We were up early today as we have a SKYPE meeting with a student this morning, then more student meetings, and then an oral proposal defense.  It was going to be a busy day. Before we headed out, though, we decided to take some photos of the hotel as we hadn't done that yet. While we were working, Mike took a walk on the Dasoudi beach walk and also toward Old Town to take a photo of the new building known as "The Egg" that had been built.  The skyline of the city is changing very fast with new high rise office and apartment buildings going up everywhere and the old low-rise buildings being demolished.

Once we had finished skyping with our student from Lebanon, Jody and I walked to the pharmacy next door to check on some salve for sun issues.  It was fascinating the differences in what they sell at pharmacies and the roles of pharmacists in countries outside the US.  They seem to have much more freedom to diagnose minor ills and choose a medicine to address the problem. You just go in and tell them what kind of problem you have and voila! they have something for you.  No doctor required for easy things like rashes, colds, etc. It's great!

Now it is, guess what?  Time to have lunch!  We took our books to the room, collected Mike, and off we went to the Santa Maria.  Can you tell this is one of our favorite places?  Chris, the proprietor, is friendly and the food is good, plentiful, and inexpensive.  Jody ordered a fish and chips plate, I ordered the fish soup again, and Mike ordered a Keo (he said he was not really hungry).  But of course the first thing was the obligatory starter which this time was pita and melanzane dip (eggplant dip). When you are in Cyprus this is the place to get this dip, as Chris makes the best that we have eaten anywhere!  Then the main course came and we shared Jody's fish as they brought her 3 pieces. My soup was good but huge as usual.  Mike had a second Keo as he and Chris agreed that it was just like food! He also tasted my soup, ate the prawn sitting on top, and had one of Jody's fish--so much for not being hungry, right?

After lunch Jody and I went back to spend the afternoon and early evening meeting with students and discussing their research projects. We ended the afternoon with the proposal defense which went very well with the 2 of us here, a professor from the University of Cyprus attending, and 2 professors from SLU attending by SKYPE. It has been a good visit for recruitment as well as good meetings with the cohort who are working on finishing their dissertations.

Once the defense was over, back to the room we went to get ready to go out to dinner.  Andreas and Georgia, Stella's parents, were picking us up tonight.  Stella finished both her master's in special education and her PhD in Curriculum and Instruction with us.  Every time we are here we meet for dinner with her and her parents at a new place on the island.  Tonight we went to Ostia Fish Taverna on Lady's Mile Beach which is in the British Zone of Akrotiri.  Lady’s Mile Beach was supposedly named after a race horse named Lady who trained on the beach.  

When we said on the beach we meant exactly that.  The parking lot was the beach and we were parked less than 2 feet from the waves.  The sea water was splashing on the rail of the taverna's porch and on the people who ate outside.  We chose to eat inside where we could hear the waves but not get wet from them while we ate.  We definitely want to come back to this place and see it in the daytime for sure.  

Dinner tonight began with the requisite dips, pita, and delicious olives.  Then it was time for salad accompanied by a lovely Cypriot white wine.  I know that sounds like a full meal, but not here! That was only the beginning.  For dinner Mike and I both had the grilled tsipoura (a whole fish like a sea bream that is split in half, grilled and has olive oil and oregano drizzled over it).  This of course came with chips as do most dinners.  The rest each had a mixed meat grill which had souvlaki, chicken skewers, and pork kabobs plus chips.  All the food was delicious and as we were sitting there pleasantly stuffed, out comes the fruit plate.  Yum!  Georgia ordered a Cypriot coffee (sort of like a Greek coffee which I don't like because of the "sludge" in the bottom) and I had a Nescafe'.  The rest just sat and ate fruit.  What a lovely evening! Finally with dinner over we headed back to the hotel about 11:30 p.m.  For Cyprus it was an early evening, but for us it was late and we were very tired.