Art Exhibition

Just before the summer break all the members of the painting class got to show off their artwork at the local Culture Center. Together we ate sweets, took pictures in front of each others artwork and met each others friends and family. It was a great way to end the year. I’m looking forward to starting classes again in September.

   

Fun and changes in June

  
In June I went on my first outing with the local Critical Mass bike group. We rode our bikes around town and a touristic area. A small group escorted me home too.

  
I moved into my new house about a mile from my old house. The narrow stairway up to the second floor made it impossible to move some of the furniture the traditional way, so my helpers had to improvise by pulling some things up over the balcony. With the help of my friends I was able to get all moved in and settled in just about a weeks time. My new landlords were quick to treat me like family and help me out with anything I needed which helped with the transition.  

 
I also said goodbye to my Norwegian model friend in June. We had one last knitting club all together and one last fishing trip before she left. We did all kinds of things together so her and her family will be greatly missed.

 

Moving

This is a short post to let you know that I’ll be moving this coming weekend. So together with big papers due, finals, and a busy work schedule, this coming week is looking a bit chaotic. I’m moving into an unfurnished house, so hopefully I’ll have some luck finding what I need at used furniture stores and markets. I’ll post some photos after I move.

Outings with students

Though teaching can be tiring and a bit stressful at times, it is also incredibly rewarding. The best part is seeing my students improving in English and getting to know them at the same time. Two of the groups I’ve taught became very close friends by the end of the course, and both of them insisted on taking me out for coffee. It’s fun seeing them outside of the classroom and having them help me with my Arabic instead of me helping them with English.

Public Transportation

It might be strange but each new public transportation route I take seems to have its own unique story to go with it. The location of my new job is a little difficult to get to on public transportation. It’s only a ten to fifteen minute drive depending on the traffic, but to take a public car (louage) I have to walk ten minutes to get to the louage station and then walk another five minutes to the school. My other option is to take a taxi straight there for $1.40, $1 more than the louage. So the easiest option is of course taking a taxi, which I’ve been doing the majority of the time.

Yet for some reason, this week I feel more inclined to take a public car. Not because of the small amount of money I’ll save but because of the people I see and meet, not to mention it’s a good excuse to go for a little walk. On the first day this week I sat next to a girl that was giggling uncontrollable at the comedy show playing on the radio. I didn’t understand the radio program but I couldn’t help but laugh too.  The following day the little girl in front of me threw up and the lady next to me found it all pretty entertaining. Yesterday, the woman to my right asked me to help her tell if the change she got back from the driver was counterfeit or not. She ended up arguing the the driver about it.

Yes, taking a taxi is much easier, but for this week I’m enjoying the quirky little things that I see and experience while riding on a louage.  Who knows what will happen tomorrow.

Arts & Crafts

My friend and I drove up to the capital to go to a large arts & crafts fair a few Saturdays ago. It was her first time at the fair and her first time driving in the big city. It was my first time guiding someone else around Tunis. Luckily we only took a few wrong turns. Once there, we spent hours looking at over three hundred booths with everything from carpets, furniture, and paintings, to soaps, jewelry and sweets. I bought a few accessories and sweets; I also ran into a number of people that I’d met at the last arts & crafts fair. It’s such a fun community of talented artists, I was so flattered that they remembered me. I’m hoping that next year some friends and I will have our own booth and I’ll get to hang out there for ten days.

Tedx Carthage

I had the opportunity to go to a TEDx event in a nearby city because I happened to know someone who got me VIP passes. I had tried to get tickets on my own, but they sold out in less than twenty minutes. So I got lucky.

A friend from knitting club went with me and was completely inspired. She has chosen to go against the status quo and at age thirty she quit her job and decided to pursue her dream business. She often feels like she’s the only one and feels crazy in a culture where a woman’s success comes from being married and having kids. She was so encouraged to hear speaker after speaker share stories of how they had quit the normal life and gone after their dreams. She especially liked three of the fifteen speakers. One, a woman who shared that real success doesn’t come from being married and having kids. Another, a teenager who shared about how he almost died and realized he wanted to make the most of every moment of his life from that point on. And thirdly, a young man who shared how he combined the education his parents wanted him to get as a pharmacist with what he really loved doing --movie animation, and is now making pharmaceutical animation videos.

I really didn’t understand all that much because I don’t understand very many academic words in Arabic yet, not to mention that a number of the speakers spoke in French as well. Yet, fortunately my friend was there to help explain the main idea of what each speaker said. It was a great experience seeing my friend get so encouraged, as well as seeing so many other young people get inspired that change is possible in their lives and in their country.

Some of the speakers spoke Tunisian Arabic, some spoke in French, one spoke in standard Arabic, and they even showed two TED Talks videos in English. Check them out the English videos, they’re pretty good.
TED Talks Video: Living Beyond Limits
TED Talks Video: The Happy Secret

First time in Asia

I went to Turkey for a visa trip about a month ago. It was my first time in Istanbul and my first time traveling to Asia. (Just in case you didn’t know, the city of Istanbul sits on two continents: Europe and Asia). While I was there……

I relaxed for a few days at the sea with some friends.

I checked out lots of mosques, palaces, and other touristy places.
    

I found some great places to get fresh juice, tea, and delicious Turkish food.
 

Took a ferry to the Asian side of Istanbul where I went to a very large outdoor market and then took a bus to IKEA and a mall.  

Though I stayed pretty busy seeing all the sights and shopping, I also had a great time “people watching,” observing a familiar but different culture. 
 

Fishing trip #2

Six girls, five fishing poles, lots of food and lots of laughter!

 We caught four giant fish (you can see one of them in the picture)!

 
A great lunch finished off with a little tea party!

 
Many more fishing trips to come in the near future!

Lunch Party at my house

As you probably know, the knitting club I’m a part of doesn’t just knit. We also have lots of good discussions, have lunch parties and go fishing. Last week we had a lunch party at my house. We enjoyed a few different pasta dishes, two couscous dishes, quiche, cheesecake and apple pie. We also made cards and played games.

Spring is here!

Leaves on the fig trees are starting to bloom and so are my flowers. It’s almost time to start wearing sandals and shoes without socks. And soon I’ll no longer have to wear a sweater and a down vest inside my house. I love the spring!

         
Look at the difference from one week to the next. In just another week this fig tree will be completely full with leaves.

 
A few of my flowers.

Volunteering

I had a chance to take two Tunisian friends of mine to the the hospital with me this week. Being that volunteering isn’t very common here it’s really fun talk about it with my local friends. Both of my friends loved hanging out with the kids and expressed that they would like to volunteer somewhere. They both also said that it would be good for their society if more people did volunteer work. It was fun hearing their thoughts and ideas.

Where am I going again?

I met a lady at the hospital that invited me to her house. She was extremely friendly and had a unique ability to understand what I was trying to say as I stumbled through broken Arabic. She tried to tell me where she lived but I really didn’t understand because I’d never heard of that small town before, but she told me I could call and ask for directions when I was on my way. So a few week later I decided to go. I called her but I couldn’t understand her very well, her high voice and my cheap phone didn’t seem to like each other. I wasn’t sure if she told me to go to Sidi Boholid, or Sidi Bousalid, or some other place. But I decided to go ask around at the public transportation anyways.I went ahead and got in a car heading to Sidi Bou Ali. I figured that if it wasn’t the right place I could just take another public car home.

Luckily, I did go to the right place and had a great time getting to know her family. She fed me and my friend couscous with homemade sausage, showed us how to make clay pots used for making tea in, and introduced us to a lot of people. It was a fun afternoon.