Life Training

* I know I've already written a blog similar, but this is my cumalitive, reflective mushy feelings blog that came from the group site.

It took me 10 word documents and about 4 hours spread out over a week to write this  post.  I would come back to it and some things wouldn't be quite right, or how I would have wanted to convey them.   This isn't the end.  I'm still going to post a little bit more,  like 600 years of Cypriot history I haven't even covered yet.

"You have to fall in love with the process of training to become a better player"  

-Blake Griffin 

After eating one snail, purchasing only three converters, dancing on fifth century ruins, jumping off a 35-foot cliff, hundreds of pictures and countless memories, I will finally be leaving Cyprus in just a few short days.

Sea Cave exploring

If you’re wondering why quote Blake Griffin, I’ll get to that, keep reading.

I try to put a little bit of me into everything I write, but lately it’s been hard.  In some ways I’ve grown in leaps and bounds, but at the same time I know that wherever I go I’m still true to form.  I came to Cyprus thinking that I knew it all, and while I was here I realized that I had forgotten it all, adventure, simplicity, beauty, and most importantly love.  This truly is Aphrodite’s island.  <3

So, “falling in love with the process of training…?”

Obviously, I’ve learned many a life lesson here, and they all draw back to love.  Do what you love, and love what you do, it shows.

I'm still the same silly me

Here comes the catch.  Learn to love to stretch yourself too.  I will refer to that as “training.”  My comfort zone was tossed out somewhere in the Nashville airport on June 1.  I haven’t seen it since then.  The day I traded in my frills was the day I discovered I had a crazy sense of adventure inside of me.  Deliberate decisions start as baby steps too. First I ate a snail, and it wasn’t that bad, next thing you know I’m eating squid and octopus. Turns out I would probably order octopus again. Train to make the out-of-the-ordinary decision.  When I do my eyes open, and then I realize I’ve forgotten how beautiful the world is. <3

So Blake plays basketball, which is a team sport, and training would involve the rest of team as well.  On this trip I’ve been surrounded by 12 extraordinary people, each with a distinct personality.  These are people that I might not have even crossed paths with any other situation.  Spending time with them is how this became the fastest month ever. I learned a lot new things from them too.

Aren't we cute

I’m leaving Cyprus a better “player” (person). I’m braver and bolder than ever before. I have to acknowledge that some things like life take work, very few things happen in an instant.  The tour guides often talk about how every major civilization has conquered Cyprus and left an imprint on it, well Cyprus has left one of those imprints on me.

I am no NBA all-star, I’m a girly-girl, and I don’t mean to preach. I saw this quote pop up in my Facebook newsfeed last week, and it screamed use me for blogging purposes.  One of my last memories of being at home was playing a basketball video game with my brother.  Of course, I was Blake Griffin.

Little did I know the training process I was going to get thrown into <3

Then I Decided to Snoop Around...

Cyprus has been home to a lot of my firsts.  This would include my first trip to visit a butcher.  If you know me well enough I’m not a meat eater.  I hate hamburgers, but I learned that butcher and I had more in common then I thought.

I try to forget that the first thing I saw when we arrived was a man pulling a whole lamb from the meat locker.  I was also trying to avoid noticing the chunks of meat on the ground, and the huge knives just sitting around.

Yes, that's raw meat just sitting there. Gross!

At this point, I was thanking God I wasn’t responsible for this shoot, and I took on the daunting role of sitting with everyone’s stuff for a while.  I spent sometime hanging out at somebody’s desk, and I couldn’t help but snoop around.   The more I looked I realized this guy is a mess, just like me.

There were evil eye charms hanging around everywhere, so clearly he’s superstitious like me.  Pictures of saints that mad me think of Bible verses that I keep pinned up as a reminder to keep up the faith when times got tough.  There was a clock, radio, unsorted books, and calculator because I imagined he had trouble with math too.  Everything right down to this hat that resembled an orange one I have as a basketball game freebie, resembled my desk back in Knoxville.  Somehow for some odd reason I was able to muster up a level of connection.

Just chillin'

The more I sat there and looked around I soon became envious.  The butcher shop was simple.  Smiling customers came in and out like they had been here a million times before, and lively banter between co-workers.  This was the type of simplicity that people try so hard to attain in their lives, and here it was at a butcher shop.

Inspiration stems from weird places. Turns out one of my worst enemies (O.K. that’s exaggerating a bit), was a lot like me after all.  I’ve already established that I don’t intend to be a butcher, but I’m at a stage where I need to some thought into my future profession. I’ve got a wide variety of interests, and there are days I worry that I’ll be stuck somewhere unhappy.  Seeing that another mess like me could successfully find his place in the world gave me hope.

"The World is Pretty Amazing"

(Yes, it's been one week since a substantial blog post, and I'm pretty sure you might or might not have heard about my cliff jumping, just wait for the snails and octopus!!)

"I am learning all the time. The tombstone will be my diploma."  -Eartha Kitt

About five years ago, one of my favorite shirts had "the world is pretty amazing" written on it.  It took an incredible adventure in Ayia Napa last weekend to make me realize that I had forgotten that fact.  

I was presented with an opportunity to go explore the Sea Caves. The sad thing is I actually had to sit there and think if I really wanted to go or not.  I had woken up expecting the picture perfect summer day, which consisted of tanning and read a sappy Nicholas Sparks book. It's funny how things change is such a short matter of time.  

As if I haven't learned by now, Cyprus is an extraordinary place, and the Sea Cave just prove my point.  I had never seen water and waves so beautiful. I was running around taking all kinds of crazy pictures, including the dirt on ground, so I could remember every single detail.

My favorite part of the day was when Aaron got bored of taking pictures, and decided to go cliff jumping.  Somewhere along the way, I was convinced to jump off the cliff too.  Live life with no regrets, right?  It reminded me of a saying that my Mom would use to teach me how to think for myself, "if so-and-so jumped off the cliff would you follow?" Well, put into the correct context, that answer would be yes, and so would Chelsey and Emma.   

After we acquired our adrenaline rushes, Dr. Legg took us on the tour of the Sea Caves.  (Note: future advice to any interested party, if Dr. Legg offers any surprise Sea Cave excursions, the answer is always yes).  We stopped at many points, and the the seemed to get more gorgeous as we went around.  There was crystal clear water, and not a cloud in the sky.  I began to loose track of where the water me the sky. the beauty is indescribable, and even the best of camera still can't capture it quite right.  

Chelsey laughed at me a few days earlier for too frequently using the phrase "life changing." Truth be told, this day was life changing, and a much needed wake-up-call.  My mom often calls me "frilly," and I couldn't wait to surprise her with a text that read, "I just jumped off a 35-foot cliff!" I had never been so excited to see my friends jump off the cliff too.  I was pushing people out of the way for picture purposes. I saw Mediterranean blues so beautiful that I began to question why pink was my favorite color in the first place.  

I had to make the deliberate decision and do something out-of-the-ordinary, in order to learn more about the world. Trading "frilly" for "adventuresome," wasn't as hard as it seems either.  I actually enjoyed being "adventuresome" for the day.  It took leaving my comfort zone behind to discover that the world is pretty amazing, and I will always remember that 

Check these out:  

The group blog site.  We have to have all our entries in by today, which means there should be plenty of new stories every 30 minutes.  I still have two more to knock down.  

This guy did a back flip jump,  I just youtube searched Cavo Grecko cliff jumping.

Crunch Time

Bloggers Note: Every blog from now on was written if the last 48 hours of my journey.  I'll be writing all day long today, so I'll be spitting out blogs like they're nothing.   Maybe I'll run down to Zorba's too. (What is Zorba's? Oh yeah I haven't blogged about that).

I'm planning on blogging right up to the second I have to board the plane in the Charlotte airport.

I do worry about finding the right words, to shape my story. I can be kinda picky about what I put out.  I have enjoyed my online diary, and I'm thankful for all those who have taken interest.   I am planning on keeping up the habit.  My blog in Knoxville might not be as interesting though.  It would probably read like this:  Sitting in the library writing a history paper when Tyler Bray walked by. He's really tall.  Yep, life at UT can get a little crazy sometimes, but at least I've had a once-in-a-lifetime adventure to document.

 My only regret from the trip is that I didn't write more, and I'd taken more pictures.