Reading (For Dummies)

Finding my group

I think a huge part of my failure to love Germany has not been finding the right crowd. That finally changed.

Look at me go

I guess one of the signs that I'm comfortable with a group of people is my ability to drink with them. Normally paranoia (or better judgement) gets in the way. On Friday, however, I went to Plaka with Phiniki, Maja, Boon-Chung, Iman, and Wei-Wei, and drank quite a few Uzos. Iman and Maja weren't drinking any of theirs so I helped them out a bit.

Then it was wandering off with Phiniki to meet up with her Cyprian friend Huseyin. We went to a government-run furniture facility, reminiscent of the Salvation Army but not religiously affiliated, and free. This small house on the northern outskirts of town has furniture and household goods. You can take what you want, and leave whatever donation you think is reasonable/you can reasonably afford. Not much was left, but Huseyin reports that a shipment comes in Saturday morning...

They are an interesting pair; Phiniki is a Greek Cypriot and Huseyin is a Turkish Cypriot. So last night, the Christian, the Muslim, and the Boddhisatva talked politics and religion from 6:00pm until 3:00am. It was an eye-opening experience, as I've never had a candid talk with a Muslim about his religion. I also learned quite a bit of the history of Cyprus. I've done some poking around last night and have come across a pretty informative article on the "real" history of Cyprus. Once again, the United States can be at least half-blamed for troubles there; our plans were to keep the island divided in case of invasion by Russia or a Greek Cypriot socialist church leader. Both possibilities would have lead to the loss of a key American base in the Meditarranean.

Ohwell. Phiniki and I went back to this place this morning, but it was closed. I need to go this week, as they have a kitchenware section with some pots, pans, plates, and glasses, all of which could help minimize my moving expenses...