What I Have Been Up to Since I've Fallen Out of the Blogosphere

So, I know...I have not been doing very well keeping up with fresh posts. So, I decided to make a slideshow to explain why I haven't been, I have been busy. In the last 3 weeks I have been to Kairouan, Takrouna, Jebel Risaas, the embassy Halloween party, the embassy election party, Sbeitla, Tozeur, Douz, Matmata, Gabes, Jerba, Mahdia, el-Jem, and many other little places and taken my Arabic midterm. I guess this is what happens when time begins to wind down, I have really begun to savor every day here.


I have only 2 weeks left in Tunis so I will try to post again but no promises. ;-)

Shamia, Harqoos, and Other Random Events of Daily Life in Tunis

About a week ago I was walking home from school by myself since my roommates both had a literature course after our language courses. I was exhausted after a four hour class and excited to be almost home. But when I turned the corner onto my street I heard a male's voice from inside of a rolled down car window saying, "Hey, hey, hey..." Being one of the only "Ashkar," (fair people with fair hair) in Tunis and certainly in my neighborhood, I get a lot of unwanted attention from the opposite sex. I've learned in my, now, 5 weeks here to avert my eyes in such situations. So, naturally my instincts told me to stare at the ground. Then I heard the man say "Alissa?" So, I reluctantly looked up. I felt so ashamed when I realized it was just my host brother with my host mom in the car, he was taking her to go grocery shopping. So, to make up for my rudeness, I hopped in the car and went to Monoprix, the supermarket down the street with Souad. When we got there, she was so excited to have me with her and takes great pride in teaching me new things so she began to point at things and say the name of them and make me repeat. I felt a little embarased, but that was fine. What was not fine is when she found a woman with, what appeared to be Henna on her hand. She began shouting at the woman in excitement to show me something else new and give me the explanation. She grabbed the woman's hand and showed it to me saying "Harqooooooos," and I repeated obediently. The woman was embarassed but I wonder if she knew how embarassed I was. Then, she says, "Alissa, tell her your new word!" And once again, blushing, I recited, "Barakallaohfik."

The word is Tunisian and actually made up of four words, the first meaning "fill with good things," the second, God, the third, in, and the fourth you. So, the expression means, "God fill you with good things," and interestingly enough The Barack Obama's name comes from the word Baracka which is the one meaning to fill with good things.

In any case, that trip to the market had made my host mom extatic about a couple of things. She picked up a sweet called Shamia that she was determined to make us taste and she was dead set on my roommates and I getting Harqoos, her treat.

So, two days later Megan and I woke up for a lazy Wednesday because it was our day off. Come to find out Souad had made us "dra'a" (with an Ein at the end for those of you who study Arabic), quite possibly one of the ugliest words in the Arabic language, topped with Shamia and pistachios. None of us really like the gray pudding garnished with the strange astronaut ice cream-like, sesame seed sweet and pistachios, but I ate it all. But it was the doorway to our second treat of the day, a trip to a small suburb of Tunis to knock on random doors until we ended up in an elderly woman's home filled with little children and a girl with no pants on. To say the least, I was confused upon arrival but nevertheless, she invited us in. Turns out that the woman babysits and does harqoos and waxing on the side. Hence the pantless girl, she was getting her legs waxed.

So, Megan and I sat down amongst the sea of sleeping children and the girl standing up getting the taffy-like substance rubbed on her legs and then peeled off like silly puddy. The woman first asked us if we would like our arms waxed first, and after Souad explained to her that we use razors by saying, "They shave like men" we declined the arm waxing fearing that it might lead to excessive dark and unwanted hair. So, she began to put harqoos onto our hads and legs. The end result was great, all except for the glitter gel that she put on it to spice it up afterward, but that washed right off.

All in all, it was an interesting day and that is not even including the head on collision that we almost had on the way home. That story will have to wait for a future post on "driving in Tunisia 101".
Dra'a with shamia (the colorful stuff), and pistachios. Can you see the grayness of the pudding like substance underneath? That is dra'a.

Megan enjoying the dra'a.

Me REALLY enjoying the dra'a.

Megan getting harqoos on her hand

Me getting harqoos on my leg (if it looks hairy, that's because it is. I am growing my leg hair out so Souad, Malika, the other girls, and I can try out the home made taffy wax).

The woman dipped the dye out of a spoon onto her pen and drew the designs on.

Harqoos on the opposite hand and foot was a recommendation by the pantless girl.

To add to events of randomnimity, looking out my window onto the front lawn the other day, this is what I saw: a man taking his sheep to market in preparation for Eid al-Kabir.

Picture of the Day

This is the mosque in my neighborhood, It's beautiful.

Utica & Bizerte

The week before last our field trip was to Utica, the oldest city in Tunisia, and to Bizerte. Enjoy the slide show.

Ichkeul National Park

I like to think of myself as a pretty environmentally aware person. Since I come from Oregon, one of the most environmentally aware states, I have always felt that I have a little more environmental expertise and consciousness than people coming from other polluting states around the U.S. But I have to say that after my visit to Ichkeul Lake and National Park in Tunisia proved me wrong. Instead of taking the interest and using the time to learn as I should have, I have to say that I was quickly disturbed with the fact that I could not infact visit the lake itself; just the museum. I let my dismay about the situation take away from what I should have been learning from the visit. I still retain that the museum was poorly designed and with an elementary level of Arabic and a bit of French comprehension due to Italian my understanding could not have been much although I really should have put more into it.
Since I have realized my own mistake, I have taken some time to reflect and done a little research on Ichkeul Lake and National Park. I have since found that the lake is a haven for many birds as they migrate from the north and enjoy the moderate winter temperature that Tunisia offers and that the number of birds and variety of birds that have come in the past is now endangered as damns have been built stopping the natural flow of fresh water coming into the lake and keeping the sodium level moderate. According to the “Lonely Planet: Tunisia” guide book, “Lake Ichkeul is one of the four most important wetlands in the Mediterranean,” (133) and the interruption of the natural processes of the lake have left destructive effects. Mostly, this is affecting the food source that used to be provided by the lake and the surrounding habitat for the birds. Birds not only need a warm place to migrate to, but they also require food and a livable habitat in that warm place in order to survive. This problem according to the UNESCO World Heritage site (http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/8/threats/) has put the Park on the “In Danger List”. It has been made obvious by the statistic of 200,000 waterfowl migrating to Lake Ichkeul just 20 years ago decreasing in number to only more or less 50,000 today (133).
I am deeply moved by this issue and wish that I would have used my time at Ichkeul more wisely and inquired more about the problems at stake for this National Park and habitat. It is becoming ever more important that in a developing country such as Tunisia, as well as in all others, we don’t allow development to ruin the best of our countries’ national treasures.

The marshy land next to the lake, the reason I couldn't walk all the way down. :-(

Me after our hike up to the top

Those little specs are pink flamingos which I actually got to see through binoculars but not up close unfortunately.

Tunisia v. Seychelles

Sorry it's been a while, I have had a busy week.

A couple of weeks ago I got the opportunity to go to a World Cup qualifying soccer match between Tunisia and Seychelles for free. So, of course we took the opportunity. It wasn't a very widely attended game since Tunisia had just played Seychelles a couple weeks earlier and won by a large margin people expected more of the same and that's what we got. The final score was 5-0 and Tunisia won.

A handful of us American students went along with the assistant to our Program here in Tunisia. She has also started taking belly dancing lessons with a few of us girls twice a week.

I will let the photos tell the story...

Photo Potpourri

This is a sample of pictures that I took during my first couple of weeks that I just hadn't gotten around to putting up yet....

Yep...We're Famous, Check it Out

Our group at the embassy with the ambassador = Front page news for the U.S. embassy.

http://tunisia.usembassy.gov/

قتوزتنا - Our cat

Two weeks ago we came back from Malika's apartment to find that our host sister-in-law was in labor and, in order to pacify her 31/2 year old son Ahmed, Souad had brought in a small kitten with a broken tail and a distended stomach for him to play with. Immediately we both felt pity for the malnourished street cat and fell in love with it. We made such a fuss that Souad decided that we could keep it in the house as long as we kept it shut away in the laundry room most of the time. At first she seemed very cautious of the cat. She didn't want us to touch the cat and was constantly reminding us to wash our hands.

After a while she decided that she was going to put the cat back outside but seeing our attachment to her she felt bad and didn't want to put her outside. We had even named her Marwa or مروى in Arabic, after our favorite brand of bottled water. It was precious to witness the bonding between Souad and Marwa. Souad would push her away and Marwa just kept coming back, purring and rubbing her head against Souad. Finally we could see it, even Souad gave in.

Then, about 3 days ago, I began getting sick and threw up one night out of the blue and have had cold symptoms ever since. Souad became convinced that my ilness had to do with the cat and as Megan was also sick it became apparent that the cat was infecting us at a fast rate. She became more skeptical of Marwa and said that she could not roam the house because if she were left free to wander, she could give us microbes. So, with that Souad decided that she would free Marwa. She said, "I am going to take her for a walk and if she doesn't follow me back then that's it." Well, Souad is a softy and when she put Marwa down another larger cat tried to take a swipe at it and Souad couldn't leave her, so she brought her back saying, "She's too small to be out there." So, Marwa now has upgraded from box to wicker basket with blanket and is happier than ever as her distended stomach is going down.

Dougga: Excellently Preserved Roman City

Last weekend our group went to Dougga, an ancient Roman city that is Southwest of Tunis about an hour. At first when we were told that we would be going to Dougga I was not that excited about the idea. I have seen so many Roman ruins in my day and it just seemed kind of mundane. I was completely wrong though, Dougga is anything but mundane and really my favorite Roman ruins I have ever visited (well, it is a tough call between Dougga and Rome). But my favorite thing about Dougga is that is an entire city so well preserved and not populated by really anything touristic. I get the feeling that these ruins are one of the Roman's best kept secrets. When visiting the ruins you can walk anywhere you want. They are not roped off or behind a glass case and native life still happens all around them. Farmers bring their flocks and there are olive trees and cactus plants to be harvested. We were unleashed to discover the city on our own in small groups of classmates for a few hours and really I could have spent so much more time. It was a beautiful day and I took lots of pictures. Enjoy!

Hammam: the turkish bath

Weird green stuff in jar: the green rock, mud, rosewater mixture for the massage at the end of the hammam experience.

A traditional hammam

It's time to talk about the hammam, the Turkish bath. This is a popular activity here in Tunisia for both men and women and up until last week I didn't know anything about it. But last Tuesday, the day before Eid, Souad took us to get clean and freshen up before the big holiday. We didn't really know how to prepare and all Souad told us was to take shampoo, conditioner, body wash, and a towel if we wanted. We looked around at eachother and decided that we would wear bathing suits under our clothes just to be on the safe side. With that we grabbed our toiletries and headed out the door. When we got to the Hammam we were given a small jar of a green stone, rose water, mud mixture, I am still not sure quite what it consisted of. In any case, we took it with us into the changing area and we began to undress looking around to see what the others were doing so we wouldn't feel out of place or make any cultural mistakes. We were surrounded by a room of robust women with nothing but dark underwear on, so we opted to go in with just the bathing suit bottoms. At first we felt a little bit uneasy but as the time progressed we became much more confident. Perhaps it was because the three of us were the only owners of young perky breasts in room.

Anyway...first, we entered the steam room. The steam room is a very hot and moist room where the women sit with their feet in buckets of hot water, mixing it with cold water as desired which is apparently good for circulation. We sat in the steam room for about an hour allowing our bodies to sweat freely and for circulation to occur. By the time we left that room, we were shedding an entire layer of skin. The next step was a complete scrub down. A woman summoned me and asked me to lay down on a slab of marbel and proceded to rub my skin very hard with an abrasive mit. She was very hard and it took some getting used to. She pulled down my bathingsuit at will in order to get hard to reach areas and make sure that I was freed of all dead skin. All the skin on my body was red by the end which made the woman scrubbing me and her colleague laughed at the site (apparently Arab skin doesn't do that). After the coarse glove, she opened my jar of mud, rock, rosewater mixture and began to massage it into my skin. It felt so soft and cool in contrast to the burning and harsh feeling of the rub down. I got up off of the marble slab and went to the showers where I washed off and then dried. I was honestly very surprised at how soft and fresh my skin felt afterward. It was a strange experience but an enjoyable one that I will probably have at least a couple more times while I am here. And the best part about the hammam is it is so much cheaper here than spa treatment in the U.S. The whole thing cost only 10 Tunisian Dinar which is roughly 8 USD.

Vacation for Eid in Hammamet

Seeing as how we had 4 days vacation from school last week, my classmates and I decided to take a little trip about an hour away from here to a town called Hammamet on the Mediterranean Sea on the coast of Tunisia. It was very relaxing, and after one half week of school, believe me...we needed it! I don't know what we are going to do these next two weeks since we actually have 2 full weeks of school; the reality that we are here to learn might actually sink in. In any case, I hope you enjoy the photos I know we enjoyed taking them.

Wedding Crashers

Last night my roommates and I were offered an interesting opportunity, to go to our neighbor's (Malika) brother's wife's sister's daughter's wedding. I felt a little awkward going to a wedding for two people that I had never met, but couldn't give up the cultural opportunity of attending a Muslim wedding.

So, we accepted the invitation and began to dress ourselves and get ready. We realized that I was the only one who brought a wedding appropriate dress and Malika must have read our minds because a few minutes later she showed up at the door with a few of her daughter's old dresses for us to try on. She told me that my "Easter Sunday" dress was ok and began to focus on Anna Rae and Megan. Long story short, Megan ended up wearing a Chinese style dress and Anna Rae ended up coming out like a beauty pageant contestant. We were all wearing such different things, and feared that we would stick out even more since we were so oddly dressed. But we were wrong, it turns out that Tunisians wear whatever they want to weddings. I saw women wearing evening gowns, summer dresses, Jeans and a fancy top, business suits, etc. The only reason we stuck out was because we are all of European descent with fairly light hair by Tunisian standards (Shakra'ah in Arabic).

An Arab wedding has many different traditions such as the "Hammam" (Turkish style baths which I will explain in a later post), Henna, parties at both the groom and bride's homes, and a big party for all of the guests. We left the house with Malika in her car and our first stop was the Bride's house. When we got there we walked past the groom and all of the other men, who were outside smoking in and chatting, and entered into the living room where the bride was at the center on a couch with the skirt of her dress laid out covering the couch. She danced with her upper body and smiled (without showing her teeth) the whole time while her relatives and close friends danced around her listening to music (Jewish Tunisian music, that's right wedding music is Jewish and they are Muslim; Tunisia really is a melting pot of religion and culture.) and making a "lalalalalalalalalalala noise", what they call an "Indian Call". When we got there we were welcomed by the relatives who kissed us on the cheeks and motioned us through. We sat down on a sofa near the bride and she leaned over to us saying "You are welcome". We stayed at the brides house for a while and then made our way to the building where the rest of the wedding would take place.Last night my roommates and I were offered an interesting opportunity, to go to our neighbor's (Malika) brother's wife's sister's daughter's wedding. I felt a little awkward going to a wedding for two people that I have never met, but couldn't give up the cultural opportunity of attending a Muslim wedding. So, we accepted the invitation and began to dress ourselves and get ready. We realized that I was the only one who brought a wedding appropriate dress and Malika must have read our minds because a few minutes later she showed up at the door with a few of her daughter's old dresses for us to try on. She told me that mine was ok and began to focus on Anna Rae and Megan. Long story short, Megan ended up wearing a Chinese style dress and Anna Rae ended up coming out like a beauty pageant contestant. We were all wearing such different things (I was wearing a dress that reminds me of a young girls Easter Sunday dress), and feared that we would stick out even more since we were so oddly dressed. But boy were we wrong, it turns out that Tunisians wear whatever they want to weddings. I saw women wearing evening gowns, summer dresses, Jeans and a fancy top, business suits, etc. The only reason we stuck out was because we are all of European descent with fairly light hair by Tunisian standards (Shakra'ah in Arabic). An Arab wedding has many different traditions such as the "Hammam" (Turkish style baths which I will explain in a later post), Henna, parties at both the groom and bride's homes, and a big party for all of the guests. We left the house with Malika in her car and our first stop was the Bride's house. When we got there we walked past the groom and all of the other men, who were outside smoking in and chatting, and entered into the living room where the bride was at the center on a couch with the skirt of her dress laid out covering the couch. She danced with her upper body and smiled (without teeth) the whole time while her relatives and close friends danced around her listening to music (Jewish Tunisian music, that's right Jewish and they are Muslim. Tunisia really is a melting pot of religion and culture) and making a "lalalalalalalalalalala noise", what they call an "Indian Call". When we got there we were welcomed by the relatives who kissed us on the cheeks and motioned us through. We sat down on a sofa near the bride and she leaned over saying "You are welcome". I take that as her welcoming us to enjoy and observe her wedding. We stayed at the brides house for a while and then made our way to the building where the rest of the wedding would take place. As we were leaving Malika leaned over to us and said, "The groom is an Islamist (an Islamist is a Muslim applying Islam to Politics. This basically means that he didn't want to have a western style wedding) so the women and men will be in separate rooms". When we got to the building there was a large entry way that divided into two separate rooms and we filed into the woman's room. We all lined up and lalalala-ed at the bride as she entered the room and was led to another couch situated in the front of the room facing a small dance floor and tables full of family and friends. Anna Rae, Megan and I danced after a little push from Malika. We quickly picked up on the hand and hip movements in their style of dance and felt comfortable enough with it. We also enjoyed little sweets and fresh strawberry and lime juice. The bride, on the other hand remained on her couch in front of the room taking an occasional break for dancing and photo taking. It was so strange to have the bride so removed from everyone. It was if she was modeling in a glass case and all of us were watching her. I tried to peak into the men's room to see what they were doing. From what I could understand, all they were doing was sitting and chatting, each with his own individual bouquet of gardenia. There was no music and no dancing. The party lasted for hours and there was no ceremony. I kept expecting something to happen and when we finally asked Malika if there was going to be a ceremony she said, "No, there is no ceremony in Islam". While we were at our table Malika brought up, out of nowhere, that she is related to Jonah ("Jonah & the whale" of the Christian Gospels) and the Prophet Muhammad. She began to draw a family tree on the back of a napkin detailing the country origins of her ancestors and the family lineage. Of course the napkin was too small, so now she has promised to bring over a large copy of it later. We finally left at 1:30 am because we had a field trip to go on the next day that we had to wake up early for. And even though I was exhausted and had to sleep in the bus the next day on the way to the site, the wedding was a very worthwhile cultural immersion experience that I feel lucky to have been invited to. In the end it didn't matter at all that the bride was our neighbor's brother's wife's sister's daughter. if you make a big enough family tree, we are all related in some way or an
As we were leaving Malika told us, "The groom is an Islamist (an Islamist is a Muslim applying Islam to Politics. This basically means that he didn't want to have a western style wedding.) so the women and men will be in separate rooms". When we got to the building there was a large entry way that divided into two separate rooms and we filed into the woman's room. We all lined up and lalalala-ed at the bride as she entered the room and was led, by the groom, to another couch situated in the front of the room facing a small dance floor and tables full of family and friends. Anna Rae, Megan and I danced after a little push from Malika. We quickly picked up on the hand and hip movements in their style of dance and felt comfortable enough with it. We also enjoyed little sweets and fresh strawberry and lime juice. The bride, on the other hand remained on her couch in front of the room taking an occasional break for dancing and photo taking. It was so strange to have the bride so removed from everyone. It was if she was modeling in a glass case, there for all of us to stare at but not there to participate in her own wedding.

I tried to peak into the men's room to see what they were doing. From what I could understand, all they were doing was sitting and chatting, each with his own individual bouquet of gardenia. There was no music and no dancing. The party lasted for hours and there was no ceremony. I kept expecting something to happen and when we finally asked Malika if there was going to be a ceremony she said, "No, there is no ceremony in Islam" and explained the different traditions that led up to the party that we were attending.

While we were at our table Malika brought up, out of nowhere, that she is related to Jonah ("Jonah & the whale" of the Christian Gospels) and the Prophet Muhammad. She began to draw a family tree on the back of a napkin detailing the country origins of her ancestors and the family lineage. Of course the napkin was too small, so now she has promised to bring over a large copy of it later.

We finally left at 1:30 am because we had a field trip to go on the next day that we had to wake up early for. And even though I was exhausted and had to sleep in the bus the next day on the way to the site, the wedding was a very worthwhile cultural immersion experience that I feel lucky to have been invited to. In the end it didn't matter at all that the bride was our neighbor's brother's wife's sister's daughter. In the big family tree of the world perhaps we are all related in some way or another.

The bride in her home sitting on the couch.

The brides mother and the grooms mother dancing and lalalala-ing at the brides home.

The all woman band in the women's room singing and playing for the bride's entrance.

The bride entering the room with the groom and her father.

The groom led her to her chair, sat with her for a moment and then left to his own men's room.

Women dancing

From left to right: Me, Malika, and Anna Rae

Megan and I at our table observing the dancing and waiting for pastries and juice.

A tray of various pistachio pastries.

Megan, Anna Rae and I trying to learn the dance.

Us getting comfortable with it after help from a woman who came over to dance with us.
The bride getting up to dance.

We went out to the entry way to meet Malika's brother.


I snuck a peak and a picture at the men's room. :-/

Field Trip to Carthage and North Africa American Cemetery and Memorial

Last weekend we went on a field trip, we will be going on field trips to various sites in Tunis almost every week. I will continue to post pictures from these field trips. I hope you enjoy...

The Rhythm of Ramadan and Other First Impressions

Originally I had no plan to blog during my time here in Tunis but I have given in. I have only been here for two weeks and already so many people have shown an interest in my experiences here and I have had many that I would love to share, so here it goes. I would like to start by sharing some of my first impressions and experiences of my temporary home away from home.

Upon arrival, I was thrown into downtown Tunis in a “half a star” hotel named Salambo without my luggage since it had somehow gotten lost along the road from Venice, Italy to here. I quickly learned to let it go and make the best of my first couple of days which I spent with the other Americans that had already arrived. I became aware that downtown Tunis could either be a madhouse or a peaceful city depending on what time of the day you chose to step foot outside (I say “could” because I arrived with Ramadan already underway and it has just barely ended, so I have yet to discover what the rhythm of life here is during the other 11 months of the year, or at least the 2 that I will be experiencing here). In the morning, the city was bustling but toward late afternoon the streets and sidewalks were left almost abandoned as everyone prepared for their feast after sundown. People typically went home to cook, rest, and pray before eating. People ate around 7:30 and progressively earlier each day maintaining the rhythm of shorter days and then about an hour after dinner the streets would fill up again with a new found burst of energy and full stomachs. People would stay out until 1:00 or 2:00 am often filling up again before bed to tie them over for the next day of fasting.

After moving in with the host family, I was able to experience a more intimate side of Ramadan and actually observe the patterns of the family. I am living with two other American girls, one of them studying French here and the other Arabic like me. Our family dynamic consists of only the host mother who is a widow with four sons. None of them live at home but three of them come over frequently, with their wives and child, for a meal or just to visit while the other one and his wife live in London. They are all very sweet and helpful just like their mother. During Ramadan we never ate dinner alone, there were always others here sharing in the meal and socializing. Dinner starts with turning on the television. I know, weird. All families listen to the prayers on TV being read by a local Imam and then to a small commentary afterward while eating dinner. Even if people are always talking over it, it still plays in the background. After we would finish dinner, in order to sharply contrast the prayers, on the same channel, a government funded soap opera specifically for Ramadan would air. The soap opera has absolutely nothing to do with religion and if anything contradicts many of the moral values found in Islam or any other religion for that matter. My roommates and I quickly took a liking to it seeing as how you need very little Arabic to understand the overall plot since it is so over dramatized and is very Shakespearean in nature. During this soap opera, we would enjoy mint tea with fresh mint leaves in it and delicious pastries and fruit.

It seems to me that Ramadan is much more cultural for the majority of Tunisians than it is religious. Almost everyone in Tunisia is Muslim therefore, even if one is not a devout or practicing Muslim, he/she usually subscribes to the social norm of participating in Ramadan. For those of you who do not know, Ramadan is a 30 day period, more or less (depending on the moon), in which Muslims do not eat, drink, smoke or have sexual intercourse from sunrise to sun down. This mirrors the idea of Catholic lent, only to a higher degree, in that it is giving something up in order to focus more on God and a period of time in which one becomes more faith conscious and one with God. The prophet Muhammad was said to have received the word of the Qur’ān nearing the end of Ramadan.

Now that Ramadan is over, I am looking forward to experiencing the country at, from what I hear, an entirely different pace. It is Aid right now which is the holiday after Ramadan ends in which family is together and they eat and celebrate. Presumably tomorrow life should go “back to normal” for the Tunisians, but I am sure it will be a whole other experience for me.

A typical dish for the first day of Aid after Ramadan: salted fish with a grape, onion and olive oil dip.

Our soap opera that we watch every night after dinner.

A café that I found in town where Tunisians go (even those wearing headscarves) when they want to eat, drink or smoke something during Ramadan. There are curtains over the windows so others won't see since it is socially unacceptable.

The water here is not very good, so everyone drinks bottled water and people are very passionate about the quality of various water brands. Marwa is one of them and one of my host families favorites. On the side of the waterbottle it states that Marwa aids in the prevention of constipation and obesity. I don't know if that is true, but Marwa seems to be good quality water nonetheless.

This is our apartment terrace with the flags connecting back to it on Grendade street.

Anna Rae (or as our host mom pronounces it, Araway) is one of the other Americans living with me. She is from Seattle but goes to University of Chicago and is here studying French.

This is Megan (our host mom can pronounce her name properly). She is also a student from University of Oregon, infact we had Arabic class together one term last year. So, naturally she is studying Arabic as well.

Avenue Habib Bourgiba, the main Avenue running through Tunis. The clock in the middle we like to call "Big Ben Ali" after Big Ben in London and the new President here Ben Ali. We use the term new loosely, he has actually been reelected several times and we have absolutely no idea what the clock is actually named.

And our street...like I said, Über patriotic.