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