Bienvenida a Costa Rica

Well, it's official-- I've moved to my second post. Bienvenida a San Jose. So far, so good. Costa Rica is absolutely gorgeous. So far, I've checked out the beach, the mountains, and Arenal volcano erupting at night. I have been horseback riding along the rivers, visited a private wild cat sanctuary, and soaked in hot mineral springs in the middle of the jungle.

Where NOT to Park in Cyprus

I came back from a series of meetings today to find my license plate had been slashed off of my car. Well, not completely...there's still an "H" tacked on to the back. Thank God my diplomatic plates were actually in the car. Evidently, I parked in the wrong public parking space. I left my car in the public space in front of a convenience store, and the owner was so angry about it that he went and screamed and made a scene in front of the embassy. In fact, I was called out from a meeting at the Archbishopric and a security guy had to walk with me in order to go claim my car. Now, considering that this was a public space, on the road, I was quite confused, but evidently it's ok to park on sidewalks in Cyprus, just not on the public spaces in front of certain stores.

Kakopetria

Over the weekend I visited one of many Cypriots' favorite mountain villages, Kakopetria. It's a charming mountain village tucked away in the Troodos and is only 45 minutes by car from Nicosia. A Cypriot friend told me that Kakopetria used to be a resort for many Middle Eastern sheikhs and businessmen. As one of my Swiss friends said, it's like a little Swiss village in the middle of Cyprus. It's the site of an old mill that now houses a restaurant famous for its trout. It's also got beautiful water falls, lovely hiking, and a sweet downtown section. I visited with my friend John and his friend Roya, who was visiting from Pakistan on her R&R, and brought along my puppy, Sam. We stopped for coffee right on the town square, at a place with a roaring fire inside. I liked it so much, I went back the next day by myself to wander around and explore! While I was there, I ran into a woman named Eleni, who sold homemade jams and fresh rosewater and who gave me a delicious olive pastry and fresh clementines-- the sweetest I've ever tasted.

"What's Kerosene?"

A week after the elevator incident, my friend Caterina invited me to her house for a curry dinner with some Scandinavian guests. After taking the stairs to Caterina's place, I enjoyed a lovely curry dinner and then offered to give my friends Fredrik (who's Swedish) and John (who's not), a ride home.

After dropping John off, Fredrik and I stopped at a gas station. As we were pulling up to the pump, Fredrik spied a price sign and asked, "What's kerosene?" I told him it was a heating fuel typically used in the winters for homes and lamps. He then wondered aloud why it was at a gas station, and then I told him I had no idea.

I put 20 Euros worth of fuel in the car and pulled out. We made it to the traffic light before the car started seizing up and making strange sounds so that I had to turn around. I pulled back into the gas station, and...I had filled the car with kerosene. It was stuck right between the 95 and 98 octane, and had the same sized nozzle as the regular gas. I was horrified. My car wouldn't even start. I had to call John so that he and Fredrik could push my car back into a parking spot.

Luckily for me, and perhaps, too coincidentally, the gas station had a garage next door who happily flushed my engine and replaced my filters. What sort of country puts the kerosene in with the gas?!

My Big Fat Greek (Cypriot) Wedding

The day after my first visit to a Cypriot gay club (it was a busy weekend), I attended my first Cypriot wedding. The son of one of my Cypriot colleagues was getting married, and I was invited. It was absolutely lovely.

My Cypriot friends/ colleagues coached me that it was advisable to go to 2 out of three events. In Cyprus, a wedding typically consists of the church wedding, a reception, and a dinner. Only best friends and family go to all three. Good friends and colleagues go to two. Friends, business associates and acquaintances go to the reception, which can include up to 2000 people. Out in the rural areas, whole villages are invited. Many young Cypriot couples view weddings as revenue opportunities-- it is not uncommon for a young couple to net up to 30,000 CYP (that's about $75,000) at their wedding.

So, I selected the church wedding and the dinner. The Swedes and I arrived half an hour early...everyone else arrived a few minutes after 3:00 pm and crammed into the church. In Orthodox weddings, attendees can sit on either side of the church; there is no "bride's" or "groom's side." The seats are benches with bottoms that fold back, so that you can stand up the entire time. Unlike an American wedding, the bridal party did not process formally down the aisle, and once up in front of the priest, the bride or the groom DIDN'T SPEAK...not even once. The priest did all of the chanting. As my friend Caterina explained, the wedding isn't about the bride and groom, it's about God. She also informed me that the only time a woman is allowed to go behind the altar in the Orthodox church is on her wedding day. Well, you can imagine how I feel about that, but... During the ceremony, the priest crowned both the bride and groom with interlinked silver crowns, which he placed on their heads, switched, and then placed on their heads again. It was a beautiful ceremony.

Afterwards, I grabbed a hot dog at Goody's (a Greek fast food chain), rested at home and then headed over to the reception at the Hilton for dinner starting at 9pm. The dinner was lovely, but I was mortified when there was a call for single women and out of the nearly four hundred people in attendence, only 4 women went up! I was one of them. It was three Russian women (the bride is Russian) and me. I have a hard time believing that there were only four single women. Or were there? Talk about pressure...which was relieved shortly thereafter by lots of alcohol and Greek dancing. It was a great night.

"Bi"- Communal Love

The day after getting stuck in the elevator with four of my now-closest colleagues, I spent time in another closet, so to speak-- I went to my first Cypriot gay club, Secrets Freedom Club. Yes, that's the name of the club. A group of us, after partying at a club in Nicosia, decided at 1am that it would be a good idea to go check out the scene in Larnaca. You see, we really wanted to go dancing. And people in Nicosia, even if they are in a club with very loud music, don't dance. They stare at each other and blow cigarette smoke, but no Nicosian would be caught actually MOVING to music. Our rationale was that, a gay club in Larnaca HAD to have better music than the club we were at and actual dancing to boot. So, we all piled into a few cars and headed out to Larnaca.

Much to our delight, the club had lots of dancing people. Interestingly, the club reflected the geopolitical realities of the island-- the men were in one half of the club, and the women were in the other. Men and women, at least in Nicosia, never mix when they go out. Each area was further subdivided into Greek and Turkish-Cypriot areas. However, unlike Cyprus as a whole, there were lots of mixed G/C- T/C gay couples. Could the Cypriot gay community serve as a template for bi-communal integration?

Elevator Rescue...Cypriot Style

On the way to Caterina's pizza party, four members of the American diplomatic community and I became trapped in a Cypriot elevator and were rescued by the Nicosia Fire Squad (who stopped fighting a fire in order to come save us). As Dave Barry would say, I could not make this up. Anyway, the fun started when all five of us trooped into the European-sized elevator, which is about the size of a teeny weeny broom closet. Although we were well under the posted limit of 400 kgs (that's approx 1000 lbs for you Americans and Brits), we realized something was wrong when the elevator made a loud sound, jerked and well, stopped. Naturally, the first thing we did was ring the elevator bell, which gave out a weak tinkle. That's when we realized-- NO ONE REALIZED WHERE WE WERE. And why would they? Then, we picked up the phone. No connection. We called the posted elevator service number. The technician for our area was on vacation. What were we supposed to do-- wait until he came back in two weeks? We called the Embassy. The phone kept breaking up. I was screaming into the phone in English on one end of the elevator while Eleni was screaming in Greek to the police department on the other end.

One of our colleagues figured out we were in the elevator, went out to his car, and came back with...an axe. Who the h*ll carries an axe in their car? All of a sudden, my colleague Mark swung the axe into the cracked elevator opening and we all leapt back against the wall. After we convinced him to get rid of the axe, he stuck his fingers in the opening to try to pry it apart. After screaming at him to remove his fingers in case they got caught, some members of the pizza party came out and started hanging around the elevator. We were informed that the Marines, the police and the fire department were on their way. About 20 minutes later, the fire department arrived, stuck a key in some hole outside elevator, and popped the door open. One by one, we leapt from the elevator and jumped...six inches. It had felt much more dramatic. Much to my disappointment, all of the firemen appeared married and pissed that we had interrupted their fire. So, in the end, I said good-bye to the firemen (how do you thank someone from rescuing you in an elevator? I mean, what's the protocol here?) and my colleagues and I trooped upstairs to eat some pizza.

Home for the Holidays

I went home for the holidays. Back to Texas, to be exact, which is my new home after being my old home. Got it? Good. Because I had a hard time absorbing it all. My entire family (parents and both sisters) had moved! So much had changed! My new niece (the one born 3 days after I left the country) was 13 months old. My cousin got married. My sister is seriously dating a guy. I've lost three of my great-aunts and uncles in the last year. Even though all the changes made my head spin, I had a terrific break with my family. I spent two weeks with my immediate family in Houston, and a few days with my grandfather and extended family in Ohio. We spent a lot of time shopping, hanging out, and taking long walks around the duck ponds. I even got to witness my niece's first steps and accompanied her on her first trip to the zoo. What a treat!

The Cruise

One of the best ways to get to know the inhabitants of your host country is to go on a cruise and share vacation. I, and a 1000 of my closest Cypriot friends, went on a cruise of the Greek islands. Together, we traveled from the port of Limassol around Rhodes, Tinos, Mykonos, Santorini, Lesbos, Symi and Crete. There were moments of sublime wonder (drinking coffee while overlooking Santorini harbor) mixed with moments of abject horror (trying to clear Greek customs with two cruise ships full of Cypriots and Germans-- can you imagine any two cultures further apart?! There literally was almost a riot.) We missed Tinos (a traditional island of pilgramage) on our first docking, so after sailing past Mykonos and Santorini, the devout yayas (Cypriot grandmas) onboard mutinied and forced the captain to TURN THE BOAT AROUND and go back to Tinos. There's a myth that if the The Virgin Mary does not like someone, She will not let the boat dock in Tinos. Quite frankly, I'm surprised we made the cut.

In Rhodes, I met a tour guide who used to work at the U.S. Embassy and who introduced me to the delight of ouzo candy, a specialty of Rhodes. Delicious. In Lesbos, I visited a monastery where a monk had fashioned an image of the Archangel Michael from the blood-drenched soil of his church courtyard after miraculously being the sole survivor of an attack on the abbey. A fresco of Michael in the same monastery is rumored to have disappeared for three days (and then reappeared) during the landing of Turkish troops in Cyprus in 1974. After docking at 7am, I made the pilgramage with other Cypriots to Tinos, "The Island of Faith," to the church of the Annunciation of Mary. We walked through the quiet streets and bought 3-foot high candles along the side of the road to light in the church. I lit a candle for my friend's Mom, Pam, who recently succumbed to breast cancer. In Mykonos, I dined at La Pasta Nostra and walked around the charming streets. In Santorini, I took the cable car up the side of the mountain, enjoyed a Greek frappe (a speciality coffee drink) at Select Cafe, and took a boat tour around the hot springs and hiked up the volcano. In Crete, we missed the closing time for Knossos (site of the Minotaur) by five minutes, so we returned to Heraklion and enjoyed some cheese pie, a specialty of the island. Even though our boat overheated on the way in, Symi may have been my favorite spot. It was a jewel. I had no expectations about it, but truly enjoyed the beautiful pastel-colored homes and charming scenery.

Any way you slice it, my cruise was a trip to remember.

Maki-chan

I was absolutely delighted to receive a visit from my friend, Makiko. After unexpected stopovers in Nagoya and Dubai (passport issues--make sure you've got 3 months left on yours if you intend to visit!), Makiko flew in. We climbed around Bellepais, attended a reception at the Ambassador's residence, explored the mosaics in Paphos, and just generally caught up and hung out. It was a true relief after the horrendous events of July, including my friend Tom's suicide (he was the defense attache at the Embassy.) I'm thrilled that she's doing so well in Tokyo, and am still happily munching on the strawberry-covered Pocky that she brought me.

Finding Serenity

There's a special place that my friends and I like to go to in Proteras. One weekend a few weeks ago (before my parents arrived, actually), I called up a friend of mine and told her I wanted to check out the beach in Proteras. Little did I know, she had plans to meet up with a friend of hers there that afternoon. She told me that she was going to book us in a very special place, and that I would love it. When we arrived, I called up my friend Karen who happened to be just down the road in Ayia Napa with a friend of hers visiting from Athens. We all met up and stayed up talking and laughing until 2am. It was the perfect night and it all came together flawlessly-- good friends, good food, good company, and a beautiful beach. And what a group!-- a Greek actress, a Cypriot-American designer, a PR consultant from LA, and a Cypriot businesswoman. We stayed lounging out in the sun and playing in the cove until late the following afternoon, and several groups of our friends stopped by. It was paradise.

European Vacation

My Mom, Dad, and sister Katie came to visit Cyprus for a week in early June. My parents started with a cruise around Greece and then flew to Cyprus, where Katie joined us. We had a ball-- dining on mezze at Kyrenia Harbor, drinking a coffee on the Paphos boardwalk, soaking at the 1000-yr old hamam (Turkish bath), attending a reception at the DCM's house and dining at my boss's. Katie and I had a special afternoon all to ourselves lying on the beach in Agia Napa.
I think my parents were surprised by how much they enjoyed themselves. My Dad really liked the Cypriot breakfast (Cypriot yoghurt prepared with honey and walnuts), and Cypriot coffee. One of the highlights of the trip is when my parents, sister and I visited Selma the Coffee Reading Lady at Cafe Ozerlat in north Nicosia. She read my Dad's cup, and said that he seemed to be under a large boot. My Dad, ever the engineer, seemed very skeptical, until she turned the cup around, and showed us the perfect image of a large boot...shaped like Italy! (My Mom is Italian-American.) He was incredulous and asked-- "How did she do that?!" Luckily for everyone involved (especially my father,) my Mom thought it was funny, too.

London

Right after my blonde transformation, I flew to London for my friends' Robert and Katherine's wedding and to see my friend Chris. It was gorgeous and lots of fun. It was terrific seeing friends ranging from friends I had studied abroad with in Japan all the way to a friend I had worked with at the Embassy here in Cyprus. I saw a lot of the Wharton crew (including Linh, Debbie Liu, Brian, Julie, & Tim Viles), and it seemed like no time at all had elapsed. In between wedding events, Chris, his girlfriend and I toured the British Museum, checked out the East London markets, roamed the pubs, and went shopping at Selfridge's. I met up with Eleni for a lovely stroll along the Thames and some breakfast right by the water, and then saw Silke in the afternoon for a good pub lunch before heading back home to Cyprus.

Blonde Ambition

Well, I've gone and done it...I'm a blonde (yes, I know, I was blonde before). And no ordinary blonde...Greek blonde. Greek porn star blonde. My friend Demetris sent me to his hair stylist. He told me about how Christos worked with celebrities and lots of models, and how he had pictures of them all over the shop. And he was right. Kind of. What I didn't realize is that the celebrities were Playmates and Greek stars of dubious repute. As I was sitting under the dryer, I thought that perhaps it was taking a little longer than usual. And when he combed me out and dried my hair, and then told me had lived in Athens for 10 years, it all kind of clicked. Now I look like, in the words of one of my friends back home, one of the Persian ladies from DC. Ironically, everyone at the Embassy loves the new look.

Driving Around Bellepaix/ Beylerbeyi

Well, I wish I had bothered to look up the Turkish equivalent of Bellepaix, the lovely medieval monastery, before setting off to the north. Alas, I didn't...and who knows, if I had, I may never have gone to the village of Okanjoy or its Elvis bar. I enjoyed my visit to Bellepaix so much in the December that I wanted to go back while it was still green in the spring. So, I set off and stopped at St. Hilarion's castle. Well, while trying to find Bellepaix, I ended up driving to the village of Okanjoy. In Okanjoy, I stopped for directions and unwittingly popped into an Elvis bar. It looked normal enough until I noticed the Elvis decor. And then the proprieter himself-- he had a pompadour! It was unreal-- a slice of Americana in the middle of the north! Even his car had a photo of Elvis silkscreened on the hood. He was very kind and hospitable, and sent me on my way to Bellepaix, otherwise known as, Beylerbeyi. Most places in Cyprus have a Greek, Turkish and British name, which can be quite confusing...to say the least. When I finally arrived in Beylerbeyi/ Bellepaix, I trekked through town and found the house where Lawrence Durrell, the author of classic Bitter Lemons, resided during his stay in Cyprus.

A Beautiful Day in Kyrenia

Shortly before Marce finished his tour and left, we spent the day together in Kyrenia and explored Kyrenia castle. It was incredible. Kyrenia castle has the remains of a large ship inside, and the former holding, well, holes, of some unfortunate royal prisoners. Evidently, a jealous queen threw her husband's pregnant mistress underground while he was off at war. After scouting out the castle and checking out the view from the rooftop, we sat and drank sarip (a lovely hot Cypriot drink made with orchid tips) by Kyrenia harbor. It was the perfect day.

Kykkos Monastery

Shortly after visiting Asinou, my friend Marce suggested we check out Kykkos Monastery. I had heard all about it-- one of the finest museums and one of the richest monasteries in the Orthodox world. It did not disappoint. It was breathtaking. On the way up there, Marce and I hit a rock. When we got out to inspect the damage, I heard a heartwrenching hissing sound...and the people who had pulled off the road besides us drove away! Luckily, a lovely Turkish Cypriot family pulled over and helped Marce (I supervised) change the tire. As we pulled into the Monastery, we saw the same people who had left us by the side of the road -- very Christian act for a bunch of people on their way to a monastery! After entering inside, Marce and I drank in some of the most gorgeous icons and religious artifacts. It was well worth the trip-- even if it cost nearly 80 CYP to replace the tires!

Visiting Asinou

After a whirlwind of St. Paddy's day activities, I headed out to the village of Asinou for some peace and quiet. The church of Asinou is considered the most beautiful painted church in the Troodos Mountains and is a UNESCO world heritage site. It was truly stunning. The interior of the church is painted in floor-to-ceiling frescoes. I've never seen such vivid and bold interior paintings in a church. I was amazed at the complexity of the frescoes: St. George, the 40 Martyr's, and the painting of the black-veiled benefactress stay with me the most. Unfortunately, cameras were not allowed inside. After my tour of the church, I ate a late lunch at the taverna across the road: dolmas (stuffed grape leaves), macaroni, and some delicious homemade stew, topped off with a Cypriot coffee (metrio, of course.)

Chatting with Deborah Potter

The last two weeks were pretty intense-- tons of receptions and programs. One of the highlights was hosting U.S. media figure and former CNN correspondent Deborah Potter, an expert on reporting in areas of regional conflict. She was in Cyprus as part as a follow-up to the Embassy's annual bicommunal media symposium. The lecture she gave was world-class. We had an incredible day touring around my favorite cafe and the market in north Nicosia.

Hanging out with Duende

What a couple of weeks! I spent a full week touring with Duende, a Latin Jazz Quartet! It was incredible. Sometimes I can't believe I'm getting paid to to do my job. One night they received two standing ovations. They held jam sessions, conducted children's and Master's workshops, and gave performances throughout the island. They even performed at the prison! We were given a tour of the Cypriot K-9 unit. They were covered in all the media, and I even ended up on a talk show. That was pretty wild.
We did some sight seeing around Limassol and Kyrenia, too. We visited an ancient Roman amphitheater that had such perfect acoustics that you could whisper and be heard several stories up. The vista was breathtaking. We kept driving around in fields and then pulled up to this castle out in the middle of nowhere-- but Cyprus is kind of like that. Of course, Kyrenia Harbor is beautiful as always. One of the guys liked it so much he skipped lunch and went hunting for a job!
Two days after packing Duende off to the airport, we launched a traffic safety initiative with a press conference. Wow. We received an incredible response. Full-page articles, requests for national interviews, meeting requests from other Ambassadors...we definitely struck a nerve.
I'll post some photos in the next few days.