Welcome to my backtothemed site. It chronicles a journey I took back in time in the spring of 2006 to the land of my birth: Cyprus. Cyprus is nestled in a crook of the Eastern Mediterraean, south of Turkey and west of Syria. I was born in a small, company hospital in March 1954 to American parents. My father worked for an American copper mining company based in the foothills of the Troodos mountain range, just above the Solia Valley (valley of the sun). My siblings and I grew up intimately connected to the land and the people of this idyllic, sun-drenched island. We left this area to attend college in the United States, but our parents stayed behind. Then when Turkey invaded in 1974, they, too departed. I have not been back since.
This trip was an opportunity to reconnect with my original homeland, with the intention of determining if I could ever return to live. I also travelled to Beirut, Lebanon, where I had attended junior high and high school. The American Community School was celebrating their centennial during the year between June 2005 and June 2006. I thought this would be a chance to revisit a country that I had lived in, but not really fully explored. (We were very sheltered as boarding school students.) Times were tumultuous back then. I was soon to find out that they are tumultuous still.
I hope you enjoy reading about my experiences and my reactions as I navigated my way around Aphrodite's birth place and the cradle of civilization that is the levant ( Lebanon). Perhaps you can understand the feelings I had as I explored things familiar and unfamiliar, and the feelings I have had since returning, watching a country I loved being suddenly destroyed. Again.
skip to main |
skip to sidebar
.jpg)
I'm off on a journey to the Mediterranean after being away for 32 years. Join me as I return to the island of Cyprus, my birthplace and that of another goddess, Aphrodite :-) Hop on Cyprus Airways with me to attend my high school reunion in Beirut, Lebanon. We'll have a couple of more days to explore Cyprus before we come back. We leave on May 22nd and return on June 6th. Ready to go? PS: Remember to read the postings from the bottom up to get the continuity.
"Dr. Aphrodite"
Blog Archive
About Me
- Dr. Lisa
- I was born on the island of Cyprus in 1954. My father worked for an American copper mining company called Cyprus Mines Corporation. My twin brothers were born 15 months after me and my sister came along eight years later. We took a short break in our Cyprus life by moving back to Southern California for three years when I was 5. Happily, we journied back to Cyprus for the rest of our "growing-up" years. I had the opportunity to attend junior high and high school at an American prep school in Beirut, Lebanon. I now live in Fair Oaks, CA, a suburb of Sacramento. My children, a boy and a girl, are in various stages of completing their higher education, after which, they will go out into the world. They both love to travel as much as I do.
No comments:
Post a Comment