American in Cyprus: Independence Day

The past couple of weeks have been relatively routine for us. Alex has really been enjoying school. He had to miss a couple of days last week with a fever. Sofia also had a brief fever, lasting only 24 hours. We were lucky it wasn't anything more. Also this week, the US embassy sponsored an absentee voting day held in the UN buffer zone. It made voting from afar an easy process. Plus, that is an interesting area of Nicosia with many old buildings and some still abandoned since the invasion more than thirty years ago. We spent some time driving around to explore the area a bit more. Yesterday we made it to the pool for a final day. As of today it is closed for the season. Cyprus weather is incredibly consistent. Currently the high temperature is around 90 degrees and pretty much sunny every day. I rarely even check the weather forecast, especially during the summer. I think there were only two brief rain showers during the summer. So imagine my surprise when we woke up to a cloudy sky this morning. Usually a rain shower would be welcome but today is Cyprus' Independence Day (from the British in the 1950's) and we literally didn't want it to rain on our parade. No need to worry, the little sprinkle lasted only about ten minutes. The parade was very different than those in the US. It was primarily military vehicles, such as tanks and missile launchers, and various companies of soldiers marching. There were also ambulances and police along with two military bands. No floats or candy thrown in this parade. About half way into the parade Alex asked, "Are you sure this is a parade?". Once he got used to it he did think it was neat to see all of those big trucks.