Week In Review! Denver Pt. 2!

It's been another two weeks in Denver--and they have been jam packed. Jam packed with adventure, heartbreak, meetings and, as of the last two days, snow! So, here we go--the week (ok, it's been two) in review!

• Remember how I had a horrible tree mural and Cookie Monster blue shag carpet in my walk-in closet sized room? Not anymore. One of my housemates had a massive room and didn't like it. So, we switched! Now we are both happy campers. (And, she painted the mural and psychedelic dresser within 48 hours of being in there. She's got way more energy than me!)
• I continue to love my jobs. The stories I hear though, at my afternoon job especially, continue to break my heart. We had a guy in who couldn't come up with the three dollars he needed for the copay on his heart medications. He'd gone without for two weeks before he found us and came in. (He said it might as well have been three million dollars because he couldn't come up with it on his own either way...) There was another guy who had recently become homeless and because of all the rain had found shelter for the last few nights night...in a port-a-potty. 
• Fall was beautiful for a few days. Then, after an 81 degree day, winter rolled in. Friday I woke up to snow. Flurries have been falling on and off since. (Brrr!!)
• UnderArmor cold weather socks continue to be my best cold weather friends. 
• As much as I love my jobs, I love the weekends even more. Last weekend David had cooked up some kind of a surprise. It had been on my calendar for a month, but I still didn't know what it was going to entail until I arrived at his house last Saturday. We drove out to a state park in the foothills, had a picnic lunch and then went horseback riding! I did not see that coming! David later had a lesson to teach up in what is the beginnings of the mountains, so we headed up there, had some coffee, and spent the evening there. While he was working I had a walk around town and wrote some postcards. It was absolutely what I needed to get me through the next crazy week. 
• Last Saturday eased some of the restlessness bubbling up in me. Horse back riding somehow reminded me of Moroccan camel rides (except way more comfortable!) and the little mountain town was giving me flashbacks to both Boquete, Panama and the mountains of Cyprus. Sunset walks and postcards just set the travel mood even more. 
• This weekend we took things in a completely different direction. We found a free jazz concert with a famous local band playing at a Methodist church down in Littleton. We thought it might be fun. (And, since it was free we were more than willing to take the gamble!) We walked in through snow flurries to find A) warmth (both of our houses and both of my jobs are so cold!), B) lots of old people (there were about 125 people in there. I think we were the only ones who weren't grey headed), and C) lots of fantastically ugly sweaters. The whole evening was great fun. The band was good, and really got rolling at the end--and the old folks were loving it. Orthopedic shoes were tapping all over the place. The grandma in front of us was especially getting down. 
• Two separate couples stopped to tell us that we did not old enough to be there--which just tickled us even more. 

Some pictures from the last couple weeks:  

I remembered to take a picture of our house. 10 of us live here and there are also offices for our directors. 

Horses!

Stables in the foothills. We weren't that far away from town or a freeway, but it still felt like we were in the middle of Wyoming. 

I did not fall off! : )

Our horses: Sky (David's) and Shy (mine). Not really sure why mine was named Shy. It certainly was not shy about stopping to eat, pooping at will or passing gas when others were near. 

It was a beautiful area. 

Up in Evergreen. (Seriously, it reminded me of both Boquete (remember?) and the Troodos Mounains (see here)).

Some fall trees

And sunset walks

Back in the work week, I decided half way through Monday (that had already involved staff meetings and inventorying more than 500 vases and other random things we sell) that in order to make it through feeding 1000 people spaghetti and then through an additional 4 hours of afterwork Urban Servant Corps programing I would need a boost. I made a lunch time stop at Starbucks while switching buses downtown. 

It was a good call because I found plenty of messages waiting for me when I got to my afternoon work site...

There's a saying that there's only two things in life that money can't buy: Love and homegrown tomatoes. I'm obviously a very lucky girl to have both. 

Friday morning at the bus stop!

The snow was beautiful...even if it had me worried that it was getting so cold already.

Totally

And finally, this evening even my Under Armor socks weren't quite cutting it. It was time to bust out my socks knitted by a Bosnian nana. David brought them back for me this summer and I've been waiting to rock them ever since. 

Procrastination

I've been studying GRE math for many hours over the last couple of days. But now I have had three large mugs of coffee. And I'm sitting in a cafe with wifi.

I'm in the mood to procrastinate! So here you go. Some unrelated things I feel the need to say (mostly because the coffee has removed my filter):

You know where I would be today if I could be anywhere?

Cyprus. 

Maybe here:

{Agia Napa}

Or here:

{Turkish side of Nicosia}

I don't know why, but it looks good, no?

Also, to kill even more time in useless pursuits I was looking through the travel/places section on Pinterest (Don't ever do this. You will waste so much time.). I saw a picture of the Trevi Fountain in Rome. It made me laugh thinking about how I am likely the only person to throw a penny into the fountain (to ensure that you will one day return) and...miss. Yeah. I missed. What, you don't know about that?

Here's what happened:

It was raining. And I had an umbrella. The penny went right up into the umbrella and bounced down right behind me, somehow missing the fountain. 

Fail. 

Which is why I haven't been back to Rome. C'est ma vie.

The End. 

(Didn't you like that story?)

(OK, now back to work.)

(But seriously. GRE math is hard! My eyes are already about to cross, and I keep rereading this paragraph: 

Many more difficult probability questions involve finding the probability that several events occur....The probability that both events occur is the probability that event A occurs multiplied by the probability that event B occurs given that event A occured. The probability that B occurs given that A occurs is called the conditional probability that B occurs given that A occurs. Except when events A and B do not depend on one another, the probability that B occurs given that A occurs is not the same as the probability that B occurs. The probability that three events A, B, and C occur is the probability that A occurs multiplied by the conditional probability that B occurs given that A occurred multiplied by the conditional probability that C occurs given that both A and B have occurred.

I mean, is it just me, or are they just saying occur and probability as many times as possible?)

You Win Some, You Lose Some

I'm in Nicosia (or Lefkosia--there we go with the 2 names again) and I was supposed to meet up with a local Couch Surfer for some coffee and a look around town this morning. Apparently though, we were both waiting at different locations. Then both waited at different locations again.

Oops.

But since the second place I waited for him was right next to the border crossing I went ahead and crossed into Northern Cyprus and spent the day there. (An aside: Nicosia is the world's only remaining divided capital. The northern bit belongs to Northern Cyprus and the Southern bit to the the Republic. There's a buffer zone in between that UN Peacekeepers monitor. As I walked through the crossing and was given a stamped visa, and as I walked around the buffer zone with it's posters prohibiting pictures, etc. I just kept saying to myself--This is crazy!)

Anyway, my (useless) guidebook had said that the two sides of the city could not be more different. It's cliche, but it turned out to be true.

Walking the 10 feet into Northern Nicosia feels like it takes you miles away and years back. You can see the mountains in the background, there's a gothic cathedral turned into a mosque, and children running around playing soccer alongside the buffer zone. In some parts of the city I could have sworn I was in some small town in a far away mountain. It was fascinating.

It was like all the charm of Turkey with the laid back vibe of a Greek island. The Greek side is for the most part modern and built up, but the Northern side is half abandoned in places, ancient or remodeled in others. You trade Greek for Turkish, Orthodox churches for mosques, coffee for tea, and Euros for Liyras.

I also quickly remembered that all I know of Turkish is merhaba (hello) and coke guzel (which means "very beautiful"). Those two things might not get you too far, but they do get you somewhere. In my case, they got me a bouquet of flowers from a Turkish lady's garden, a laugh from a circle of little girls making daisy chains and an impromptu Turkish lesson from the baklava shop owner.

All in all, it was a beautiful day. 

Lemesos, Kourion and Say What?

I set these pictures to upload while I got some other things done. Then blogger tells me I've run out of space. Say what?! I didn't even know that happened. So you only get some of the pictures right now (it's ok, it's most of them). Also, who knows how to remedy this? 

PS. Dad remember how I joked about how it cost money to blog and you said you would send me money to cover it? I was only kidding then, but now...  : )

Lemesos, or Limassol (several cities in Cyprus have two names...which is confusing), wasn't bad. The crumbly colonial buildings were right up my ally. The Lebanese restaurants were a highlight. Overall though, while I enjoyed it when I was there, now that I have moved on I can say that the city was pretty "meh."The highlight of my time there was the trip I took out to the nearby ancient city of Kourion. The views were absolutely beautiful and the ruins were pretty impressive as well. 

Pictures of both below:

Saw this sign in town. That's harsh. 

Colonial facades 

Roman steam baths in the Agora section of the ruins at Kourion

These trees were everywhere with little yellow fluff ball flowers

Mosaic floors in an old palace

The theater 

These railings surrounded the stadium. As the wind blew through the area it would go through the tiny holes you can see on the underside of these rails and the wind would whistle. Especially with the acoustics of the theatre amplifying it, it was a cool but almost eery sound. 

The view--the water was so blue!

More mosaic floors

More blue seas

Just a beautiful area of the country

Remains of a really early Christian church. 

OK, and I'll get the rest of them up when I figure this "no more space" issue out. But don't worry--I already have one plan to try (and of course...it doesn't involve just getting over it and paying the money!). 

Troodos Mountains

This morning I loaded up my backpack, grabbed a bus and headed into the mountains. It took some effort to drag myself away from the coast, but I wanted to see a bit of the diversity of the island (which everyone keeps telling me about). Well it's beautiful here. We are over 3,000 feet up and there are pine and cedar trees everywhere. It's a nice change of scenery and a chance to get a bit of hiking in (not that I won't be getting more than my share of that starting next week!). My only complaint is that it's pretty chilly this high up! At the moment it's only 9 degrees out (ok, it's celsius, but still!). I'm all layered up and happy to be headed to the capital tomorrow!

Picture of my bus on the way up. You can see a bit of the scenery out the windows, but what I really wanted you to see is the drivers 'stache in the rearview mirror. 

The cold meant I had to try out the stifado--the local beef and onion stew. They brought out a massive amount of food (including a steamingly fresh Cypriot pita). 

A little hiking. After my last waterfall hike experience I opted for the less steep trail. 

Some mountain views and nature-y bits

How To Make A Good Day Better

Lebanese food picnic at the beach!

{Fattoush salad, falafel (+ yummy assortment of other things) wrapped in the good Lebanese bread and a pull tab Coke}

I even remembered a little Arabic to throw at the waiters this time. Perfect ending to the day. 

Week in Review Sabbatical Style: Week 10!

Another week has come and gone. And let me tell you, this week has gone well. It's the week in review: 

• In the end I found an even cheaper deal for another night at my hotel here in Agia Napa...so I just stayed another night. No complaints.   
• Apparently I when I advanced my watch when I came to Europe it messed the days up (although any of you who have seen my watch lately will wonder how I see anything off of it). I couldn't remember what day it was this morning, and my watch said Sunday. So Sunday it was. Until about an hour ago when I realized my computer and the hostel booking devises were telling me otherwise. This makes the confusing conversation I had with the receptionist about the time change tonight make more sense. 
• Tonight begins "summer time" (aka the end of daylight savings time). 
• Tomorrow being Sunday also means that buses tomorrow are very limited. 
• I got another cup of Greek coffee from the same place. The first sip sent an actual shiver up my spine. (I will say though, the thing about coffee I really love is the little jolt you get about 2 sips in. This stuff? It sends caffeine fireworks through your system. I can barely type.)
• For those keeping track, I decided to start my Camino in Pamplona. 
• I also bought a small 4 euro bottle of contact solution. It is 120 ml, and here the limit for bottles that go in your zip lock bag for the plane is 100 ml. If they make me throw this one away too I will not be happy. 
• In Larnaka I got chatted up by the Arab waiter at the restaurant I went to. His name was Ibrahim. Imagine that. 
• In Cyprus people drive on the left side of the street. I have almost died crossing the road...twice. 
• OK, I probably wouldn't have died. 
• I have been getting a lot of reading in here, which was part of the plan. I read Love Wins and Northanger Abby this week. Kind of an odd combo, but hey, I enjoyed both. 
• Remember how I went on about the Central American sun being bright? Yeah well the sun is pretty strong here too. Hello sunburn!
• I had some great moments of depth perception this week. I love it when that happens. (See this if you are confused by that statement.) 
• I got a check in the mail this week to cover the replacement (and major upgrade!) of my laptop. The insurance covered ALL of it (including a copy of Microsoft Office that was on there). Seriously people, if you are students (and I am pretty sure even if you aren't) run to get yourself some student insurance: www.nssi.com/ (especially if you are as clumsy/accident prone as I am...)
• I've been catching up on the news since I have a TV with 2 English channels. Kind of glad I ended up nixing the Middle Eastern portion of my trip right about now. 
• The plan for the next few days: head to Limassol for a couple of nights (another coastal city), head into the mountains to see some villages and monasteries, then see the world's only divided capital.
• I just realized (again) that today isn't Sunday yet...so consider this a week in review a day early!  

Just a few pics below: 

My "beach recliner"

The view from the recliner. I had the beach to myself. 

Arabic on the tea, Greek on the cream, Hebrew on the Sweet and Low

The view from here. That coffee looks innocent enough, but whew. I'll be up all night.