Valentine’s Day CMS style

Lots of bikes, a lot of noise, roses for everyone and lots of fun!

  

A trip to “Gebili”

My first language teacher got a job with the government teaching English last fall and was sent to a small town about a 6 hour drive down south. I finally was able to visit her in the region of Kebili! In the south people speak with a little different accent. The big different is that the letter “K” is pronounced as “G.”

 
After over six hours of traveling in three different public cars my friend met me in the town of Kebili. From there we took one more public car to a very small town called Blidet. Once there we ate a great lunch her roommate prepared, and then I got a tour of the town.

 
The following morning I got to help teach English!

 
Then in the afternoon we went and explored the local date orchards. (Dates grow in abundantly in the oasis outside the city and are the most important source of income for the region).
 
 

My language teacher

I was rushing home to meet my Arabic tutor when I read this text message from her…..

”I am sorry to inform you that I will not be able to teach you today.

The school in Emirates asked me if it would be ok to apply for a visa again 2 weeks ago. I accepted.

I never heard from them again until yesterday to say the visa is ready. 2h ago they called to say that they booked a flight for tomorrow. Am in a total mess.

I will come though to see you and say good bye.”

So, I’m in need of a new language teacher.
It’s crazy how quickly things can change!

Assida Zgougou

In celebration of Mohammed’s birth, Tunisians make this special pudding from the seeds of Aleppo pine trees. Traditionally, Tunisians exchange bowls of decorated Assida between neighbors and family members. I got three bowls this year. I used to find it a bit strange but now I actually quite enjoy the pudding (despite the fact that it’s grey).

New Year’s Bike Ride

Christmas Sweater Challenge

     

With just thirty minutes to search for Christmas sweaters in over one hundred bins of used clothes, this is what we found. Guess who won the prize for the ugliest sweater!? (Mine won the prize for the most Christmassy).

New President!

Beji Caid Essebsi has been confirmed as the winner of Tunisia's first free presidential election. Check out the details.

Christmas Bazaar

Two American friends and I sold our jewelry at two Christmas bazaars, first at the French junior high school and then at the elementary school. I sold a bunch of stuff and I bought a lot of stuff from the other vendors as well!

A Day Trip!

I went on a day trip to the North with a few friends of mine and a bus full of strangers. We spent twelve hours on the road and just over three hours in a few beautiful small towns. We took lots of pictures, bought a lot of souvenirs, had a great picnic lunch, and laughed a lot. It might seem a little extreme to drive so much and come back on the same day, but it’s quite common. My friend is thirty and she’s never spent the night away from home. She’s been to a number of different cities in Tunisia, but she always comes back the same day.    

Happy Thanksgiving!

For Thanksgiving I made myself a stuffed turkey breast, mashed potatoes & gravy and garnished it with dried cranberries. Even though I was all by myself it still felt festive and tasted great. The following day I had a proper Thanksgiving with some Swedish and British friends. I also made some of my Tunisian friends try some pumpkin desserts. The idea of having pumpkin is absolutely disgusting to them but they all ate it politely and most of them said they liked it. (Not sure what they really think though).

My Roommate’s Birthday

For my roommates birthday we decided to go to a small beach town called Nabeul about an hour and a half up north.  Once there we explored the old town, bought some sugar dolls that the city is famous for, tried out numerous restaurants, picked up sea glass and rocks on the beach, and ate some really great desserts.

Everything went very smoothly until we tried to get home. We bought our louagge tickets and waited with roughly eight other people. The small crowd steadily grew and it became obvious that lots of people wanted to return to Sousse but very few people wanted to come to Nabeul on a Sunday afternoon. Part of the problem was that it was a holiday weekend so lots of people who study and work in Sousse had gone home to visit their families but now it was time to get back. During the time we waited only four louagges took people to Sousse; so you can imagine that with over a hundred people waiting and only eight spots on each louagge people started to get very desperate. Even though my roommate and I had a birthday party to get to we weren’t pushy enough to get on any of the louagges. After two hours we made friends with one lady and the three of us got our money back, and went and waited another two hours for a train.

 
(All those people waiting for the train had been waiting for a louagge just like us).

Though we were ninety minutes late for my roommate’s birthday party all the guests graciously waited and seemed very understanding.

Fun Road Trip with Oregonians part 2

 

After a four day excursion to the South, my friends and I spent a day in the Capital and then said our goodbyes.

 
We went to numerous ancient ruins in Carthage where our guide explained the Phoenician, Berber, and Roman history.

We went to a U.S. cemetery in Tunis. There are over two-thousand graves of soldiers who their lives in World War II in military activities ranging from North Africa to the Persian Gulf.  

 We went to the famous blue and white city called Sidi Bou Said and did some last minute shopping.

We said our goodbyes and I headed back to Sousse. About the time they should have been arriving back in Portland I found out that they were still in Tunis. Their airline had gone on strike. Instead of making it home in twenty-four hours it took them about seventy-two hours to get home. They made the best of it though!

It was so much fun to have them visit!

Fun road trip with Oregonians