Hello All,

I’m writing to you from outside of my residence halls. It’s facing one of the main roads and shielded from the sun. I picked it mainly for the latter reason; it’s extreme sunny here, and the weather is very warm. I’m next to a bush that looks like it was planted for decoration, but on closer  inspection, it is more interesting than I thought.

When I listened for sounds, something I noticed was bird song. In Nicosia, it comes as a relief. There is a huge cat population on the island, which I believed were used to treat a rat problem some time ago. The locals feed them and support them, but it’s difficult to balance this with cats being predators to other species, like birds.

It was nice to hear that birds still live and thrive on the island, and I wonder if they’d had to adapt in order to do so. Are they smaller? Faster? Are their calls quieter? These are great questions to dig into further.

The bush I’m sitting next to looks like a yew (though I’m very unsure), and it seems like new buds grow at the ends of old ones. It reminds me of how snowflakes grow outwards, which is something I’m sure I won’t see this semester!

I’m excited to find a more permanent sit spot!