Fri, Jul 3rd - 10:43PM
Day 7: Friday July 3, 2009 OMG? Are we already getting into a routine? LOL – felt like it today. I won’t even bore you with the details, such as they were. I did have a really nice conversation with one of the women who cleans the rooms here at the hotel. She saw that I was drying clothes out on the balcony on the back of chairs, so she brought me a folding clothes dryer and we chatted about our families and pets. People really are the same all over the world. Dinner was a different sort of adventure. Makis, Steve’s Cypriot business partner, picked me and Tim, Tina and Temu and Max up at the hotel and drove us out to dinner to meet Steve and Mikhayla. We just sort of assumed we would be going back to the farm (YAY!) so I was prepared with camera, etc. But it turns out we went to a restaurant on the other side of Nicosia that has plastic tables lined up outside on a very busy street, right next to a car lot. The food was traditional, of course, this time (more) meat – very tender from clay oven roasting – and potatoes, couscous and salad. But beer instead of wine…bleh. (note on beer: Tim says it is pretty much like pale ales here, nothing dark. And they do serve it very cold, which is good. It tastes like beer to me.) I think Temu and Tina were disappointed though it is hard to tell from their demeanor. I don’t know what is cultural and what is personality. Tina hardly spoke throughout the meal, only replied (usually in Finnish) to Temu’s direct questions. There was nowhere for Max to run around and she tried to keep him on her lap. which did not make for a happy Max. She did not join in any conversations that the rest of us had. I wondered later: Do they seem me as a loud, yakking American middle-aged woman? Tim assured me that I do not appear that way (but he loves me – lol). It is obvious that women play a subservient role in this culture - but I am not of this culture - so do I pretend to be someone I'm not? Or do I just 'blend' with the culture and be quiet? Or do I just continue to be who I am, with no false pretenses? You all know me; of course I opt for Number 3! But the somewhat stilted evening led me to be slightly apprehensive about our weekend at the beach with everyone….hmmm…. Makis will not be there, which is too bad. He is a character and a really nice man. Very intelligent and knowledgeable about lots of things. Not sure if I mentioned this before, but he owns a chain of restaurants in So. Cal. – Farmerboys – so he is very familiar with the area down there, which opens up numerous topics of conversation. http://www.farmerboys.com/farmerboys_history/fbstory.htm And Steve, being mostly American, always has a lot to talk about. And Mikhayla always entertains us with her singing and just plain sweetness. Makis offered to drop Tim and I at a nightclub downtown and we could take a cab home (it was obvious that little Max needed to go to bed), but we politely declined. Max wasn’t the only one tired from another long day in the Cyprus heat.
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