Teenagers’ Guide to Moving to and Living in North Cyprus

We’re not teenagers - and however much we like to think we can remember what it’s like to be at an age where everything is changing and school life is becoming more stressful, rest assured we can’t relate to the experiences of teenagers and young adults today. Which is why we’ve enlisted the help of a teenager who moved to live in North Cyprus last year to assist us with this, the ‘Teenagers’ Guide to Moving to and Living in North Cyprus.’

Thanks to Tyler Williamson from Karsiyaka who attends Sunny Lane Senior School and who moved to live in North Cyprus in June 2006 – she helped us with the essential facts and exclusive content for this article.

Things to Bring and Things to Know

Most people think of Cyprus as a holiday island – a sunny place where it’s always hot and where there’s a holiday atmosphere all the time. But the reality of actually living in North Cyprus is very, very different to being on holiday in North Cyprus! Most aspects are better but some are worse and it’s better to know the realities of what it’s like before you come so you can be prepared for it!

For example – when packing up to move to Northern Cyprus don’t leave out all your winter clothes, your coats and boots, hats, scarves and gloves – because after October and before April the weather can be really horrible! Most of the time the sun still shines and the sea’s calm but then you have days when the wind and the rain lash the island and you also have days when it’s so cold you’ll be glad of a warm coat and some thick socks!

Girls – bring hair straighteners – you won’t get decent ones in the North and while you can get some in the South it’s better to come prepared. And make sure your parents budget to buy a generator (a small one can be bought for as little as a few hundred quid) because if they don’t get one you’ll have days when you go to school without having had a shower (you need electric to pump the water) and with you hair all over the place – not ideal! And don’t believe what they say in the papers – even though they’re working on fixing the electric problem in the North they have really bad storms and overhead electric lines and that means power cuts!

One other thing to pack – all your school stuff – it’s easy to pack as though you’re going on holiday but there will come a day when you have to start school and you’ll need all your old books, your calculator and all the rest of the boring paraphernalia (a.k.a STUFF) associated with learning!

A final note for this section – it’s not as bad as you think it’s going to be!

There are new families moving to live in Cyprus all the time from all over the UK, from Germany, France, Russia and beyond. You are not alone in thinking that you’ll have no friends, no one will like you, that you’ll be forced to stay in with your parents every God-damn day and night of the week and that school will be alien and so different that you’ll stick out and be picked on. As you’re all in the same boat, and even those who moved here a few years ago can still remember what it’s like being the ‘new kid,’ people will be nice to you, you will make a lot of friends very quickly and you’ll soon have a far more active and interesting social life than your parents.

What to Do and Where to Go

Of course, it depends on what you like doing as to which of the following options will appeal to you – but you have a number of cinemas in Lefkosia (Nicosia), Girne (Kyrenia) and at Lemar in Karaoglanoglu that show most of the films in English – or you can go to the Greek side to the cinemas in Nicosia.

You have cafes and clubs that welcome under 16s in the day and early evening like most of the harbour establishments and Liquid in Alsancak where you can chill out, listen to music, get some food, play some pool and then crash out on floor cushions with a group of friends in the private cinema room and watch a film of your choice (it’s not expensive especially when there’s a group of you).

You have go-karting and bowling in Nicosia (on the North and the South), quad biking and horse riding, you can learn to dive, learn to wake board, go parascending (expensive but worth doing once - don’t worry if you puke, it’s normal!)

In the summer you can go to Sun Set in Lapta and do anything from paint balling to riding mini quad bikes, sunbathing, jet skiing or any number of water sports. You can go to Escape Beach Club in Alsancak and sunbathe whilst watching people showing off (they’ve got big mirrors that men with muscles like to pose in front of, good for a giggle!), go on a boat trip from the harbour with friends and spend the day snorkelling.

And if you miss swimming in the sea or the swimming pool in the winter you can go to Riverside which is in Alsancak and which has an indoor pool – and of course for the ladies out there there’s fantastic shopping - on the Greek side you have the likes of Top Shop, Next, Zara and Accessorize and on the North you can go to the market in Nicosia and pick up fantastic designer labels for next to no money – Diesel jeans for fifteen quid anyone?

Surviving School Life

Because Tyler attends Sunny Lane School (a.k.a SLS) that’s the focus of this section.

In September 2006 Sunny Lane doubled in size – and yet it’s still really small and friendly! You know all the teachers and everyone in your year and the two years ahead and behind you, and while that means you quickly make loads of friends, if you have a falling out it can make life very difficult.

The way to survive this is to walk away from stupid arguments that always happen (especially between girls) and make sure you get on with as many people as possible so that if you have an argument with your best friend group you can go and play footy with the boys or hang out with girls in another year until the argument sorts itself out…which it always does because there is so much pressure to fix things from staff and pupils alike because when there’s an argument there’s a bad atmosphere and no one likes that.

You’ll learn pretty much the same stuff as you were learning in England because SLS is an international school following the British curriculum. Instead of GCSEs you’ll be doing International GCSEs and instead of doing French or German you’ll be doing Turkish – they are the main differences.

The school uniform is grey and light blue – girls can wear trousers in the winter and you can buy uniform from the school although for girl’s school trousers there are more fashionable alternatives in the shops. All pupils have a locker so they don’t have to carry all their books round all the time (but don’t lose your key because you’ll pay to get a new one). The school has had loads of money invested in it, it has a new ICT suite, state of the art labs for science, a brand new all weather sports field and a swimming pool – it’s basically as good as a school gets.

Enjoying after School Life

After school there are loads of organised clubs such as drumming, drama, tennis, swimming and football. There’s also the High Impact Dance Studio where you can do anything from Modern and Jazz to Tap and Ballet. GAU (Girne American University High School) do gymnastics after school and the PE teachers from Sunny Lane take these classes.

Additional after school activities that some teenagers do include playing football and rugby, diving, wake boarding, horse riding and jumping and having music lessons or singing lessons.

Friends and Family Facts

One of the best things about North Cyprus is that it is small and it is safe – this means that you can get a bus (a dolmus) anywhere by yourself or in twos (depending on your age and how much your parents worry) to meet up with friends. At weekends and in the holidays friends meet up on the harbour, at the beach, at the shops, the cinema or in the likes of Superstar Chicken or Burger City to spend the day together and because buses run from Karsiyaka in the west to Esentepe in the east and all the way up to Lefkosa, friends from across North Cyprus can easily meet up.

Parents who aren’t working often find themselves driving car loads of happy teenagers about the place or giving up half their home to a hoard of kids who want to watch some DVDs, swim in the pool or listen to some music – but for those who are in work, rest assured the buses run until about 10 o’clock at night!

Try and persuade your family to at least get Digiturk with the extra movie package otherwise TV is rubbish! You can also get SKY in North Cyprus and there’s an amazing guy called Mustafa (a.k.a. the Iceman) who can discuss all TV options with your family (click here to go to an article about him). If you don’t get decent TV then you’ll need a DVD player (you can get them in the UK from about 19 pounds from ASDA to bring with you) because there are loads of DVD shops here that sell and rent copies of films from the ones just out in the cinema to all sorts of classics and TV series as well.

The DVD Shop in between Lapta and Alsancak is one of the best ones and from this shop you can rent as well as buy. The Iceman can also help you get on the internet as can Extend Broadband and the Internet Club – if you can’t find their details on the internet go to http://www.thebuzzbook.com and look up their phone numbers.

Finally - be aware that moving is stressful for all the family and so lots of stupid arguments between family and friends will be likely in the first few months – don’t worry about it, you’ll all get over it as soon as you settle into your new house, iron out the teething problems, make a few friends and realise just how good life in North Cyprus actually is.