, listening to conversations, using video to film activity within houses, etc. Any activity that either showed to be against the dictatorship or any planning on escaping East Germany resulted in being captured and taken to one of the prisons.

In the 40's and 50's the conditions were terrible. The camp would at times hold about 4,200 people at once in poor conditions with little food provided. The old cells had only a wooden bunk and a bucket for waste. Up to fourteen people was normal in a room and the bucket was only emptied once a day.

Physical and psychological violence was common to the prisoners. Many would sign confessions just

in hopes of being set free or to stop the torture.

The picture to the left here is a replica of the a torture tool used. It would drop water on your head constantly and if you got tired your face would fall in water.

In the fifties they stopped most of the physical torture and had most of the inmates in bad conditions, but conditions that were better than the original, they had toilets available for their use. Only the individual's who spoke against the Soviets or wouldn't cooperate while in prison would be punished in physically damming ways (but it was up to the guards who was deserving).
 
 To hear some of the stories being told and all the information made me so sad for the people of East Germany. To live in a world that is not free is almost imaginable to me. It made me feel so grateful to know that my government is not spying and to know

Right before strip was cells, left of strip is interrogation rooms

These are the newer rooms

that I have the ability to speak my mind and have an opinion of my and i don't have to worry about what might happen to me for thinking my own way.

Some of the prisoners who were kept here are the ones who actually give the tours. It must be so hard for them to return here and walk around the place where they were kept against their will. This tour was very educational and eye opening to the horrors that occurred after WWII and provided the reasons of the Cold War.

To think that it all only ended twenty-three years ago! People were still imprisoned here in the 1980's!

Me leaving a cell

An interrogation room

Happy Birthday Celebration

The Birthday Boy (Nicole's Dad) & Boris (Nicole's Boyfriend)

Today we celebrated Nicole's father's birthday. To celebrate we drove out to Storkow, Germany where they lived.

For his birthday I brought him a liqueur, which  he seemed very excited about and opened right away.

Nicole and her sister Katja

We quickly stopped by Nicole's Grandparents to say say hello. They seemed like the nicest person. He took time to speak about his father during Nazi, Germany and how much his father did not want to fight. His father became a soldier, but was given the dirty jobs that those who didn't support the war were given. When given the chance he tried to switch to the Russian side, but the German's got word and he was then killed. I am so happy I got the chance to meet him and his wife. I wish I would have gotten to know more of his history and his families history.
After the quick stop we went bowling. They wrote my name down and the bowling people are obviously not used to the name Tiffini, because my name became Tiffang. It gave us all a good laugh.

I got a chance to meet Nicole's sister as well. She asked me if my cousin, Julia was as high (tall) as me. She was very surprised about how big I was.

Also due to the language barrier, I told her uncle "I'm Tiffini, nice to meet you." He replied, "No." I would like to think he meant 'No English' instead of 'No it's not nice to meet you' haha.

It was a blast. They did comment on my bowling style though. They said I looked professional. I tried to explain the ball didn't think so, because it isn't hitting the pins like I want it to. Game one I scored 95 and game two 98.

Nicole said bowling had only been around East Berlin for about ten years, because when the wall was up they didn't get things like that there.

After bowling we went to Indian food for dinner. It was a fun experience and I enjoyed speaking with Katja. One of the few who spoke English. I felt right at home =).

Gendarmenmarkt Square

After the Underground tour we went to lunch at an Arabian restaurant. It was the first time Nicole had been there and it was an experience that we enjoyed but we would not dine there again.

Following lunch we went Gendarmenmarkt Square. All I can say is WOW!

Gendarmenmarkt Square is the area where all the fancy hotels are located, for example my aunt's favorite, The Hilton. The square was named after the Gens d'Armes, a Prussian regiment of the 18th Century. These people were mainly French who were kicked of out france in 1685. They used one of the churches as their house of worship that is located in the square. By looking at the square you would never guess that it was damaged in WWII. It has been restored to its original state.

 The Deutscher Dome is a German church built in 1708. It didn't originally have this much charm, but in 1785 Carl von Gontard helped in making the Dome what it is now. The detail work is amazing on this church! Could you imagine going here every Sunday? 

As you can see in the photo it is a very cold winter day in Berlin and everyone is bundled up, including me. Today I wore a coat, gloves, a stocking hat (home made by my grandma-thanks grandma), a scarf, jeans, leggings, two hoods, and three shirts and believe it or not I was STILL freezing!

 This is a statue of Schiller Denkmal. He is supposedly somebody famous. An artist or something...I think I'll google him later. His name is on the statue though so he must be important.

. This is the Konzerthaus Berlin Building. It stated as the Schauspielhaus, but then it burnt down. It kept its walls and columns that survived teh fire and added some special touches to make it the building it is today.

Here is the Franzosischer Dom. It is almost identical to the Deutscher Dom (don't worry I didn't post the same picture twice =P ). We climbed all the way to the top to lookout above the square. It was very high and 3 Euros, but totally worth the experience.

On our clime up to the top of the Franzosischer Dom there was an Art Exhibition by Simone Ghera, which consisted of photographs of different dancers in different famous cities. I snapped a couple shots of his work that we got to see throughout the church. You can look at more of his work at www.simonegheraphotography.com.