Valentines Day

Happy Valentines Day Everyone! I hope everyone has great plans for their day! I don't have any plans really, other than making sure that I finish the essay I'm working on to submit with my Masters Application and to make it to class on time.

I have really enjoyed my classes this week! In my European Cultures class we talked about Cypriot weddings just in time for valentines day of course. I thought American Weddings were at a grand scale, but not compared to Cypriot weddings. The average number of invited individuals in Cyprus is 3-4,000 people! They invite anyone they have met pretty much! It's Crazy! But, they also make an income of about 60-80,000 euros from their wedding as well. This money is generally used to buy or build a house to live in. In American culture if you get invited to a wedding you do not really feel obligated to go, but in Cypriot culture it is almost an obligation to go, if you don't then it is an insult and you would be considered stingy, which is one the worst things to be called in Cyprus.

In my Art History course we spent a class discussing Egyptian history of the Pharaoh's ruling and the writings in the tombs. It was all so very interesting, but I did find it strange that no mention was done of Moses. I felt all sides of theories should have been presented so each individual could decide for themselves what they thought was true. But all in all I was drawn in learning about their culture.

It actually made me sad that I decided not to go to Egypt due to the rockiness of it's safety at the moment. Even the teacher suggested not going at this point, which was unfortunate, but made me feel better about my decision.

Town Hall Building-Nicosia

Aside from attending classes I really haven't done much this week, because I have been working on my Masters Application, like I previously mentioned. However, yesterday Briel, Carolyn, and I did make it downtown to explore a bit and to do lunch with Alexis. However, one mistake we make was remembering that everything except some restaurants close early on Wednesdays, so after lunch we spent some time just enjoying a local coffee shop, like most Cypriots would do on their Wednesday off. That is really all I have been up to sense I last wrote. I'm still fighting a cold and trying to take it pretty easy. But, tomorrow I think we are going to venture out of Nicosia to another town to try and find the fourth most important mosque in the Muslim, because there is supposed to be a flock of flamingos right out side of it. It is one of their stops on their migration path and I haven't seen wild flamingos before. I actually don't know if I have seen a flamingo at all actually. That's all for now, I need to get to work!