Cyprus is beautiful, and I never ever want to leave.

The end.

(Just kidding.)

[Note: I started writing this three weeks ago and just didn't get a chance to finish...]

The view of London on the way to Cyprus

But it is amazing here. I mean, we haven't even been here a full week, and the idea of leaving is already sad to me. We've definitely been making the most of our time here, at the very least. I don't think I've gotten more than 5 hours of sleep since we've gotten here. I really, really love coffee right now. I can already tell my future, and it will be painful caffeine withdrawals this summer. Oy.

Our professor Lefty with a ukelele in the Larnaca airport

So, on Friday [March 25], we got an introduction to Nicosia, the capital city and where we're staying for these 10 days in Cyprus.  First off, we headed to a parade for the Greek Independence Day. Note that this is a Greek holiday, not Cypriot. Hmmmm... We got to interview people on the street about their understanding of the holiday and its significance. And then my group had the opportunity to speak to some of the politicians in their VIP section, and boy, did they have a lot to tell us about Cyprus. Some of them seemed kind of crazy, and others just seemed defeated when it came to the Cyprus problem. Seriously, the mayor of the southern part of Nicosia just laughed and sarcastically wished us good luck in finding a solution to the conflict. So that was a great start to our Peace and Conflict Resolution Trip.

Greek flags in Cyprus

Political VIPs... and representation from the Orthodox Church. Hmm.

Later that afternoon, we took a walking tour around Nicosia with some local guides. The city is really interesting, especially since it's divided in half between the Republic of Cyprus and the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus. So, here we have some of the southern city.

Anarchy heart!

Literally, the UN Green Line goes through some buildings in the center of what used to be a united Nicosia.

...and the first of many armed guards that threatened us for our incessant
photography in high-security areas.

Heh.

So, for the first of many times, we crossed the "border" (if you consider the TRNC to be a country - as only Turkey does), which was interesting. They didn't stamp our passports, but we still had to fill out 30-day visas to be stamped and approved. And on the "other side," it seemed like a different world. Obviously, since the TRNC isn't a recognized country and therefore can't trade with anyone but Turkey, it's the poorer side of the island. It's a noticeable difference. However, it does not all look like the following photo.

And then I introduce the class to the concept of the album cover photo.

TJ and Gina get all Vanna White with the Turkish and TRNC flags

Then, Saturday morning was the first of our so-called "free days." While it was definitely not free, we had a lovely excursion up to the mountains, which were beautiful. The scenery made me miss California a lot. But then we could see the lovely lovely Mediterranean Sea from the mountains, and I was just purely happy.

And then we stopped for coffee (again with the happiness), and we found a PUPPY. Not just any puppy - probably the cutest puppy EVER. I'm still obsessed with it.

From there, we went up to the tomb of Archbishop Makarios (the Republic of Cyprus' first president) as well as the monastery at Kykkos.

At the tomb of Archbishop Makarios: Laura, me, TJ, and Lopo

The monastery

We had a huge lunch with an American man who has worked in Cyprus for six or seven years now with the United Nations Development Project. Not only was he a really nice person and had a lot of interesting things to say about the problem, but I found out that he was one of the co-founders of SXSW, the now-giant musical festival in Austin, TX. He was absolutely serious, and he played it off as if it were nothing. If we weren't there to discuss Cyprus, you know I would been asking him so many questions about that.

That was one really great thing about the trip: just all the random, interesting people we met. The politicians were a different story, but the NGO workers all were so dedicated and inspiring. I'd love the opportunity to go back to Cyprus and work with them.

That afternoon, we also had the chance to meet some university students from both communities in a panel discussion. It was amazing to hear each side of the story and how they used to be so biased against the "other side." One of the Greek Cypriot students told us that by his teenage years, he was angry enough about the conflict that he was ready to go over to the TRNC and kill Turkish Cypriots. Fortunately, all of these students had gotten away from the anger and fears that they were raised with, and they did a really interesting job of describing their experiences to us.

People actually used to think that a person on the "other side" actually had horns and a tail. That's how messed up this case is.

But this discussion was good because it gave us some hope that reconciliation is possible, at least between the people in the two communities. Once people saw that there were no horns or tails, they were able to interact like the human beings that they are. The governments are another story.

More to follow soon... including a day on the coast!