A Tunisian family weekend

Last weekend was certainly an interesting experience. We were not told who we would be spending the weekend with until they showed up on Friday. I was staying with the average Tunisian family - a mother, a father, a 17 year old daughter (Ines), a 14 year old son, and a 6 year old daughter. (They also had a live-in maid). They lived in a typical Tunisian family compound - Ines' maternal uncle lived above them, her grandmother lived next to them, her paternal uncle lived above her grandmother. Maggie, another student in the program, was staying with the family of the maternal aunt, who lived about a kilometer away. I was pretty much entertainment for the 17 year old, who considered me her American doll for the weekend. Her 18 year old cousin Siwar had had an American student last semester, and now it was her turn too. She showed me to all her friends and everything.

Unfortunately the family spoke no English, which is a problem because I don't speak Arabic. However, they did speak French. I got by pretty well, except for the mother, who didn't speak proper French and had a heavy accent.

Maggie and I were picked up by my host mother, Ines, and Maggie's host sister, Siwar, and were taken to Ariana, a suburb of Tunis. The weekend was great because I got to see a lot of Tunis - we went to Carthage on Saturday, and the Bardo (museum with half of the mosaics in the world).

I'd like to share a few thoughts on the Tunisian family:

It is customary to feed guests, and it is considered an insult if they refuse. As a result, I was eating every hour all weekend. To make things a bit more difficult, I wasn't allowed to serve my own plate. There was pretty much no way for me to eat everything they gave me. I had chicken couscous, salad mechouia, fried salad, Tunisian baklava, Lebanese baklava, a variety of juices, a fried pancake thing that reminded me of beignets, and the list goes on and on. It was great to finally be eating somewhere that wasn't a restaurant, but there was just sooo much food.

My host mother wore a hijab. However, since I was a female, she didn't wear a hijab in the house. In fact, she did not wear much at all - a very light, low cut, short, house dress. This is just another example of the difference between how women act outside the house and inside the house. Ines did not wear a hijab. Ines claimed she did not pray or follow Islam except for Ramadan.

This brings me to Saturday night. I had the expression that Maggie, Ines, Siwar, and I were going out with another friend named Miriam for the evening. We were told we were going to a teahouse on Le Lac. It turns out that we were being used as an excuse for the girls to go out with their secret boyfriends. Wow. In fact, Miriam was meeting her boyfriend for the second time (ever), who was 23 (she was 17), and whom she'd met on the internet. I guess the expectation is that the girls will not go and spend time with boys, so their mothers don't think to question what they are up to.

Everyone in Tunisian holds hands. This made me feel very uncomfortable all weekend, as I was expected to hold Ines' hand while walking around all weekend. In fact, when I crossed the street, everyone held their hands out to me to help me cross. I felt like a five year old again. I was also kissed by so many people that I couldn't keep track. Relatives walked in and out of the house, and of course wanted to meet the American. Because of the separation of the sexes, girls only hold hands with girls, and guys with guys. In fact, it is common to see guys with their arms around each other on the street, giving each other kisses. As an American, this seems particularly strange to me.

Some interesting ideas from the weekend:
1) Obama is Mulsim. That is why the Arab world wants him to win. But it will be hard for him because Americans hate Muslims.
2) The Jews in America control the American economy.
3) I must have snuck out of my house all the time as a teenager and done lots of drugs and alcohol because I am American.
I'll add more as I think of them...

By the end of the weekend (in which I'd managed to do a lot), I was ready to return to my own bed in the hotel (I felt bad because I'd stolen the six year old daughter's bed for the weekend). However, they were not ready for me to return. I had to tell them that I had tutoring at the hotel, so they would take me back. They wanted me to stay and return every weekend. In fact, I even got invited to a dance party with Ines this weekend (not going because I don't want to/am going to Kairouan).

Even if it was a bit overwhelming, I did have an enjoyable weekend. The family couldn't have been nicer, and I plan to go to Sidi Bou Said with Ines later in July.

Homestay

I had a homestay with a Tunisian family this weekend. It has been a fun couple of days because I am listening to everyone's stories.

Here are a few of the more interesting ones:

1) 2 of my friends ended up not spending the night because the guys kept offering them pot and to take them to clubs for one night stands.

2) Another friend saw a Muslim circumcision of a 5 year old boy. Later that evening, a friend of his family tried to take him to a brothel. The man claimed that he had the night off because his wife was in the hospital having a baby.

3) Funny hammam stories, involving naked scrubbing by an 80 year old woman while the student's host family kept popping in.

Of course, these are the more extreme stories, but everyone seemed to have at least an interesting, if not great, time. As for me, I was pulled around my a 17-year old Tunisian girl and used as an excuse for her and her friends to leave the house to secretly meet boys. More on this tomorrow...

First Weekend Excursion!

This past weekend was our first official excursion with the CLS program. Everyone from CEMAT went - the director and the staff, two of our teachers, and both of our tutors. We left the hotel at 8 am, and took a bus to El Jem (about 2.5 hours south of Tunis). Our first stop was at a museum, where we saw excavated mosaics. From there, we went to the huge Roman coliseum. We hung about the ruins for a while, walking through the underground pits and climbing the stands. We grabbed lunch, where I shared a stuffed pepper with a friend.


After lunch, we piled back on the bus to Mehdia. By then, the whole group was feeling rather tired, so we wandered through the medina and sat on the rocks by the sea. Then, we piled back on the bus (again) for Monastir to reach our hotel. I figured that it would be the normal hotel, but no! It was a 4 star beach resort (thank you, American taxpayer). I had a view of the Mediterranean from my balcony.

I went for a quick swim in the pool, then got dressed for dinner. I ate so much, since my lunch had been small. Although the dinner was only mediocre, it seemed great because there were actual vegetables. (and watermelon!) I've been eating in cafes for two weeks, so a buffet seemed simply amazing.

The evening just got "better" from there. There was a disco in the basement of the hotel. Tunisian staff members had formed a group called Celtic Tiger, and attempted to perform traditional Irish dance to techno music. Then, they made the audience get out and dance too. Of course, there was a strobe light. And no dance party would be complete without Michael Jackson and Shakira. Once we became to hot, we ran outside the hotel and took a swim in the sea. Overall, the entire evening was a bit surreal. How did I end up at a beach resort in Tunisia, watching Tunisians Irish dance to techno music?

The next morning, I got up and sat on the beach for several hours. And I thought I was spending the summer in an Islamic country, in which I would not be tanning! The water was perfectly clear and shallow. Unlike Nice, there were no jelly fish. Absolutely beautiful. I grabbed the free lunch buffet at the hotel (yum watermelon), before we left at 2.

Monastir was the hometown of Tunisia's first president - Bourgiba. We visited his mausoleum. It was a huge marble building in the middle a cemetery. (see pic)

On our way back, we stopped in Hammemet. By this time, the whole group was tired of seeing random Tunisian tourist beaches and was ready to head back to Tunis. I ended up having the most amazing fruit salad in the restaurant while we waited to leave.

When I got back on the bus I was greeted with a surprise. I had been sitting with one my teacher's nieces (age 11). She just started taking English in school, so we talked in French. Honestly, it was a bit awkward because she kept asking me about American popular culture (do you like Rihanna? I love One Tree Hill). Typical eleven year old stuff, but I'm sure I sounded like an incredibly uncool American. However, it was a great way to practice my French. She presented me with a bracelet with my name in Arabic that she had gotten in the medina. (By the way, my name in Arabic is spelled the same way as the African country Mali).

On the way back, Dr. Michalek, the head of the program, quizzed us on Tunisian tourism. Apparently, that was the goal of the excursion - to experience Tunisian tourism. I am certainly ok with that goal - the US government paid me to lie on the beach! Really, though, I think it was just a free vacation for everyone.

New blog post coming soon.

In the meantime, here is a pretty picture from the Ghar el Melh excursion!

My Daily Life

I thought I would give everyone a brief overview of my day-to-day life in Tunis.

I get up and have breakfast at the Carlton Hotel, where we are staying for the next 2 months. It is on Avenue Habib Bourgiba, the main avenue of Tunis, named after the first president.

I am currently in the afternoon session classes, so we have tutoring in the morning from 10:12:45. I have been taking my time getting to school, often doing some homework in the hotel before I leave. My roommate has morning classes, so she usually leaves by about 8, so I have time to be lazy and organize things by myself in the morning.

Walking to school is always an adventure. It is about a 15 minute walk that is usually quite pleasant. It is almost always very sunny, but not hot yet - in the upper 70's in the morning. Like most of the girls, I wear large sunglasses to detract unwanted attention. Getting to class involves crossing Avenue Habib Bourgiba, which is quite large. The classic arcade game Frogger is probably the best way to describe the experience. Crosswalks are seldom used. You pick somewhere along the street, crossing lane by lane, darting among cars. Once you make up your decision to go, you've got to keep going. People who suffer from indecision will probably never make it across the street! Yes, it is dangerous, but yes, that seems the only way to do it.

The school is down an alley that often has a pretty vile smell. However, once you get through the blue doors of the school, it opens into a pretty Italian villa. I sit outside in the morning under the fig trees finishing my homework and checking my email. The fig trees contain quite a few trees, and the morning is interspersed with splats from the figs falling. So far, none have landed on my head, although I have been attacked by fig juice falling from ripe figs still in the trees.

Lunch is from 12:45 to 1:45. I usually go to the market down the street for fresh bread, cheese, and fruit. If I spend over 2 dollars on lunch, it's a problem. Even spending 2 dollars, I often have lots to share. One of my friends accidentally bought four bags of blackberries the other day because she didn't realize how cheap they were.

Class is from 1:45 to 6:15 with a 30 minute break in the middle. During the break, we have a snack of fresh fruit (including figs from the fig trees outside), juice, and mint tea. Mint tea is a popular drink in Tunisia. It is made from green tea, mint, and lots and lots of sugar.

By the time I get out of class in the evening, I am exhausted. I usually go back to the hotel for a while. People eat dinner late in Tunisia, so if I have an actual dinner (chicken couscous seems to be my favorite), I don't usually go out until 7:30 or 8. Sometimes, I just have a gelato or quiche or something (everything in Tunisia comes with tuna and/or egg, which can get quite tiring).

Evenings involve homework and hanging out with friends. There is not a whole lot to do in Tunisia at night, especially for women. We usually just take it easy and relax after a day of sooo much Arabic class!

( Ghar el Melh and Sidi Ali el-Mekki) سيدي علي المكي ﻮ غار الملح

We had a free weekend, and everyone split ways. I decided not to go far for the weekend, since the week has been so crazy and we are going to be gone for the next few weekends. As of Saturday morning, I had no idea where I was going to go. Several people who were staying in town had plans to go to Bizerte - a touristy beach town about 80 km from Tunis. I wanted to go to the beach, but I didn't feel like sitting on a beach all day and being stared at.

I opened the guidebook (I highly recommend Lonely Planet - Tunisia) to Bizerte and the opportunities around it and found a small, beautiful beach that you could only get to by walking from a nearby town. I managed to persuade a few people to come with me, and we were off!

First, we took a louage to Bizerte with the larger group that was going. A louage is a large van that travels from city to city. They have stripes on the side and leave whenever they are full (8 passengers). They vans park in a louage station and all the drivers yell out their locations.

Once we got to Bizerte, four of us continued on to the next louage. Since we were going to a small town about 45 minutes from Bizerte, we had to pay for the whole louage. We paid a little too much (40 dinars (about 35 dollars) for the whole ride - 10/person, but he offered to come pick us up and take up back to Tunis for 30 dinars at 6:00).

We went to Ghar el-Melh (very difficult for me to say in Arabic - involves a gutteral French r sound, followed by a rolled Spanish r and ending with a silent h). It is a small, quiet town that used to be used by pirates. It means cave of salt in Arabic. There are two abandoned Ottoman forts in the town.

We spent about 20 minutes in Ghar el-Melh, buying bread and using a very sketchy bathroom in a men's cafe. Tunisians can be exceptionally friendly. We asked an old man on the street for a bathroom, and he actually took us to the nearest one, rather than just pointing. Another old man sitting outside the cafe gave us directions to Sidi Ali el-Mekki - the beach.

The beach we headed to was about 6 km outside of Ghar el-Melh. It was a pleasant walk in the 75 degree weather along the coast. The road was narrow and we were occasionally passed by bicycles, trucks, motorcycles, and the like. Our pace was very slow, and it took us nearly an hour an a half to get there.

Once we arrived at the beach, it was definitely worth it! There was hardly anyone there. The mountains ringed the beach. The water was incredibly clear - I could see all the way down to my feet! It was possible to walk out at least half a mile because the water was so shallow. Aside from a great deal of wind, it was perfect. In my opinion, it was better than Nice (*gasp!*). (notice our attempt at a CLS picture...)


To make the experience even better, we stopped at the only restaurant in the area. Since it was about 4:30 (and Tunisians don't eat until at least 7:30), we were the only people in the restaurant. The owner ushered the four of us into the kitchen and opened the refrigerator. At first, we were a bit hesitant that this was going to be another "interesting" Tunisian experience, but he started pulling out fresh fish for us to choose. We each picked one, and we were ushered back to the main room, amid etchings of the owner's family and various sea accessories. We could see the fish being fried on the grill outside the window on pine cones. In the kitchen, the restaurant owner and his wife could be heard yelling at each other, as the pots and pans clanged - a very authentic Tunisian eating experience it seems. When our food arrived, it was the definitely the best seafood I've ever had. Hanna (my roommate) and I had ordered the largest shrimp I've ever seen. After getting past my hesitation at pulling off the head and the legs, I tried it - yum! I've had quite a bit of seafood, so I guess it's the grilling over the pinecones that made it so good.

The ride back was fairly uneventful (aside from being stopped by the police to see if we planned to stay the night in Ghar el-Melh - the Tunisian police take very good care of tourists, especially Americans, since 7 million tourists visit this country of 10 million anually, and Tunisia wants to protect it American ties. We are constantly being stopped and asked if we are ok). We took showers, ate couscous and mint tea at a local restaurant, got some gelato, then tumbled into bed. A wonderful experience, and we were very glad we'd chosen to stray off the beaten path.

In Tunisia

Hello, everyone!

I've just finished my first week in Tunisia. Tunis is a great city. Except for the creepy guys (because I am a Western female), it is very safe. The language is a bit overwhelming. I have learned an entire new alphabet this week - including a bunch of sounds that don't exist in English. I am getting the equivalent of an entire year of Arabic - over 150 classroom hours by the end of the summer, with 90 hours of tutoring. The 30 students in the CLS - Tunisia program live in a hotel with our tutors, about a 15 minute walk from CEMAT (Centre d'Etudes Maghrebines a Tunis), where we have 2.5 hours of tutoring, followed by 4 hours of class. We have 4 different Arabic teachers that cover 2 classes (2 for 1 class, 2 for the other, and they will switch in July). There is also optional tutoring in evening. I am so overwhelmed, but I don't have much of an excuse to be.

I currently have a 3 language thing going on. I speak to the people I am with in English. I am reading in both French and English. I go to Arabic class all day. I speak to the people I interact with in Tunis in French with an increasing amount of Arabic (most people don't speak English). Overall, pretty much very confusing. It's a good thing I speak French - Tunis is like a 3-D dictionary. Everything is written in French and Arabic. I am still working on sounding out the Arabic words, and I can read what they mean in French!

Tunisia is a very diverse country. In Tunis, about half the women cover their heads, and half do not. Short sleeves are common and so are skirts, as long as they reach below my knee. When I go to the resort towns on the beach, I can wear whatever I want (sleeveless shirts, even my swimsuit at the beach!). When I go south and visit Tatouine and the Berber villages (think StarWars), I will need to be more fully covered.

I now have a cell phone and wireless internet access at school. Hopefully, some of you will be lucky enough to catch me online when I am there (Skype me at mollywurzer), even though it is in the wee morning hours on US time. I also use this nifty internet cafe, where internet is free as long as I buy a drink (fresh orange juice for 60 cents?!). Hopefully, I will now be able to keep up with my blog now!