How I Found Health & Beauty While Studying Abroad in Cyprus as International Student

It is said that beauty comes in many shapes, forms and sizes. And as an international students’ study abroad in Cyprus consulting and admission processing firm that assists over 2000 foreign students each month, we at CyprusUni.com could be said to have seen it all.

This a story of one of our international students, let’s call him Paul Barnabas, who embarked on a study abroad journey but found much more than he expected in a not so typical way.

Okay, why are we calling him Paul Barnabas?

There are both historical and tourism relevance to our choice. It’s Cyprus we are talking and he was studying at one of the north Cyprus universities located at Famagusta which is quite close to where Barnabas, the biblical personality and friend of Paul the apostle of Jesus Christ was buried. Also, Cyprus was one the countries Paul the Apostle, preached and travelled through.

Paul Barnabas in his quest for the quality cyprus education - cheap cyprus colleges and universities scholarships for international students that north cyprus is known for, actually found much more than he was searching for.

As he said in his own words, “I came searching for affordable quality education in Cyprus, but I also found health and beauty that I didn’t know I had”.

As we probed Paul for more details on this inadvertent self-discovery he made, he elaborated his findings described below.

Nature still speaks in Cyprus and there I found my Beauty

“Before coming to study in North Cyprus, I wasn’t one to call myself beautiful. I subconsciously knew that I had to love myself and believe in the image that God has created in. But my reality was a different story.

I wasn’t self-harming or anything like that but I just could not see myself as beauty”. As you can obviously see, he said to us; “I am little bit above average handsome but as surprising as it may seem now, I was not seeing myself as beauty.”

My stay in Cyprus while studying engineering at among the top-ranking cheapest Cyprus university for international students changed all that.

For in Cyprus, Nature still speaks and in the beauty of Nature, I learnt to see my own beauty. My school is located in Famagusta and during my first 30 days, CyprusUni’s settling staff helped me with getting acclimatized to my new environment and school campus.

During this time, the settling staff will usually take me for a walk or bus ride around Famagusta. On of our outings, he took me to see nature in Cyprus. The beautiful beaches, the rocky hills, the silent grassy plains and the local villages and towns close to the city.

These natural locations would come to be my regular thinking, praying and relaxing spots. They allowed me to reflect on the awesomeness and vast mighty of God the creator. As I spent more time observing and mediating in these beautiful natural environments I found in Cyprus, I felt deeper my appreciate of God through the beauty of nature.

It got to a point where I had an epiphany – my paradigm changed. I realized, my was in fact a part of nature.

The understating began to dawn on me – I am not outside nature. I am a part nature and if I find nature to be beautiful, then I too am beautiful. I finally began to love and appreciate myself as part of God the creator’s beautiful work piece of nature.”

Cyprus Showed Me More About My Health

“But it didn’t stop there. My journey of discovery was only just beginning.

By this time, it was the end of the second month of my study in Cyprus. My recent paradigm shift had left me floating perpetually on cloud nine. I was part of nature and I was feeling and in fact became the most beautiful than I had ever been prior to this.

My next discovery to which I became a regular patron off was the Famagusta’s Thursday Market. This was an open market / space (closed to what we called Old Lemar) where the local farmers brought their wares to sell every Thursday of the week.

To me, this was a fruit heaven.

From a young age, my mother inculcated in me the value of healthy eating of which a regular diet of fruits and vegetable were essential. However, back home, even though we knew this truth; fruits were not very affordable for us. Hence, discovering the Thursday Open Market where I could buy fruits weekly at a price lower that most other shops. Vegetable and fruit became a regular part of my diet.

It even got better.

By my sixth month of studying in Cyprus, I met a new student who became my friend. He was an exercises and fitness enthusiast. He showed me that it was not enough to eat healthily but that I had to follow it up with regular workout schedule.

By this time after my experience with nature, I had become a more dedicated and active church member at Believer LoveWorld Ministry – Christ Embassy (I will talk more on this later). So, while my new friend influenced and strengthened my physical health, I influenced and strengthened his spiritual health.

It was also around the same time that I benefited from the free medical care offered at the Cyprus university’s hospital or clinic which was covered in the health insurance. You see, after moving to the back seats of the lecture rooms, I realized that I was having difficult reading the white board or projector. Although my fellow students where quite okay. On my visit to the university’s clinic I was given an eye checkup and was prescribed spectacles to help me read from the back of the class.”

When Beauty and Health Come Together

“By this time, my life was unfolding better than I ever imagined. I had become convinced of my beauty. I was eating healthy and living a healthy workout filled life. I also made a trusted connections, networks and friends.

Through my friends, my spiritual health/life got better as I became more regular in church, more committed in my personal prayer and meditation time with God. I understand to reading and understand the bible which made me wiser and not just smarter. The change we so complete that I began to also tell others about the love and life of God that I now have.

My financial health / life was also greatly improved.

As a foreign student I want to find part-time to do while studying. However, with Cyprus being an Island and a tourism dependent economy, work was not readily available all year round for the over 50,000 international students studying in Cyprus. Most work were found depend summer which is when Cyprus receives the highest number of tourists.

I didn’t let this situation stop me but I rather began to work online as a freelancer to earn more as a student. I also sold and bought (trade) online as well as did some affiliate marketing online to earn regular income as a student.

I am glad for the available quality cheap cyprus colleges and universities scholarships for international students.

So, in conclusion, I found healthy and beauty in Cyprus and when my health and beauty came together, I became a new man overflowing with self-confidence and Love for God and others. I stopped being a victim in life be starting taking the bull by the horns and leaving life by my own terms and nothing the term set by limiting factors of life.

My stay in Cyprus while studying at one of the north cyprus universities as an international student, I found my beauty (mental health), physical health, spiritual health, and financial health. I can’t say for anyone else but studying abroad in North Cyprus changed my life for the good.