and so it begins..

because i had landed in larnaca around 10pm, we didn't get back to the apartment until it was too late for me to fix what i found there. by fix, i mean major, total, complete overhaul.  okay, fine.. to be fair, it wasn't thaaat bad.


our apartment is very modern, newly built, very "ikea-ish," and all seemed to be fine until i walked into our room. big room, tons of potential, with an entire wall full of closets and shelves that were most likely put there for the sole purpose of making me excited for all of the shopping it will take to fill them (i've already started).


once i was done drooling over the fairy tale shopping land in my head, my attention switched to the bedding. oh. my. god... NOT okay.  sheets that looked like raw fabrics about to be made into heinous pillows for some sort of circus. maybe into the funny vest things they put on the elephants? i'm really not sure, but it was definitely not something that belonged on a bed, and certainly didn't belong on MY bed (i'm kind of weird about bedding stuff). it was in this very moment that i made up my mind that a) whoever picked these designs should be fired and b) we would be remedying the situation asap. crawled into bed that night resenting every minute of it, but exhausted enough from my spring-break-like weekend with charlie that it didn't really matter when it came down to it... i was out like a light in no time.


day one.... the sun comes up without me.  ben leaves for lifting at 10 or so and comes back just shy of 12 & i'm still in bed, dead to the world.  can you say holy time difference? i think somewhere in between the bachelorette party in boston, the trip to oklahoma, running around connecticut seeing people, my weekend in london, and trip to cyprus, i maybe forgot to sleep... let alone give my body a chance to get used to whatever time zone i was in.  anyway, he manages to somehow pry my lifeless body from the sheets and insists that i get in the shower so we can go explore. i get out of the shower, put on some clothes, and step out onto our balcony to see what this place is all about.

not bad, right? i found (and still find) it amazing that all of those white tub things on the roofs are for heating water and solar energy rather than the electric way most places do it.  in the states, everybody seems to run around thinking we're the biggest and best, and look at the way this tiny itty bitty little country is so aware of what they can accomplish with solar energy! makes you wonder... just saying. 

anyyyway, we decide to head out for a bit of wandering and exploration, and by that, i mean going to a home store so i can begin to fix things.  did i mention that until i got my hands on things, if you wanted to.... say.... wash your hands in the bathroom, you would have to do so, then trot with your hands still dripping back into the bedroom to get a bath towel from the drying line on the balcony to dry them? just so we're clear, that's three doors you would open and a whole lot of floor you'd be dripping on just to get to a towel for drying your hands off.  real nice, guys.

we head into town, grab a starbucks coffee so i am properly adjusted to my new surroundings, and i purchase my cyprus starbucks city mug.  well, in reality, ben purchased it cuz he's the one with the money, but i now own it.  i think it will be so fun when we finally get a permanent place to have a cupboard full of mugs from all the places we've traveled to together! k, sorry, i'm rambling.... we head to a home store and pick up a lamp for the bedside table so that it's not so much of an all-or-nothing with the lights (the ceiling light in the bedroom is very, VERY bright, and last thing at night and first thing in the morning, it's not the most convenient thing to have). 

we also get a set of four clocks, which are now hanging on the wall set to times in oklahoma where issy is, connecticut (new england) where my family & most of our friends are, england where ben's family and more of our friends are, and cyprus where WE are! sounds kind of silly, but it looks really cool and has actually been really, really handy instead of calculating all of the time differences, especially now that half of us have already switch our clocks for daylight savings and those back in the states aren't until next week... you can see where this would get confusing!

while we were at the home store, i did something REALLY smart.  get excited.  i bought a hand towel for the bathroom.  honestly, you would have thought i just invented sliced bread.  we got home, i put it on the towel holder that was already installed right next to the bathroom sink, right where a hand towel belongs, and all of a sudden, i was a genius.  it was a miracle.... ben literally said to me, "that was a really great idea, babe." really??? last time i checked, it was the normal thing to do. you use the restroom, brush your teeth, whatever it is you're doing in there... then you wash your hands, and THEN YOU DRY THEM! whatever, i'll take being called a genius any day! ;)

all in all, it was a great day... got to see my boo for the first time since august, which was way too long, got to explore a little bit of a very foreign place, and ended the day with the absolutely beautiful sunsets that i'm becoming accustomed to.

xox k