Weird weather...

Dear All-
This weekend was some of the weirdest weather ever! Thursday and Friday were absolutely beautiful days and then Saturday I woke up to a weird sort of mist all over the place. I thought it would burn off quickly and the sun would come back out but instead it hung around all day. I went out and realized it wasn't mist and it wasn't cold out. When I finally got around to going to visit Leo he told me it was a dust cloud that had blown in from Africa. Apparently, this happens all the time! There wasn't any wind all day so the cloud just hung around, getting into your lungs and causing me to have a pretty bad mood.
Sunday, it had blown off some and I went to church happily. I was greeted by name by Myra, one of the Pilipino girls and then she tried to set me up with her friend Eric, also a Pilipino who ended up falling asleep during the sermon. That was funny! I stuck around to talk to some of the people I have gotten to know and then went home for a pretty great meal of pasta and soup and oranges right off the tree.
Today, Diane and I drove up to Paralimni to go to the supermarket, Kokkinos, that has much more selection than any of the little kiosks here and is much cheaper. I ended up spending a load of money but will probably never have to grocery shop again. I'm surprised by the small amount of money I've been spending living here on my own, I barely need anything and am easily pleased with picnics on the beach or my porch.
I have to go now, can't wait to see you all again and show my pictures, tell my stories and hear all about what you've been up to while I'm away! Pray that my mom's trip out here would be an easy and painless journey and that we would have the best time ever, I'm getting super excited about it!
Kristen Rose
XOXOXOXOXOXO

It's a Beautiful Morning!

Hello all-
Today is a glorious day! It's full of sunshine and a warm breeze and not a cloud to be found anywhere! I've been happy all day because of it and I'm doing really well at the moment even though I'm in a smoky internet cafe looking forward to a long night alone in my apartment.
Yesterday, Diane and I got out of town around nine and headed up to New Famagusta where we met her friend Brenda on the border. We drove up through town and up through the tip of the island!
We drove through little villages of three or four houses and one little market, we drove through mountains and valleys and along the coast. We drove so we saw the water on three sides of us!
The scenery all along was absolutely magnificent, you have to be amazed at every turn because there is always something new. At one moment you're between mountain passes and the next you are looking out to the sea.
The very tip of the northern peninsula is known for its wild donkeys and what do you know but we saw some! Seriously! Two wild asses, one was very good and posed for pictures and cocked his head in just the right way to make you want to get to know him, the other was more stubborn and wouldn't pay attention to the three women waving to him from their car.
We ate our picnic lunch out on sand dunes at a beautiful bay and I'll tell you what, these women know how to pack a picnic! Here I am with my sandwich and chips and they have salads and pitta sandwiches and fruit and juice! I was surprised they didn't pull out a thermos of coffee or a bottle of schnapps! They were nice enough to share their apple and strawberries and we sat and talked about menopause medication and where the girls in the north went to have their babies. Oh the things you talk of when you're with two women over the age of fifty five, one of whom is a midwife!
On our way back we tried to find the beaches that are known for turtles coming up and laying their eggs but to no avail, every road we tried petered quickly into a dirt path that only tractors dare tread.
We were stopped on the border once again and had to get out and trod on the disinfectant rugs for bird flu and then were home by five.
Yesterday was my first night dining out alone! I was desperate for chinese food and had been thinking about it all day so I went to the place next door that Vanessa and I had been to previously and took my journal to keep me busy while I ate. I really did enjoy myself and had some good food and talked a bit with my waitress but mostly found it was something I don't want to repeat often.
And today. Today I woke up early and had to get out of bed because the sunshine was so enticing! I got up and had a great breakfast out on my patio in the sun and have continued to spend the rest of the day outside either on my porch, down at the beach, at a little cafe where I got a little cake and ate it slowly while soaking up the sun or walking. I think I've even got a burn! And not a good burn either because I put some sunscreen on but couldn't get everywhere so I have some funky lines along my shoulder blades, ah the things you suffer when you're on your own and there is no one to rub sunscreen into your back!
Now I have chinese leftovers to look forward to as well as the old newspaper Diane let me have (reading an English paper is completely different from an American one!). I'm reading Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte and have been inspired to write more than I have been after reading an article of a little seven year old who read Voltaire and has written a book and poems and stories by the dozen! If a little seven year old can do it than I'm sure I can at least try harder. (What an uncommited way to put it!)
As always I love to hear everything you have to tell me,
Kristen Rose

On my own now...

Dear all-
Whew but a lot has happened since my last letter!
Vanessa is safely home, praise God, and now writing letters back to me and adjusting to jet lag once again.
I thought this would be my slow and depressing weekend of realizing V was gone but it turns out no! Diane came over Friday morning and asked if I wanted to go down to the other side of the island for the night with her. I rebelled at first, I had plans and they didn't include scampering about the island! Then I realized what an idiot I was being and went off on the adventure with her.
We drove down through Limassol and stopped at the Curion where I went in by myself, Diane had already seen it but was kind enough to wait for me to putz around for an hour. It was super weird to sightsee all alone, it was the first time I had really done it and I watched the little British family and the Scandinavian couple that were the only other people there with a touch of envy.
The Curion was amazing, the agora and basilica with their mosaics, there was a theatre that was absolutely amazing and an incredible house laid out in such a way to take in all of the amazing views of the sea. It's absolutely incredible to imagine these people living here so long ago and yet finding the absolute best parts of the island and using them to their best advantage and in such a way as this!
We drove up the coast to see the rocks of Aphrodite where the goddess supposedly came up out of the sea foam. There were no remains of the gods - anything to make me think of a goddess coming out of sea foam but the view was increible and the rocks are beautiful- if I were a goddess I would come out there too!
Then we drove up through Paphos to a little village called Derushia where we attended a seminar on the wild flowers of the island that was really boring and slightly interesting at the same time. The buffet dinner afterwards was more interesting to me and we talked with the couple sitting next to us while we ate all of the good things offered.
The next day Diane went out on the wild flower walk that went with the seminar and I stuck around to wander the country side, climb some rocks and take in the views of the north shore of the island and the view of the Troodos Mtns. and eat my picnic lunch and then returned to the village to wander through the quiet streets. It's weird to see the new houses going in and the ones that are well kept up next to these empty old things where grass is growing through the floor and walls are falling down. Seeing the little old ladies quietly sitting on the chairs just outside their doors where their family have set them down until it's time to come back inside again.
After several hours of wandering I came back and sat in front of the fire and read my book until Diane returned and we had some coffee and cake before setting off back home.
The best part was the woman I met at breakfast who went on the wild flower walk, we got talking about my friend Monte and the desperation he had for me to get serpentine (it's a geologist thing). Anyway she remembered me saying and when their guide pointed some out to them she picked it up and brought it back for me! So now I have a lovely bit of serpentine for you Monte!
Sunday I got down to church again and I absolutely love their new pastor, his sermon was about getting rid of all the extras we add to religion and coming back to Jesus!
I'm filling up my time well with painting and writing and all sorts of general pleasantries. I keep my apartment rather clean as it's one more thing to keep me busy and then I don't get frusterated with myself. We'll see how long that lasts.
XO Kristen Rose
P.S. Praise God my mom finally got her ticket out here and will be joining me the fourth of March!

Visiting Larnaca...

Hello everyone! It's been a while and I apologize, fear not I'm safe and healthy and have been doing well.
Friday we packed up and went to Larnaca for the day, we visited the church of Lazarus that the guy Jesus raised from the dead supposedly worked at and was buried for the second time- his remains were dug up and taken away though so he isn't there any longer. We also saw the ancient fort- awesome and the mosque dedicated to Muhammad’s aunt. We got to go inside and see where the women prayed and take pictures during the prayer which was great fun and ate at a little sea side cafe.
Saturday we got up early and took the first bus out to Konos Bay where we lounged about all morning and gasped as a couple stripped down and actually went swimming- it was freezing! There was a little scuba diver that we envied from afar and watched him mess around with a harpoon gun to the amusement of us all. We adopted three dogs while we were there and they followed us and treated us well- they were obviously owned by someone but they didn't seem to mind that they were gone for the day. We named them Gustaf, Edison, and Mangy to my delight.
Sunday we went to church and got another invitation to dinner from our friends who took us out for fish and chips last week, Roz and Collin. We also got to meet the churches new clergy man who I can't remember what his name was or what you actually call them in the Anglican Church, but he was very nice and did a great job.
Today we woke up earlier than we ever have before and caught the eight o'clock bus up to Lefcosia or Nicosia- the walled city. It was absolutely fabulous. There’s no way to describe the feel of a city that is divided in two in so many different ways. There are empty buildings that belonged to a Turkish family before 1974 and now are empty and in disrepair, we went into one church that bordered the wall that separated the church, you can go in one door but can't go out the other because you would be entering Turkish occupied area!
We got into the Byzantine Museum and the Museum of Cyprus and enjoyed them both immensely. We went shopping in the great pedestrian area of the city and got gyros at a little cafe and ate them outside the ancient gymnasium that now houses a high school, so good!
Tomorrow we're going to try for a serious journey over to Limos Sal with a stop in Larnaca and we're praying that it works out.
Please pray for us as we're both starting to freak out, Vanessa because she will be traveling for forty eight hours all by herself and me because I'll be here alone for two weeks before my mom comes out to join me.
Thank you and I love you all, Happy Valentines Day, Kristen Rose

What to do when its raining...

Here I am in Cyprus and things were going so well, really, we were living it up and enjoying ourselves and having a grand old time. Okay so I sound like the end of the world has come and gone and we've been left behind and it's nothing like that but today just wasn't our day. We had been planning to get up and go to Larnaca but it was raining and we didn't have the incentive to do it right away so we decided to take the later bus, only when we got to the bus station we found that the bus didn't run at eleven and after that it's really not worth going because you don't have enough time for what we want to see and do. So it was raining and we were bummed and my shoes are getting brown and dirty from the rain and everything and I sort of have a head ache so we browsed through the church in town here before heading back to our apartment for lunch and some Swedish sweets we got from the bakery here. We proceeded to spend the rest of the afternoon lying around doing, so far as I can remember, nothing. We read and wrote and listened to music and I may have fallen asleep for a time.
We finally got ourselved back out of bed when the rain let up for a while and made it down here to write to all of you, then we have to return our latest movie to Leo (anyone like Robin Hood, Men in Tights as much as I do? Hilarious!) and stay to chat for a while. We have a date for dinner tonight with a couple we met at church and their coming to pick us up at about six, hopefully that will be a super enjoyable experience and we'll have great, long term friends from it cause very little less would get me out of bed and into the world this evening.
Yesterday it was rainy and nasty as well but we filled our time well with tea with our landlady Diane and some other english ladies she had met and a small bus tour that went down to one of the boat villages for a quick stop before going up to see a lady working at a loom and a lady making baskets- very put on for the tourists and silly but a nice way to spend the afternoon as we were surrounded with funny, older, scandinavian couples and a tour guide who was having to talk in three different languages! We were impressed by him almost more than the basket lady.
Much love to all and to all a good night, Kristen Rose

Seeing the sights...

Dear Friends-
So many things! This last saturday found us traveling up north through the new Famagusta, across the border into Turkish occupied country to see the ruins of Samalis and a castle called Kantara up in the mountains! We had an uncredible time, were able to see the far side of the ocean, drove through a couple of small Turkish towns, saw chickens and donkeys and a cart full of milk jugs and thouroughly enjoyed every bit of it.
When we got home we decided to make a full day of our fun and went out for the traditional meal of Meze, it was a very cute, humble restaurant that was packed by the time we were done. We stayed over three hours at our meal and got to know our waiter pretty well, and I took my picture with him by the end. We had to give him a hug and a kiss on the cheek when we left and I promised to send him a copy of the picture.
Having a wonderful time, Kristen Rose

Travel in General...

Dear Friends,
Yesterday was a blah day and we barely got out for a trip to the beach and a cup of coffee and crepes and today's not much better. It's dreary outside with a strong, constant wind and nothing much interesting going on. TOnight we're actually going out again with our land lady Diane who is taking us up to the English air base for a Pantomime with some friends of hers, that should be amusing.
Tomorrow night we're planning on going out clubbing and we'll see how that goes as we're both rather conservative girls, Vanessa more so than me, and only one of us seems interesting in having a drink or dancing (that would be me) and I can't think of any other reason to be at the club so I don't know how this will all go. Not to mention we're rather early to bed sort of people, we skip the early to rise bit that usually follows but we deffinately aren't up very late.
Saturday Diane has offered to take us out, if it's a nasty day than she'll drive us up to Nicosia and drop us off to take the bus home later and we'll be exploring the capital. If it's nice than we'll be driving up into the north to visit one of the castles up there. It'll be interesting to see how awake we'll be able to be after a night much later than we're used to. Sunday we have a standing date at church that we enjoy and then we're planning some day trips to Konos Bay and Nissi Beach for next week.
Please continue your prayers and keep us in your thoughts.
Much love to all, Kristen Rose