(no subject)
Cryptic words meander
Now there is a song beneath the song
One day you'll learn
You'll soon discern its true meaning
An interesting detachment
A listless poem of love sincere
Desire, despair
Overlapping melodies
And it's not a love, it's not a love
It's not a love, it's not a love song
It's not a love, it's not a love, it's not a love song
It's not a love, it's not a love, it's not a love song
And now the loops are reminiscing
Recurring dreams of minor chords
Metered time,
Muted chimes find the beat
And in the pulse there lies conviction
A steady push and pull routine
Till cymbals swelled
High notes fell into reach
And it's not a love, it's not a love
It's not a love, it's not a love song
- Maria Taylor: Song Beneath the Song
SO… Lots to update, little to update:
Well it seems I’m settling into things here. It’s been over a month since I arrived in Cyprus now! Over a month since I was last in Cairo, over a month since I left the US, though now I’ll actually be home in a little over a month. This was a short excursion abroad, by my own standards.
Some Twitter-style notes over the past week or so:
It’s like Christmas, but with US visas, and I get to play Santa every day at 3pm. I heart my job J
I love the ppl in the political office. They’re good co-workers.
Now that I don’t have internet (in yet another Embassy apartment, but the Embassy isn’t gonna pay for internet just for me and the other intern… ‘sucks but oh well) I’ve started writing postcards to friends. It’s fun!
I cut it all off w A now. The hardest easy (or should I say easiest hard) decision I’ve ever made. Something I needed to do, not wanted to do, but maturity means recognizing that your needs come before your wants. A kid, for one, wants candy but lacks the maturity to know that he/she shouldn’t necessarily always get it. I realized that I wanted to be friends w A like a diabetic kid wants to gorge on candy, in that I really wanted something that seemed good but that I knew full well would kill me inside. Maturity means recognizing that you just can’t indulge that want. And yep, sometimes maturity sucks. (now I’ll stop before I sound any more like Meredith Grey…)
You know what else sucks? Not having friends here in Cyprus. Tho I did go to a really chill tavern last Friday night w An from work, and heard live Latin music over huge Carlsburg beers and a halloumi cheese sandwich (which seems to be a Cypriot staple). I talked w a Spanish woman and a Nicaraguan woman; it was a really, really cool evening overall. We finished it off by going to an Irish bar/club, having more drinks and… I shall just say, Argentinean UN Peacekeepers.
Whoa… Cyprus def brings together a whole random assortment of people from all over. And I had one of those “life, you really do continue to outdo yourself” (to quote jfg’s facebook status the other day) kind of moments.
So again, whenever I tend to think my life sucks, I realize that it’s really not so bad at all :-)
The next day, I took a long (and, heat-stroke inducing) walk to Alpha-Omega, Nicosia’s answer to a huge grocery superstore akin to the Spinney’s at City Stars in Cairo. Though I arrived exhausted and a bit dazed (yeh, you’d think I’d know better re. taking long walks in 90 degree heat…) , it turned out to be a great trip. The highlight of the trip entailed my rather shameless exploitation of a booth that contained free samples of various foods. First I snuck some very sharp, odd-tasting cheese, then some rice crackers, and then the clerk attending the counter saw me. To my delight, however, she offered me a sample of tea! The rest of the trip consisted of me wandering the huge store (huge grocery stores like that tend to really overwhelm me, I think it’s b/c I’m used to living in places where I just buy groceries at small vegetable stands and corner stores) in a daze, drinking vanilla tea w milk and eating stroopwaffles (also from the free sample bar! And so so good!) and listening to the Grey’s Anatomy soundtrack (esp the songs “Where Does the Good Go” which is pretty much my song of the moment - my answer to the song’s opening question, apparently, is Cyprus, and “Song Beneath the Song” on my Ipod. It was an alright Saturday afternoon, despite the mild heat stroke/dehydration issues that the walk home generated.
I also discovered a Pythagoras Street in Nicosia (I’m collecting all the Greek names of things I can find here… some are quite funny!). Much to my disappointment, however, and contrary to what the famous Theorem would imply, Pythagoras Street is curved and lacks a right angle. I think the urban planners should fix that as part of the Nicosia 25 Year Plan or whatever it’s called.
I discovered Pandora’s! It’s the happy box full of temptations! No, it’s actually a 24-hr bakery near my house that sells, among other delights, brownies w pistachio nuts on them for only 40 Euro cents and amazing whole wheat rolls w seeds on the top for 30 cents! I can finally afford to eat fun/good foods! They also have interesting pumpkin pasties and lots of other pastries, puddings, cakes and cookies that I need to try sometime.
On the food note, tonight I cooked some of the lentils I brought w from Cairo, and I inadvertently managed to recreate a very close approximation to the lentil soup from al-Qazaz in Cairo! I even put onions on the top! The lentil soup from al-Qazaz is prb one of my favorite foods ever, so as you can imagine, this was a huge kitchen victory for one not accustomed to such culinary successes.
Alright, I’m tired, so that’s enough for tonight. That’s basically up to date, I’d say.
Maybe we’re not supposed to be happy. Maybe gratitude has nothing to do with joy.
Maybe being grateful means recognizing what you have for what it is, appreciating small victories, admiring the struggle it takes simply to be human. Maybe we’re thankful for the familiar things we know, and maybe we’re thankful for the things we’ll never know. At the end of the day, the fact that we have the courage to still be standing is reason enough to celebrate.
- Grey’s Anatomy (the Thanksgiving episode)