Week 1: Mass chill, late buses and lemon trees

Everyone chilled out a little too much, including bus drivers, huge administrational chaos, super green fields and orange and lemon trees with fruits hanging on them in January. That's my first week in Cyprus in a nutshell. #CyprusDiary #Week1 #ErasmusLife

So, I arrived in Cyprus after two hours of sleep and the first things that hit me were: the sun, the wind that felt like spring, the greenery and the way the bus drivers don't give a damn about timetables. In fact, there's not really such thing as timetables in here. Sure, the buses do have some kind of schedule but it doesn't really work. Especially when you wish to get on at one of the stations in the middle of the route.

The thing is, there is a schedule of times in which any bus leaves its home station and the approximate time of the route. But there isn't a word about the stations en-route! So if the journey takes approximately 50 minutes and you wish to get on the bus in the middle of the route, you never know at what time you can expect the bus to come.

To be honest, this system has got me super confused and even desperate at the beginning because suddenly even such an easy thing as taking a bus to school seemed like mission impossible. But there's a help: an app called Cyprus Bus (you can download it HERE. And find more information about how the app works and the public transport in general in a separate post soon.)

Turns out, the place that Google was pointing me at WAS, in fact, University of Cyprus (which I was supposed to start attending the next day), but not the campus I needed.

So, I spent my first evening in Cyprus googling ways of getting to school. I initially thought I would walk in there, as according to Google it was supposed to be 20-minute walk but when I arrived I saw that Google was wrong (sorry bro, you were). Turns out, the place that Google was pointing me at WAS, in fact, University of Cyprus (which I was supposed to start attending the next day), but not the campus I needed. Because, what I didn't know before: this university has two campuses: The Central, commonly known as The Old Campus, and The New Campus on the outskirts of the city, 5 kilometres away from the centre. And that's why I needed to figure out how to get in there.

Eventually, I boarded a bus at its home station and travelled for 50 minutes to get to the campus. It wasn't practical but it worked and that was everything I needed that day. I managed to be at the right place in the right time and even met a girl who's instantly become my best Erasmus friend. Partly because she was from the same country and talking to her was so easy (nope, I'm not gonna talk to her in English ever. Unless there's other people around who might feel uncomfortable).

The next day - Saturday - my new friend Simona and I, plus two other girls who were just finishing their Erasmus stay, went to see the city. At least its northern, Turkish part. We walked around the old town and eventually found ourselves in a coffee shop with cool outdoor window seats. The best part? We weren't freezing! Outdoors! In January!

I spent my Sunday doing nothing but on Monday, I was suddenly doing everything. The lectures were officially starting and they were supposed to be obligatory, even for us, poor and confused Erasmus students. Some people knew exactly what they wanted to attend but all of the classes I had chosen prior to my arrival were either not available in English or not available at all. So this crazy week of running around the campus and offices of coordinators and teachers was stressing me out as hell. There were multiple issues with languages, times of classes, departments etc but in the end, on Friday, I was officially and finally applying for two classes from my Psychology department, two classes from Journalism department and Spanish class. And I was so happy about it!

Between all these crazy things going on, I fortunately had time for some fun and that was coffee with local Erasmus Student Network section. I met a few locals and a few fellow Erasmus students and we all chatted and had fun.