Though I’m not a mom, most of my expat friends have young kids, so I understand how difficult it can be to take kids to restaurants and coffee shops. Thanks to my friend Nour we now know a great coffee shop that has a large play area for kids. Yes, these sorts of places do exist in my city!
A few months ago after I taught my friend Mary how to make designs using polymer clay she told me I should start selling my jewelry at her friends bi-monthly art show. Her friend owns an old house in the Medina which he has turned into a coffee shop. There’s no signs telling you it’s a coffee shop, the only way you’ll find out about it is if someone invites you there.
There was supposed to be an art sale two months ago so I started to make a few different items to sell. Unfortunately, the event got canceled because of a national strike and was scheduled for the third week of March, a weekend I was going to be out of town. I stopped by the coffee shop last Thursday to find out how the sale had gone and found out they hadn’t done it yet but that it was taking place on the coming Sunday (yesterday). I quickly tried to make a few more items to sell and made plans to hang out at the coffee shop all day Sunday.
There wasn’t a lot of publicity so there weren’t a lot of shoppers at the event, but I did sell a few bracelets to a group of Tunisian girls and a bunch of stuff to a few of my expat friends. When business was slow I had fun getting to know the other vendors and also had fun playing Uno with the coffee shop groupies.
My friend and I naively thought it would be easy to find the Expo center in the capital. We knew we had to take the metro just across the road from the train station in Tunis and we assumed we would see the large building from the metro line and just walk to it. Luckily the first person we asked for directions was a vendor at the art exhibit who offered to take us there. We would have gotten lost without her! We had to take two different trams and then a taxi to get there, not at all as simple as we’d assumed. Our new friend even let us in the back door so we didn’t have to pay to get in to the exhibit.
The exhibit was massive. There were over one thousand vendors, selling mostly hand crafted items but also factory made furniture and art supplies. There were three large rooms and it took us nearly two hours just to get through the first one.
After a quick lunch we finally found my friend Mary, the ceramic artist. Just in case I haven’t told you yet I met Mary during my first week here back in November. She owns a ceramic shop in the Medina in Sousse and through the past few months I’ve been able to teach her how to make things with polymer clay and she’s taught me how to make stuff with normal clay. She’s very patient with me as I try to speak Arabic and has become a good friend.
After a long day of being inspired by all the Tunisian art we slowly made our way home. A thirty minute taxi ride back to town, an hour wait, and a two hour train ride back to Sousse.
I had a great time with my friends in Harlesden, a suburban town in the London Borough of Brent. Their house was behind one church building and right next to another.
I got to hang out with my friends’ three lovely kids. Their oldest happens to be my one and only pen pal.
I had lunch and went shopping with a friend from college in the cute town of Wimbledon. I got some great deals on jeans there (I can’t find jeans that aren’t “skinny jeans” in Tunisia).
I explored central London in a double decker bus and on foot. I got lost a lot but did manage to find Covent Gardens, China Town, the National Gallery, and a few other fun touristy sights.
On my last night there I got traditional fish & chips from a little whole-in-the-wall restaurant. It was a giant serving sprinkled with salt & vinegar, and wrapped in brown paper to go. It was great!
Then at the airport I waited till just minutes before my flight was supposed to take off to find out which gate I was supposed to go to. The anticipation grew. I was ready get “home.”
I left Sousse 6 hours before my flight, the trip was only supposed to take 2 hours but I wanted to give myself plenty of time. Just outside my house over ten taxi drivers passed by me. One even stopped but told me he couldn’t take me to the train station; I have no idea why. I finally got a taxi and got on the train just in time. I sat next to a very nice girl who spoke perfect English. We chatted almost the entire trip, which ended up being 90 minutes longer than planned due to engine troubles. During out extended journey she told me about Tunisian poetry and theater, among many other things. Once in Tunis I struggled to get a taxi. It was Friday afternoon rush hour and every single taxi seemed to be occupied. I wondered if I should start panicking because by that time I no longer had a full two hour cushion before my flight. Luckily a nice cab driver had mercy on me and didn’t drive off when I told him where I wanted to go. He even put up with my broken Arabic and chatted with me as we slowly pushed our way through the afternoons traffic jams. At the airport I got checked in and got through customs in record time. In the waiting area I bumped into a friend of a friend; she ended up sitting right behind me on the flight. I had expected to feel quite lonely on this journey but loneliness is quite the opposite of what I experienced.
I have little to no plans for the rest of my time in London. I’m staying with some friends of mine who are also from Oregon and will hopefully see a few other friends as well. Today we went to Tesco (similar to WalMart) and I bought loads of treats to take back to Tunisia. During the rest of my time I’ll get to see more what their life is like here, do some more shopping and work to check up on emails and the like.
I’m on my way to London later today. I forgot how much I dislike traveling by myself. Trying to figure out how to get to the airport, buying train tickets online, packing, etc. stresses me out quite a bit. It wouldn’t be as bad if I could sleep the night before I travel, a skill I haven’t learned yet.
OK, sorry for complaining so much. I’ll be in London for six days and I’m happy to say that my camera is fixed so I’ll be able to take lots of pictures. Despite my travel anxiety I’m looking forward to a change of pace.
The general strike was quite peaceful. There were a number of protests in various cities— some rocks were thrown from the crowds and tears gas thrown by the police—but no major outbursts of violence. The future of the country is still uncertain. The government officials are meeting regularly, aiming to come to some agreements and move forward with plans of finishing the new constitution.
There’s going to be a nationwide strike tomorrow. There’s been some political unrest the past few days following the assassination of the governing party’s opposition leader. Check out this link to find out more. Or watch this PBS report on You Tube.
Today was a full day. In the morning I went to the post office because someone had told me that it’s open till noon on Saturday’s but it wasn’t. There was a girl outside the post office that asked me a question and when she realized I didn’t speak Arabic well we got into a long conversation in English about life and about what each of us are doing here in Sousse. She’s from another city but is studying to become a doctor. We ended up walking around the town together for nearly an hour before we each went our own ways. For lunch I went to one of my expat’s friend’s homes for a birthday party/ BBQ. The weather was perfect for a barbeque today, nearly 80 degrees, a nice change to how cold it’s been lately. After the BBQ I went to my friends ceramic shop in the Medina. Last week I taught her how to make polymer clay designs and today she taught me how to make designs in clay. Just before I was about to go home some girls I met about a month ago called me to see if I could meet them in town. Once I found them we went to a restaurant and then got ice-cream. We talked for nearly two hours about politics and religion; two things that I typically try to avoid talking about back home but for some reason here I find these kind of conversations quite enjoyable.
I’m home now, reflecting on all the people I’ve met since I moved here. I love how easy it can be to meet new people and how hospitable they are. I definitely feel fortunate to be in a country like this.
I made Tunisian pasta on Thursday with my language teacher. We cooked large chunks of beef in a tomato based stew for nearly two hours. While that was cooking we boiled the pasta for nearly 40 minutes. (This kind of pasta is usually cooked for 12 minutes back home but here people like the pasta to be really soft. After 30 minutes my teacher tasted the pasta and said it was still hard like plastic). When the sauce was almost done we added in two green chilly peppers for the last 5 minutes. After that we mixed it all together and ate a ton. It was so good!
-The other day when I was standing in line at the grocery store the older lady in front of me turned around and asked me something about the meat I was holding. I politely told her that I don’t know very much Arabic because I didn’t understand what she’d asked. She apparently didn’t understand me either because her daughter had to explain what I’d attempted to say. Then the lady again started talking to me; she asked me where I was from and what I was doing here. I was explaining my life story to her in what I thought was decent Arabic when she turned away from me while I was still speaking and told the cashier that it was a shame that she couldn’t understand anything I said.
Today is a holiday in Tunisia called Mawlid (or Mouled), it’s the observance of the birthday of the Islamic prophet Muhammad. Some people like to celebrate this day with parties, decorations, and parades; others prefer to mark the occasion by spending more time reading the Quran.
One thing that everyone here seems to agree on is that you must make the time-consuming dessert called Zgougou. I tried this grey-brown colored pudding 6 years ago during my first visit here. It tasted just like I imagined a pine tree would taste like, and later found out that it’s made from the seeds of an Aleppo pine. Find out more on Wikipedia.
Most people spent all day yesterday preparing the dessert and are probably enjoying it cold for a breakfast treat right now. I will not be participating in this tradition this year being that I’ve locked myself inside today in order to get some homework done.
There has been a lot of fun things that I’ve wanted to share with you these past few weeks yet without a working camera I’ve felt less motivated to blog about it. Here’s a quick overview without photos to give you a bit of an idea of recent events.
Christmas: I spent Christmas with one of my favorite ex-pat families. We had traditional British Christmas food, opened presents, watched lots of good movies, and just relaxed a bit. Of course I missed my family but thanks to Skype I got to spend some time with them.
New Years: On New Years eve I went to my friend May’s house, just over an hour away on the train. She’s a newly wed and loving married life. Together with her husband and his friends we went out for coffee in a nearby town. Then we went to her parents house where we ate lots of sweets and watched New Years specials on TV. Then at 11pm her husband wanted to go home. Both May and I thought he was really tired, but it ended up that he had a little surprise waiting for her at their house— a little present, her favorite kind of cake, lots of other special treats, and a few close friends. That’s where we counted down the last minute before the new year.
My Birthday: I had a birthday…. I can’t believe it…. each year is going by so quickly!!! In the morning I went out to breakfast with one of my good friends and her three year old son. Then in the evening my expat friends had a nice dinner party for me. It was a fun and relaxing day!
Someone else’s Birthday Party: My friend from paint class invited me to her nephew’s 10th b-day party. It was just a small party, his family and one of his friends from school. We ate lots of little cakes and treats, everyone opened his presents for him, and then we all danced. Their family is so close, it was so much fun to be a part of that.
Food: I’ve had so much good food lately. I’m loving Tunisian food more and more. I recently had some really good fish from my favorite restaurant in the Medina, I found a new sandwich place that makes the best kebab sandwiches, and oranges are in season so I’ve been making fresh orange juice almost everyday!
My friends harvested their olive tree yesterday and I got to help. They put sheets on the ground and everyone used mini rakes to pull the olives off the branches. Occasionally some branches were sawed off to make them easier to get to. Once an area of the tree was olive-free a few of us would sit together on one of the sheets and clear away some of the leaves and branches before putting the olives in large sacks. This was an all day effort; by 5pm we finished with nearly two and a half sacks of olives.
Today my friends will take their harvest to a place that makes olive oil, and will probably return with more than 20 liters of oil. I tried a fresh olive once; it tasted like poison. It’s strange how something that tastes so horrible can turn into really good oil.
I finally relaxed once I got to my friend May’s house . My heart had been racing the entire 90 minute train ride. Why? Well, I was afraid I would miss my stop; I was nervous about going to a new city and meeting new people all by myself; and I was worried I might do something culturally inappropriate at the wedding and embarrass my new friend. However, the sweetness of the girl that met me at the train station calmed me down almost immediately and I felt at ease for the rest of my stay there.
That afternoon I sat around in the living room greeting guests while May got some beauty treatment done. (They used some kind of sugar mixture to remove ALL the hair from her body). Once it was dark she got dressed up in a traditional Tunisian wedding dress. (This was just the second night of the wedding, the third night is the night she gets her make-up and hair done, and wears a beautiful white wedding dress).
Once she was all dressed up in many heavy and stiff layers of clothing we headed downstairs to her uncles house where roughly forty women were waiting. There a DJ played some music while she danced a little and showed off her traditional clothes and the henna dye on her hands. Then all the women started dancing. (The men were upstairs doing something else).
After a few hours of dancing, mingling, and eating sweets people started to go home. At the end of the night some people complained about the untraditional music (I guess a DJ isn’t traditional) and four women argued over which of their sons I was going to marry. I didn’t understand what was going on but I was told later that they decided I would meet their sons the following night and decide for myself who I would marry. Luckily, I couldn’t stay for the last night of the wedding.
The first weekend I was here I met a young lady in the medina shopping for her wedding. She spoke good English and noticed that I didn’t know any Arabic, so she offered to help me out with anything I needed. She called me a month later (yesterday) and invited me to her home town to attend her wedding. She wanted me to stay for all three days of the wedding (Friday- Sunday) but I could only arrange to go for one night—so I’m going tonight. This will be the first Tunisian wedding I get to go to. I’m a little nervous because I’m going to a new town for the first time and staying with people I don’t really know, but I’m sure I’ll have lots of fun stores to write home about. Wish me luck!
I’ve heard it said that when you move to a new country you should find local places and things that you enjoy as a way of bonding with the new culture. That’s very easy to do here. If I had taken a picture of every cake, crepe, croissant or other dessert I’ve eaten since I’ve been here, there might be nearly 100 photos. Unfortunately, I am often so excited about eating sweets that I forget to take pictures. Also, now that my camera is in the shop it might be a while before I can share pictures of what I eat with you. (You would be jealous if you knew how good I eat). So here’s a few pictures to give you a vague idea of the delicious sweets I find all over town.
Ok, that should give you a basic idea of what I eat when I’m craving something sweet. You should also know that I’ve joined a gym in town to make up for all the extra calories!
I finally have a language coach! Her name is Kawther. She’s very nice and a very good teacher. She comes to my house 5 times a week for either 2 or 3 hours at a time. Right now I’m building up my vocabulary by listening and pointing to lots of different objects (the way a child learns language). I learn anywhere from 20 to 30 new words a day. I’ll do this phase of language learning for a few more weeks. Once I learn 600 words I’ll start talking in class.
Tourist shops also inside the Medina walls.
My favorite restaurant in the Medina.
