northern nicosia, german and general things i have been up to recently

hello, friends!

as my last two blog entries were reviews of sanremo music festival songs, which some may not be interested in (which is absolutely fine!), i felt that, before i start compiling one for this year’s festival (which will be long and detailed, since there are a lot of songs, there is a lot to know about the participants and a lot for me to tell you), which i, by the way, really enjoyed, i should really write something about what i have been up to and, generally, about my life. so, i figured that my trip to northern nicosia last week would be sufficiently interesting to talk about.

i went to nicosia because i had to take my b1 goethe-exam and this exam can only be taken at the goethe-institut and the one in cyprus is in nicosia. i have always found its location extremely strange and uncomfortable: it stands right in the un green line in order to serve both those in northern cyprus and in the republic, a goal which i understand. however, having to pass a memorial commemorating two greek cypriots protesting the turkish military occupation of northern cyprus who were killed in 1996, possibly exactly on a spot where i might have stood making my way to the institute, in order to enter a parking lot right in front of the border to enter the institute, on the left of which is the ledra palace hotel, which makes me really sad every time i look at it, once used as a headquarters by un troops, without the intention of going to see these places for their importance just feels questionable to me. either way, i am glad that i am at least aware of some very important history and have seen these places that i may remember with my own eyes, even though i was not exactly there to see them.

i did take some pictures of the border as seen from the parking lot:

even though my mum, who went with me, understands my feelings towards this area, she told me that what she will remember the most is, as i was completing the exam, first hearing the bells of an orthodox church in the republic ring, to be followed, only a few second later, by the call to prayer from a mosque in the north, as if the two were having a conversation. i can definitely see this as memorable because nicosia, in my opinion, is much more religiously diverse than other cities in cyprus because it is, well, the capital: as we were driving back, i saw a buddhist monastery, a catholic church (with very beautiful stained glass windows!) and a few orthodox churches. i also began to question whether it would be desirable for me to live in nicosia in the future: even though i have always planned to move abroad, most of the governments and people of the western european countries i dreamed about living in have began to disgust me and i feel really clueless as to where to go now, even though i still have two years and things can always change. even though i will still feel uncomfortably close, at least nicosia will have people i have connections with, a somewhat decent university, familiarity and, apparently, according to one of my friends, leftist movements i could join.

(speaking of churches: i was reading wikipedia’s category on anti-albanian sentiment this week and was intrigued by an article about an eighteenth-century greek orthodox saint named kosmas the aetolian. his inclusion in the category is due to his irrational hatred of aromanian and albanian (specifically, the albanian spoken in greece, arvanitika) speakers: he forced them to speak greek, calling their languages “cursed” and “satanic” and promised those who vowed to never speak the languages again to have their sins forgived. after reading this, two questions arise: 1. i understand where the awful, extreme hatred for albania that greek nationalists have comes from, but how has this been going on for centuries? and 2. why is there a church named after this man in my city?)

the exam, generally, was, for me, very easy. the tasks were exactly what i was expecting, as i had done a lot of past papers, including the last part of the reading section, which is always a list of the rules and regulations for a place and is always really funny to me because some of the things that are stated in them feel like very common sense. right now, i am going through a b1 textbook for adults before starting to learn the material for b2: i am also finding it very easy and the tasks are surprisingly interesting for something not meant for my age group. there are some absolute gems in it, such as this exercise:

(for those who do not speak german, this is a task that is meant for practice on using plusquamperfekt konjuktiv — basically, how to say “in the past, i would have done/had that” in german. it asks you to imagine yourself in the fifteenth century (this is seemingly random unless one knows that a text about johannes gutenberg follows it) and asks to describe where you would have lived (one of the options is the very specific “in a small house without heating or windows”), what you would have ate and drank (all of the suggested drink options are, funnily, alcoholic and beer is mentioned a lot: as an answer to the later questions, one can work as a beer brewer and go to the pub as a pastime), where you would have worked and what your day would look like. by the end of this, i was in tears due to laughter.)

as to other things i have been doing, there is really not much. i am doing a lot of schoolwork, even though i think i have deteriorated in every subject ever since i was in burnout this summer, listening to various radio stations (nothing interesting so far, though cybc radio 2 (the minority languages cybc radio station) played a full hour of turkish rock music, a lot of which i really liked (duman are a great band: i know they have a very large fan base in turkey and, from their music i have heard so far, i can say they deserve it!)) and sanremo music festival songs and reading pajtim statovci books (i read “my cat yugoslavia”, which i really enjoyed (especially with the symbolism of the cat as, first, misfortune (this being very common in eastern and southern european art) and then acceptance), even though i really need to read other people’s interpretations of it, as i still, embarrassingly cannot figure out what the snake symbolises and “crossing”, which i did not enjoy a lot, even though it reminded me of “the talented mr. ripley” and i found how much i grew to hate the protagonist (whose name the autocorrect on my tablet, the protagonist’s name being bujar, funnily kept autocorrecting to “bucharest”. bekim, the protagonist of “my cat yugoslavia”, met a similar hilarious fate, becoming “bekomme” (“i receive” in german) in the very last two chapters really impressive). i hope interesting things come my way.

i hope everyone is doing well and will also encounter something interesting in the future. as i usually mention at least one song in my blog entries because i love showing people music, i feel i should end this with one: as most of what i am listening to has some connection with sanremo 2024 and will, therefore be discussed in detail in the coming future and i just talked about pajtim statovci, who writes about albania and kosovo, here is a gjurmët song.