ispycyprus

[ispycyprus]

"What's in a name?", or different terms that people use to talk about the other side.

I've alluded to this in some of my other posts, but there are multiple terms that people use to talk about the other side. Sometimes, these terms can hint at the speaker's political views, but this isn't always the case and thus, should be taken with a grain of salt.

Still, here are some of the common terms that you might hear when people talk about "the other side".

On the Greek Cypriot side, people have used various terms depending on the context. In government documents and on websites, I've seen phrases like "areas under the control of the government of the Republic of Cyprus". The area including Paralimni and Ayia Napa is sometimes referred to as "Free Famagusta" or "Ελεύθερη Αμμόχωστος/Eleftheri Ammoxostos" in Greek. You might also hear terms like "the pseudostate" or "ψευδοκράτος/psefdokratos" in Greek.

However, in daily life, I think people use the terms "the occupied area", "κατεχόμενα/katexomena", and "the other side" or "over there" more often. Police at the checkpoint often use the term the occupied area, for example. This seems to support my Cypriot Greek teacher's explanation that this term has a bit more of a political undertone compared to the more euphemistic "the other side" or "ποτζεί/potzei" (pronounced pochi) in Cypriot Greek. He did say, however, that even some Turkish Cypriots use the term the occupied territory when speaking in Cypriot Greek which surprised me.

On the Turkish Cypriot side, some people use similar terms like over there/orada in Turkish. In English, I've heard Turkish Cypriots call it the south or the Greek side.

As an outsider, I find it fascinating seeing how even our choice of language for describing the other side can reveal certain thoughts that we agree with or have been taught to say. While I am not Cypriot, I think it's important for foreigners to know what words are used to better understand Cyprus, Cypriot people, and the difficult situation that remains on the island.

[ispycyprus]

Crossings and Checkpoints: Walking through all of Nicosia

I've mentioned it before in one of my other posts, but, for one of my commuting routes, I have to go through the Greek and Turkish Cypriot checkpoints and the United Nations buffer-zone. Before coming to Cyprus, I was nervous over what the crossing experience would be like, what documents I would need, etc., so I hope that this post can serve as a guide for anyone traveling to Nicosia. Please note that this doesn't constitute as official legal advice, and I highly encourage looking up what your home country's embassy says about the situation. With that being said, let's continue with the post!

I think it's important to start with the division of Cyprus to understand why the crossings exist. After the Turkish invasion of Cyprus in 1974, Cyprus was split. The Republic of Cyprus, the government recognized by almost all countries as the government of the whole island, retains control of the south. The unrecognized "Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus", or KKTC in Turkish, has control over the northern part of Cyprus, including the northern part of Nicosia. However, no state except for Turkey recognizes the "Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus". During the conflict, the UN made a buffer zone between the two sides, and, for many years, you could not cross without special permission.

However, starting from the 2000s, the checkpoints began to open, and many Cypriots have used them to visit their homes and friends who they hadn't seen since before the invasion. You can only cross from one side or the other after presenting your documents at official, recognized crossings. Luckily, the checkpoints are open 24/7 which makes crossing easier.

While there are several checkpoints on the island, the ones used most frequently seem to the be the ones in the Nicosia area. There is the Ayios Dometios/Metehan crossing where civilian vehicles can cross from one side to the other, and there are two others where civilians can easily walk from south to north and vice-versa. Since I can't drive, I used these two.

The first is the one by the Ledra Palace Hotel. This one is available for anyone coming on foot, and certain vehicles, mainly UN and diplomatic vehicles, may also drive through here. Other vehicles are prohibited. I find that this one is more on the edge of the Walled City which means it is a bit less crowded. In the buffer zone here, you can find the Home for Cooperation which hosts many bicommunal events and hosts a nice cafe where people can meet and converse. It opened in 2011, and you can also peruse some books and buy bicommunal olive oil here.

The second is the one on Ledra/Lokmacı Street. This one is only for people coming on foot. The buffer zone is very narrow here, and it tends to get more crowded here at certain times. However, it is an interesting experience since as soon as you cross, the main language on the street changes alongside the architecture and general feel. If you're visiting Nicosia as a tourist, I would probably recommend using this checkpoint since it will also be more convenient if you're visiting museums in the Old City.

To be ready for either crossing, make sure to have your passport ready. From what I've heard, citizens of the European Union can use their national ID card. If you have a residence card from Cyprus or another European country, try to have that ready, too. Make sure to put your phone away once you're next in line at the checkpoint.

Once you get to the checkpoint, you will have to present your passport or ID card to the police. They might ask you for a few things, such as your arrival airport (more on this later), your intended length of stay, whether you intend to go to the Home for Cooperation or the "Occupied Area" (κατεχόμενα/katexomena in Greek), or whether it's your first-time crossing. Answer these questions truthfully. Then, don't put your passport away! You only went through one of the checkpoints; you still have to go through the other. Once you repeat this process at the other checkpoint, then you should be good to go on to the other side.

It might be a bit easier to understand with an example. In my case, I'm usually crossing from the Greek Cypriot side to the Turkish Cypriot side. Therefore, I need to take out my passport and Republic of Cyprus ID card. Once I'm there, the police usually take my passport and ID card. They might ask me a few questions, like if I'm going to the buffer zone or the occupied area. Then, they scan my passport before giving it back to me. I'll walk through the buffer zone area before reaching the Turkish Cypriot checkpoint where I will show them my passport. They'll also look at my passport and scan it; then they'll give it back to me, and I'll walk through the checkpoint area to the exit.

It might sound difficult, but it really is quite simple!

However, there are a few things you should note: One, your arrival airport might affect your ability to cross. Unless you're an EU citizen, you might not be able to cross from the Turkish Cypriot side to the Greek Cypriot side if you landed at Ercan Airport, as the Republic of Cyprus does not consider this a legal point of entry. This also applies to ferry passengers who arrive from Turkey to Cyprus from the port of Taşucu. I think they usually still let you cross. Still, I would be careful and first arrive through Larnaca Airport.

Two, don't try to film or take pictures of police working at the checkpoints. While they probably won't say anything, I have seen people being told to put their phones away. It's fine to look at your phone while waiting in line, but make sure to put it away before it's your turn.

Three, be careful with what words you use to describe the other side. While many people describe this scenario of crossing from one side to the other as crossing a border, I've seen international tourists being scolded for using this terminology since the Republic of Cyprus does not consider going to other side as having crossed an international border. It's fine to use terms like crossing or checkpoint.

Four, if you're a person of color, you might receive increased scrutiny. Full disclosure ahead: while I have all of the necessary documents and have crossed many times, usually without incident, there have been times where I have almost been denied permission to cross. I am not alone in this, however. A Turkish Cypriot colleague of mine told me that this has also occurred with Turkish Cypriots crossing to the Greek Cypriot side.

Five, if you're a non-EU, or US, national, you should still be able to cross. I don't know the specifics for every country, but my housemate is Iranian, and her boyfriend is a Bosnian Serb. Both have been able to cross back and forth without incident as far as I know.

With that being said, I think this covers most questions that people might have about crossing. I hope this helps future travelers to Nicosia, and please feel free to send in any questions that you still have!

[ispycyprus]

Walking, Buses, and Car Rides- Oh My! Or, alternatively, my commute to school.

For my main school, getting to school was pretty easy. I would get up, get ready for the day, and then I would walk for around 15 minutes from my neighborhood to arrive at the school.

However, for the other school, it was a whole other story.

Usually, I had to get up earlier to get to school on time even though the start time was later. My commute started with a 30 to 40-minute walk that included going through the United Nations buffer zone and the Greek and Turkish Cypriot checkpoints before I made it to the edge of the Walled City at Kyrenia Gate (Girne Kapısı). I would walk a little further to the area where the local and university buses would stop. Then, I would wait for the school bus with my students.

Once the bus arrived, the bus driver would take our attendance, and then he would wait for everyone to board before departing. On some days, he would collect fare money from the students. Thankfully, as a teacher, I was exempt from these payments.

The bus would stop one or two more times to collect more students before continuing on its way to school. Excluding stops, the bus ride probably took somewhere around 15 to 20 minutes.

Although the bus rides, in the beginning, were pretty routine, they grew to become fun affairs!

The bus driver would begin to play older Turkish pop music for the students, and a few of the female students would get up and dance even while the bus was moving! I was a bit worried they would fall or get hurt, but we looked after each other, and they had a fun time. Besides this, we would collectively brace ourselves when we went over a particularly bad pothole, and some of the students would scold the driver for going too fast, and he would respond in seemingly light-hearted banter.

My way back was a much quicker, but by no means less interesting, affair.

One of the teachers was quite generous and offered to drive me back. She drove me back from the school to the checkpoint on the Turkish Cypriot side, and from there, I would walk back to my neighborhood which usually took 30 minutes.

Although I don't have this commute anymore, I have a lot of fond memories of talking to my students and coworkers, and I will treasure those memories for a long time.

[ispycyprus]

Schedules Part 3: Onto the Childcare Center

After the fall semester ended at the technical school, I ended up finding a new opportunity to teach in the Turkish Cypriot community at a childcare center in Nicosia.

Unlike my previous school, this was a public childcare center targeting working parents who might not be able to otherwise afford afterschool childcare. It's also much closer than where I used to work, as it's located in the walled city of Nicosia!

The building is quite nice and historic, and the classrooms have cute paintings of Nicosia landmarks and a map of Cyprus on the wall done by a local artist.

At first, I was nervous about teaching here since I don't have as much experience teaching primary school children, and my students here range from age 8 to 12. However, I've still found it rewarding and entertaining, and some of the children even like to sing a song for me each class.

Moving on to the schedule, it starts at around 2PM when the children get back from school and ends at around 4PM, but we usually finish up earlier at around 3:30 for the kids to have enough time to get to the bus stop.

When I'm there, I usually teach for two class periods, with the younger children getting more time than the older children. This makes sense since they usually need more support to complete activities. I teach them basic English, and I end up using a decent amount of Turkish to try explaining things to them.

On days when I'm not present, other teachers teach subjects such as robotics, history, geography, and more. I'm happy to be able to help my students and enjoy learning from them as well.

With this post, I've finished writing about my schedule and most of my daily weekday routine! Starting from now, I'll try to write more posts about daily life, tips, language, places in Cyprus, and other observations. I hope you enjoy what's coming next!

[ispycyprus]

Schedules Part 2: Back to Secondary School

After having a few weeks to settle in and adapt to my main schedule, I began to start volunteering at a technical or vocational secondary school near Nicosia. I was super excited to start teaching here, as it was an opportunity to interact more with the Turkish Cypriot community.

The school where I volunteered was a private vocational school located in the outskirts of Nicosia. Students here also had different tracks. However, instead of being more academic, these tracks were directly related to their future careers. They offered several courses, but I taught students in the hairdressing, beauty school, and general departments. The general department, or ortak in Turkish, was a mix of students who studied other courses where maybe they didn't have enough students to form their own class. Some of these students were studying to become a plumber or furniture maker, and other courses, such as a bakery one, were also in the works.

While I've heard Turkish Cypriot public schools also start and end at around the same time as Greek Cypriot schools, the school where I taught was a private school, so it set its own schedule. Here, the school day started at 8:30 AM and ended at 3:00 PM. Unlike public schools, they had a 40-minute lunch period. However, similar to the public schools, they also had 15-minute breaks after every two classes.

Either way, in my case, I arrived at the school in time for the first period. I usually used this time to print out any materials I needed for my lessons for the day, Then, I taught students for the second period before their break. Then, I taught a different class for the third period. For the fourth and fifth periods, I taught another group of students, and they had their class broken up by the break.

I stayed with this school for the fall semester, and I believe they started sometime in September and ended in January before their spring break that lasted for most of February.

I hope this, along with my other post, gives an idea of what a school day looks like in Cyprus!

[ispycyprus]

Schedules Part 1: Back to Secondary School!

After orientation, it was time to get to work!

For my main assignment, I worked as a language teaching assistant for Spanish and English at a secondary school in Nicosia located in the Republic of Cyprus-controlled area. I was there four days a week, with one day saved for my other activity.

First, I think it's good to start with some background information about secondary schools in Cyprus. In Cyprus, the average public secondary school, or lykieo, would be the equivalent of a U.S. high school from tenth to twelfth grade. Ninth grade would be grouped under the Cypriot version of middle school, gymnasio.

The school day starts at around 7:30 AM and ends around 1:35 PM. They have two regular schedules with some days having seven class periods and some having eight. After every two periods, they have a short break that lasts for about 15-20 minutes. Since they finish earlier in the day than most American schools, they do not have a lunch break. Many students attend afterschool lessons to supplement what they learn in school to prepare themselves for their yearly exams. Students usually take classes that align with core subjects, and these are especially important in their final year when they take island-wide exams that determine where they can study for university. These exams let Cypriot students study in either Cyprus or Greece.

During the day, depending on the track the student chose, students take classes such as English, Modern Greek, Ancient Greek, History, Theology, a foreign language (such as French, Russian, Spanish, Turkish, Latin), and a science. These tracks prepare students for their future careers based off of their own interests. They also sometimes have music and physical education classes. If they have an assembly coming up, the schedule can change to fit the needs of the students if they need to practice. At the end of a semester, they have about two weeks of exams, and in the summer, there is more time that the students spend preparing for the island-wide, Pancyprian exams for students in their final year of secondary school. The exam schedule is more dependent on your class year and exam and is irregular to accomodate all of the various students with their differing levels of study.

Getting into my own schedule, I was usually there from the second period until the fifth period although this changed with the start of the second semester when my schedule became a bit more varied. I had the opportunity to assist in first, second, and third-year English classrooms and a few Spanish as a second language classrooms, too.

I supported teachers in various different ways, but I often was either reading passages aloud to students, helping students make a mind map or brainstorm, or teaching students directly using their textbooks. Occasionally, I would give presentations on various topics, but I think this is a post for another day.

Overall, I think this is a pretty good overview of how I spent my time as an assistant teacher in Cyprus in conjunction with a brief overview of the education system here.

My next post will cover my weekday schedule!

[ispycyprus]

In Country Orientation: My First Days in Cyprus

After the pre-orientation sessions online, it was finally time to go to Cyprus!

I flew into Larnaca enroute to Nicosia a few days before the orientation to get myself settled along with one of the other English Teaching Assistants (ETAs).

We spent a few days resting and going around Nicosia. Upon arriving, we began to notice a few things.

First, there were cats everywhere! They were all very friendly, and although they seemed normal sized to me, I had to remind myself that my family's cat back home is actually quite large.

We also had the chance to look around the Cyprus Museum, and we started noticing that many of the artifacts seemed less protected than they would be in the United States. This is something that we would spot at other museums on the island.

Finally, perhaps the other thing we first noticed was how abrupt the demarcation between the two sides was. We were wandering around the old city by the Catholic church when we saw the stacked barrels blocking the way to the other side. It was a bit surreal seeing how this seemingly normal city would suddenly give way to barbed wire and barriers to movement.

A few days later, the rest of the people on the grant came, and we began our orientation!

We had lots of useful sessions on personal safety, the state of the region and Cyprus, among others, but I particularly enjoyed the walking tour. We met up with a local, Cypriot staff member who guided us on a tour of the old city on the northern side, and she told us about the history of Nicosia and revitalization projects in the Walled City. On our way there, we also stopped by the Home for Cooperation which hosts lots of bicommunal initiatives for Cypriots to come together and meet.

At the end of our orientation, I felt much more prepared to start the grant, and I think I came away with a stronger, baseline knowledge of Cyprus.

[ispycyprus]

Pre-Orientation

Before starting my grant period, I attended pre-orientation both for my region (Europe/Eurasia) and my grant type (English Teaching Assistant/ETA).

The orientations took place online through Zoom which made them more convenient, especially since we were located all over the United States!

While all the sessions were informative, I was especially excited for the one led by program alumni who had just gotten back to the US from Cyprus. I had so many questions, and their presentation helped me get a better idea of what exactly I was going to be getting myself into, as I found that it was harder than I expected to find up-to-date information about Cyprus from the perspective of someone who wasn't going to be a tourist.

After the region orientation, we had the ETA orientation. I found the discussion board questions intriguing, and it was nice seeing that we all had different amounts of experience teaching students English. I appreciated seeing all of the advice that others posted, and I liked that we had the chance to make a demo lesson that we could potentially use in our host country.

After these orientation sessions, I only had about a month or two before I would finally land in Cyprus and start my grant, and I couldn't wait!

[ispycyprus]

Applying to the Program: Why Cyprus?

I think it's best to start from the very beginning.

Back in the summer and fall of 2021, I was working on the application. I remember drafting my essays and wondering what I wanted to do if I made it into the program. However, first, I needed to choose a country and program type.

While I had been interested in some of the study programs, I didn't feel ready to go into a master's program yet, and I also didn't think I had the research experience required to work as a research assistant. These considerations made me believe that I was probably best suited for the English Teaching Assistantship, or ETA, position.

Besides, at the time, I was also applying to substitute teacher positions, so this version of the grant felt relevant to my potential future career. If I were to work as an ETA, it would give me more experience to figure out if I wanted to pursue a career in education.

After that, I needed to select a country. While my academic background is mostly in either East Asia or Latin America, I was struggling to choose a country in either region. I had started an application to Macau a few years ago, but I was unable to submit it after the program there was cancelled. Thus, I started thinking more about what themes or concepts fascinated me to make a decision.

Generally, I find "dialects" or different variants of language interesting. I also had a bit of experience meeting North Korean defectors, and I thought that reunification was an important subject that I still struggle to understand on a deeper, more emotional level. I also thought about how learning different languages could be used as a peace-building method. After contemplating these criteria, I began to realize that maybe Cyprus would be a good place to learn more about these things. The more I researched the country, the more I started agreeing with this instinct that, if I were to be selected, I would have the chance to learn a lot about these topics in a place that was otherwise very unfamiliar to me.

Now, seven months into the grant period, I am grateful to have had the opportunity to be in Cyprus and learn more about this place and the people who live here. I hope you enjoy reading more of the process and what I've learned, too.

[ispycyprus]

Introductions!

Hi everyone,

Welcome to I Spy Cyprus!

I'm nearing the end of my time in Cyprus, so I figured it might as well be time for me to actually start the blog I had been thinking about making.

I hope to use this space to write and think about things relating to Cyprus, whether that relates to language, culture, connections to other countries, or something else.

I hope you enjoy, and please feel free to send in your own thoughts!