Teaching in the Grammar School in Cyprus was an amazing experience, but it was not the only place I gained knowledge. Spending time in another country is an experience that I will never forget and taught me a lot about the world and myself. I knew going into this experience that I was going to have to adapt to the culture and be respectful to the people that lived there. I thought this was going to be a very difficult task, but the Cypriot people are known for their ability to make people feel at home.
We traveled all over Cyprus, which showed the many different aspects of Cyprus and different people as well. On a walk one day in Limassol, I met an old man that was looking for a walking partner that day. We walked down the sidewalk next to the beach for almost an hour and he told me his story. I still remember this very vividly because he explained how the Cypriots act as well as his traveling stories. He told me stories of traveling all over Europe and how he had been just about everywhere. I was so impressed by his stories and realized that traveling is now one of my goals in life.
I want to be able to experience the new cultures that I saw in Cyprus and meet many people. This experience allowed me to learn what is necessary in order to travel and taught me that I can do it. After spending a month in a half in Cyprus, I was also privileged enough to travel to Greece and Italy. I tried to take advantage of everything going on, but quickly realized that I was going to run out of money. I only had two weeks before I returned to Cyprus and then to the US, so I had to figure out a budget. I traveled with another girl that I had been teaching with and she was in the same situation, so we just set aside a day to hang out by the beach and figure out our plans.
One of the most important lessons I learned from this experience is that everything can change at any point. We changed our travel plans so many times to finally find one that fit our schedule and money. Traveling taught me so many life lessons that I feel many miss out on. Everyone should travel, even if it’s only around your own country.
I agree that traveling opens your eyes and mind to many cultures and places. As teachers we will all come into contact with students and other teachers with a variety of travel and life experiences. By spending time out of our comfort zone and in new places it teaches many life lessons and allows us to relate to others on new levels. I have spent time in Germany, France, Israel and in different parts of the US and have benefited greatly from all of these experiences. I hope to continue my travels and Spain is a possibility for this coming summer. Good luck with all your future travels and I can't wait to hear about them.
ReplyDeleteReading your blog takes me back. I miss being over there. Going abroad taught me a lot about the traveling process. I feel like I can go anywhere now and even go by myself if I had to. Considering we don't have much of a train system here it was good to actually experience it in Europe.
ReplyDeleteAlso, going abroad made me realize how good we have it here. U.S. citizens have such accessibility to anything they want at any time. In Cyprus, we wouldn't be able to shop for food or get money on certain days. Every country did have it's plus's though and it was nice to compare and contrast the different cultures. Take me back!