My Neighbor’s Wedding Celebrations!

My landlord’s youngest son, my downstairs neighbor, got married this summer and they made sure I went to all the events as though I was one of the family.

The first event was weeks before the wedding when the bride and her family moved all her wedding gifts into the new house. (It’s normal to receive wedding gifts at any point after the engagement party). A little after 11pm a caravan of about thirty people arrived with a great number of baskets and boxes full of gifts. The bride’s family greeted the groom’s family, drinking tea and chatting for a couple of hours.

On August 3rd the grooms family got together early in the morning, and after a few hours when everyone had arrived they took gifts to the brides family. They had prepared three large baskets of cookies, a basket with many bottles of a special Tunisian juice, a basket full of gifts for guests, a lamb, and a giant fish. Then they went to the Bride’s family’s house and they ate couscous together. Then later that evening the brides family hosted about two hundred guests at their house for the signing of the wedding papers.

    

On August 8th there was a small gathering at the groom’s house in which the family blessed the new couple’s home and then ate couscous together.
On August 9th the bride’s family hosted the Hena Party, a party mostly for women. As is tradition, the bride wore three traditional dresses and danced in circles to the music while wearing the first two. The bride’s are supposed to slowly turn around in circles numerous times while wearing very heavy dresses and high-heels with their eyes closed. The Hena Party planner stood on the stage with the bride making sure she kept proper form and didn’t fall over. During the second dance the bride asked the helper to tell the musicians to sing a different song so she didn’t have to turn in circles anymore. She looked exhausted! It’s definitely not an easy task.
For the presentation of her last dress she walked in with the groom and his family, followed by people holding candles. This time she wore a crown instead of a golden veil. The bride and groom sat together on a fancy couch, then they danced a little and then posed for pictures.

   
 

Then on August 12th they had the last wedding celebration. For this event over four hundred guests gathered at a very nice reception hall outside of Sousse at about 10pm. After about an hour the bride and groom arrived escorted by their families. They sat on the stage in front of all the guests while the guests talked, ate appetizers, and danced. At the end of the night the bride and groom danced with the guests and then had their last photo session with the guests.

 

Check out the following article to read a journalists view on Tunisian Weddings.  Huffington Post: My Big Fat Tunisian Wedding

My New Wheels

Did I mention that I finally got a bike? After a year of wanting one I got a friend to drive me to a nearby city that has lots of used bike stores and didn’t leave until I’d picked one. Though I’m a bit afraid of the way people drive here, I’m getting a lot more comfortable riding on the roads and going around roundabouts with the cars. 

The greatest thing about having a bike is that I’ve met lots of people who are passionate about riding bikes. Unlike Portland, riding bikes as a means of transportation is still very uncommon. However, that’s starting to change thanks to Critical Mass Sousse! This CMS group gets 100 to 300 people together on the last Friday of the month to go for a bike ride around the city as a way to promote cycling. One of their main goals is to get enough people to ride their bikes so that the government will change the infrastructure of the city and make it more bike friendly.

During Ramadan there were two CMS events at 10pm (after everyone had broken the fast). The first one had nearly two hundred participants and the second had just over a hundred. I’ve also had the opportunity to go on a few late-night bike rides with the core group of CMS leaders. It’s been so much fun riding through the city at night!

Fasting and Feasting

On the first day of Ramadan, June 29th, I broke the fast with my new landlords. We started with soup, then Tunisian Brik, grilled fish, some salad, a meat stew that you eat with bread, and then fresh fruit for dessert. I stayed home with my landlord’s wife watching Tunisian Soap operas specially made for Ramadan while her husband went to the mosque for Ramadan services.

I had a the privilege of going to my friend Lobna’s house numerous times to break the fast with her family. One of the unique days of the fast was on July 12th, the halfway mark of Ramadan. Lobna’s mom prepared the traditional couscous Tunisians have on that night-- couscous with lamb meat, a boiled egg, raisins, and peppers.

There are only a few nights of Ramadan left, after that we’ll have three days of celebration. Hopefully I’ll have a few more great meals with my friends these next few nights, and then lots of fun catching up with friends during the holiday.

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.