I <3 Wucifer

This post is dedicated to Teresa Wu and her witty ass comments...

comments from sunday evening:

thesoggypeanut (8:56:52 PM): even my frehsman year roommate

thesoggypeanut (8:56:53 PM): i was changing

thesoggypeanut (8:56:54 PM): and she was like

thesoggypeanut (8:56:56 PM): do you want me to leave?

thesoggypeanut (8:56:57 PM): and i was like

thesoggypeanut (8:56:57 PM): wtf

thesoggypeanut (8:56:58 PM): no

thesoggypeanut (8:57:02 PM): i want u to compliment my ass

thesoggypeanut (8:57:03 PM): hahahahahaha

thesoggypeanut (8:57:10 PM): which is what u and britt would do

comments from tuesday evening:

Dear Amy Morgan,

I'm at work composing this lengthy wall post in lieu of editing an article about big penises. We also just had a 30-minute editorial meeting about douchebags. My journalistic integrity is off the charts.

So let's recap the past three days: My living room flooded, my roommate's puppy pooped all over the kitchen, I slept in stranger's bed after eating a stranger's pizza who I found on the street (so much for not eating eating food of people I don't know), and I tried to dance on an elevated surface by myself but it just didn't the same effect without seven other retards doing it with me.

Basically, my sanity correlates to the amount of time we spoon on a daily basis, WHICH HAS BEEN NONE, FOR OVER A MONTH, AND IT'S NOT OKAY.

Love and soggy street vendor gyros that aren't as half as good or cheap as the ones from Gyromania,

Your BFF,

Teresa Wu

I MISS CYPRUS

Tel Aviv, Mud, & Preparing for the World.

Last week I was in the beautiful city of TEL AVIV! We went on a complete whim, after I found out that I had the week off of classes. We left on Tuesday and arrived later that night. I was blown away by Tel Aviv from the beginning… the airport was amazing, which I didn’t really expect from Israel. and I thought JFK was nice…
The first night we were there Teresa and I went out to Mike’s place, an americanish bar (That was even playing the UCONN game….) and talked with the bar owner about Tel Aviv.
We spent the first couple of days exploring the beach and markets of Tel Aviv. The way I pictured Israel was not how it was at all; beautiful beaches in a modern city? who would have guessed.
On Saturday we spent the day in Jerusalem and the Dead Sea: completely surreal is how I would describe it. How does one even begin to describe walking Jesus’ last path, being in the vicinity of where he was crucified and buried, and touching the limestone used to wash his body post mortem? Especially for someone who is not extremely religious, the whole experience was, all at once, crazy, awesome, and scary. There were some people there who you could tell that this obviously meant the world to. What an experience
After Jerusalem we made our way over to the dead sea to FLOAT. (Wtf?) The dead sea has such a high concentration of salt that you just float in it. It was soooo cool, and not even that cold! We also caked ourselves in a heap of mud and exfoliated.
All in all, Israel was amazing. I would definitely go back some day. It’s unfortunate that it gets so much bad press because Tel Aviv is really a very safe and AMAZING city.
I’m currently updating my blog instead of studying for my three finals that I have within the next 20 hours (EEP!). Today will be a little insane. Taking a final, studying for two more, saying goodbye to Rach (it was SO nice to see her this week), packing, and maybe getting an hour or two of sleep?
Tomorrow I take two finals, then leave for Paris and Dublin! WHOA. I’ll be going with a few friends for about a week. My French will finally come into use woooot. The day after we get back we will be leaving for Italy, Greece, and Spain with my program. This next month will definitely be full of crazyness and amazingness all at the same time; can’t wait! Updates will probs be few and far between but I promise they’ll come. Wooooot for traveling the world!

masks, beaches, and of course waffles

Last week Wu and I were in need of some breakfast therapy and headed over to a ridiculously cute cafe called puzzle and had delectable waffles. This was especially gratifying because we had been craving waffles for, I swear, WEEKS. Mine was smothered in nutella, chocolate, and ice cream. The tastiness of it outweighs any resulting health hazards such as heart attacks.

On Friday, we left for Paphos and Limassol, where Carnival was being held. It closely resembles Mardi Gras in the sense where people wearing masks go bar hopping and get tanked. We were right on the ocean and I got some really nice pictures of a Sunset but not much else considering we barely wake up before that. What a great time though.

A weekend full of carnival masks, beaches, and waffles. Could it get any better? YES. We also finally got water pressure. No more showering with a pot to get the shampoo out! Oh the luxuries of Cyprus... I have no pictures of said new amazing water pressure but I DO have a video I'll upload later of what it was BEFORE it got fixed so that maybe the level of excitement I have for our new found water pressure can be understood.

This week was rough. I had two ten page papers due and three presentations. But it's Thursday afternoon, I have one class left, and then it's the weekend :)
It's supposed to be in the high seventies and sunny this weekend so I plan on doing mucho relaxing and sun time. TTFN.

i've had a lot of caffeine today.

I've been in Cyprus for three weeks now and it's been crazy/blurry/exhausting/amazing. I'm finally into my "classes" even though they're basically a joke. Extrapolation: tonight my world history professor is taking us out to a bar for beers and burgers and then taking us to see valkyrie. Awesome? I think so.

Right now I'm sitting at the Coffee Beanery with Chrissy (see aweosme pic below) drinking a cafe mocha that is full of orange and chocolate and cream and everything amazing/terrible for you :) We came here to work on our european cultures and (for me) world history papers but instead I'm taking advantage of the fast internet. Me? Procrastinate? and then have a stress attack the night before it's due? what else is new.

EGYPT! That's whats new. I went with a group of nine amazing girls last weekend and we traveled far and wide, and bartered big time. The first day we were there we did so much; pyramids, shopping, sphinx, food, dinner cruise on the nile. balllin. The next day we went to Alexandria and
saw catacombs, and the great library of Alexandria, it was amazing. I like books. We also went to one of the ancient wonders of the world. It used to be a light tower/watch house but it was destroyed in a storm (I sort of made that up, i don't remember the story) and they used the original materials to build it into this amazing fort that overlooks the city of Alexandria, the coast, and really pretty boats. Did I mention our crazy tourguide? He wanted to make sure we got everything
in so we did a lot of running around and counting off to make sure all ten of us. Akhmed was the bomb. Then on Sunday we went to the temple/village ruins of Alexander the great from around 300 BC. Akhmed bribed our tour person to let us climb all over them and take some sweet pictures :) The entire trip was completely surreal and I still can't believe that I went to Egypt. Before I left people kept asking me why Cyprus. At the time I really didn't have a solid answer but it really is one of the greatest locations in the world, I'm a 45 minute flight to Africa, Europe, and contries in the Middle East. I'm still hoping to get to Israel, maybe Syria, and I would love to see the Hanging Gardens of Babylon in Iraq but I guess that should probably wait a little bit...

In April I'll be heading off to Italy, Greece, and Spain. ohhh em gee I can't wait. My mom is heading over to this part of the world in May so we can do some traveling, hopefully of eastern Europe. I'm also in the process of planting the idea that we should go back to Amsterdam and so some traveling there... then end the trip by seeing Bruce Springsteen in the Netherlands... I'm so crafty :)

This weekend I plan on traveling around Cyprus with a few of the girls to Limassol & Paphos to go celebrate Carnival. It's comparable to a two week long halloween festival with parades and partying. I just have to get through these papers and then it's time to macgyver a costume together and head off to the beaches! Life's so tough.

Within the span of three weeks I will have flown across the world three times. I was in Cyprus for six days when I found out that my dad passed away. Within a few hours I was back on a plane and headed for home. Things have been really sad, and it's really hard to lose a parent, but I think my dad is in peace now after suffering for a long time. On Friday I will be flying back to Cyprus. We all have to move on eventually; I feel like it's fate that I have this study abroad experience because it just seems like the perfect opportunity to help me move on. Happier posts from now on.

Rest In Peace
Love You Dad
9/29/1954 ~ 1/21/2009

CYPRUS!

This week has been absolutely insane. Staying up until 5 a.m., coming down with some 24 hr flu thing, skinned rabbits in grocery stores, chocolate croissants galore, and of course meeting tons of people. I flew into cyprus last wednesday on jan 14. The next day we walked around, got to know the area a bit, and went grocery shopping. Since then it's pretty much been orientation about cyprus by day and clubbing by night. We did go to an American bar to watch the eagles vs. cardinals game. So glad the eagles went DOWN.

The one thing i'm having a hard time getting used to is the bathroom/water situation here. Cyprus is in the middle of a huge drought so everyone has tanks on top of their apartments/houses. Water is delivered every Tues/Thurs/Sat and if you run out inbetween those days then tough luck. If you want to use hot water you have to turn on the water heater 45 minutes before hand... which means waking up an extra 45 minutes in advance (boo). Additionally, the amount of water/ the water pressure is so low it is literally the amount that comes out of a water fountain (absolutely not exaggerating... double boo). Oh, and they don't flush toilet paper here. They throw it out. very odd. makes trash bags necessary.


A few observations thus far:
1) Americans are totally spoiled. especially because in the US we have water pressure and automatic hot water. and can flush toilet paper.
2) There are stray cats everywhere
3) Wine is cheaper than water
4) There. are. no. dryers. here.
5) My eight years of french does me no good here
6) Skype is my new best friend
7) It's constantly in the upper sixties and sunny :)
8) Good internet connection is few and far between, hence why I can't upload pictures


More Later! xoxx

Cairo Int'l Airport

I feel like someone just shoved me outside of my comfort zone; oh wait, they did. I was sleeping nicely on my ridiculously long flight from JFK to Cairo Int'l thanks to Ambien when we landed. I've never walked off a plane before onto the runway. That was a first... Then we all CRAMMED into a tiny little bus and were shuttled to a little office thing where no one spoke English (only Arabic). It took me a while to figure out I had to take another bus to get to a different part of the airport. I tried to go sit in my gate but I was kicked out for now and I'm not sure why because I don't speak Arabic. I'm assuming it was because I'm a few hours early for my connection flight to Larnaca, Cyprus..

A few observations I've made so far:

1) Smoking is legal in public (whoa, time to dust off the old inhaler)
2) Wool socks in Cairo are aboslutely not practical.
3) Cairo Int'l barely has working bathrooms but they do have a Starbucks. Proof Sbucks is taking over the world
4) White women traveling alone are interesting.
5) I am NOT in Kansas anymore.

Let the culture shock, begin.