In true Cypriot fashion

I'm feeling guilty for not having written any updates to everyone lately. No, I haven't forgotten about you. In true Cypriot fashion, when it gets hot out, things just sort of slow down a bit. It used to be that I wanted to write and tell all of you at home about the funny, odd things that have happened to us here. But odd things are the norm now – we're kind of getting used to the freakish Cypriot ways; I don't remember what "normal" is anymore (if I ever knew). But even though I've become used to things here, it doesn't stop me from just stopping in my tracks - honestly at least once a day - to look around and appreciate how beautiful the place that we are living really is. Even after 10 months, I still appreciate every palm tree and every brightly colored flower or tree that I walk by. And even after spending so much time on the beach, I still am absolutely amazed by the clear blue, turquoise water. Saturday we went to a friend's house in northern cyprus. It was amazing - she has a dream house. It is literally right on the sea. We could even see the mountains in Turkey from her deck, which hangs out over the clearest water and most amazing view of the sunset. Barb and I felt like we were in a fairy tale.

As for day to day life, my "new" job is going well. It isn't anything that I would want to do for the rest of my life, but I don't hate it, it keeps me busy, and I have a good work environment, complete with Pilates class three times a week, Greek class twice a week, and the best part – Barb working upstairs. I miss Anda, of course, but I'm lucky that even though we don't work together anymore, we still see each other for our weekly sticky toffee coffee date at Bennigans. Some things will just never change.

Last night Barb and I went to a play. Only in Cyprus can you go watch Shakespeare in an amphitheater that is more than 1800 years older than Shakespeare himself. We actually sat in the same amphitheatre that was used in the 2nd century BC (overlooking the Mediterranean). It was beautiful, and by the time the play started it had "cooled down" to only about 90 degrees (it was 105 during the day)! Yeah, we are in the midst of a heat wave. Not that Cyprus doesn't normally get this hot. It's just that it doesn't usually get this hot YET. We've been spending every spare minute at a beach or in a pool- luckily there are a lot of both in Cyprus!

Last week my friend Emily came to visit us. It was a short, but fun and crazy visit. She got in Thursday night (4 hours late, thanks to Cyprus Scareways) and left Tuesday morning. But in those 4 days we had enough fun and laughs (and drinks) for a month-long vacation! I took Emily to that restaurant that I worked at for one hour (see 10/2/06 blog) and, apparently they haven't had much luck in their hiring since I left because in true Cypriot fashion, the waiter tried to fit too many plates on a table smaller than my night stand, resulting in one falling and crashing and again, in true cypriot fashion, never came to clean it up and then charged us for another sandwich as the stray cats sat on emily's feet, eating her lunch, thinking they were in kitty heaven. But anyway, yeah, we squeezed a lot into 4 days. We went shopping, swimming, parasailing, dancing, drinking (sex on the beach, sangria, pina colada, wine and zivania - all on the beach!), and taught the Cypriot-owned Japanese restaurant manager how to do a tequila shot with a LIME instead of a lemon (Note: They don't have limes in Cyprus and frankly don't know the difference between a lemon and a lime. When you order a "classic" margarita, it is lemon flavored. They serve tequila shots with a salt and a lemon, etc.) Being that we sat at the same table as the restaurant manager, we ended up talking with him throughout dinner and we got treated us like VIPs (he bought us a second bottle of wine, sushi, an amazing garlic shrimp dish that we didn't order, a birthday dessert for me, even though we told him my birthday wasn't until July, and then of course the shots which, when we complained to him about the cyprus "lemon issue," he called his buddy at the fruitaria - in true cypriot fashion - and had limes delivered to the restaurant for us - at 11:30 PM!!) We spent the night clubbing in Agia Napa and the next day we gave Emily a true feel of Northern Cyprus as we waited for an hour at the checkpoint for reasons we will never fully understand (in true turkish cypriot fashion) before going to the ancient ruins of Salamis, which was a lot of fun, and worth the wait. Overall, I think she had a good time. I know I did.
In other news, Barb and my 5-year anniversary is approaching. We were planning on going on vacation somewhere but then I found out I have to go to Budapest for a USAID training July 16th-20th so we just decided that Barb would join me half way through the week and then we'll stay the weekend. It isn't somewhere we would've thought of on our own to visit, but everyone says it is a beautiful city so now we're looking forward to it. Plus, we are taking a three week vacation in August...
Here is a (very rough) timeline of upcoming events:
July 5: I turn the big two-eight. (That doesn't have such a dramatic ring to it)
July 15-22: Budapest
July 28: Akon and 50 Cent are coming to Cyprus (for anyone who knows anything about Akon and 50 Cent OR Cyprus...you'll understand why this is huge).
August 10 (ish): Arrive in US (NJ)
August 20: Arrive in DC
August 22: CHAOS in DC (It does still exist, right? So, if you live in the DC area, you better be there! This is a lot of advanced notice!)
August 23: Leave DC
August 31st (ish): Leave US

Barb and I hope to see as many of you as possible during our 3 weeks in the states. I will be writing again before then though...