A Turkish Cypriot Easter

Whilst it would have been interesting to stay around Nicosia for Easter, we felt the need to get away and take full advantage of the 4 day break. 


Before we did, however, the kids and I enjoyed a bit of baking together and took some cake in to Ross' office for an Easter afternoon tea.  The staff he works with are so friendly and have been very welcoming of our family.


On Good Friday we headed about an hour north across the border to stay at a beach resort just north of Famagusta on the east coast of the island.  As you may have read from a previous blog, the Turkish part of Cyprus is fascinating; like being in a totally different country.  Turkish is the main language in the north, with much fewer people speaking English, the Turkish Lira is the currency, and the houses are not only tall and half Spanish looking but the many colours of your average Ice Creamery.


Anyway, I digress....and this is dangerous so late at night.  I'm going to take a short cut for this blog and tell our weekend story through a series of photos.  Please enjoy...

Welcome to North Cyprus...the Turkish side (I think?!!)

Breakfast by the Mediterrenean

Kids explore the ruins of ancient Salamis, dating back to 800BC.

These pylons held up the gymnasium.

Mosaics decorating the Hot Baths

The amphitheatre which could hold up to 10,000 people (note Anna enjoying the
scenery from her pram in a horizontal position, and Angus throwing his hat!!)

The kids got a bit bored of the ancient ruins...but the giant
dandelions held their attention.

A new Macdonalds franchise in Northern Cyprus?

A majestic old church in Famagusta.  The gothic architecture somewhat changed by the minaret on top; making it a mosque.  Whilst Sarah was being convertedby the Muslim man at the front desk, Sam was on his knees imitating the men praying and putting the old Muslim women into hysterics.

The 5th Century church of Agios Filon, where we enjoyed a picnic lunch.
Situated on the Karpas Peninsula.

Restaurant on the Karpas Peninsula

Beautiful bays on the Karpas Peninsula

Easter Sunday.  On the north-eastern tip of Cyprus

Golden Beach, on the Karpas Peninsula

We were amazed at how hospitable people
were to our kids.  These were the restaurant
staff at our accommodation.

The kids fell in love with Harry and Nilla.

The north-eastern tip of Cyprus.

Kalo Pasxa!

Kalo Pasxa, or Happy Easter! It's been interesting this week to observe and be a part of some of the traditions leading up to easter in Cyprus. Easter is a significant holiday here, and a range of faith traditions and rituals are practiced across the island.  Large eggs have appeared everywhere in Nicosia, all with Easter messages written on them.  


The church bells have been ringing throughout the week, and tomorrow (known as 'big Friday') is marked by a range of activities.  All the icons in the churches are covered with black shrouds, and then on Saturday these are removed as the congregations in the various churches shake their seats and pews to symbolise an earthquake.  Saturday evening is the largest gathering in the churches.  At midnight the lights all go off, and the priest lights one candle at the front of the church and then this is used to subsequently light other candles across the entire congregation, symbolising the coming of new life and light.  You can imagine the visual effect of this in a large cathedral that might be holding a few thousand people.  Then large bonfires are lit all across the city.  Sunday is the feasting day, where extended families gather for large meals together.  The main course is generally lamb cooked on a spit, so all in all not a good day to be a sheep on Cyprus!

Happy Easter to all.  Χριστός Ανέστη!  (Christos anesti, or Christ is risen)!

The Joys of an International Community

As you know, the children are attending the American Academy which is in the centre of Nicosia.  Sam, aged 4, is in pre-school, Angus, aged 7, is in Yr 2 and Jessie, aged 8, is in Yr 3.  They each have small classes, with students and teachers from all over the world and  specialist lessons like French, Greek, P.E. and music. It's a small school, with the Junior School being single stream (ie: 20-25 kids in each yr group).  The Christian orientation of the assemblies has the kids coming home singing all sorts of church songs and also seems to provide a very open and friendly community feel around the school.  Already, I hear of them mixing with students from other year groups, with bigger kids never afraid to ruffle Sam's hair.  The other day Angus came home with some new found basketball skills that a Yr 10 boy showed him and both times that I have been to the canteen after school, a little Yr 1 girl from Guatamala has come and talked to us; obviously looking up to Jessie. Every time I visit the school, I am amazed at how quickly they have settled in and are fully enjoying their new learning environment.


Yesterday was International Day which is the school's largest annual event.  Held on a late Saturday afternoon, the first half of the programme is a whole school performance (mostly dances by different year groups) and the second half is an International food feast in which parents set up stalls with food from their country and money is raised for the school. I was in foodie heaven!  Unfortunately, Ross is away in Bangkok doing some training, so he missed the event.  Monica, however, seemed to really enjoy it and was very proud to show me her favourite foods at the Sri Lankan table.

A picture for Ross: "missing you Dad!".
Outside Sam's pre-school on International Day.

The concert that the kids performed in was great.  Sam must have practised his dance to "Walking on Sunshine" about 50 times at home this week and when it came time to be up on stage he didn't disappoint.  Watching the teacher up front and getting all the moves 'just right', he made me smile so much.  

Sam is in the middle, front row.  Next time, I'll use my zoom!

A school fair is never complete without a jumping castle.

Jessie was in a combined Yr 3 and Yr 8 performance in which they all danced like cowboys to Footloose.  Angus danced to an African song which I think was the World Cup theme song (?).  There were also some traditional Cypriot dances, some Tango, Salsa, the Charleston etc..  Quite an international expo.

Angus can be spotted doing the "Waca Waca" dance.
quote: "It's embarassing Mum"

Jessie's Footloose crew

Other news about recent happenings:

- Angus got himself on the local news yesterday when we turned up to the launch of Cyprus' first skate park.  It's not quite what he was used to however any piece of flat concrete with a grinding pole and a jump ramp is like heaven on earth to Angus at present.  Hopefully this will be the beginning of his 'skate community' and it might entice him with his Greek!  It's certainly in a great location for me; a 5 min drive from home, behind the local swimming pool and right next to a play park with swings. Some things are just meant to be....

- The launch yesterday had Sam entertained with some free face painting whilst I wished I could understand the opening speeches for the skate ramp.  I must get on with learning Greek; where is all my time going? The kids know heaps more than me and I hate being in situations in which I have no idea what people are talking about. One day soon...

- Today, Sunday, we invited Constance back to visit us and play with the kids.  You may remember, from a past blog, that when I was interviewing for some 'home help', I came across this incredible Nigerian lady who seemed to click with my children instantly.  If it was not for her study commitments, I would have hired her full-time for sure.  However, I figure that Monica is only human and may get sick, so it's good to have a back up plan; especially if Ross is away.  Whilst the kids were having dinner and Constance was with us, I encouraged them to ask questions about where she is from, her family life etc... When she told us that she is the 5th child of 9 children, Jessie remarked "gee, you must have a big dinner table to fit eleven people" to which Constance broke up laughing and replied "we don't eat off a table, we sit on the ground".  A similar conversation ensued when Jessie enquired as to why Constance didn't have a car.  It's all good learning for an 8yr old!

- I am currently enjoying teaching Monica to cook some of the foods we eat.  She is an excellent cook when it comes to curry but the term 'baking' means nothing to her, simply because her family never had an oven as they are too expensive.  I've taught her to bake slices and cakes (including Lamingtons for the International Day) and the look on her face when we all tasted her first chocolate cake and told her it was "very good" was one of pure delight.  Next up: Hazelnut Gateaux! :)

Music in Cyprus - a split personality

One of the really interesting things about living in Nicosia is stark contrast between the Greek and Turkish halves of the city, and the country for that matter.  The contrast extends across the full political, social and cultural spectrum.  The currency is different, the language is different, the clothing is different, and yes, the music is different.  

A brief sojourn along the radio frequencies in the car as you drive around Nicosia reveals this contrast in clear terms.  One radio station blaring the latest in Greek turbo folk or disco, whilst another will be playing some smooth Arabic crooner or possibly the Turkish equivalent of turbo folk (which is generally easier to digest with some fairly heavy duty ear plugs).  

Modern Greek music seems to be all about either a) hairy chested guys wearing alot of white and dancing aggressively or b) not so hairy chested females prancing about wearing not a lot and generally linked up with some sort of American-style rap theme. 

The clips below may help to illustrate my point.

Firstly, Greece's two entries to the 2009 and 2010 Eurovision song contest:

It could be just me, but I'm sensing a certain recurring theme among the Greek entries??

And now for something Turkish:

And then of course the Arabic side of things, which gets plenty of airplay in Cyprus:

The singer on these clips is Abdul Halim Hafez, who is widely regarded as one of the greatest ever male singers ever across the Arab world.  He was Egyptian, and his songs became so popular that arenas and stadiums could not handle the crowds.  Halim later began to perform in deserts and outdoor arenas, some of which attracted up to 100,000 people. He was admired and respected across the Arab world and beyond. More than 150 million people watched simultaneously on TV when Halim performed live concerts.  He never released an album in his life, being purely a live singer. He died in 1977 at the age of 48.  His funeral in Cairo was attended by millions of people - more than any funeral in Middle Eastern history.  The entire Middle East was in total stand still with sadness and shock when they heard of his death, and many thousands of people wore black clothing for more than a year to honour him.

Sarah is slowly learning to tolerate my growing interest in Arabic, Turkish and Greek music, but there are limits to every relationship........




And just one more clip below (nothing to do with Cyprus), but rather because it's from my favourite film.  Everything Angus has learned about Arabic dancing comes from this film:

Jessie’s horrible day! (author Jessie)

First mum and dad took us to a Greek church and they all spoke greek!

Next we went over to the Turkish side.

In the Turkish side it was freezing cold and I only had one jumper and underneath I only had a dress and sandals on!

My sandals kept on rubbing on my itchy bites.

Then this awesome park that we were going to go to was all wet!

After that we went and saw the harbour but then it started raining!

So we then went back to the car but as we were going home dad got a little bit lost! 

When we were back on the road again we went home and here I am now writing this blog! So that was the end of my horrible day!

Looking at some of these pics, mum and dad don't
think the day was actually that horrible:)

The fog starts to lift...........

What Sarah describes as "a little surreal"

April 1st today, and a good time to reflect on the last few months and our overall transition to life in Cyprus.  We are very thankful for how generally smooth things have been, notwithstanding the expected cultural adjustments and related logistics with life in a new country.  The kids are enjoying school, we're now up and running in our new house, the sea container from Australia arrived a fortnight ago and is now fully unpacked, we've purchased a couple of vehicles, we have some great help at home and are starting to feel like the fog is lifting a little!


There's still so much to take in here, but it's nice to start getting into a headspace where it's not all quite so overwhelming.  Language is one of the frontiers yet to be breached, but we are both keen to give it a good shake.  The kids are learning Greek and French at school, but we've been able to function quite easily with just a few basic Greek words as English is very widely spoken.  Hopefully we can get some Greek lessons underway soon.   Ross is also keen to learn Arabic and Sarah wants to learn some Greek dancing.

Speaking of Greek dancing, last night we went out to dinner with the staff from Ross' work.  The venue was a small taverna located in the middle of a residential neighbourhood in Nicosia.  A non-descript looking place from the outside, and inside quite intimate with dining tables and four Greek musicians.  Not much room for dancing, but this didn't seem to be too much of an issue as the evening warmed up, good food and drink was shared, and people started moving to the distinctive tones of the bazooki, vocals and accompanying instruments.  The small dance floor filled quickly, some tables were moved and the dancing soon spread out across the whole taverna (including dancing on the chairs).  A great atmosphere of joy and celebration, further emphasised when the waiters would come and shower some of the smoother movers on the dancefloor with hundreds of unused napkins.  We tried our best to learn some of the moves, but alas, no serviettes on us and we still have a lot to learn!

Some other general updates about life here over the last few weeks:


- Jessie & Angus are swimming twice a week and most excited that they now need fins (as their lesson is more like a squad);
- Sam & Anna are jumping around at Kindermusik every Wednesday afternoon as they can't swim until after Easter;
- we're yet to make a final decision about church. There are a few different options in Nicosia, and we like a few of them.  Will continue to search on this and hopefully make a decision soon.
- Sarah is adjusting to the gift of having time.  After 8 years of chasing kids and generally not having a whole lot of time or headspace for herself, the advent of Monica helping at home has been a positive shock to the system (Sarah is happy to provide what she calls 'heavenly details' about how she hasn't washed for 2 weeks but understands if nobody wants to hear about it!).     
- we're finally up and running on skype.  Our address is rs.piper and of course we'd love to connect with anyone who's interested to say hello.  We are 8hrs behind the Sydneysiders. It's been great to see the kids adapt to this new way of communicating and the adults are wondering when they'll get their Skype time.
- we're looking forward to a break at easter, when we'll spend 4 days on a beach in the Turkish part of Cyprus.
- some of the pics below are taken at a fun park, which are very common here.  There is one very near our house and we're fast looking for alternative and more 'natural' forms of entertainment!
- spring has well and truly sprung.  It's a balmy 28 degrees today and no doubt it will only get warmer.  Roll on summer!

The sea container arrives

Unloading the furniture

Anna's first ride on a merry-go-round