Bienvienue a Tunisie !
Midnight Welcoming Committee.
This is all you get...but it's a nice towel isn't it ?
This is all you get...but it's a nice towel isn't it ?
Thursday, March 31, 2005
TULDS - Trainee Farewell
Every conference should be able to be held in the bottom of an empty pool. This is actually the DEEPEST I've ever SAFELY been in the bottom of a pool. ( another story for another time )
Moi Sante
Hello All, I'm back...mostly.
For starters, just wanted to thank everyone who sent their well wishes and symptom advice. My roomates you guys are still amazing, A HUGE THANK YOU for you guys...to the woman for the food and assistance....to the men for the laughs and food. Thank you.
I am back at work now ( well I'm in the office, at least ), and I'm much better than I was but still not quite 100% but closer. I still do not know what exactly it was, but I'm sure it was some sort of virus and a combination of being completely exhausted from running my body at full speed in every direction at the same time. And for those of you wise guys out there, NO it was not herpes or a TUMOR or some by product of my social life! And I don't have malaria either...just btw.
I have a ton of things to catch up on, and get back on the chaotic track, but it beats sitting at home eating soup and bread and watching DVD's all day.
I hope my message finds you all well, and I hope you enjoy reading my recent updates...and the pictures...there are more to come, so come back as much as you wish.
See you kids next time.
Same Bat Time , Same Bat Channel.
- Jeff
For starters, just wanted to thank everyone who sent their well wishes and symptom advice. My roomates you guys are still amazing, A HUGE THANK YOU for you guys...to the woman for the food and assistance....to the men for the laughs and food. Thank you.
I am back at work now ( well I'm in the office, at least ), and I'm much better than I was but still not quite 100% but closer. I still do not know what exactly it was, but I'm sure it was some sort of virus and a combination of being completely exhausted from running my body at full speed in every direction at the same time. And for those of you wise guys out there, NO it was not herpes or a TUMOR or some by product of my social life! And I don't have malaria either...just btw.
I have a ton of things to catch up on, and get back on the chaotic track, but it beats sitting at home eating soup and bread and watching DVD's all day.
I hope my message finds you all well, and I hope you enjoy reading my recent updates...and the pictures...there are more to come, so come back as much as you wish.
See you kids next time.
Same Bat Time , Same Bat Channel.
- Jeff
Same Same but Different
* Weekend March 19th - 21st
So this weekend was more of some similar themes, AIESEC, TRAVELING, Tunisian Buses, Mr. Fredj, picture taking and a lot of walking.
And at the same time it was completely different.
And this is where this week’s "Adventures" begin.
FRIDAY - Royal Treatment:
So as an encore to last week Mr. Fredj extended his hospitableness once again and this time to all of my roommates as well. Everything was going well and he even offered to pick me up from work at 7pm, in time to meet my roommates at 7:30.
All I had to do was get out of work.
Well, this day all my plans for the day's work were halted due to the some last minute executive orders and I had to work on entering some data...all day.
It was great fun.
So after a whole day's worth of data entry, at 6:35 pm I go to save my work and just happen to notice that one of the 3 pages I was working on...was erased.
Right.
To say...I was upset...well it'd be a bit of an understatement, and this is a PG Blog, so suffice it to say that I was definitely displeased with the situation.
So I called Mr. Fredj and told him the great news, and informed my roommates as well.
So despite the slight bump in the road, I shook it off and kept focused on the greatness to come.
In hindsight, I really had no idea what to expect and neither did my roommates. Mr. Fredj simply told us that we were having dinner by his house and that we would have couscous.
Well, when we arrive at his house it was about 8:30, and we were greeted by his wife and daughters and instantly taken to the living room area, which is like most places, the fancy place to keep clean and ready for guests.
So we all sit down and not 2 mins later the first course came out with all the fixin's.
Mishwaya and Brique were first, very typical Tunisian appetizers and very good. Mishwaya is a kind of salad made of green peppers, olives, olive oil, and some pepper seasonings and is sometimes topped of with eggs. It's great, kinda spicy but very tasty (and some of you out there may be gasping for air now, in disbelief for the fact that I would eat such a thing...well that's understandable. But, it's true. And I'll have you know that have been seen eating onions, tomatoes, olives, and whole peppers during my stay here, but all in moderation of course. )
Anyhow, the Brique is probably one of the best tasting foods I've ever had the pleasure of putting in my mouth. It is hard to describe but it basically an egg and some peppers and spices mixed together with lamb or some meat and fried in a breading. It kinda looks like an "elephant ear" except that it's an appetizer not a desert, it's shaped like a triangle, and it's not so sweet. Anyhow, it was so nice...I had it twice!
At that point I was happy and ready for some couscous, or at least I thought I was ready.
Soon Mrs. Fredj comes out with dish, and it is beyond comprehension how large this dish is and how much couscous it contains, which was great for all of us as we're just like college students again, broke and hungry all the time....so naturally this was heaven in Tunis. From the first bite my mouth was as happy as it's been since...well...I'm not sure...but it definitely warranted a smile.
Now even though, I've had some great couscous moments to this point there has always been something that's missing. If you've ever had couscous, and especially in large doses, you know that after a while you mouth gets a little dry...and that moment you think "wouldn't it be great to have some kind of sauce with this?"
Well, Mrs. Fredj hooked it up.
And that was the green light I needed to eat without conscience.
The pieces of lamb were as tender and juicy as could be. The potatoes were whole. The carrots were long and delectable.
I even ate one of the peppers (if you know me, you know on this Earth those kind of things don't happen).
And there was a huge bowl of sauce to keep your palette moist and aid digestion.
After about 15 minutes I remembered that I should at least look up from my plate and try to be social able, only to notice my roommates Mariska, Brian, and Serge (unfortunately Beata was sick this evening) still had their faces in their plates, out of the corner of my eye I see Serge give a grin like his life was complete and Brian was a visage of bliss.
It really was a great moment, and happened to be what we all needed after the end of a VERY long Friday.
So at this point we're all "Fat and Happy", and our breathing patterns have definitely slowed down, and then we all hear
"So are you guys ready for dessert?"
The term "SHOCK" doesn't do justice to the look on all of our faces.
Before we could even think of a decent reply Mrs. Fredj had come out with a tray of Oranges, a tray of nuts, another tray full of the freshest dates, and before we could finish our water or pop we had wine and hot mint tea in front of us.
At this point I had the remnants of couscous dinner, a big phat orange in front of me, three glasses: water, Boga (pop), and hot mint tea...now this was QUICKLY becoming the greatest spectacle of eating I have, and possibly could ever have, in Tunisia. And just when we had enough and our stomachs felt as if they could explode in any moment...there was still one last dish...baklava and cookies...and more tea naturally.
Now, I couldn't finish the sweets but I had to have more tea. The last time I had this kind of tea I was visiting in the Southern half of the United States. It a same kind of mint tea served in places in Morocco or places of Moroccan influence...so I decided to indulge in the moment.
Well I think I've dwelled on the food and drink enough at this point, believe or not we did actually have a conversation. Mr. and Mrs. Fredj have two daughters who had recently returned from school, and one of Mrs. Fredj's friends from work also joined us.
We chatted for hours in Arabic, Shotty Arabic, Excellent French, Broken French, and some spotty English...it was definitely a moment. In the end we end we managed to discuss about life in Tunisia, life in America, how great the food was, and your basic chit chatting. Towards the end of the night we somehow got into a discussion about singing. It seems the Mr. Fredj's youngest daughter believed I looked like USHER.
Right.
Now I'm no psychologist or whatever but I think that she was simply a 16 year old girl who had an African-American male in her house...but who really knows?
Still we all had a good laugh out of it, although she was pretty serious. Hahahaha !
Well after that, everyone thought it'd be a good idea if I actually sang an USHER song.
WOW.
Now I was REALLY LAUGHING !
I could barely BREATH let alone SING ! And since the last Usher song I heard was "Burn" , I didn't think the mood was right, mine or the environment’s , not to mention that the rest of Usher's songs aren't very appropriate for "family" gatherings.
Anyhow, I managed to finally meander my way out of the situation by dodging the requests and mentioning how GREAT of a dancer Serge was.
HAHAHA !!
And it worked.
So Serge ( the human entertainment machine ), gets up and starts dancing to some Arabic "Jukebox " music.
( If you don't know the "jukebox" I'm sorry, but it was the cause of lots of music video moments of my childhood, and it was free ! So yea )
So Serge's is dancing and at this point the night is complete. We then knew " the time had passed"...which is Serge's way of saying " It's ridiculously late, and we should be sleeping".
Mr. Fredj was gracious enough to give us a ride back across the city to the Menzah and when we arrived, it was 2 am and we slept like rocks.
SATURDAY - Recoup Time :
Saturday was every bit of a recovery day.
The only thing we did productive this day was sleep, at least until about 1pm.
Once I had gained most of my conscinous I went to meet with Lotfi to discuss some business and travel to his home in Bab Souka. Unfortunately for me the first thing Lotfi asks me is " Are you ready to come to my house and eat couscous until we die ? "
Right.
I was still trying to recover from last night's "food coma."
Well, fortunately for me, the couscous was limited to only that and just one tasty bowl, so I left with my stomach lining in tact.
After lunch Lotfi and I headed to office of the National Committee office of Aiesec Tunisia, and on the way we picked up Mariska who had been wandering around downtown.
This was the weekend in which the Tunisia Leadership and Development Conference was being held...a.ka. - TULDS. This is a national conference and no small task, and in typical "AIESEC" fashion the most important parts were left to be completed at the last moment. Yet, somehow things always work out for the best. Lotfi works with the National Committee ( MC ), as the Coordinator for the Salaam Program in Tunisia and was serving as a facilitator of the TULDS. All of the trainees were invited for a day or two to the conference so me and the other Americans and Serge decided to join for the conference, unfortunately the conference was being held from Sunday to Wednesday, and so getting there and back in a day would definitely be an issue.
Once in the MC office we say hello and shakes hands and trade bisous with all of our familiar Aiesec Crew - Wassim, Emira, Ahmed, Yousr, Wanji, and Imen among others.
It is here were the plot thickens.
Mariska and I found out that there were plans in the conference for a Global Village ( all the trainees representing their countries to the delegation ), and that Imen was the person responsible for this and for the trainees that would be attending...and to this point it was only the 4 of us, none of us were in ANYWAY prepared for a presentation...so it was already going to be interesting.
And then there's IMEN.
Imen is an interesting "specimen" to say the least. She is native Tunisian, and had worked and studied in New York for 4 years prior to returning to Tunis. She works with the student side of AIESEC ( sending them abroad ) and happens to speak 4 languages...Arabic, French, English, and Spanish. Since she perfected her English in New York when she speaks in English it has a definite "New York" tune to it. It's pretty amusing and makes for good conversation, but in the by her being able to speak English so well, it has definitely helped all us Americans communicate our needs, wants, and issues to the public and to other members of Aiesec, and I think Mariska appreciated having another girl to speak with as opposed to being around all of us guys all the time.
Any who, in order for us to join we had to meet the MC at 7:45 am on Sunday, it was Saturday and too much work was going on so Me and Mariska decided find our ways home and get some sleep in prep for the long day ahead. In fact, we had plans to meet the other American ( Brian) to catch a film at the theater; until he told texted me informing me that he found the bomb publinet ! Quote Brian....
" Downloads at 48kb / sec ! Better than beer and sex ! 2.4 GHz CPU.....you won't see me at home. "
Yes, that is a direct quote, and THAT is Brian.
So Me and Mari went on a bit of a wild goose chase trying to find a movie to watch, as we had to get up early in the morning and that's what we do anyway. We ended up purchasing a great movie named " Les Incroyables" ( in English - The Incredibles) , most in our apartment hadn't seen it except for me, so this night we'd watch it. Once we returned to home base Brian met us, and we all had a good laugh...in English, and in French. I figured it was a hit, Serge loved it, as did Mariska and in the next 2 days we ended up watching 4 more times, but it's funny so why not ?
SUNDAY - On to NABEUL - TULDS / Tunisian Independance day :
So Sunday was Tunisian Independance day, March 20th. And ordinarily you'd think that there'd be some grandiose celebration, yet in Tunisia it's pretty much just another day. In actuality the more popular day was the "Jour de Jeunesse " ( day of the Youth ) , which was the coming Monday. So it was a fitting setting for the beginning of the TULDS.
So at what seemed like the crack of dawn, we all got up and headed out to meet the MC and head on over to the Bus Station for the TULDS.
The bus station was the first place we all gathered, and if anyone has ever spent some extended amount of time in at Greyhound station than you'd know how this story goes.
The highlights come from the guy at the ticket booth, and free breakfast. The guy at the ticket booth was just a jerk. It seemed like he had it out for everyone that came up to the window, unfortunately he was the only person who was working this morning. He had the worst attitude and kept turning everyone back to get "exact" change for the ticket. Well, Brian went before I did, and as I, he only had a 5 dinar piece and the ticket was 3.2 dinars. A logical person would think that this should be an easy task but not this guy. Brian actually managed to find some change to give the guy, and at this point I was already annoyed by this person, and my patience is definitely at a minimum early in the morning.
So I get to the window and the guy tells me 3.2 dinars.
I handed him my 5 piece and waited for change.
He gives me the dirtiest shadiest scowl and repeats. " 3.2 dinars " and my response was
" I gave you 5. This is all I have."
Once again a received he glare, and then he grunted and probably cursed me in Arabic...but I got my change. : )
Oh, and we got free breakfast ( thanks Imen ).
Tulds:
The conference was held in a city called Nabeul.
Nabeul is a pretty tiny town that is known, above other things, for its pottery and Oranges. Most of the town's gifts are overshadowed by its touristy neighbor in Hammamet. The hotel was called Sun Holiday Beach Club ( which the only true part of this was the sun and the beach, as they were natural). Once we arrived at the hotel, things were a bit chaotic with around 200 delegates arriving at the same time, so opening ceremonies for the conference were a bit behind so that gave everyone a couple extra hours of free time.
So we trainees did what we only felt natural...we went to the beach. Being that Imen was "in charge" of the trainees, she took this moment to join us at the beach.
This was the site of my "nostalgic moment" of the week.
It didn't help that the first conversation, Imen and Mariska started on the beach was centered on how the beach and the water invokes feelings of nostalgia and calmness. The weather was nice perfectly sunny and warm, but still not too hot with just whisper of a breeze, it just a perfect setting to....set me back in time.
The time seems like a dream now, from far far away. It was the last time I had been on a beach before coming to Tunisia and now the smells, the sounds, sun, waves, and the way the beach carved out the coast... I felt as if I were in a time machine...except...for all that was similar...something was awry...something was wrong...and it felt...lost.
It was like some dreams you have when you wake everything in your body tells you it was real, your heart beats fasters, your pulse races, you sweat, and eyes and your mind seem to betray themselves and the rest of your senses. The kind of dreams that make you question "reality"...it was like that...and I was wide awake ! I noticed this happening in my mind and trying meander my way out of this one, but it was already in my head. So focused on other things for awhile...like walking.
It was actually kind of funny how well all walked together, it was kind of like a human "slinky" ( ahh what a happy thought, I miss slinkys they were fun. ) Anyhow, there were 5 of us ( 3 male, 2 female ) and as we walked we all seemed group together as one unit, then into sexes, and then into individuals parts. This went on for the whole hour or so we were on the beach.
During of the extended individual periods I was once again sacked by this "nostalgia" and now other "beach" moments had decided to join in, and before I knew it, I was noticing different colors and searching for the "perfect sea shell" and a "nice rock" to judge the beach on.
Fortunately for my psyche, Imen was acting as the timekeeper and "woke me up" by telling us all it was time to go back for food and opening ceremonies, both of which were welcome distractions.
CONFERENCE:
So the whole time we were at the conference Imen was pretty much like our " trainee" mom. She bought us food in the morning, gave us the lowdown / updates on conference ( as Wassim, Emira, and Lotfi were busy planning everything) , and then even fed us lunch. And as with any mom she would always always check, check, and double check "just to make sure" everyone was ok. It was pretty funny, but the sandwiches came in the clutch so....just a little " Merci " to Imen from us trainees for your hospitality. We all appreciated it.
To say the least, opening ceremonies for the TULDS was definitely some kind of a spectacle, we had Greek gods, fireworks, dances, chants, taunts, anthems, and lots of butt shakin. It was pretty weird different being on the "other side " of all the AIESEC work at conference...wait did say weird ?
I meant it was AWESOME.
For the first time in a long time I wasn't the one running around getting pulled in multiple directions at the same time, or just getting worked up about something that just happened that shouldn't have...I could REALLY just relax.
Well, it helped that I couldn't follow all of the conversation partly because of the acoustics, mostly because of my knowledge of Arabic and French.
As in all AIESEC conferences not matter where in the world you are from it is extremely "UNCOOL" to not do ANYTHING for a roll coll.
Roll Calls, for those that may not know, are a little way of making your presence known at the start of a conference, and the first ones are the biggest...which means they actually require some amount of forethought.
Well, there were 3 of us Americans, and a Cameroonian. We knew watching Serge dance was a spectacle in itself, and for that matter Mariska has a tendency to spontaneously erupt into some kind of dance whenever and wherever , so the only two left were Brian and I , and Imen offered for services as a "almost foreigner" but not really for the dancing. Well Brian isn't KNOWN for his dancing but he does alright when it comes downs to it, and I've been known to be "ok" from time to time. So...I just happened to have a few AIESEC songs on my computer and we decided we'd all sing our individual "National Anthems" and then all unite to perform a dance to the AIESEC version of the song "Cotton Eye Joe" as Brian ( the guy from Indiana ) deemed the other version " too country".
NOW, some of you out there may have seen this little number performed , and other will probably have do it yourselves once or twice. Well, at this point Brian ( who had been a member of Aiesec PURDUE, where dances were as common as men ) so he remembered the basic movements, but the rest...were completely fresh. So with 30 mins to spare, we had to whip everyone into shape in time for the Ceremony. It was rough going for awhile, we got it together just in time to do our Anthem-singing, and crowd pleasing "Boot-Scootin-Boogie" Cotton Eye Joe Hoe Down Dance.
Needless to say....the crowd was moved. : ) hahaha !
After all the dust, and smoke cleared, the Aiesecer's were going to get down to some business...and that meant the trainees to "hit the old dusty trail ! "
NABEUL :
Serge opted to stay behind for some reason, so me and the American contingency decided to rock and roll.
NOW...this is where things REALLY started to get hairy.
We got in this cab and headed back into downtown to have a walk around, just before we got out, the driver asked us where we were from....I believe he said
" Are you English? From Britain ? Or From Europe. "
We quickly responded, as usual, "No sir, we are Americans."
He says " REALLLY WOW ! You are the FIRST AMERICANS I have EVER met in Tunisia ! Although I have been to the U.S. before...where are you guys from .... GEORGIA ? "
( now, this is a definite first...)
We said "No....we are NOT from GEORGIA. "
He said " Yea, I was in ATLANTA, when I went to the U.S. I have family there, it was great I really enjoyed my time there. "
We all laughed as it was a very cool, but somewhat random conversation, but enjoyable.
On the way out he gave us a slight discount on the cab ride and bid us farewell on our day and our journey in Tunisia.
It was nice.
After that we proceeded to check out NABEUL and to save you eyes and my fingers, just check out the pictures with Nabeul in name. But it was nice time.
After catching a breather and a much another amazing sunset in Tunisia...we made our way back to the hotel, just in time for dinner.
Just before dinner we met the newest trainee in Tunis, Kamil from Germany and we found another trainee Chris from Belgium, so we had a little trainee dinner.
Now....before I mentioned that things started to get "hairy" and by that I meant that I wasn't quite expecting the upcoming events. After dinner and within about 2 hours of having left the cab in downtown I ran into and Aiesecer , from another LC I hadn't experience yet, and a trainee that had BOTH CONSECUTIVELY mentioned their lone experiences in the United States having been in where else....
ATLANTA, GEORGIA.
It had also been recently been brought to my attention that the O'hare Airport in Chicago as relinquished its crown of "Most INTERNATIONAL Airport" to where else...
The Hartsfield - Jackson International Airport of ATLANTA, GEORGIA.
So for those still reading....note that I have "tipped my cap" to Atlanta, as fate so eloquently hinted to me...and yes I'm actually writing the CHICAGO is not the best city in AMERICA , in at least one thing...so there.
At that point...I had had enough action for one day, and I need a SERIOUS nap.
Yup.
There was "SUPPOSED" to be a global village where the USA was and among other countries was supposed to represent. As it turns out, the details for the evening, and what exactly we were intended to do wasn't clarified until approx. 1:45 am ( judging by my vague recollection of a phone call at that time ).
So I slept through it all.
In fact...ALL OF THE TRAINEES slept through it...and to top of....even the coordinator of it , Imen, slept through it as well.
Possibly the most satisfying 12 hours of sleep I'd ever had at a conference. Actually the only 12 hour sleep I've had at a conference...nice !
MONDAY - Jour de Jeunesse:
So at about 11 am one of the LC's put together a "trainee beach trip " so we figured we'd might as well follow suit. This time on the beach our "slinky" group practiced some our French and educated ourselves...but the beach was still nice.
Just before heading back to Tunis, we made one last stop in the plenary room , after lunch, before all the LC's ( local committees) started their next days' work. I had made a promise to from friends from Aiesec Carthage that I would teach them the "Cotton Eye Joe " dance as well, as well as a bunch of other Tunisians....so Brian, Serge, and I obliged their request.
Let me tell you there's nothing like 200 Tunisians doing a country line dance for the first time...great fun.
And like that...we were gone.
Good old Menzah:
So we made it back and pretty much we all feel off the chart. I had told Lotfi I'd meet him later in the evening as he was welcoming a fellow member of the Aiesec United States National committee - Ms. Jennifer Harwood.
So I went for a nice little evening jog to soak in the happenings of the weekend and vegetated a bit until the time came.
Once at the airport I ran into Myriam another cool Aiesecer here that will be working with Lotfi on Salaam stuff. Once Lotfi got there we all went to the gate to wait for Jenn but she was late for some reason and we didn't know why at the time. As it turns out, Jenn is Australian, and happened to run into a bit of an issue upon arriving into to country, but soon she figured it all out.
And after the smoke cleared my first long weekend in Tunisia, was completed as me and Lotfi sat for a cup of tea and a coke and talked about various issues in our lives and caught up on the previous weeks we'd not hung out together.
After all the events it was pretty nice to get reacquainted with some an old friend or two. As nice as it is to meet new people and see new places, sometimes I think we all just need a little time to get "reacquainted" and see the "old" places like new again.
At least I do.
So this weekend was more of some similar themes, AIESEC, TRAVELING, Tunisian Buses, Mr. Fredj, picture taking and a lot of walking.
And at the same time it was completely different.
And this is where this week’s "Adventures" begin.
FRIDAY - Royal Treatment:
So as an encore to last week Mr. Fredj extended his hospitableness once again and this time to all of my roommates as well. Everything was going well and he even offered to pick me up from work at 7pm, in time to meet my roommates at 7:30.
All I had to do was get out of work.
Well, this day all my plans for the day's work were halted due to the some last minute executive orders and I had to work on entering some data...all day.
It was great fun.
So after a whole day's worth of data entry, at 6:35 pm I go to save my work and just happen to notice that one of the 3 pages I was working on...was erased.
Right.
To say...I was upset...well it'd be a bit of an understatement, and this is a PG Blog, so suffice it to say that I was definitely displeased with the situation.
So I called Mr. Fredj and told him the great news, and informed my roommates as well.
So despite the slight bump in the road, I shook it off and kept focused on the greatness to come.
In hindsight, I really had no idea what to expect and neither did my roommates. Mr. Fredj simply told us that we were having dinner by his house and that we would have couscous.
Well, when we arrive at his house it was about 8:30, and we were greeted by his wife and daughters and instantly taken to the living room area, which is like most places, the fancy place to keep clean and ready for guests.
So we all sit down and not 2 mins later the first course came out with all the fixin's.
Mishwaya and Brique were first, very typical Tunisian appetizers and very good. Mishwaya is a kind of salad made of green peppers, olives, olive oil, and some pepper seasonings and is sometimes topped of with eggs. It's great, kinda spicy but very tasty (and some of you out there may be gasping for air now, in disbelief for the fact that I would eat such a thing...well that's understandable. But, it's true. And I'll have you know that have been seen eating onions, tomatoes, olives, and whole peppers during my stay here, but all in moderation of course. )
Anyhow, the Brique is probably one of the best tasting foods I've ever had the pleasure of putting in my mouth. It is hard to describe but it basically an egg and some peppers and spices mixed together with lamb or some meat and fried in a breading. It kinda looks like an "elephant ear" except that it's an appetizer not a desert, it's shaped like a triangle, and it's not so sweet. Anyhow, it was so nice...I had it twice!
At that point I was happy and ready for some couscous, or at least I thought I was ready.
Soon Mrs. Fredj comes out with dish, and it is beyond comprehension how large this dish is and how much couscous it contains, which was great for all of us as we're just like college students again, broke and hungry all the time....so naturally this was heaven in Tunis. From the first bite my mouth was as happy as it's been since...well...I'm not sure...but it definitely warranted a smile.
Now even though, I've had some great couscous moments to this point there has always been something that's missing. If you've ever had couscous, and especially in large doses, you know that after a while you mouth gets a little dry...and that moment you think "wouldn't it be great to have some kind of sauce with this?"
Well, Mrs. Fredj hooked it up.
And that was the green light I needed to eat without conscience.
The pieces of lamb were as tender and juicy as could be. The potatoes were whole. The carrots were long and delectable.
I even ate one of the peppers (if you know me, you know on this Earth those kind of things don't happen).
And there was a huge bowl of sauce to keep your palette moist and aid digestion.
After about 15 minutes I remembered that I should at least look up from my plate and try to be social able, only to notice my roommates Mariska, Brian, and Serge (unfortunately Beata was sick this evening) still had their faces in their plates, out of the corner of my eye I see Serge give a grin like his life was complete and Brian was a visage of bliss.
It really was a great moment, and happened to be what we all needed after the end of a VERY long Friday.
So at this point we're all "Fat and Happy", and our breathing patterns have definitely slowed down, and then we all hear
"So are you guys ready for dessert?"
The term "SHOCK" doesn't do justice to the look on all of our faces.
Before we could even think of a decent reply Mrs. Fredj had come out with a tray of Oranges, a tray of nuts, another tray full of the freshest dates, and before we could finish our water or pop we had wine and hot mint tea in front of us.
At this point I had the remnants of couscous dinner, a big phat orange in front of me, three glasses: water, Boga (pop), and hot mint tea...now this was QUICKLY becoming the greatest spectacle of eating I have, and possibly could ever have, in Tunisia. And just when we had enough and our stomachs felt as if they could explode in any moment...there was still one last dish...baklava and cookies...and more tea naturally.
Now, I couldn't finish the sweets but I had to have more tea. The last time I had this kind of tea I was visiting in the Southern half of the United States. It a same kind of mint tea served in places in Morocco or places of Moroccan influence...so I decided to indulge in the moment.
Well I think I've dwelled on the food and drink enough at this point, believe or not we did actually have a conversation. Mr. and Mrs. Fredj have two daughters who had recently returned from school, and one of Mrs. Fredj's friends from work also joined us.
We chatted for hours in Arabic, Shotty Arabic, Excellent French, Broken French, and some spotty English...it was definitely a moment. In the end we end we managed to discuss about life in Tunisia, life in America, how great the food was, and your basic chit chatting. Towards the end of the night we somehow got into a discussion about singing. It seems the Mr. Fredj's youngest daughter believed I looked like USHER.
Right.
Now I'm no psychologist or whatever but I think that she was simply a 16 year old girl who had an African-American male in her house...but who really knows?
Still we all had a good laugh out of it, although she was pretty serious. Hahahaha !
Well after that, everyone thought it'd be a good idea if I actually sang an USHER song.
WOW.
Now I was REALLY LAUGHING !
I could barely BREATH let alone SING ! And since the last Usher song I heard was "Burn" , I didn't think the mood was right, mine or the environment’s , not to mention that the rest of Usher's songs aren't very appropriate for "family" gatherings.
Anyhow, I managed to finally meander my way out of the situation by dodging the requests and mentioning how GREAT of a dancer Serge was.
HAHAHA !!
And it worked.
So Serge ( the human entertainment machine ), gets up and starts dancing to some Arabic "Jukebox " music.
( If you don't know the "jukebox" I'm sorry, but it was the cause of lots of music video moments of my childhood, and it was free ! So yea )
So Serge's is dancing and at this point the night is complete. We then knew " the time had passed"...which is Serge's way of saying " It's ridiculously late, and we should be sleeping".
Mr. Fredj was gracious enough to give us a ride back across the city to the Menzah and when we arrived, it was 2 am and we slept like rocks.
SATURDAY - Recoup Time :
Saturday was every bit of a recovery day.
The only thing we did productive this day was sleep, at least until about 1pm.
Once I had gained most of my conscinous I went to meet with Lotfi to discuss some business and travel to his home in Bab Souka. Unfortunately for me the first thing Lotfi asks me is " Are you ready to come to my house and eat couscous until we die ? "
Right.
I was still trying to recover from last night's "food coma."
Well, fortunately for me, the couscous was limited to only that and just one tasty bowl, so I left with my stomach lining in tact.
After lunch Lotfi and I headed to office of the National Committee office of Aiesec Tunisia, and on the way we picked up Mariska who had been wandering around downtown.
This was the weekend in which the Tunisia Leadership and Development Conference was being held...a.ka. - TULDS. This is a national conference and no small task, and in typical "AIESEC" fashion the most important parts were left to be completed at the last moment. Yet, somehow things always work out for the best. Lotfi works with the National Committee ( MC ), as the Coordinator for the Salaam Program in Tunisia and was serving as a facilitator of the TULDS. All of the trainees were invited for a day or two to the conference so me and the other Americans and Serge decided to join for the conference, unfortunately the conference was being held from Sunday to Wednesday, and so getting there and back in a day would definitely be an issue.
Once in the MC office we say hello and shakes hands and trade bisous with all of our familiar Aiesec Crew - Wassim, Emira, Ahmed, Yousr, Wanji, and Imen among others.
It is here were the plot thickens.
Mariska and I found out that there were plans in the conference for a Global Village ( all the trainees representing their countries to the delegation ), and that Imen was the person responsible for this and for the trainees that would be attending...and to this point it was only the 4 of us, none of us were in ANYWAY prepared for a presentation...so it was already going to be interesting.
And then there's IMEN.
Imen is an interesting "specimen" to say the least. She is native Tunisian, and had worked and studied in New York for 4 years prior to returning to Tunis. She works with the student side of AIESEC ( sending them abroad ) and happens to speak 4 languages...Arabic, French, English, and Spanish. Since she perfected her English in New York when she speaks in English it has a definite "New York" tune to it. It's pretty amusing and makes for good conversation, but in the by her being able to speak English so well, it has definitely helped all us Americans communicate our needs, wants, and issues to the public and to other members of Aiesec, and I think Mariska appreciated having another girl to speak with as opposed to being around all of us guys all the time.
Any who, in order for us to join we had to meet the MC at 7:45 am on Sunday, it was Saturday and too much work was going on so Me and Mariska decided find our ways home and get some sleep in prep for the long day ahead. In fact, we had plans to meet the other American ( Brian) to catch a film at the theater; until he told texted me informing me that he found the bomb publinet ! Quote Brian....
" Downloads at 48kb / sec ! Better than beer and sex ! 2.4 GHz CPU.....you won't see me at home. "
Yes, that is a direct quote, and THAT is Brian.
So Me and Mari went on a bit of a wild goose chase trying to find a movie to watch, as we had to get up early in the morning and that's what we do anyway. We ended up purchasing a great movie named " Les Incroyables" ( in English - The Incredibles) , most in our apartment hadn't seen it except for me, so this night we'd watch it. Once we returned to home base Brian met us, and we all had a good laugh...in English, and in French. I figured it was a hit, Serge loved it, as did Mariska and in the next 2 days we ended up watching 4 more times, but it's funny so why not ?
SUNDAY - On to NABEUL - TULDS / Tunisian Independance day :
So Sunday was Tunisian Independance day, March 20th. And ordinarily you'd think that there'd be some grandiose celebration, yet in Tunisia it's pretty much just another day. In actuality the more popular day was the "Jour de Jeunesse " ( day of the Youth ) , which was the coming Monday. So it was a fitting setting for the beginning of the TULDS.
So at what seemed like the crack of dawn, we all got up and headed out to meet the MC and head on over to the Bus Station for the TULDS.
The bus station was the first place we all gathered, and if anyone has ever spent some extended amount of time in at Greyhound station than you'd know how this story goes.
The highlights come from the guy at the ticket booth, and free breakfast. The guy at the ticket booth was just a jerk. It seemed like he had it out for everyone that came up to the window, unfortunately he was the only person who was working this morning. He had the worst attitude and kept turning everyone back to get "exact" change for the ticket. Well, Brian went before I did, and as I, he only had a 5 dinar piece and the ticket was 3.2 dinars. A logical person would think that this should be an easy task but not this guy. Brian actually managed to find some change to give the guy, and at this point I was already annoyed by this person, and my patience is definitely at a minimum early in the morning.
So I get to the window and the guy tells me 3.2 dinars.
I handed him my 5 piece and waited for change.
He gives me the dirtiest shadiest scowl and repeats. " 3.2 dinars " and my response was
" I gave you 5. This is all I have."
Once again a received he glare, and then he grunted and probably cursed me in Arabic...but I got my change. : )
Oh, and we got free breakfast ( thanks Imen ).
Tulds:
The conference was held in a city called Nabeul.
Nabeul is a pretty tiny town that is known, above other things, for its pottery and Oranges. Most of the town's gifts are overshadowed by its touristy neighbor in Hammamet. The hotel was called Sun Holiday Beach Club ( which the only true part of this was the sun and the beach, as they were natural). Once we arrived at the hotel, things were a bit chaotic with around 200 delegates arriving at the same time, so opening ceremonies for the conference were a bit behind so that gave everyone a couple extra hours of free time.
So we trainees did what we only felt natural...we went to the beach. Being that Imen was "in charge" of the trainees, she took this moment to join us at the beach.
This was the site of my "nostalgic moment" of the week.
It didn't help that the first conversation, Imen and Mariska started on the beach was centered on how the beach and the water invokes feelings of nostalgia and calmness. The weather was nice perfectly sunny and warm, but still not too hot with just whisper of a breeze, it just a perfect setting to....set me back in time.
The time seems like a dream now, from far far away. It was the last time I had been on a beach before coming to Tunisia and now the smells, the sounds, sun, waves, and the way the beach carved out the coast... I felt as if I were in a time machine...except...for all that was similar...something was awry...something was wrong...and it felt...lost.
It was like some dreams you have when you wake everything in your body tells you it was real, your heart beats fasters, your pulse races, you sweat, and eyes and your mind seem to betray themselves and the rest of your senses. The kind of dreams that make you question "reality"...it was like that...and I was wide awake ! I noticed this happening in my mind and trying meander my way out of this one, but it was already in my head. So focused on other things for awhile...like walking.
It was actually kind of funny how well all walked together, it was kind of like a human "slinky" ( ahh what a happy thought, I miss slinkys they were fun. ) Anyhow, there were 5 of us ( 3 male, 2 female ) and as we walked we all seemed group together as one unit, then into sexes, and then into individuals parts. This went on for the whole hour or so we were on the beach.
During of the extended individual periods I was once again sacked by this "nostalgia" and now other "beach" moments had decided to join in, and before I knew it, I was noticing different colors and searching for the "perfect sea shell" and a "nice rock" to judge the beach on.
Fortunately for my psyche, Imen was acting as the timekeeper and "woke me up" by telling us all it was time to go back for food and opening ceremonies, both of which were welcome distractions.
CONFERENCE:
So the whole time we were at the conference Imen was pretty much like our " trainee" mom. She bought us food in the morning, gave us the lowdown / updates on conference ( as Wassim, Emira, and Lotfi were busy planning everything) , and then even fed us lunch. And as with any mom she would always always check, check, and double check "just to make sure" everyone was ok. It was pretty funny, but the sandwiches came in the clutch so....just a little " Merci " to Imen from us trainees for your hospitality. We all appreciated it.
To say the least, opening ceremonies for the TULDS was definitely some kind of a spectacle, we had Greek gods, fireworks, dances, chants, taunts, anthems, and lots of butt shakin. It was pretty weird different being on the "other side " of all the AIESEC work at conference...wait did say weird ?
I meant it was AWESOME.
For the first time in a long time I wasn't the one running around getting pulled in multiple directions at the same time, or just getting worked up about something that just happened that shouldn't have...I could REALLY just relax.
Well, it helped that I couldn't follow all of the conversation partly because of the acoustics, mostly because of my knowledge of Arabic and French.
As in all AIESEC conferences not matter where in the world you are from it is extremely "UNCOOL" to not do ANYTHING for a roll coll.
Roll Calls, for those that may not know, are a little way of making your presence known at the start of a conference, and the first ones are the biggest...which means they actually require some amount of forethought.
Well, there were 3 of us Americans, and a Cameroonian. We knew watching Serge dance was a spectacle in itself, and for that matter Mariska has a tendency to spontaneously erupt into some kind of dance whenever and wherever , so the only two left were Brian and I , and Imen offered for services as a "almost foreigner" but not really for the dancing. Well Brian isn't KNOWN for his dancing but he does alright when it comes downs to it, and I've been known to be "ok" from time to time. So...I just happened to have a few AIESEC songs on my computer and we decided we'd all sing our individual "National Anthems" and then all unite to perform a dance to the AIESEC version of the song "Cotton Eye Joe" as Brian ( the guy from Indiana ) deemed the other version " too country".
NOW, some of you out there may have seen this little number performed , and other will probably have do it yourselves once or twice. Well, at this point Brian ( who had been a member of Aiesec PURDUE, where dances were as common as men ) so he remembered the basic movements, but the rest...were completely fresh. So with 30 mins to spare, we had to whip everyone into shape in time for the Ceremony. It was rough going for awhile, we got it together just in time to do our Anthem-singing, and crowd pleasing "Boot-Scootin-Boogie" Cotton Eye Joe Hoe Down Dance.
Needless to say....the crowd was moved. : ) hahaha !
After all the dust, and smoke cleared, the Aiesecer's were going to get down to some business...and that meant the trainees to "hit the old dusty trail ! "
NABEUL :
Serge opted to stay behind for some reason, so me and the American contingency decided to rock and roll.
NOW...this is where things REALLY started to get hairy.
We got in this cab and headed back into downtown to have a walk around, just before we got out, the driver asked us where we were from....I believe he said
" Are you English? From Britain ? Or From Europe. "
We quickly responded, as usual, "No sir, we are Americans."
He says " REALLLY WOW ! You are the FIRST AMERICANS I have EVER met in Tunisia ! Although I have been to the U.S. before...where are you guys from .... GEORGIA ? "
( now, this is a definite first...)
We said "No....we are NOT from GEORGIA. "
He said " Yea, I was in ATLANTA, when I went to the U.S. I have family there, it was great I really enjoyed my time there. "
We all laughed as it was a very cool, but somewhat random conversation, but enjoyable.
On the way out he gave us a slight discount on the cab ride and bid us farewell on our day and our journey in Tunisia.
It was nice.
After that we proceeded to check out NABEUL and to save you eyes and my fingers, just check out the pictures with Nabeul in name. But it was nice time.
After catching a breather and a much another amazing sunset in Tunisia...we made our way back to the hotel, just in time for dinner.
Just before dinner we met the newest trainee in Tunis, Kamil from Germany and we found another trainee Chris from Belgium, so we had a little trainee dinner.
Now....before I mentioned that things started to get "hairy" and by that I meant that I wasn't quite expecting the upcoming events. After dinner and within about 2 hours of having left the cab in downtown I ran into and Aiesecer , from another LC I hadn't experience yet, and a trainee that had BOTH CONSECUTIVELY mentioned their lone experiences in the United States having been in where else....
ATLANTA, GEORGIA.
It had also been recently been brought to my attention that the O'hare Airport in Chicago as relinquished its crown of "Most INTERNATIONAL Airport" to where else...
The Hartsfield - Jackson International Airport of ATLANTA, GEORGIA.
So for those still reading....note that I have "tipped my cap" to Atlanta, as fate so eloquently hinted to me...and yes I'm actually writing the CHICAGO is not the best city in AMERICA , in at least one thing...so there.
At that point...I had had enough action for one day, and I need a SERIOUS nap.
Yup.
There was "SUPPOSED" to be a global village where the USA was and among other countries was supposed to represent. As it turns out, the details for the evening, and what exactly we were intended to do wasn't clarified until approx. 1:45 am ( judging by my vague recollection of a phone call at that time ).
So I slept through it all.
In fact...ALL OF THE TRAINEES slept through it...and to top of....even the coordinator of it , Imen, slept through it as well.
Possibly the most satisfying 12 hours of sleep I'd ever had at a conference. Actually the only 12 hour sleep I've had at a conference...nice !
MONDAY - Jour de Jeunesse:
So at about 11 am one of the LC's put together a "trainee beach trip " so we figured we'd might as well follow suit. This time on the beach our "slinky" group practiced some our French and educated ourselves...but the beach was still nice.
Just before heading back to Tunis, we made one last stop in the plenary room , after lunch, before all the LC's ( local committees) started their next days' work. I had made a promise to from friends from Aiesec Carthage that I would teach them the "Cotton Eye Joe " dance as well, as well as a bunch of other Tunisians....so Brian, Serge, and I obliged their request.
Let me tell you there's nothing like 200 Tunisians doing a country line dance for the first time...great fun.
And like that...we were gone.
Good old Menzah:
So we made it back and pretty much we all feel off the chart. I had told Lotfi I'd meet him later in the evening as he was welcoming a fellow member of the Aiesec United States National committee - Ms. Jennifer Harwood.
So I went for a nice little evening jog to soak in the happenings of the weekend and vegetated a bit until the time came.
Once at the airport I ran into Myriam another cool Aiesecer here that will be working with Lotfi on Salaam stuff. Once Lotfi got there we all went to the gate to wait for Jenn but she was late for some reason and we didn't know why at the time. As it turns out, Jenn is Australian, and happened to run into a bit of an issue upon arriving into to country, but soon she figured it all out.
And after the smoke cleared my first long weekend in Tunisia, was completed as me and Lotfi sat for a cup of tea and a coke and talked about various issues in our lives and caught up on the previous weeks we'd not hung out together.
After all the events it was pretty nice to get reacquainted with some an old friend or two. As nice as it is to meet new people and see new places, sometimes I think we all just need a little time to get "reacquainted" and see the "old" places like new again.
At least I do.
Monday, March 28, 2005
Please Help
To Anyone,
Yesterday I started getting an uneasy feeling in my stomach and last
night I woke up shivering cold and could not sleep (I never wake up
due to being cold). My body aches, my head is throbbing, and I feel
nauseous. My body is numb. I may be going to a hospital but I am not
sure.
I was hoping that if anyone knows any "home remedies" or just what
could be wrong with me, if you could call, text, or comment to let me
know what i SHOULD be doing. Please don't worry, I just need some
advice. I am not at a computer so my rooomates are sending this. If
you comment or email they can get back to me. THank you for the help!
Email - mariskab@gmail.com
Yesterday I started getting an uneasy feeling in my stomach and last
night I woke up shivering cold and could not sleep (I never wake up
due to being cold). My body aches, my head is throbbing, and I feel
nauseous. My body is numb. I may be going to a hospital but I am not
sure.
I was hoping that if anyone knows any "home remedies" or just what
could be wrong with me, if you could call, text, or comment to let me
know what i SHOULD be doing. Please don't worry, I just need some
advice. I am not at a computer so my rooomates are sending this. If
you comment or email they can get back to me. THank you for the help!
Email - mariskab@gmail.com
Tuesday, March 22, 2005
Friday, March 18, 2005
MARCH MADNESS !!!
So, it's now about 70 degrees today.
The weather's going up, and people are playing outside more.
I am very far from home right now, but my spirit is still unchanged.
I recalled that yesterday was St. Patty's ( happy belated P-day to everyone ) , and I started to think of what other things are happening right now....
Spring Break....Bar - b - que's..... and basketball.
So that brought tons of things back to my recolation.
Namely the fact that the hometown team...
THE U N I V E R S I T Y O F I L L I N O I S .... is STILL UNDEFEATED ! Was the biggest.
Yea, yea, most will be tempted to say...."you went to Purdue...where is there team ? " And I will agree with you. Purdue's Men's team is wretched, and the women are doing so hot either this year ( which is weird). But for that I say this...
I am from CHICAGO, ILLINOIS...lest you forget, and everyone from Illinois knows that if you want to cheer for basketball....let's see..
The Bulls....Michael Left the building 7 years ago...nuf said.
The UIC Flames....nevermind....I shouldn't have even put them up here.
Depaul Blue Demons....they have moments but...lately they are few and FAAAR between
Then there's the LARGEST schools which leaves Northwestern and U of I .
Now....if you were choosing between those two....HONESTLY...no one wears Purple...especially in the winter ( sorry kitties...)
So... U of I it is.
Not to mention that fact that my darling little sister goes there ( Jessica...TURN ON THE GAME ! ).
So...with that I thought it'd be fun to see who else out there around the world is nostalgic of March Ridiculousness and where your loyalties lie.
I wanted to put something on the "nomad" home page, but don't have enough time, so if anyone else wants to jump on that be my guest.
As for now, let me know what you think....so I can tell you you're wroong ! And that Illinois will run the table this year ! WOOOo!
As far as my final four picks.....hmmm....I'll go with..
1) Illinois
2) Gonzaga ( no doubt )
3) UNC
4) Michigan State (sleeper )
- And because I'm a loyal MIDWESTERNER ....and the BIG TEN is the best conference in the NATION...
Illinois will be State in St. Louis.
If you steal my picks, I'd a least expect some donations when you when your office pool. ; )
I know I' m a day late and a dollar short, but amuse me.
Other than that....happy friday to all !
OH...and I have some more pics to show, but it hasn't been working for me lately, so next week might just be all pictures ( for any of you faithful readers. )
Have a good weekend and be safe, tell someone you love them ( with meaning ) and DON'T ABUSE.
A tout a L'heure !!
The weather's going up, and people are playing outside more.
I am very far from home right now, but my spirit is still unchanged.
I recalled that yesterday was St. Patty's ( happy belated P-day to everyone ) , and I started to think of what other things are happening right now....
Spring Break....Bar - b - que's..... and basketball.
So that brought tons of things back to my recolation.
Namely the fact that the hometown team...
THE U N I V E R S I T Y O F I L L I N O I S .... is STILL UNDEFEATED ! Was the biggest.
Yea, yea, most will be tempted to say...."you went to Purdue...where is there team ? " And I will agree with you. Purdue's Men's team is wretched, and the women are doing so hot either this year ( which is weird). But for that I say this...
I am from CHICAGO, ILLINOIS...lest you forget, and everyone from Illinois knows that if you want to cheer for basketball....let's see..
The Bulls....Michael Left the building 7 years ago...nuf said.
The UIC Flames....nevermind....I shouldn't have even put them up here.
Depaul Blue Demons....they have moments but...lately they are few and FAAAR between
Then there's the LARGEST schools which leaves Northwestern and U of I .
Now....if you were choosing between those two....HONESTLY...no one wears Purple...especially in the winter ( sorry kitties...)
So... U of I it is.
Not to mention that fact that my darling little sister goes there ( Jessica...TURN ON THE GAME ! ).
So...with that I thought it'd be fun to see who else out there around the world is nostalgic of March Ridiculousness and where your loyalties lie.
I wanted to put something on the "nomad" home page, but don't have enough time, so if anyone else wants to jump on that be my guest.
As for now, let me know what you think....so I can tell you you're wroong ! And that Illinois will run the table this year ! WOOOo!
As far as my final four picks.....hmmm....I'll go with..
1) Illinois
2) Gonzaga ( no doubt )
3) UNC
4) Michigan State (sleeper )
- And because I'm a loyal MIDWESTERNER ....and the BIG TEN is the best conference in the NATION...
Illinois will be State in St. Louis.
If you steal my picks, I'd a least expect some donations when you when your office pool. ; )
I know I' m a day late and a dollar short, but amuse me.
Other than that....happy friday to all !
OH...and I have some more pics to show, but it hasn't been working for me lately, so next week might just be all pictures ( for any of you faithful readers. )
Have a good weekend and be safe, tell someone you love them ( with meaning ) and DON'T ABUSE.
A tout a L'heure !!
Thursday, March 17, 2005
Anchored
I am anchored…by an overwhelming force.
It can’t be seen…only felt
Is this real, or just as real as it seems?
Is this merely some foul conjuring of my mind?
Everyday the pressure builds,
I feel the swell of it in my heart, as the weight increases
It grows without bound, control, or direction.
It’s mission is only to stop me.
I fear I may fall from this burden on my soul.
No, I will not be taken over, without a fight.
I condition myself…physically, to resist this mental force.
It wakes me in the morning,
And follows me to bed.
It spurs me throughout my day,
Clouds my concentration with malice,
Of past, possible’s, and future bliss.
Maybe it’s just me…Wouldn’t it be different if I were someone else ?
Is it just me ?
…
Or is it…you ?
Who are you ?
Am I carrying all this weight, for naught ?
Am I the true Anchor? Or the Barrier ?
Am I holding everything up?
Slowing things down?
Or expediting new enlightenment
I am fighting the inevitable.
Why do I care?
What can I change ?
Which is Right ?
What is wrong ?
Right is Left, Left is Right.
It hunts me down,
Stares in my eyes,
I feel it breathing down on me.
So I face this mighty opposition,
On my terms.
For I am reassured,
Every action, has an equal and opposite
I still feel the burden.
This is a war, Only the strong will survive.
It looms a tall task, But I WILL NOT lose…
I can not, some things deserve a fight, and faith
This is my burden, my responsibility,
And I will fight it…but why? Is it only mine ?
Is this some kind of gift?
Is it not true that, if I come out alive, I am only stronger?
This is my battle, my war.
In the end it will be alright…won’t it?
Who are you ?
You are me…so what is this weight ?...Is it truly all mine?
Who are you ?
You are me as is it.
So You are nothing after all.
“C’est quoi ca maintenent ?" “Je sais pas. Desolee“ “Et moi, Fait Chier.”
It can’t be seen…only felt
Is this real, or just as real as it seems?
Is this merely some foul conjuring of my mind?
Everyday the pressure builds,
I feel the swell of it in my heart, as the weight increases
It grows without bound, control, or direction.
It’s mission is only to stop me.
I fear I may fall from this burden on my soul.
No, I will not be taken over, without a fight.
I condition myself…physically, to resist this mental force.
It wakes me in the morning,
And follows me to bed.
It spurs me throughout my day,
Clouds my concentration with malice,
Of past, possible’s, and future bliss.
Maybe it’s just me…Wouldn’t it be different if I were someone else ?
Is it just me ?
…
Or is it…you ?
Who are you ?
Am I carrying all this weight, for naught ?
Am I the true Anchor? Or the Barrier ?
Am I holding everything up?
Slowing things down?
Or expediting new enlightenment
I am fighting the inevitable.
Why do I care?
What can I change ?
Which is Right ?
What is wrong ?
Right is Left, Left is Right.
It hunts me down,
Stares in my eyes,
I feel it breathing down on me.
So I face this mighty opposition,
On my terms.
For I am reassured,
Every action, has an equal and opposite
I still feel the burden.
This is a war, Only the strong will survive.
It looms a tall task, But I WILL NOT lose…
I can not, some things deserve a fight, and faith
This is my burden, my responsibility,
And I will fight it…but why? Is it only mine ?
Is this some kind of gift?
Is it not true that, if I come out alive, I am only stronger?
This is my battle, my war.
In the end it will be alright…won’t it?
Who are you ?
You are me…so what is this weight ?...Is it truly all mine?
Who are you ?
You are me as is it.
So You are nothing after all.
“C’est quoi ca maintenent ?" “Je sais pas. Desolee“ “Et moi, Fait Chier.”
Wednesday, March 16, 2005
Small and Broken
So in the Immeuble F there lives a wiry and eclectic group of individuals. The come from
different parts of the world, different personalities all together, and now live together.
The best way to describe or co-habitation is " Small and Broken. "
Because it really is,
Let me count the ways.
Immeuble F: This is our apartment building...and as you can probably guess by past blogs,
it is falling apart...and fast ! I spend most of my nights wondering if the ceiling will
gave in from water damage, the refridgerator may blow up with it's exposed wires which are
under the leaky water heater, which is right next to the furnace. ; ) Excitement! The
other half of the time we have to bail water out of our bathroom and hope there is enough
left to flush the toilet. I won't begin on hot water for showers right now. So living with
4 others is quite the adventure.
Just like College: We are all poor...pretty much. All of the Americans have managed to
blow last months rent ( well it was only half for Mariska and I), and we are very close to
bread and pasta, which are the easy things to acquire in Tunisia. We share stories about
not having enough for this or that, or not being to able to fix things around the apartment.
When we cook, we eat whatever is lying around and hope it is still good, but most times it
works out alright. So far we've all cooked and everyone has their specialty, Beata is
couscous and pasta, Serge has the tomato sauce down, Mariska has garlic bread, Brian has
homemade pizza's, and I have "Jeff Pasta" which is just like me...very SIMPLE. But, just
like college it's fun and we make the most out of it. We even invent new games with trash
and holes in the wall. Fun times. ; )
Hygene: Washing clothes - Well, far from what most of us are used to, we do not have a
washer or dryer, or even have access to one ( yet ). So we must wash our clothes like the
rest of the people do...in a REALLY big BUCKET ! Now, I may be showing my pampered "city
boyness" here, but this is something that I put off as long as possible. We have to HOPE we
can get enough hot water out of the faucet to fill the bucket good enough. We pour in
whatever amount makes you happy of this detergent " OmO " and we get to shaking, twisting,
pumping, and thrusting our clothes about in this bucket. It's actually a pretty good work
out at the end of it. So you do this for about in 30 mins and then let your clothes sit for
about an hour. And that the end you fight for a place outside on either of our 3 balconies
and hang your clothes to dry...all the while you hope it doesn't rain...like it has everyday
until this week. I guess it's kinda fun when you get used to it, but not putting on wet
socks the next morning because you have none left that smell o.k. and you have to go to
work.
So yea.
Taking Showers - This is where I have found my best friend. She is reliable, trustyworthy,
and loyal ( which is rare nowadays)...and her name is "The Pot" ( NO, not THAT POT! ). It
is a cooking pot, which I use to carry heated water from the stove to the bath tub. You see
we have not shower curtain, no hot water, and only a hose which we have to hold as we bath
with the other hand...it is quite an art. One day I decided that enough was enough and I
needed to try the "pot" method. Low and behold...it worked ! I was warm and toasty, fresh
and clean, and life was good again. Everyone has their methods, but I've already converted
Brian, and Serge know's the power of the pot. Still, in the end it's pretty darn funny that
we have wash ourselves out of kitchen ware. Eh...C'est la vie. At least we have one more
thing to laugh about together.
Well, I've talked about my travels and my work, and even some Aiesec. But I don't think
I've given enough props to my roomates.
So here goes...
For starters...
We have Serge, from Cameroon, who you may have seen in a few pictures. If Serge wasn't
Central African, I'd swear he was Brazillian or something. This guy is always the one who
smiles and laughs and dances around. He rarely has anything bad to say about anything, and
is amazingly cultured, open and outgoing. He has taken up the responsibility of teaching
the WHOLE apartment french. Some nights he sits with me and Brian practicing our
pronunciation of french words ( B..A...BA ! R...E....RE ! Hahaha! ). Other nights, he
can be seen with Beata off somewhere practicing more complex versions of French, and then he
can be seen speaking slowly with Mariska from time to time and coaching her through her
words. Without a doubt Serge is the Renaissance man of Immeuble F, and his great deeds go a
long way...as well as his African music is heard from miles around with his stereo system
and his African dances stay in your heart and mind forever. And last but not least, he makes a MEAN tomato sauce !
So...to Serge....may we continue laugh,dance,scream, and speak broken languages to each
other until understand something. Respect and SAUNTE ! Oh...and what's for dinner tonight
?
* ( a quick random note...I'm now eating my lunch and drinking a Coca light au Citron...and
it is awesome. I swear I will be a Diet Coke drinking brotha when I get back home ! Sorry
the lemon is extra good here, and I felt I had to share. OK back to action )
The next I will go to Beata, the person who has now been here the longest and will soon be
leaving us. Beata is from Poland, and has honestly had a traineeship to remember. Some
may even say she's had 2 in the year she's been here. ; ) She has seen alot and been
through alot, but is the one absolute constant in the house. You can pratically set your
clock to Beata's schedule and you pretty much always can guage her reactions. She is
hilarious and very observative. Every evening she greets everyone with an "Aaa-Slema ! "
And every night she brings home some story about people messing up english and refusing to
speak the language the right way ( she's a teacher. ) And she always ends every story with
some polish phrase that only me and her REALLY know what it means, and says " But...it is
good. Yes. " And it is. Beata also keeps the tabs on the house and doesn't allow us to
get to far away from paying bills, cleaning dishes, and sweeping floors. It's kinda nice,
reminds me of my mommy. ( Hi mom ! ) She also will HABITUALLY make a pot of tea every
night, which you DARE NOT refuse. She always brings out enough mugs for everyone, and makes sure we all sit at the table and chat over tea, it's quite nice. But, for all Beata has
been through and to be able to stick it out and still smile, I give her all the props in the
world.
So...Beata....this one's for you. Keep smiling, boiling that tea, and bringing home
hilarious stories. I'm glad you stuck around and given us all someone to look up to.
Respect and SAUNTE !
Ok...now we get to the American portion of this segment and since Mariska is the most
eventful...we'll save her for last.
And then there's Brian. Brian is like Mr. Cool. He's kinda like Serge ( maybe because they sleep in the same room ...I don't know ) except without the dancing, screaming, french speaking, and stereo system. Well...maybe not so much like Serge. But he is the complete I.T. / Mr. Fix it guy in the apartment. Brian never really show's how much he likes or dislikes something unless he's had a few glasses of wine, so it's hard to get under his skin. Occasionally there will be mumbles of discontent, and there will be some more wine bottles that show up in the apartment ( Serge is the biggest supporter of Brian....once again....they are roomates.) But all in all Brian is awesome. Him and I have gone on the most "adventures" around Tunis together and he's kinda like Jimmy Olson ( if I were Superman...of course. ) It's never a bad time with Brian, and if you keep listening to him he gets funnier and funnier. He also has offered to start running with me as well, but the first time we went out he just about passed out on the side of the road and I passed him like 3 times.
In his words "It was like a mouse trying to catch a cheetah. " Hahaha!
But, Brian, is always around when you need hime and always willing to help and share his food too, which is very nice.
So to Brian...I can't believe we live together after being at Purdue forever....but I'm glad we do. Keep on doing the cool things and being awesome. And yes, I will try to slow down next time. Respect. SAUNTE !
And at last we have Mariska.
Whew.
That's about the only thing I can muster to describe Mariska. There is never a dull moment with her. This girl is full of energy 24 - 7 and always manages to make the most dull everyday moments into something dramatic, not to mention the fact that she has had her fair share of "MTV" moments, as we will call them. Maybe it's the fact this is the time for Spring Break and she is nostalgic of her college days. Maybe it's because she's the youngest and it has to happen to someone...or maybe it's because....that's just how she is. Regardless. Every week we have like a big " Roomate chat" and every weekend EVERYONE's stories gets OBLIBERATED by Mariska's. Recent weekends being the best, as everyone single one of us, was in TEARS! I fell out of my chair ....TWICE ! Serge had to have a whole bottle of wine just to comprehend what was being said and to accept it as truth...Brian helped him. Beata was beside herself and the most inquisitive of all of us. It seems that everything or place that Mariska goes, turns from normal to the " surreal life " and would make for GREAT T.V. In fact Serge offered to follow her around and film it, if Brian bought the right camera, and Beata and I would sell it and market it, respectively. Paris Hilton and the other girl have NOTHING on Mariska ! Be it cooking, going to Monoprix, going to the restaurant, going dancing, walking down the street, watching movies and drinking tea at home, or at work. The is always something you can shake your head at and just sit back and say..."Wow...this girl is really , REALLY something Special. " So needless to say we like having her around, if nothing else than once a week, she's priceless entertainment.
So Mariska...for all your adventures in sooo....SOOO little time....PLEASE keep them coming
! For our sanity and to make it through the tough times. Thanks for being here, and your
school still SUCKS ! Respect and SAUNTE !
(In case you want to comment on how much they suck , it happens to be the "Ivy league"
school in the state of Michigan...please join in. We all do. )
After that I guess that just leaves me.
Well, this IS my blog so that's not much I need to write about.
I'm here in Tunisia, I like comics, movies, tunisian food, long thought provoking walks ( in
moderation), singing, dancing, and playing sports...OH and embarassing my roomates online.
: )
( since I embarass myself enough, they should join in anyway. )
So we are still small and broken...but it's still good.
Bonne Journee a tous !
different parts of the world, different personalities all together, and now live together.
The best way to describe or co-habitation is " Small and Broken. "
Because it really is,
Let me count the ways.
Immeuble F: This is our apartment building...and as you can probably guess by past blogs,
it is falling apart...and fast ! I spend most of my nights wondering if the ceiling will
gave in from water damage, the refridgerator may blow up with it's exposed wires which are
under the leaky water heater, which is right next to the furnace. ; ) Excitement! The
other half of the time we have to bail water out of our bathroom and hope there is enough
left to flush the toilet. I won't begin on hot water for showers right now. So living with
4 others is quite the adventure.
Just like College: We are all poor...pretty much. All of the Americans have managed to
blow last months rent ( well it was only half for Mariska and I), and we are very close to
bread and pasta, which are the easy things to acquire in Tunisia. We share stories about
not having enough for this or that, or not being to able to fix things around the apartment.
When we cook, we eat whatever is lying around and hope it is still good, but most times it
works out alright. So far we've all cooked and everyone has their specialty, Beata is
couscous and pasta, Serge has the tomato sauce down, Mariska has garlic bread, Brian has
homemade pizza's, and I have "Jeff Pasta" which is just like me...very SIMPLE. But, just
like college it's fun and we make the most out of it. We even invent new games with trash
and holes in the wall. Fun times. ; )
Hygene: Washing clothes - Well, far from what most of us are used to, we do not have a
washer or dryer, or even have access to one ( yet ). So we must wash our clothes like the
rest of the people do...in a REALLY big BUCKET ! Now, I may be showing my pampered "city
boyness" here, but this is something that I put off as long as possible. We have to HOPE we
can get enough hot water out of the faucet to fill the bucket good enough. We pour in
whatever amount makes you happy of this detergent " OmO " and we get to shaking, twisting,
pumping, and thrusting our clothes about in this bucket. It's actually a pretty good work
out at the end of it. So you do this for about in 30 mins and then let your clothes sit for
about an hour. And that the end you fight for a place outside on either of our 3 balconies
and hang your clothes to dry...all the while you hope it doesn't rain...like it has everyday
until this week. I guess it's kinda fun when you get used to it, but not putting on wet
socks the next morning because you have none left that smell o.k. and you have to go to
work.
So yea.
Taking Showers - This is where I have found my best friend. She is reliable, trustyworthy,
and loyal ( which is rare nowadays)...and her name is "The Pot" ( NO, not THAT POT! ). It
is a cooking pot, which I use to carry heated water from the stove to the bath tub. You see
we have not shower curtain, no hot water, and only a hose which we have to hold as we bath
with the other hand...it is quite an art. One day I decided that enough was enough and I
needed to try the "pot" method. Low and behold...it worked ! I was warm and toasty, fresh
and clean, and life was good again. Everyone has their methods, but I've already converted
Brian, and Serge know's the power of the pot. Still, in the end it's pretty darn funny that
we have wash ourselves out of kitchen ware. Eh...C'est la vie. At least we have one more
thing to laugh about together.
Well, I've talked about my travels and my work, and even some Aiesec. But I don't think
I've given enough props to my roomates.
So here goes...
For starters...
We have Serge, from Cameroon, who you may have seen in a few pictures. If Serge wasn't
Central African, I'd swear he was Brazillian or something. This guy is always the one who
smiles and laughs and dances around. He rarely has anything bad to say about anything, and
is amazingly cultured, open and outgoing. He has taken up the responsibility of teaching
the WHOLE apartment french. Some nights he sits with me and Brian practicing our
pronunciation of french words ( B..A...BA ! R...E....RE ! Hahaha! ). Other nights, he
can be seen with Beata off somewhere practicing more complex versions of French, and then he
can be seen speaking slowly with Mariska from time to time and coaching her through her
words. Without a doubt Serge is the Renaissance man of Immeuble F, and his great deeds go a
long way...as well as his African music is heard from miles around with his stereo system
and his African dances stay in your heart and mind forever. And last but not least, he makes a MEAN tomato sauce !
So...to Serge....may we continue laugh,dance,scream, and speak broken languages to each
other until understand something. Respect and SAUNTE ! Oh...and what's for dinner tonight
?
* ( a quick random note...I'm now eating my lunch and drinking a Coca light au Citron...and
it is awesome. I swear I will be a Diet Coke drinking brotha when I get back home ! Sorry
the lemon is extra good here, and I felt I had to share. OK back to action )
The next I will go to Beata, the person who has now been here the longest and will soon be
leaving us. Beata is from Poland, and has honestly had a traineeship to remember. Some
may even say she's had 2 in the year she's been here. ; ) She has seen alot and been
through alot, but is the one absolute constant in the house. You can pratically set your
clock to Beata's schedule and you pretty much always can guage her reactions. She is
hilarious and very observative. Every evening she greets everyone with an "Aaa-Slema ! "
And every night she brings home some story about people messing up english and refusing to
speak the language the right way ( she's a teacher. ) And she always ends every story with
some polish phrase that only me and her REALLY know what it means, and says " But...it is
good. Yes. " And it is. Beata also keeps the tabs on the house and doesn't allow us to
get to far away from paying bills, cleaning dishes, and sweeping floors. It's kinda nice,
reminds me of my mommy. ( Hi mom ! ) She also will HABITUALLY make a pot of tea every
night, which you DARE NOT refuse. She always brings out enough mugs for everyone, and makes sure we all sit at the table and chat over tea, it's quite nice. But, for all Beata has
been through and to be able to stick it out and still smile, I give her all the props in the
world.
So...Beata....this one's for you. Keep smiling, boiling that tea, and bringing home
hilarious stories. I'm glad you stuck around and given us all someone to look up to.
Respect and SAUNTE !
Ok...now we get to the American portion of this segment and since Mariska is the most
eventful...we'll save her for last.
And then there's Brian. Brian is like Mr. Cool. He's kinda like Serge ( maybe because they sleep in the same room ...I don't know ) except without the dancing, screaming, french speaking, and stereo system. Well...maybe not so much like Serge. But he is the complete I.T. / Mr. Fix it guy in the apartment. Brian never really show's how much he likes or dislikes something unless he's had a few glasses of wine, so it's hard to get under his skin. Occasionally there will be mumbles of discontent, and there will be some more wine bottles that show up in the apartment ( Serge is the biggest supporter of Brian....once again....they are roomates.) But all in all Brian is awesome. Him and I have gone on the most "adventures" around Tunis together and he's kinda like Jimmy Olson ( if I were Superman...of course. ) It's never a bad time with Brian, and if you keep listening to him he gets funnier and funnier. He also has offered to start running with me as well, but the first time we went out he just about passed out on the side of the road and I passed him like 3 times.
In his words "It was like a mouse trying to catch a cheetah. " Hahaha!
But, Brian, is always around when you need hime and always willing to help and share his food too, which is very nice.
So to Brian...I can't believe we live together after being at Purdue forever....but I'm glad we do. Keep on doing the cool things and being awesome. And yes, I will try to slow down next time. Respect. SAUNTE !
And at last we have Mariska.
Whew.
That's about the only thing I can muster to describe Mariska. There is never a dull moment with her. This girl is full of energy 24 - 7 and always manages to make the most dull everyday moments into something dramatic, not to mention the fact that she has had her fair share of "MTV" moments, as we will call them. Maybe it's the fact this is the time for Spring Break and she is nostalgic of her college days. Maybe it's because she's the youngest and it has to happen to someone...or maybe it's because....that's just how she is. Regardless. Every week we have like a big " Roomate chat" and every weekend EVERYONE's stories gets OBLIBERATED by Mariska's. Recent weekends being the best, as everyone single one of us, was in TEARS! I fell out of my chair ....TWICE ! Serge had to have a whole bottle of wine just to comprehend what was being said and to accept it as truth...Brian helped him. Beata was beside herself and the most inquisitive of all of us. It seems that everything or place that Mariska goes, turns from normal to the " surreal life " and would make for GREAT T.V. In fact Serge offered to follow her around and film it, if Brian bought the right camera, and Beata and I would sell it and market it, respectively. Paris Hilton and the other girl have NOTHING on Mariska ! Be it cooking, going to Monoprix, going to the restaurant, going dancing, walking down the street, watching movies and drinking tea at home, or at work. The is always something you can shake your head at and just sit back and say..."Wow...this girl is really , REALLY something Special. " So needless to say we like having her around, if nothing else than once a week, she's priceless entertainment.
So Mariska...for all your adventures in sooo....SOOO little time....PLEASE keep them coming
! For our sanity and to make it through the tough times. Thanks for being here, and your
school still SUCKS ! Respect and SAUNTE !
(In case you want to comment on how much they suck , it happens to be the "Ivy league"
school in the state of Michigan...please join in. We all do. )
After that I guess that just leaves me.
Well, this IS my blog so that's not much I need to write about.
I'm here in Tunisia, I like comics, movies, tunisian food, long thought provoking walks ( in
moderation), singing, dancing, and playing sports...OH and embarassing my roomates online.
: )
( since I embarass myself enough, they should join in anyway. )
So we are still small and broken...but it's still good.
Bonne Journee a tous !
Monday, March 14, 2005
Boys being Boys
So this weekend I decided to stay home...literally. Partly because I had some adminstrative duties to fulfill, and partly because I'm running out of money. ; )
Lately work has been pretty busy and sleeping has been at a minimum, so that was priority number one. Lots of reading, and learning French, mixed in with some movies, and bonding times with my boys Brian and Serge. 99% of the weekend was spent with the girls gone and just us guys hanging out, so it was very "low key." From about Friday evening until Sunday evening we've been together and in the time we've managed to clean the apartment, shop for food, cook our food, do a "poor man's" tour of Carthage, play basketball, get haircuts, and most importantly ORDERING PIZZA ! ( I was so excited, I ordered two....and NO it wasn't for myself, thank you very much. I shared. ) So Let's start with Friday.
FRIDAY:
Well, as I alluded to earlier, work as started to heat up, and I've been busting my hump trying to keep my productivity on full blast, despite some long hours of work, few hours of sleep, learning French any and every way possible, learning about the world of investment banking, and trying to keep some kind of work-out schedule. Needless to say, I've been tired. But, as far as work, it is always fun.
In fact, every day there has to be at least one " Anti-American" joke or a " What on God's Earth did you just say? " look, of course it's all in jest and it's nothing but fun ,as I can take all they dish, and hand some out myself ( right Mehdi ? ).
The coolest thing by far has been learning about everyone in the office. There isn't always a ton of time for us to hang out so going on office lunchs or after hours teas or something is always nice, which were all prevelant this week. As a result I was able to speak with people, I usually don't converse as much with, namely Hela, our boss " Mr. N", and Rudolph; also on of the partners from Switzerland come by for a visit this week, so chatting with him was definitely cool. I found out that Hela finally got her new car which she is in love with ( with good reason might I add). Hela is very cool. She has all the tabs on everything, and is ever approachable. In fact everyday when Hela leaves shes comes to the "children's side" of the office ( "children" I use loosely as we are the youngest members of the group ), and says "Goodbye my children. Have a good night. " being that she's the mother of two boys and still has room to embrace us, is pretty nice I think.
Haha.
Anyhow, the boss was actually in town this week ( pretty unusual ), and offered to treat us to a couple meals, which is always nice. So this week we had the opportunity to chat a bit more, which is nice when the boss, who has everything else to worry about, can stop and ask " how are you? " So nice, that at the end of one conversation, the offer was made to help me with my french ( although he was impressed by the level I had achieved already, merely comprehension, so don't appauld yet ) via lessons if some were available close by the office. I'm eagerly awaiting the reply, but either way, to offer is amazing and it definitely takes the edge off of scrambling to speak French.
All in all I think I learned something new about everyone in the office this past week. Rudolph who is the office champ staying in later than the latest person almost every night, lives like a king and has a very smart 2 yr old boy; Hassen is leaving our group in a few months as he's relocating offices and he doesn't like pumpkin pie. In fact, neither does the boss, but EVERYONE likes cheesecake, so yea I told them not to get any ideas about my cooking anything. Anyhow, Safia is very funny and always has some smart comment for Mehdi or myself whenever we have "discussions" or communication issues about...whatever. Oh, and her boyfriend is a man, even though I accidently called him a woman...BUT only because I saw him from the roof of our 5 floor building ( sorry again, Safia). Unfortnately, Haifa was sick most of this week, but she's better now...and she's still clutch when it comes to helping me out. It was extremely noticable that I was in DIRE need of a hair cut and after much questions and inconclusive answers, Haifa delivered the goods and now I have a fresh cut. ; ) ( Merci Beaucoup Haifa ! ) Also, she noticed that my french was in approving and told me as much, which was tres cool ! Hahaha ! After that, there's Mehdi, and ...well...I see him everyday....multiple times. Our desks face each other so there's really no escaping it and we are working on the same project so yea. But everyday, he teaches me some fancy new phrase in french or arabic and I tell him all the good slang terms in American English, so we call it even. He also mentioned that I should not mention his sister ever again. So, Mehdi I will never refer to your sister ...ever again. But it was a pleasure meeting her, she is a nice person. Hahaha ( I'm going to get another death threat now. )
So all is well at Swicorp and my arabic and french have improved so that's nice....yet I am still crawling in the large scheme of things so whichever.
Well, more cool stuff....so my dear friend Carmen who is in Chicago now on traineeship recently courted her dad around my city. In so doing, she mentioned myself and how I was in Tunisia. Well, as it turns out one of her dad's co-workers lives in Tunis. So a few email intro's and a couple REALLY hard phone calls, I had the pleasure of Meeting Mr. Moshen.
Mr. Moshen seemed to be intent on meeting me as well as when I called he almost immediately said, " I will pick you up at work tonight, and we shall have make acquaintences." The greatest part in all of this is that Mr. Moshen doesn't speak very much english, and speaking on the phone was the worst way I could have introduced him to my accent. Within 30 secs of the first phone call all I hear is " En Francais S'il vous plait. J'ai ne compri anglais, " which basically meant that this could be a long night. With Mehdi's help he arrived at the Sun Building and we were off. At first I we established that I would speak all the french I knew and he would do the same in english, which worked out alright as I received my second compliment of the day on my french ( in context of course, having never taken a course in my life). Well Mr. Moshen has great taste and took me to a nice little restaurant where all the locals eat, the meat is fresh, and everyone knows his name. 2 hours later we had managed to have a pretty awesome conversation and I even managed to explain AIESEC to him....in french ! I'm lucky if I can do it english let alone french ! So that was my proud moment of the day. After dinner he drove me home, and even invited me to his house to meet his family sometime in the coming weeks and have a another home made couscous dish...and you better believe I can get used to the homemade couscous! ; )
After getting back to Immeuble F, me and the Americans and Beata completed the evening with a late night viewing of Return of the King for as long as we could keep our eyes open.
And then it was Saturday.
SATURDAY:
After learning the "money word" of the week "Hajem" ( thank you Mehdi and Haifa ), I was able to lead Brian and myself to the barbershop. Amazingly it's only 10 minutes from our house and the guys know how to cut hair...heck I even got a SHAMPOOING !!! Which was a first in any country, so I was excited. After the fresh cut, the 60 degree weather was perfect and nothing could ruin the day, although some people tried.
First it was the guy at the airport who wouldn't let me change my traveler's checks, but it was only because my passport copy was bad, so that was pretty comforting actually). BUT the shady taxi driver took the cake. This guy was determined to take us for all we had from the get go. In hindsight we probably should've told him where to go before getting in the car, but since it was late in the day, and for some strange reason it difficult getting a cab this day, so we just got in. Well, he assumed that he we had just arrived in the country and had no idea about Tunisia what so ever, and immediately told us that we could take a tour with him for 25 TD, to which I replied..."We just want to go to Carthage, specifically Avenue November 7th and that's it. " Well, after trying and trying the guy knowing took us out of the way ( after we told him we live in Tunis, and that I work in the area we are going, and I know how to get there ). In the end he tried to gouge us and told us the ride cost 14 TD...which is completely ABSURD ! So we gave the guy 10 and just got out, which again, in hindsight, was waaay too much as the ride should have only been about 7 TD.
Anyway, we then heading to the Roman Villas and life was ok again. The ruins aren't the greatest and in fact alot of them were over grown, but we got a "twilight" discount and the view from the large house was absolutely stunning. So much so that Brian, Serge, and I just had to stop for about 10 minutes and stare. The image was completely serene, and it helped that we were completely alone. In front of us was the Bourganine mountain, the Med sea, the bulk of the villas, old statues, the port of Tunis and the beginning of the Sun's retreat to the West.
Stunning.
So then we booked it to my favorite spot in the area, which was the first place I sat and watched the sunset in Carthage. The whole sky was deep red and we ran and ran to get to the hill to catch the amazingness before it was gone. I honestly believe we had some divine intervention as it seemed the sun just waited for us to get to Byrsa Hill. Once there, the sun seem to run FULL SPEED toward the place I know as home. Honestly within about 2 minutes the sun went from full circle to disappearing below the horizon, it was more than either of us could have asked for.
After that we toured the ruins one more time, and then walked through the rest of Carthage on our way to the train...we took the scenic route of course, seeing some of Carthage's great sites at night, still proved to be anything but ordinary.
We finally made it home after an already long day, we decided to stop by Monoprix for some essential food groups...chocolate, chocolate croissants ( which are extremely pleasing at any time after being throughly smashed, I good smashing usually takes croissant from about 2 inches in height to about 2 centimeters in height...all the greatness meshed together...it truly is the only way to eat things ), pop, oranges, and a bottle of water. And we heading home for the most exciting part of the day....ORDERING PIZZA. So Brian had a slight case of party syndrome and headed out for some ...party atmospheres. Me and Serge stayed the course and placed the order....well Serge called, I picked out the pizzas. So when the guy shows up ( which was pretty on time for any Tunisian restaurant), we gave him $20 but the total was only $13. Well, I made the mistake of going to the little boys room, while Serge paid for the food. I come to find out that Serge gave this guy the money and never got all the change back. He said the driver told him "He'd be right back, with the change. " So I went out the balcony to see if there was any chance of this guy still being there so I could get my money. And of course, he drove off with my cash, and that was great. Anyhow, the pizza was good anyway and we washed it down by watching Resident Evil, so it was tres cool. Brian showed up, soon there after, after a less than exciting attempt at a social setting, and he finished off most of the second pizza.
At the end of the day, it was 3 fat and happy guys and movies, that were completely exhausted.
I slept VERY well. : )
SUNDAY:
Well, the best way to describe this day is just random.
It all started with a lack of through sleeping caused by some unsavory reoccuring dreams. So I eventually gave up and just watched the Return of the King extended version, well the rest of it that we hadn't finished over the weekend. Eventually Brian and Serge woke up and joined me. Following LOTR we popped in Gladiator just to set the mood right for the day and to discuss our plans of actions...and then...there's a knock on the door. I was on the phone at the time, so I'm not sure how things started but soon I hear alot of arabic....like ALOT and Serge speaks french and Brian...yea. So I was like..."What the crap is going on here ? ! " And I turn to see some little Tunisian lady marching in our apartment and waving her hands at Serge. All I hear is " Arabic, Arabic, Arabic, ASLEMA ( which is still Arabic but I understood that part, which is like hello ), and then more screaming. She runs into our bathroom, I'm thinking she's beating Serge down now, and then she begins to leave and Serge just says " Oui, Oui, Oui, Oui" until finally she is gone.
We all look at each other mouths gaping open and without we're all like... " Ummm....WHAT THE HECK JUST HAPPENED ?!!! "
I believe there was some french spoken so we asked Serge...dude, seriously what the heck is just happened?! "
He answers..." I don't know, but I think the building is flooding and if it damages our ceiling or floors when we'll have to pay to get it fixed. "
Right.
You can imagine me and Brian's response to that.
At that point we decided, to be responsible and get some things handled so we did.
The next experience was actually a good one. During the week, me and Serge had been discussing basketball, and how he had never played, so I told him I'd teach him and then he could play. He told me that every Sunday his friends meet at this basketball court close to our house, and play. So I said, lets go !
So we did.
And for a time...it was good.
Before I actually got to the court everything looked just like it was at home, everyone just playing. And then we had to get in.
All the gates were locked and the only way to get into the courts was the crawl through some hole ( about the size of a 8 yr child), in the fence it was great fun. : ) And then as I approach the courts I soon remembered I was in a foreign land where everyone speaks french, and had less than a clue about any terms they used on the court. But basketball is still basketball right? Well, for the most part yes. I'll try to explain.
So Serge introduced me to his friend, who in turn got me a spot on someone's team. I started by playing a pick-up 3 on 3 game, that was only played until 7. Before I knew it the game was over and I was without a team again.
After the " warm - up " game, I wound of speaking with one of the locals who could speak english, his name was Soose. So as there were alot of Southern Africans on the courts he asked me if I was from South Africa...and I chuckled a bit and said no...I'm from Chicago.
Then he looked at me and said....Chicago...where ? Which Chicago ?
I was answered his curiosity by assuring him I was from the United States.
At this point he just kind of stared at me in some kind of amazment...and then asked " Why are you here ? "
So I laughed and told him about Aiesec and my traineeship and I where I worked. And then he just says...
"Oh, I've know AIESEC. They have a great program. "
I smiled and said, yea...it's pretty good. ; )
He then told me about his classes at AMIDEAST and I was like " HEY ! 2 of my roomates work there! That's cool. "
All the time he seemed to in awe of the fact that was really American and that I would be out on a basketball court in Tunisia. He even asked me if I was the only one here, he was in disbelief. In the end we chatted more about basketball and how the NCAA works. It was pretty cool, and soon after we parted ways.
At this point I noticed Serge was busy beating up some kids on the other court, so I figured I'd join in. ( the term beating up, is used loosely in terms of playing basketball ) I glanced over to see a small child shooting the ball we brought, but with not the best form. I grabbed his rebound, and quickly showed him how to shoot the ball the right way. The next shot went right in. We both smiled in silent confirmation and continued shooting around.
There was 2 other boys there about 10 and 12 that were native Tunisian and we pretty good players already. So I showed them how to play courtesy on the court. It was nice.
Shortly there after I was talking with Serge and resorted to using english as I had exhausted my french vocabulary, and then the smallest child comes over to me and says...."Tu conoce Anglais ? " I was like...."Oui...I mean...Yes." And I said to him " You can speak english ? " And with the utmost articulate and educated voice and demeanor he says. " Yes, I can. Where are you from ? "
At this point it was me and Serge staring at this child in amazement, Serge and I are about the same height, and this kid maybe came up to our thighs.
And I said " I'm from Chicago, how about yourself ? "
"I'm from Toronto, Canada. "
I'm thinking, that's pretty far so I say " How'd you get here? "
"Well, I'm here with my cousin, over there but I have other family members that live here as well. I'm here on vacation from school. It's nice because it much warmer than Canada, although the weather is changing soon, so it should be warmer when I get back. "
With the hugest grin on my face I asked, "How old are you by the way ? "
He says " I'm 9 and a half. My birthday is in May. "
Now, he say anything too profound, but the way he said it and his ability to PERFECTLY switch languages was amazing.
And that's how I met Basan.
For a moment I was taken back to a time, not long ago, where I was playing basketball with a 9 and 12 year old respectively, and I just had to take a minute to really embrace the situation. I felt a swelling respect for life at this point, and smiled for the great memories I was blessed to share with two wonderful boys prior.
It was a special moment in deed.
.....
Afterwards I wondered onto the next court and meandering my way into the "adult " game of 5 on 5 and was soon sprinting up and down the floor. Unfortunatelly I soon remembered how out of shape I was and how much my "J" still needed some fixing, but I still had a few shining moments. It was pretty difficult to get accoustomed to as these guys seemed to be playing without any rules or structure in regards to playing the ball in bounds, and tempo of the game. The actually played the balls that were out, as if it were a soccer game ( not checking the ball in and just throwing it around ) which made for some awkward moments when I was waiting for the ball to be checked. The langage barrier was also pretty significant as I couldn't tell at any moment what kind of defense we should've been playing or who I should be guarding , so I just did what felt right and played a tight zone.
All in all it was good time and I met alot of new people.
And just was me and Serge were leaving the courts, Basan came running. He had a simple request..."( in french ) Will you guys be back next week ? "
We said..." We think so, yes. "
And then he said " How about Thursday, Friday, and Saturday too ? "
I couldn't help but laugh here and I told him " I'm sorry but we have to work those days. "
He said " That's ok then, I'll see on next Sunday. It was nice meeting you ( in English and French ). "
Hands down, one of the most fulfilling moments I've had in Tunisia, and life for that matter.
I guess somethings just don't change no matter where you are in the world.
Lately work has been pretty busy and sleeping has been at a minimum, so that was priority number one. Lots of reading, and learning French, mixed in with some movies, and bonding times with my boys Brian and Serge. 99% of the weekend was spent with the girls gone and just us guys hanging out, so it was very "low key." From about Friday evening until Sunday evening we've been together and in the time we've managed to clean the apartment, shop for food, cook our food, do a "poor man's" tour of Carthage, play basketball, get haircuts, and most importantly ORDERING PIZZA ! ( I was so excited, I ordered two....and NO it wasn't for myself, thank you very much. I shared. ) So Let's start with Friday.
FRIDAY:
Well, as I alluded to earlier, work as started to heat up, and I've been busting my hump trying to keep my productivity on full blast, despite some long hours of work, few hours of sleep, learning French any and every way possible, learning about the world of investment banking, and trying to keep some kind of work-out schedule. Needless to say, I've been tired. But, as far as work, it is always fun.
In fact, every day there has to be at least one " Anti-American" joke or a " What on God's Earth did you just say? " look, of course it's all in jest and it's nothing but fun ,as I can take all they dish, and hand some out myself ( right Mehdi ? ).
The coolest thing by far has been learning about everyone in the office. There isn't always a ton of time for us to hang out so going on office lunchs or after hours teas or something is always nice, which were all prevelant this week. As a result I was able to speak with people, I usually don't converse as much with, namely Hela, our boss " Mr. N", and Rudolph; also on of the partners from Switzerland come by for a visit this week, so chatting with him was definitely cool. I found out that Hela finally got her new car which she is in love with ( with good reason might I add). Hela is very cool. She has all the tabs on everything, and is ever approachable. In fact everyday when Hela leaves shes comes to the "children's side" of the office ( "children" I use loosely as we are the youngest members of the group ), and says "Goodbye my children. Have a good night. " being that she's the mother of two boys and still has room to embrace us, is pretty nice I think.
Haha.
Anyhow, the boss was actually in town this week ( pretty unusual ), and offered to treat us to a couple meals, which is always nice. So this week we had the opportunity to chat a bit more, which is nice when the boss, who has everything else to worry about, can stop and ask " how are you? " So nice, that at the end of one conversation, the offer was made to help me with my french ( although he was impressed by the level I had achieved already, merely comprehension, so don't appauld yet ) via lessons if some were available close by the office. I'm eagerly awaiting the reply, but either way, to offer is amazing and it definitely takes the edge off of scrambling to speak French.
All in all I think I learned something new about everyone in the office this past week. Rudolph who is the office champ staying in later than the latest person almost every night, lives like a king and has a very smart 2 yr old boy; Hassen is leaving our group in a few months as he's relocating offices and he doesn't like pumpkin pie. In fact, neither does the boss, but EVERYONE likes cheesecake, so yea I told them not to get any ideas about my cooking anything. Anyhow, Safia is very funny and always has some smart comment for Mehdi or myself whenever we have "discussions" or communication issues about...whatever. Oh, and her boyfriend is a man, even though I accidently called him a woman...BUT only because I saw him from the roof of our 5 floor building ( sorry again, Safia). Unfortnately, Haifa was sick most of this week, but she's better now...and she's still clutch when it comes to helping me out. It was extremely noticable that I was in DIRE need of a hair cut and after much questions and inconclusive answers, Haifa delivered the goods and now I have a fresh cut. ; ) ( Merci Beaucoup Haifa ! ) Also, she noticed that my french was in approving and told me as much, which was tres cool ! Hahaha ! After that, there's Mehdi, and ...well...I see him everyday....multiple times. Our desks face each other so there's really no escaping it and we are working on the same project so yea. But everyday, he teaches me some fancy new phrase in french or arabic and I tell him all the good slang terms in American English, so we call it even. He also mentioned that I should not mention his sister ever again. So, Mehdi I will never refer to your sister ...ever again. But it was a pleasure meeting her, she is a nice person. Hahaha ( I'm going to get another death threat now. )
So all is well at Swicorp and my arabic and french have improved so that's nice....yet I am still crawling in the large scheme of things so whichever.
Well, more cool stuff....so my dear friend Carmen who is in Chicago now on traineeship recently courted her dad around my city. In so doing, she mentioned myself and how I was in Tunisia. Well, as it turns out one of her dad's co-workers lives in Tunis. So a few email intro's and a couple REALLY hard phone calls, I had the pleasure of Meeting Mr. Moshen.
Mr. Moshen seemed to be intent on meeting me as well as when I called he almost immediately said, " I will pick you up at work tonight, and we shall have make acquaintences." The greatest part in all of this is that Mr. Moshen doesn't speak very much english, and speaking on the phone was the worst way I could have introduced him to my accent. Within 30 secs of the first phone call all I hear is " En Francais S'il vous plait. J'ai ne compri anglais, " which basically meant that this could be a long night. With Mehdi's help he arrived at the Sun Building and we were off. At first I we established that I would speak all the french I knew and he would do the same in english, which worked out alright as I received my second compliment of the day on my french ( in context of course, having never taken a course in my life). Well Mr. Moshen has great taste and took me to a nice little restaurant where all the locals eat, the meat is fresh, and everyone knows his name. 2 hours later we had managed to have a pretty awesome conversation and I even managed to explain AIESEC to him....in french ! I'm lucky if I can do it english let alone french ! So that was my proud moment of the day. After dinner he drove me home, and even invited me to his house to meet his family sometime in the coming weeks and have a another home made couscous dish...and you better believe I can get used to the homemade couscous! ; )
After getting back to Immeuble F, me and the Americans and Beata completed the evening with a late night viewing of Return of the King for as long as we could keep our eyes open.
And then it was Saturday.
SATURDAY:
After learning the "money word" of the week "Hajem" ( thank you Mehdi and Haifa ), I was able to lead Brian and myself to the barbershop. Amazingly it's only 10 minutes from our house and the guys know how to cut hair...heck I even got a SHAMPOOING !!! Which was a first in any country, so I was excited. After the fresh cut, the 60 degree weather was perfect and nothing could ruin the day, although some people tried.
First it was the guy at the airport who wouldn't let me change my traveler's checks, but it was only because my passport copy was bad, so that was pretty comforting actually). BUT the shady taxi driver took the cake. This guy was determined to take us for all we had from the get go. In hindsight we probably should've told him where to go before getting in the car, but since it was late in the day, and for some strange reason it difficult getting a cab this day, so we just got in. Well, he assumed that he we had just arrived in the country and had no idea about Tunisia what so ever, and immediately told us that we could take a tour with him for 25 TD, to which I replied..."We just want to go to Carthage, specifically Avenue November 7th and that's it. " Well, after trying and trying the guy knowing took us out of the way ( after we told him we live in Tunis, and that I work in the area we are going, and I know how to get there ). In the end he tried to gouge us and told us the ride cost 14 TD...which is completely ABSURD ! So we gave the guy 10 and just got out, which again, in hindsight, was waaay too much as the ride should have only been about 7 TD.
Anyway, we then heading to the Roman Villas and life was ok again. The ruins aren't the greatest and in fact alot of them were over grown, but we got a "twilight" discount and the view from the large house was absolutely stunning. So much so that Brian, Serge, and I just had to stop for about 10 minutes and stare. The image was completely serene, and it helped that we were completely alone. In front of us was the Bourganine mountain, the Med sea, the bulk of the villas, old statues, the port of Tunis and the beginning of the Sun's retreat to the West.
Stunning.
So then we booked it to my favorite spot in the area, which was the first place I sat and watched the sunset in Carthage. The whole sky was deep red and we ran and ran to get to the hill to catch the amazingness before it was gone. I honestly believe we had some divine intervention as it seemed the sun just waited for us to get to Byrsa Hill. Once there, the sun seem to run FULL SPEED toward the place I know as home. Honestly within about 2 minutes the sun went from full circle to disappearing below the horizon, it was more than either of us could have asked for.
After that we toured the ruins one more time, and then walked through the rest of Carthage on our way to the train...we took the scenic route of course, seeing some of Carthage's great sites at night, still proved to be anything but ordinary.
We finally made it home after an already long day, we decided to stop by Monoprix for some essential food groups...chocolate, chocolate croissants ( which are extremely pleasing at any time after being throughly smashed, I good smashing usually takes croissant from about 2 inches in height to about 2 centimeters in height...all the greatness meshed together...it truly is the only way to eat things ), pop, oranges, and a bottle of water. And we heading home for the most exciting part of the day....ORDERING PIZZA. So Brian had a slight case of party syndrome and headed out for some ...party atmospheres. Me and Serge stayed the course and placed the order....well Serge called, I picked out the pizzas. So when the guy shows up ( which was pretty on time for any Tunisian restaurant), we gave him $20 but the total was only $13. Well, I made the mistake of going to the little boys room, while Serge paid for the food. I come to find out that Serge gave this guy the money and never got all the change back. He said the driver told him "He'd be right back, with the change. " So I went out the balcony to see if there was any chance of this guy still being there so I could get my money. And of course, he drove off with my cash, and that was great. Anyhow, the pizza was good anyway and we washed it down by watching Resident Evil, so it was tres cool. Brian showed up, soon there after, after a less than exciting attempt at a social setting, and he finished off most of the second pizza.
At the end of the day, it was 3 fat and happy guys and movies, that were completely exhausted.
I slept VERY well. : )
SUNDAY:
Well, the best way to describe this day is just random.
It all started with a lack of through sleeping caused by some unsavory reoccuring dreams. So I eventually gave up and just watched the Return of the King extended version, well the rest of it that we hadn't finished over the weekend. Eventually Brian and Serge woke up and joined me. Following LOTR we popped in Gladiator just to set the mood right for the day and to discuss our plans of actions...and then...there's a knock on the door. I was on the phone at the time, so I'm not sure how things started but soon I hear alot of arabic....like ALOT and Serge speaks french and Brian...yea. So I was like..."What the crap is going on here ? ! " And I turn to see some little Tunisian lady marching in our apartment and waving her hands at Serge. All I hear is " Arabic, Arabic, Arabic, ASLEMA ( which is still Arabic but I understood that part, which is like hello ), and then more screaming. She runs into our bathroom, I'm thinking she's beating Serge down now, and then she begins to leave and Serge just says " Oui, Oui, Oui, Oui" until finally she is gone.
We all look at each other mouths gaping open and without we're all like... " Ummm....WHAT THE HECK JUST HAPPENED ?!!! "
I believe there was some french spoken so we asked Serge...dude, seriously what the heck is just happened?! "
He answers..." I don't know, but I think the building is flooding and if it damages our ceiling or floors when we'll have to pay to get it fixed. "
Right.
You can imagine me and Brian's response to that.
At that point we decided, to be responsible and get some things handled so we did.
The next experience was actually a good one. During the week, me and Serge had been discussing basketball, and how he had never played, so I told him I'd teach him and then he could play. He told me that every Sunday his friends meet at this basketball court close to our house, and play. So I said, lets go !
So we did.
And for a time...it was good.
Before I actually got to the court everything looked just like it was at home, everyone just playing. And then we had to get in.
All the gates were locked and the only way to get into the courts was the crawl through some hole ( about the size of a 8 yr child), in the fence it was great fun. : ) And then as I approach the courts I soon remembered I was in a foreign land where everyone speaks french, and had less than a clue about any terms they used on the court. But basketball is still basketball right? Well, for the most part yes. I'll try to explain.
So Serge introduced me to his friend, who in turn got me a spot on someone's team. I started by playing a pick-up 3 on 3 game, that was only played until 7. Before I knew it the game was over and I was without a team again.
After the " warm - up " game, I wound of speaking with one of the locals who could speak english, his name was Soose. So as there were alot of Southern Africans on the courts he asked me if I was from South Africa...and I chuckled a bit and said no...I'm from Chicago.
Then he looked at me and said....Chicago...where ? Which Chicago ?
I was answered his curiosity by assuring him I was from the United States.
At this point he just kind of stared at me in some kind of amazment...and then asked " Why are you here ? "
So I laughed and told him about Aiesec and my traineeship and I where I worked. And then he just says...
"Oh, I've know AIESEC. They have a great program. "
I smiled and said, yea...it's pretty good. ; )
He then told me about his classes at AMIDEAST and I was like " HEY ! 2 of my roomates work there! That's cool. "
All the time he seemed to in awe of the fact that was really American and that I would be out on a basketball court in Tunisia. He even asked me if I was the only one here, he was in disbelief. In the end we chatted more about basketball and how the NCAA works. It was pretty cool, and soon after we parted ways.
At this point I noticed Serge was busy beating up some kids on the other court, so I figured I'd join in. ( the term beating up, is used loosely in terms of playing basketball ) I glanced over to see a small child shooting the ball we brought, but with not the best form. I grabbed his rebound, and quickly showed him how to shoot the ball the right way. The next shot went right in. We both smiled in silent confirmation and continued shooting around.
There was 2 other boys there about 10 and 12 that were native Tunisian and we pretty good players already. So I showed them how to play courtesy on the court. It was nice.
Shortly there after I was talking with Serge and resorted to using english as I had exhausted my french vocabulary, and then the smallest child comes over to me and says...."Tu conoce Anglais ? " I was like...."Oui...I mean...Yes." And I said to him " You can speak english ? " And with the utmost articulate and educated voice and demeanor he says. " Yes, I can. Where are you from ? "
At this point it was me and Serge staring at this child in amazement, Serge and I are about the same height, and this kid maybe came up to our thighs.
And I said " I'm from Chicago, how about yourself ? "
"I'm from Toronto, Canada. "
I'm thinking, that's pretty far so I say " How'd you get here? "
"Well, I'm here with my cousin, over there but I have other family members that live here as well. I'm here on vacation from school. It's nice because it much warmer than Canada, although the weather is changing soon, so it should be warmer when I get back. "
With the hugest grin on my face I asked, "How old are you by the way ? "
He says " I'm 9 and a half. My birthday is in May. "
Now, he say anything too profound, but the way he said it and his ability to PERFECTLY switch languages was amazing.
And that's how I met Basan.
For a moment I was taken back to a time, not long ago, where I was playing basketball with a 9 and 12 year old respectively, and I just had to take a minute to really embrace the situation. I felt a swelling respect for life at this point, and smiled for the great memories I was blessed to share with two wonderful boys prior.
It was a special moment in deed.
.....
Afterwards I wondered onto the next court and meandering my way into the "adult " game of 5 on 5 and was soon sprinting up and down the floor. Unfortunatelly I soon remembered how out of shape I was and how much my "J" still needed some fixing, but I still had a few shining moments. It was pretty difficult to get accoustomed to as these guys seemed to be playing without any rules or structure in regards to playing the ball in bounds, and tempo of the game. The actually played the balls that were out, as if it were a soccer game ( not checking the ball in and just throwing it around ) which made for some awkward moments when I was waiting for the ball to be checked. The langage barrier was also pretty significant as I couldn't tell at any moment what kind of defense we should've been playing or who I should be guarding , so I just did what felt right and played a tight zone.
All in all it was good time and I met alot of new people.
And just was me and Serge were leaving the courts, Basan came running. He had a simple request..."( in french ) Will you guys be back next week ? "
We said..." We think so, yes. "
And then he said " How about Thursday, Friday, and Saturday too ? "
I couldn't help but laugh here and I told him " I'm sorry but we have to work those days. "
He said " That's ok then, I'll see on next Sunday. It was nice meeting you ( in English and French ). "
Hands down, one of the most fulfilling moments I've had in Tunisia, and life for that matter.
I guess somethings just don't change no matter where you are in the world.
Thursday, March 10, 2005
1 Down...5 to go
So Tuesday was my 1-month "celebration / anniversary " thing. Already 4 weeks have passed by, and I can't help but think..."wow...or how?" And what have a done to this point to justify my presence here and to validate myself. Only one month, but so many emotions. To put it simply, it really has been a rollercoaster ride thus far. I'm not sure about each way I've grown or expanded, but I can say that I know more arabic now then I ever have, I can speak some basic french, and even understand it, when people speak slowly, I still have bills to pay, and I've got to see 4 cities outside of the Tunis area. I guess that's not bad, but I want more, so we'll see how that pans out for you faithful readers out there. ; )
Well, on to the good stuff, what have I done now ?
Well this past weekend was my 2nd Road trip while in Tunisia ( so I will try to average 2 trips per month ) , and I think that was the only point that this weekend and the weekend prior have in common. This weekend I had the company of two of my roomates on Saturday ( Brian and Mariska ) and one on Sunday ( Mariska ). Each day we were accompanied by two awesome gentlemen Wassim and Ghazi, who offered to drive us around for the weekend. The first stops included the coastal town of Bizerte and the astoundingly historic town of Utica; which were followed by Teboursouk and Dougga on Sunday.
Now this is the point where I make my weekly "warning" disclaimer, but this one shouldn't be as long, don't ask why, I maybe it's the familiarity of the company, or the fact that it's the second trip, or the fact that this trip was full of "breathtaking" moments that only words can mess up. But I heard some reviews about my past formating "genious" ( haha ) so I guess I will keep more of the same so if you REALLY need to go to the bathroom you can. ; ) Soo....here goes something....
SATURDAY:
So Saturday morning started off kind of rough, as me and the American contengency all woke up about and hour and half late to the sounds of Wassim calling my phone and knocking at our apartment door at the same time. My roomates had spent the evening prior passed out do to beverage consumption or due to trying to pass out due to beverage consumption, I on the other hand had worked a mean shift at work and was just exhausted. Anyhow, we get up and get on the road and on our way. It is always an adventure when we're with Wassim and Ghazi, not because we get into trouble, but because we always have some translation issues, which is sometimes funny and other times kinda frustrating for all of us. Unfortunately I'm usually "that guy" that screws everything up. If Wassim doesn't tell me at least 25x's to "Please man, You HAVE TO, Art-tic-cu-late your words and SLOW DOWN, because I don't understand ANYTHING you are saying. I know there are words coming out of your mouth...but I hear nothing. " So, I take that as sign that I must be excited about something or really trying to make a point because, that's usually when it happens ( as anyone who's spoken with me for any length of time probably knows ). We also spend most of time in the listening to music and staring out the window. Now, as a cultural note Ghazi is the man with the car, and everytime we get in the car he plays some cd that will either be from waaay back in the day ( the locals call it YA-HA-SAL-LA ! ...which is quickly becoming one of my favorite words), OR we will here just a JAM ( because every electronic medium here is "aquired" through beneficial online sources or certain "markets" ). So anyhow, most of the time in Ghazi's car is spent singing. And when we sing....we SANG !! ( that means really passionately singing, at a consideradly high volume ). Sometimes it Mariah Carey, others it's the Eagles, and who could forget all ( and i mean ALL ) of MOTOWN'S Greatest hits ? ! So it's never really a dull moment, which is kinda nice, but doesn't help out the communication issues. Just before we reach our first destination, we had our "tunisian" driving experience. This week, it happened while driving down a two lane highway ( actually like a country road in Indiana ), and there was a semi going the other direction...no big deal...and then we all stop singing , instantly, to see the other semi coming head on at us full speed attempting to pass the other "slower" semi with about a 3 car ( American car ) length in which to merge....OH and we were going 60 MPH easily.
Yea. Think about it...let it soak in your imagination....
Ok, go to the bathroom now and come back.
Because that's EXACTLY the way we ALL felt. Thank God Ghazi had enough sense to slow down. This was definitely a scene out of a Movie or some sort, and at that point I was very ready to get out to the car and walk a bit.
So we did. In historic Utica.
UTICA :
So in great thanks once again, to my maps and trusty guide book, I was able to discover the town that staged the losing Roman battle to Cathage, 240 BC, and also conspired with the Romans to demolish the Carthaginians for good in 146 BC.
BC...just the thought of the history here was stagerring.
Upon arriving , the site looks like nothing but a vacant lot where some building used to be and no one has claimed the land to rebuild on it yet, so it looks like crap, well this one didn't have trash everywhere so that's the biggest difference. So we pay our 2 dinars ( $1.50 ) to get in, and 30 seconds later we are standing in a Roman street. For the moment, I just sat there and tried to imagine this little neighborhood. To the left and right, you see these small doorways and just in front was the largest house of them all " The House of Cascades." Generally cascade translates into "mosaic" and were there a ton of them ! Immediately you see the atrium that served as the center of the house, all the rooms were centered around it. The pond around it had these 2 huge stone turtles in it with a sun dial on the top with bushes and flowers all around. Now, it was only about 45 degrees outside and it was kinda misting out, and this was abosolutely amazing. So the rest of the group had wondered around and were ready to just move on and get the going, but knowing me, I decided to stick around and really try to soak up every ounce of history and culture I could. In the end it was goood thing, as there was this grounds keeper speaking with Wassim and Ghazi in Arabic ,as Brian and Mariska were kinda wondering off, and I was busy looking for the best shot, since it seemed like all we had was the book to guide us. All of a sudden the guy says something that sounded like..." Do you want to see something? Come and I will show you something cool. " ( Ok, I added the cool part, but that's what I heard regardless. And since this is MY BLOG, you guys will have to read everything I hear, even if it's imaginery. Haha! ) So he takes us all over to this table, which was covering something, it seemed to look like something they were fixing or something, and then we says " hold this end up." He brings over this water spray bottle and starts spraying, and what was a dusty old floor, was now this breathtakingly beautiful fountain, complete with fish, water, boats, people, and some flowers. I was kinda like when you would have to wear the "secret 3-D" glasses to uncover secrets clues and stuff ( I loved that by the way ), except about 2000 years cooler. After that he took decided to give us the whole tour ( after it seemed like he was on break for the day, but I guess that's just Tunisian custom again), complete with the history of the town and it's reason for being. Turns out that Utica was the capital of the Roman empire in all of Northern Africa and the sea used to be 5 km away and now's it's moved northeast about 30km, that was also amazing, before they took over Carthage and made it the hub. Anyhow, I thought that was cool, and all the while I was soaking all that in , our guide walks us down some stairs and takes us into this little shack, which looks like a tool shed, and low and behind....there's a skeleton there.
Now, it's not that weird considering we were in the cemetery portion of the city. But, this was no ordinary cemetery ( of course ) and neither was the skeleton.
It was a punic cemetery and the skeleton of a young lady, preserved in this huge sarcophogus made of dirt and rocks.
The skeleton was dated back to 800 BC !!!!
....the very thought of that defies all comprehension !
Or the thought that the town itself was founded by the Phoenicians in 1100 BC !
The Romans, simply found the town as it was, and built on top of it. In fact in the cascade house you could see the old punic tiles and mosaics in the floor juxtaposed with the Roman tiles and mosiacs from the late BC and early AD period.
Sorry if I seem to be getting a "history" high. But I simply never imagined...well I did actually, I imagined alot, still do as a matter of fact...BUT the point is, here I am in the MIDST of the cradle of civilization, feeling history, breathing history, seeing history, and taking some rocks. ; ) It seems like so long ago I was just a kid reading about these types of civilizations and cultures in books in some little school in Chicago, Illinois, USA in the heart of the Midwest, without the the SLIGHTEST idea that I could even still experience things like this! It was similar to the feeling you get when you go to the Grand Canyon ( if you haven't yet, plan on it because you life will be different from that point ), and you see this ...huge crater in the Earth, that spans BILLIONS of years...and you think " Wow, just when man thought he was worth to have an ego....I am nothing more than a chip off a spec of dust in the span of time" It definitely puts you in a completely introspective mood, well, if you let it which I tend to do often, especially nowadays.
Needless to say, Utica was the perfect sequel to last weekend and just what I needed after the week prior.
Soon the tour was over and we were off to Bizerte...
BIZERTE:
I've never been to Venice, and have been flown into Italy at this point, but I've seen pictures, as most probably have at this point.
Well, that's pretty much how a good portion of Bizerte looks. It is a city surrounded by two lakes on one side and the Mediterrean Sea on the other, and also happens to house some of the most amazing beaches in the whole country. But, don't forget it's still 45 degrees out and the rain is coming our away, again.
Once again , we are knee deep in history and just universally cool stuff.
So we head for the 2 forts at the head of the canal that connects the lake and the sea.
Before heading to "the Kasbah" ( yes the Kasbah is a real name ), we stopped off some food.
And this was most definitely an experience.
So we roll up to what to me looks like some kind of child's amusement park, complete like little duckies, ponds, swings, jungle gym, cheap roller coaster rides...and then there's this "serious" restaurant right inside it. It was definitely inconspicuous. We get inside and waiting to order, and here comes "tunisian custom" again. We wait about 15 minutes for the waiter, which isn't so abnormal I guess, but then we ordered.
Right.
I would just like to take this moment to say that me and Tunisian restaurants do not get along...at all...well besides the food.
The waiter starts asking us for our orders and mind you, there are 5 of us. So he's just sitting there listening, as we all order 3 things each ( we were REALLY hungry ). And then, due to my past experiences, I was asked Mariska..."where the heck is his note pad ? "
( now maybe he's just THAT good a waiter, which I have yet to experience, or maybe he has ESP, but I doubt it. Here we have this huge order and 3 pretty different , all pretty wrong, American French accents...yea I thought we were definitely screwed. )
So Mariska ordered a salad or something to which the waiter responded..."WHAT ?! WHAT?! " and then just went on without her, I had to tell him what she wanted, and when I wanted to order it was simple, a sandwich, a crepe , and a jus ( juice ). Apparently the juice was hard as well for him. Then when Brian ordered....hahaha...man...let's just say pointing at the menu was the only refuse for him. It was interesting. But Wassim kindly reminded the guy 4 times to bring the right stuff, so I think it stuck pretty well, especially since we all ordered the same sandwich and a jus. The jus was awesome, everything that has to do with oranges here are awesome. The most amazing thing of all is that the really good oranges...aren't even orange! They are red, and they are only the best fruit I've ever tasted. Now, the sandwichs on the other hand, they were amazing ! But they were cold, relatively. I've learned that if you want some piping hot food, you have to cook it yourself or microwave it. Apparently the term " Hot n' Now " doesn't apply here. And the food is still awesome, which is true testament to how much I like Tunisia. Everyone know's the quickest way to this man's heart...is through his stomach. ; ) And then there was the crepe.
whew...
Heaven on a plate.
It was very simple, like me and all things therein, only chocolate with almonds.
But it was greatness. And the crepes here are made contrary to any were else I've had them, and better I think. They obviously make them the same, but in the end they fold it into a square and fry it harder on the outside.
Voila ! C'est money !
So despite some service errors, once again I left a Tunisian restaurant happier than a pig in slop. ; )
Now, on the the forts ! The larger of the two forts is called the Kasbah the second called "little kasbah " and is just a modest oceanarium at best. The big Kasbah was most definitely cool. Mostly because you could go inside and have a tea on top of it and watch the ocean and the downtown, and the boats sailing into the canal. It is a well known fact that Tunisia has been tossed around like an old dollar and at some point in time everyone in the Med. Sea area has laid some claim to it. This particular time the Spanish , Italian, and Turkish fought for. There are still Italian canons, turkish pottery, and spanish tiles. There can also be seen , o'er yonder, a huge spanish fort, that was actually completed by the Turkish, after the Turks bounced them from B-town.
After soaking in the atmosphere at the Kasbah, we decided to retreat to one of the most secluded beaches in all of Tunisia, and one of the most beautiful. The name of the beach/ area is Les Grottes. Les Grottes is absoultely captivating. It has mountains up until the sea, and stunning reefs as far as the eye can see. So we took some pictures and here we sat for a few minutes, as the sun started it's trip west. I noticed the mountain seemed to have an access road where one could possibly catch the sunset off the sea with the enormous Cap Blanch in view. So we went there. The road was completely shattered and rocky...basically it was just a dirt road...the kind that lead to construction sites. So as soon as the car stopped enough for me to "tuck and roll" I did ( well, I actually just got out of the car but , I was pretty excited). So then I ran to the Cap Blanch as fast as I could ( with other natives looking at me like I was kinda crazy ), and when I finally turned the corner to face the sun...I came to a gate.
The signs on it were on a black background with arabic written all over. The gate was slightly ajar and very old looking. It also had a circular sign with a red border and a slash through it, but it was very faded and decrepid looking. I took that as the green light, and said...what the heck....let's get a that one picture.
So as I enter, Wassim runs up to me and the other Americans ( who had finally caught up to me), and he said "Where are you going. " I said...."just in there for a pic or two. Oh, by the way, what do these signs mean ? "
He says... "Well, they are kinda old, but they say...'Danger ...Death. Shooting facility. Danger Death. "
So I said... " Really? Well...looks alright to me, plus it's 6 pm on Saturday night. I'm going in ...who's coming w/ me ? ! "
Wassim : " You're a crazy $#$@%^ ! I'll go with you, but you're going to be my shield ! I didn't bring you here to get shot ! "
So...in we went. I will say I was a slight bit concerned that maybe there were land mines or something, but then again , why would you plant land mines for your own soldiers to die ?
So we continued our stake out, and noticed on the side of Cap Blanch, that there were these blown up targets and what seemed to be mortar craters in the ground...it was kinda exciting. ; )
Well, I'm still alive and I got my pictures, although I missed most of the sun.
I ended up just staring off at the remnants of the sun heading towards the place I call home. For awhile I imagined if I stared long enough I could see Lady Liberty, and it didn't seem like I was so far away from home at that point.
....and then I hear...." Jeff ! You will sleep here tonight ! We are leaving ! "
So, so much for being close to home.
It's funny though how staring out into the sea can make you think of life and long lost loves from far away.
In that regard I guess, it's mildly Ironic that I work right off of Lac Tunis and see the water everyday, all day.
Anyhow, we ran into this random place with Christmas lights out front in the middle of the dark, seemingly deserted mountainside town, and grabbed a cup of tea, and admired the "Tunisian" Townine life, and opted to get home, as the @'ers in Tunis were planning some late night gatherings.
The ride back to Tunis, was most definitely a quite one ( well besides the music ), and we all ended up passing out or just staring aimlessly out the window reviewing our days accomplishments. So there I was in the car staring up at Orion's Belt and I started thinking how just 2 years prior I was on a beach doing the exact same thing in a completely different context and had no idea where I'd end up. Now I felt like I was staring at the sea again ( the sea and the stars have similar effects on me), and I couldn't shake the idea that I was so close and so far away at the same time. Closer in thought than in body of course. But everything that I had on that beach is now...gone...or changed somehow. I'm not sure whether for feel "evolved " or " robbed." And at the same time there was the belt, still glowing and shining as brightly as it had before. Is this confirmation ? Is this a gut - check ? Am I supposed to here ? Am I missing something else at home?
Je suis pa.
C'est la vie, seulement la vie...ne rien plus.
And then I woke up at Menzah 5.
SUNDAY:
So Sunday, we got up after a heck of a confusing of a Saturday night. So much so that I will omit it from my weekly update, as not to revisit the feelings of that night. Suffice to say that, we were told that we were going to go dancing ( with the usual - 10 guys, 3 girls ), and then realized that we may have troubles getting in as the ratio is VERY important to getting into social places in Tunis ( as anywhere else in the world I'm sure ). So some how during the car ride and alot of Arabic, we ended up at some trendy restaurant sitting around and listening to techno. The rest of the night was just uneventful after that.
After such an amazing evening, it was a pretty drastic come down to just sitting around in the complete alternate situation of a high class, modern, trendy restaurant listening to techno ...from browsing through ruins and chasing sunsets and staring at stars.
Regardless, the company was nice as always...shout out to Anis, Amira, Imen, Lotfi, Serge, Wassim, Ghazi, Mehdi, Mariym, and the whole @ University crew. Holla back !
( hahaha...)
Anyway, just when you thought that Saturday couldn't be beat, we were off again towards Wassim and Ghazi's ( cousins ) home town Teboursouk.
I have to send a huge thank you to Wassim for opening his home and introducing us to his family and giving me a true sense of "home" with the Sunday meal. W, you are the man and have earned any and all respect due to you. I am proud to call you a friend of mine.
So Wassim, had planned on us coming to visit, his family and his parents in turn prepared the PHATTEST couscous dinner you've ever seen ! Honestly 1 and half plates, some oranges, and some The' pignion and I was done for ! It was great and just what was needed for our second Roman tour of Dougga.
Merci Beaucoup.
DOUGGA:
Unfortunately, in my race to sleep on Saturday night, I forgot to charge my camera batteries. So when we arrived at the MOST complete and utterly JAW-DROPPING city of Dougga, I could only muster about 10 pictures. Fortunately for most, Anis came on this trip instead of Brian, and had a digital camera as well. But in time, his camera soon followed suit, just as the evening began to creep in, but not before some amazing shots. Dougga, is massive, probably one of , if not the most, complete city of the Roman Empire ( including Italy, seriously ). Dougga is set in the mountains, and was the unofficial capital of the Empire Africa. I can't write too much about it, just because it would be an injustice. I merely invite you to see for yourself, and let me know, what words come to mind.
GOING HOME:
On the way back, we then took a stop at Ghazi's house. We can in, met his mom, sister, cousin, and brother. He mom immediately sat us down in the guest room and brought us jus and desserts. He had some home made desserts that were simply mouth-watering and very appropriate after climbing through Dougga.
Ghazi , is the driver. He is the man with the wheels that made the whole weekend possible. For that, I can never thank you enough, as you have no idea how grateful I am for your hospitality. Next time you come over to Immeuble F, I'll cook dinner! ; )
Once again, I was on my own with everyone in the car, but this time there were no stars to spur my deepest thoughts on life...so I just went to sleep.
Upon arrival to The Menzah, Anis, Mariska, and I found ourselves in the midst of friendly chat on life, to end the weekend off just right.
So THANK YOU Anis, for your company and for allowing me access to one of most memorable conversations I have yet to have in Tunisia. BUT, you better bring my CD's back ! : )
All in all, the weekend was very introspective and full of sensory over-loads, but yet another good weekend to be in a foreign land.
Thank you for your attention. Please help yourself to pictures. ; )
Well, on to the good stuff, what have I done now ?
Well this past weekend was my 2nd Road trip while in Tunisia ( so I will try to average 2 trips per month ) , and I think that was the only point that this weekend and the weekend prior have in common. This weekend I had the company of two of my roomates on Saturday ( Brian and Mariska ) and one on Sunday ( Mariska ). Each day we were accompanied by two awesome gentlemen Wassim and Ghazi, who offered to drive us around for the weekend. The first stops included the coastal town of Bizerte and the astoundingly historic town of Utica; which were followed by Teboursouk and Dougga on Sunday.
Now this is the point where I make my weekly "warning" disclaimer, but this one shouldn't be as long, don't ask why, I maybe it's the familiarity of the company, or the fact that it's the second trip, or the fact that this trip was full of "breathtaking" moments that only words can mess up. But I heard some reviews about my past formating "genious" ( haha ) so I guess I will keep more of the same so if you REALLY need to go to the bathroom you can. ; ) Soo....here goes something....
SATURDAY:
So Saturday morning started off kind of rough, as me and the American contengency all woke up about and hour and half late to the sounds of Wassim calling my phone and knocking at our apartment door at the same time. My roomates had spent the evening prior passed out do to beverage consumption or due to trying to pass out due to beverage consumption, I on the other hand had worked a mean shift at work and was just exhausted. Anyhow, we get up and get on the road and on our way. It is always an adventure when we're with Wassim and Ghazi, not because we get into trouble, but because we always have some translation issues, which is sometimes funny and other times kinda frustrating for all of us. Unfortunately I'm usually "that guy" that screws everything up. If Wassim doesn't tell me at least 25x's to "Please man, You HAVE TO, Art-tic-cu-late your words and SLOW DOWN, because I don't understand ANYTHING you are saying. I know there are words coming out of your mouth...but I hear nothing. " So, I take that as sign that I must be excited about something or really trying to make a point because, that's usually when it happens ( as anyone who's spoken with me for any length of time probably knows ). We also spend most of time in the listening to music and staring out the window. Now, as a cultural note Ghazi is the man with the car, and everytime we get in the car he plays some cd that will either be from waaay back in the day ( the locals call it YA-HA-SAL-LA ! ...which is quickly becoming one of my favorite words), OR we will here just a JAM ( because every electronic medium here is "aquired" through beneficial online sources or certain "markets" ). So anyhow, most of the time in Ghazi's car is spent singing. And when we sing....we SANG !! ( that means really passionately singing, at a consideradly high volume ). Sometimes it Mariah Carey, others it's the Eagles, and who could forget all ( and i mean ALL ) of MOTOWN'S Greatest hits ? ! So it's never really a dull moment, which is kinda nice, but doesn't help out the communication issues. Just before we reach our first destination, we had our "tunisian" driving experience. This week, it happened while driving down a two lane highway ( actually like a country road in Indiana ), and there was a semi going the other direction...no big deal...and then we all stop singing , instantly, to see the other semi coming head on at us full speed attempting to pass the other "slower" semi with about a 3 car ( American car ) length in which to merge....OH and we were going 60 MPH easily.
Yea. Think about it...let it soak in your imagination....
Ok, go to the bathroom now and come back.
Because that's EXACTLY the way we ALL felt. Thank God Ghazi had enough sense to slow down. This was definitely a scene out of a Movie or some sort, and at that point I was very ready to get out to the car and walk a bit.
So we did. In historic Utica.
UTICA :
So in great thanks once again, to my maps and trusty guide book, I was able to discover the town that staged the losing Roman battle to Cathage, 240 BC, and also conspired with the Romans to demolish the Carthaginians for good in 146 BC.
BC...just the thought of the history here was stagerring.
Upon arriving , the site looks like nothing but a vacant lot where some building used to be and no one has claimed the land to rebuild on it yet, so it looks like crap, well this one didn't have trash everywhere so that's the biggest difference. So we pay our 2 dinars ( $1.50 ) to get in, and 30 seconds later we are standing in a Roman street. For the moment, I just sat there and tried to imagine this little neighborhood. To the left and right, you see these small doorways and just in front was the largest house of them all " The House of Cascades." Generally cascade translates into "mosaic" and were there a ton of them ! Immediately you see the atrium that served as the center of the house, all the rooms were centered around it. The pond around it had these 2 huge stone turtles in it with a sun dial on the top with bushes and flowers all around. Now, it was only about 45 degrees outside and it was kinda misting out, and this was abosolutely amazing. So the rest of the group had wondered around and were ready to just move on and get the going, but knowing me, I decided to stick around and really try to soak up every ounce of history and culture I could. In the end it was goood thing, as there was this grounds keeper speaking with Wassim and Ghazi in Arabic ,as Brian and Mariska were kinda wondering off, and I was busy looking for the best shot, since it seemed like all we had was the book to guide us. All of a sudden the guy says something that sounded like..." Do you want to see something? Come and I will show you something cool. " ( Ok, I added the cool part, but that's what I heard regardless. And since this is MY BLOG, you guys will have to read everything I hear, even if it's imaginery. Haha! ) So he takes us all over to this table, which was covering something, it seemed to look like something they were fixing or something, and then we says " hold this end up." He brings over this water spray bottle and starts spraying, and what was a dusty old floor, was now this breathtakingly beautiful fountain, complete with fish, water, boats, people, and some flowers. I was kinda like when you would have to wear the "secret 3-D" glasses to uncover secrets clues and stuff ( I loved that by the way ), except about 2000 years cooler. After that he took decided to give us the whole tour ( after it seemed like he was on break for the day, but I guess that's just Tunisian custom again), complete with the history of the town and it's reason for being. Turns out that Utica was the capital of the Roman empire in all of Northern Africa and the sea used to be 5 km away and now's it's moved northeast about 30km, that was also amazing, before they took over Carthage and made it the hub. Anyhow, I thought that was cool, and all the while I was soaking all that in , our guide walks us down some stairs and takes us into this little shack, which looks like a tool shed, and low and behind....there's a skeleton there.
Now, it's not that weird considering we were in the cemetery portion of the city. But, this was no ordinary cemetery ( of course ) and neither was the skeleton.
It was a punic cemetery and the skeleton of a young lady, preserved in this huge sarcophogus made of dirt and rocks.
The skeleton was dated back to 800 BC !!!!
....the very thought of that defies all comprehension !
Or the thought that the town itself was founded by the Phoenicians in 1100 BC !
The Romans, simply found the town as it was, and built on top of it. In fact in the cascade house you could see the old punic tiles and mosaics in the floor juxtaposed with the Roman tiles and mosiacs from the late BC and early AD period.
Sorry if I seem to be getting a "history" high. But I simply never imagined...well I did actually, I imagined alot, still do as a matter of fact...BUT the point is, here I am in the MIDST of the cradle of civilization, feeling history, breathing history, seeing history, and taking some rocks. ; ) It seems like so long ago I was just a kid reading about these types of civilizations and cultures in books in some little school in Chicago, Illinois, USA in the heart of the Midwest, without the the SLIGHTEST idea that I could even still experience things like this! It was similar to the feeling you get when you go to the Grand Canyon ( if you haven't yet, plan on it because you life will be different from that point ), and you see this ...huge crater in the Earth, that spans BILLIONS of years...and you think " Wow, just when man thought he was worth to have an ego....I am nothing more than a chip off a spec of dust in the span of time" It definitely puts you in a completely introspective mood, well, if you let it which I tend to do often, especially nowadays.
Needless to say, Utica was the perfect sequel to last weekend and just what I needed after the week prior.
Soon the tour was over and we were off to Bizerte...
BIZERTE:
I've never been to Venice, and have been flown into Italy at this point, but I've seen pictures, as most probably have at this point.
Well, that's pretty much how a good portion of Bizerte looks. It is a city surrounded by two lakes on one side and the Mediterrean Sea on the other, and also happens to house some of the most amazing beaches in the whole country. But, don't forget it's still 45 degrees out and the rain is coming our away, again.
Once again , we are knee deep in history and just universally cool stuff.
So we head for the 2 forts at the head of the canal that connects the lake and the sea.
Before heading to "the Kasbah" ( yes the Kasbah is a real name ), we stopped off some food.
And this was most definitely an experience.
So we roll up to what to me looks like some kind of child's amusement park, complete like little duckies, ponds, swings, jungle gym, cheap roller coaster rides...and then there's this "serious" restaurant right inside it. It was definitely inconspicuous. We get inside and waiting to order, and here comes "tunisian custom" again. We wait about 15 minutes for the waiter, which isn't so abnormal I guess, but then we ordered.
Right.
I would just like to take this moment to say that me and Tunisian restaurants do not get along...at all...well besides the food.
The waiter starts asking us for our orders and mind you, there are 5 of us. So he's just sitting there listening, as we all order 3 things each ( we were REALLY hungry ). And then, due to my past experiences, I was asked Mariska..."where the heck is his note pad ? "
( now maybe he's just THAT good a waiter, which I have yet to experience, or maybe he has ESP, but I doubt it. Here we have this huge order and 3 pretty different , all pretty wrong, American French accents...yea I thought we were definitely screwed. )
So Mariska ordered a salad or something to which the waiter responded..."WHAT ?! WHAT?! " and then just went on without her, I had to tell him what she wanted, and when I wanted to order it was simple, a sandwich, a crepe , and a jus ( juice ). Apparently the juice was hard as well for him. Then when Brian ordered....hahaha...man...let's just say pointing at the menu was the only refuse for him. It was interesting. But Wassim kindly reminded the guy 4 times to bring the right stuff, so I think it stuck pretty well, especially since we all ordered the same sandwich and a jus. The jus was awesome, everything that has to do with oranges here are awesome. The most amazing thing of all is that the really good oranges...aren't even orange! They are red, and they are only the best fruit I've ever tasted. Now, the sandwichs on the other hand, they were amazing ! But they were cold, relatively. I've learned that if you want some piping hot food, you have to cook it yourself or microwave it. Apparently the term " Hot n' Now " doesn't apply here. And the food is still awesome, which is true testament to how much I like Tunisia. Everyone know's the quickest way to this man's heart...is through his stomach. ; ) And then there was the crepe.
whew...
Heaven on a plate.
It was very simple, like me and all things therein, only chocolate with almonds.
But it was greatness. And the crepes here are made contrary to any were else I've had them, and better I think. They obviously make them the same, but in the end they fold it into a square and fry it harder on the outside.
Voila ! C'est money !
So despite some service errors, once again I left a Tunisian restaurant happier than a pig in slop. ; )
Now, on the the forts ! The larger of the two forts is called the Kasbah the second called "little kasbah " and is just a modest oceanarium at best. The big Kasbah was most definitely cool. Mostly because you could go inside and have a tea on top of it and watch the ocean and the downtown, and the boats sailing into the canal. It is a well known fact that Tunisia has been tossed around like an old dollar and at some point in time everyone in the Med. Sea area has laid some claim to it. This particular time the Spanish , Italian, and Turkish fought for. There are still Italian canons, turkish pottery, and spanish tiles. There can also be seen , o'er yonder, a huge spanish fort, that was actually completed by the Turkish, after the Turks bounced them from B-town.
After soaking in the atmosphere at the Kasbah, we decided to retreat to one of the most secluded beaches in all of Tunisia, and one of the most beautiful. The name of the beach/ area is Les Grottes. Les Grottes is absoultely captivating. It has mountains up until the sea, and stunning reefs as far as the eye can see. So we took some pictures and here we sat for a few minutes, as the sun started it's trip west. I noticed the mountain seemed to have an access road where one could possibly catch the sunset off the sea with the enormous Cap Blanch in view. So we went there. The road was completely shattered and rocky...basically it was just a dirt road...the kind that lead to construction sites. So as soon as the car stopped enough for me to "tuck and roll" I did ( well, I actually just got out of the car but , I was pretty excited). So then I ran to the Cap Blanch as fast as I could ( with other natives looking at me like I was kinda crazy ), and when I finally turned the corner to face the sun...I came to a gate.
The signs on it were on a black background with arabic written all over. The gate was slightly ajar and very old looking. It also had a circular sign with a red border and a slash through it, but it was very faded and decrepid looking. I took that as the green light, and said...what the heck....let's get a that one picture.
So as I enter, Wassim runs up to me and the other Americans ( who had finally caught up to me), and he said "Where are you going. " I said...."just in there for a pic or two. Oh, by the way, what do these signs mean ? "
He says... "Well, they are kinda old, but they say...'Danger ...Death. Shooting facility. Danger Death. "
So I said... " Really? Well...looks alright to me, plus it's 6 pm on Saturday night. I'm going in ...who's coming w/ me ? ! "
Wassim : " You're a crazy $#$@%^ ! I'll go with you, but you're going to be my shield ! I didn't bring you here to get shot ! "
So...in we went. I will say I was a slight bit concerned that maybe there were land mines or something, but then again , why would you plant land mines for your own soldiers to die ?
So we continued our stake out, and noticed on the side of Cap Blanch, that there were these blown up targets and what seemed to be mortar craters in the ground...it was kinda exciting. ; )
Well, I'm still alive and I got my pictures, although I missed most of the sun.
I ended up just staring off at the remnants of the sun heading towards the place I call home. For awhile I imagined if I stared long enough I could see Lady Liberty, and it didn't seem like I was so far away from home at that point.
....and then I hear...." Jeff ! You will sleep here tonight ! We are leaving ! "
So, so much for being close to home.
It's funny though how staring out into the sea can make you think of life and long lost loves from far away.
In that regard I guess, it's mildly Ironic that I work right off of Lac Tunis and see the water everyday, all day.
Anyhow, we ran into this random place with Christmas lights out front in the middle of the dark, seemingly deserted mountainside town, and grabbed a cup of tea, and admired the "Tunisian" Townine life, and opted to get home, as the @'ers in Tunis were planning some late night gatherings.
The ride back to Tunis, was most definitely a quite one ( well besides the music ), and we all ended up passing out or just staring aimlessly out the window reviewing our days accomplishments. So there I was in the car staring up at Orion's Belt and I started thinking how just 2 years prior I was on a beach doing the exact same thing in a completely different context and had no idea where I'd end up. Now I felt like I was staring at the sea again ( the sea and the stars have similar effects on me), and I couldn't shake the idea that I was so close and so far away at the same time. Closer in thought than in body of course. But everything that I had on that beach is now...gone...or changed somehow. I'm not sure whether for feel "evolved " or " robbed." And at the same time there was the belt, still glowing and shining as brightly as it had before. Is this confirmation ? Is this a gut - check ? Am I supposed to here ? Am I missing something else at home?
Je suis pa.
C'est la vie, seulement la vie...ne rien plus.
And then I woke up at Menzah 5.
SUNDAY:
So Sunday, we got up after a heck of a confusing of a Saturday night. So much so that I will omit it from my weekly update, as not to revisit the feelings of that night. Suffice to say that, we were told that we were going to go dancing ( with the usual - 10 guys, 3 girls ), and then realized that we may have troubles getting in as the ratio is VERY important to getting into social places in Tunis ( as anywhere else in the world I'm sure ). So some how during the car ride and alot of Arabic, we ended up at some trendy restaurant sitting around and listening to techno. The rest of the night was just uneventful after that.
After such an amazing evening, it was a pretty drastic come down to just sitting around in the complete alternate situation of a high class, modern, trendy restaurant listening to techno ...from browsing through ruins and chasing sunsets and staring at stars.
Regardless, the company was nice as always...shout out to Anis, Amira, Imen, Lotfi, Serge, Wassim, Ghazi, Mehdi, Mariym, and the whole @ University crew. Holla back !
( hahaha...)
Anyway, just when you thought that Saturday couldn't be beat, we were off again towards Wassim and Ghazi's ( cousins ) home town Teboursouk.
I have to send a huge thank you to Wassim for opening his home and introducing us to his family and giving me a true sense of "home" with the Sunday meal. W, you are the man and have earned any and all respect due to you. I am proud to call you a friend of mine.
So Wassim, had planned on us coming to visit, his family and his parents in turn prepared the PHATTEST couscous dinner you've ever seen ! Honestly 1 and half plates, some oranges, and some The' pignion and I was done for ! It was great and just what was needed for our second Roman tour of Dougga.
Merci Beaucoup.
DOUGGA:
Unfortunately, in my race to sleep on Saturday night, I forgot to charge my camera batteries. So when we arrived at the MOST complete and utterly JAW-DROPPING city of Dougga, I could only muster about 10 pictures. Fortunately for most, Anis came on this trip instead of Brian, and had a digital camera as well. But in time, his camera soon followed suit, just as the evening began to creep in, but not before some amazing shots. Dougga, is massive, probably one of , if not the most, complete city of the Roman Empire ( including Italy, seriously ). Dougga is set in the mountains, and was the unofficial capital of the Empire Africa. I can't write too much about it, just because it would be an injustice. I merely invite you to see for yourself, and let me know, what words come to mind.
GOING HOME:
On the way back, we then took a stop at Ghazi's house. We can in, met his mom, sister, cousin, and brother. He mom immediately sat us down in the guest room and brought us jus and desserts. He had some home made desserts that were simply mouth-watering and very appropriate after climbing through Dougga.
Ghazi , is the driver. He is the man with the wheels that made the whole weekend possible. For that, I can never thank you enough, as you have no idea how grateful I am for your hospitality. Next time you come over to Immeuble F, I'll cook dinner! ; )
Once again, I was on my own with everyone in the car, but this time there were no stars to spur my deepest thoughts on life...so I just went to sleep.
Upon arrival to The Menzah, Anis, Mariska, and I found ourselves in the midst of friendly chat on life, to end the weekend off just right.
So THANK YOU Anis, for your company and for allowing me access to one of most memorable conversations I have yet to have in Tunisia. BUT, you better bring my CD's back ! : )
All in all, the weekend was very introspective and full of sensory over-loads, but yet another good weekend to be in a foreign land.
Thank you for your attention. Please help yourself to pictures. ; )
Monday, March 07, 2005
Life of a Super - Hero
SCHBEAK !
Just a little arabic on this fine Monday Morning.
Well, as I am having a "case of the monday's" I figured I would try to at least keep up on my bloggin and let the world know what was up over here on this side of the world. This weekend I continued my road-trippin and managed to see 4 cities in Tunisia, eat with 2 Tunisian families, and hang out with Hercules on the land were Julius Ceasar and Pompey had a conflict of interest. So , it was cool , and it will take some time for me to get it all out...so as in every week, I would still like to share something with you. Actually this is "post - dated" from this past Friday. Just some more of me. Hope you enjoy, a tout a l'heure!
Life of a Super - Hero
I like comic books.
Actually, I love comic books.
And today, I felt like a super - hero.
Most people will ask me "Why" or "How" could you really like comics ? You're an adult now. I am honestly a bigger fan of comics now than, when I was a kid.
And why? Do you really want to know why ?
Ironically, for the exact opposite reason most people do not.
I believe they reflect life.
Now, it is easy to look at it and say all these creatures and gadgets and "make-believe" is ridiculous. To that I say, all fiction is based in reality. If you look past the creatures and paintings, you will find basic human issues.
Self - esteem ; Growing Pains ; fear of the unknown ; fear of rejection ; joy and pain of love ; sacrifice and faith.
These are issues that everyone has faced at one time or another, or are still facing. Why couldn't you be a super-hero?
I believe anyone has the potential to be a super-hero.
All heros have some power, and by that power they impact the world in a positive way, which most times goes unoticed. This same power is the source of their alienation by society and from society. These powers make them confident, and they make them lonely, vulnerable, and depressed. They come from another place or have been "different" their whole lives. They see things differently and act accordingly, but have always wanted to know what it would be like to just "fit in".
* Example - The "Astonishing X-men." Young people who have discovered they have inherited some special powers while they are just trying to learn to live. They all strive to help everyone, and work as a team, but each person has a life that they do not know how to live with or why they should continue to help the "normal" humans and never get any creadit.
All heros are very strong, in some regard, and are therefore seen as very beautiful and attractive in their own light. They tend to easily attract members of the opposite sex, yet only those attracted to their powers, rarely do they find that person that want them for just them...without the powers.
*Example - The "Incredible Hulk". A man who is half the time puny, mild mannered scientist with an awesome genious and the other half is the most physically dominant force or creature or instrument on the face of the Earth but has anger managment issues. The only way to calm him down and return to his "normal" self is just the softest touch or look from his beloved Betty.
All heros have to face some adversity. From saving someone's life, to making some hard decision that, if chosen wrong could be the end of humanity. They are defined by their abilities to respond to these adverse situations and prosper despite the odds. In fact, with every time they "save the day" they prove that they can overcome that, and any situation, with determination, teamwork, and faith. And still at the end of the day they still have to face their own demons, fears, and losses. They have nightmares and daydreams or their past, of losing loved one and learning to deal with death. These are not easily conquered. Some eventually crack and fall into depression and let their fears take them over, making them vigilantes or villians ( "fallen angels").
* Example - The Batman. Bruce Wanye lost his parents as a child. They were killed, and at that moment everything he knew was lost and Bruce was a mere shadow of himself until he found Batman. He lives his life having every material thing one person could ever need, but he struggles to find the intrinsic things, he needs to help conquer is insecurities, his fears of committment, and to ease the pain of losing his family decades ago. He lives with this everyday and he runs away from it everyday...so he hides in the darkness, the comfortable place of a bat, and he takes out his frustration on those that do wrong.
All heros love everyone, and thus use their powers to always always help as many people they can. Yet seldom do they find or to get to experience "their love." The one person in the world that will take care of them, as they take care of everyone else...without inhibitions. And the rare times when they "meet their match" they realize, only then, that they cannot be, because the responsibility and need to "be themselves" will never go away and if they do not help...who will ?
* Example - The "Amazing Spiderman". Peter Parker, a very smart talented kid, but very confused and torn individual. All he wants in life is to be normal, and be able to be talk to "the girl next door." He has spent his whole life tring to be special, and most importantly special enough to catch Mary Jane's eye. He gets his power, he strong, he smart, and can do amazing things, and now that Mary Jane sees him...he has to push away. He has to run away from her, because he loves her. But, all the while he's busy running he missed her looks, his missed they she talked to him, and she finally made Peter listen, with his heart and not with his paranoid head. She knew the risk and the danger, and she stayed because she loved him, back. So whenever duty called, before he left, he KNEW if he didn't come back, they she was prepared and they had shared a love as pure as life itself.
All heros sacrifice themselves, without regard for their own needs. They believe, that if they can help as many people as possible, then their losses will not be as bad and...after all....they have to be strong enough to take care of themselves, since they are alone anyway. Creating an endless, sacrifical chain. But at the end of the day, the put the suit or "power" up, and continue to push their needs aside because is it worthy to help others and contribute to the greater good after all ? Being hero is an endless thankless, and tough job. But it is a necessary job and is a great deal of responsibilty that takes someone who is dedicated and strong. Strong enough to fight these battles everyday with the thugs, villians, super villians, and the worst enemies...themselves. A fight they will carry one for as long as it takes, to make sure the world is better.
* Last Example, which is my favorite of course, - Superman. Superman is an alien, an outsider, but by the looks of him you cannot tell. He looks a like dork. He doesn't have any game, but he's the guy who is still likable in a "weird" dorky way. Underneath the cover is the most unstoppable force the world has ever known, and because his power, he falls in love with the human race, so much so that he even attempts to become one. He gives of himself constantly because he knows of a different way of life, inheriently, and he was raised by a small but completely loving family...the Kents. He saves the world everyday, and when it matters most he is powerless at the same time; i.e. - when his surrogate father Jonathan dies and coping with the loss of his natural parents and his whole race. He sequesters his "self" everyday to do what is best for the whole world, and he fights all the tangible villians and evils, and struggles with the fact that with all his power, he cannot control the boundless entity that is life. He loves a girl, Lois, but he cannot love her, and be with her the way any "normal man" could. For all that he loves he is not allowed to love the way he wants...needs to. Superman has everything and he has nothing. He is his own greatest battle, he is the greatest hero the world has ever known, and simultaneously the most lonely and fragile being in the whole world.
Heros persevere in the face of adversity, and they take on seemingly endless responsibilities where every result is critical...knowing FULL well...that the chances of success, wholistically, is near futile.
Yet, they hold on, gather themselves, suit up / "power - up" , and go out to save the world...one day at a time, against a world of doubt, pessimissm, hate, anger, and rejection.
whew.
How many of us would put on Superman's cape ? or Spiderman's mask ? or retreat to the Xavier Institute ?
How many of us already do, every day ?
I love comics.
C'est la vie.
So I will continue to watch the movies and read the books, because I believe it's a message anyone and everyone can relate to, and should hear.
I believe there's a super hero in all of us.
Just a little arabic on this fine Monday Morning.
Well, as I am having a "case of the monday's" I figured I would try to at least keep up on my bloggin and let the world know what was up over here on this side of the world. This weekend I continued my road-trippin and managed to see 4 cities in Tunisia, eat with 2 Tunisian families, and hang out with Hercules on the land were Julius Ceasar and Pompey had a conflict of interest. So , it was cool , and it will take some time for me to get it all out...so as in every week, I would still like to share something with you. Actually this is "post - dated" from this past Friday. Just some more of me. Hope you enjoy, a tout a l'heure!
Life of a Super - Hero
I like comic books.
Actually, I love comic books.
And today, I felt like a super - hero.
Most people will ask me "Why" or "How" could you really like comics ? You're an adult now. I am honestly a bigger fan of comics now than, when I was a kid.
And why? Do you really want to know why ?
Ironically, for the exact opposite reason most people do not.
I believe they reflect life.
Now, it is easy to look at it and say all these creatures and gadgets and "make-believe" is ridiculous. To that I say, all fiction is based in reality. If you look past the creatures and paintings, you will find basic human issues.
Self - esteem ; Growing Pains ; fear of the unknown ; fear of rejection ; joy and pain of love ; sacrifice and faith.
These are issues that everyone has faced at one time or another, or are still facing. Why couldn't you be a super-hero?
I believe anyone has the potential to be a super-hero.
All heros have some power, and by that power they impact the world in a positive way, which most times goes unoticed. This same power is the source of their alienation by society and from society. These powers make them confident, and they make them lonely, vulnerable, and depressed. They come from another place or have been "different" their whole lives. They see things differently and act accordingly, but have always wanted to know what it would be like to just "fit in".
* Example - The "Astonishing X-men." Young people who have discovered they have inherited some special powers while they are just trying to learn to live. They all strive to help everyone, and work as a team, but each person has a life that they do not know how to live with or why they should continue to help the "normal" humans and never get any creadit.
All heros are very strong, in some regard, and are therefore seen as very beautiful and attractive in their own light. They tend to easily attract members of the opposite sex, yet only those attracted to their powers, rarely do they find that person that want them for just them...without the powers.
*Example - The "Incredible Hulk". A man who is half the time puny, mild mannered scientist with an awesome genious and the other half is the most physically dominant force or creature or instrument on the face of the Earth but has anger managment issues. The only way to calm him down and return to his "normal" self is just the softest touch or look from his beloved Betty.
All heros have to face some adversity. From saving someone's life, to making some hard decision that, if chosen wrong could be the end of humanity. They are defined by their abilities to respond to these adverse situations and prosper despite the odds. In fact, with every time they "save the day" they prove that they can overcome that, and any situation, with determination, teamwork, and faith. And still at the end of the day they still have to face their own demons, fears, and losses. They have nightmares and daydreams or their past, of losing loved one and learning to deal with death. These are not easily conquered. Some eventually crack and fall into depression and let their fears take them over, making them vigilantes or villians ( "fallen angels").
* Example - The Batman. Bruce Wanye lost his parents as a child. They were killed, and at that moment everything he knew was lost and Bruce was a mere shadow of himself until he found Batman. He lives his life having every material thing one person could ever need, but he struggles to find the intrinsic things, he needs to help conquer is insecurities, his fears of committment, and to ease the pain of losing his family decades ago. He lives with this everyday and he runs away from it everyday...so he hides in the darkness, the comfortable place of a bat, and he takes out his frustration on those that do wrong.
All heros love everyone, and thus use their powers to always always help as many people they can. Yet seldom do they find or to get to experience "their love." The one person in the world that will take care of them, as they take care of everyone else...without inhibitions. And the rare times when they "meet their match" they realize, only then, that they cannot be, because the responsibility and need to "be themselves" will never go away and if they do not help...who will ?
* Example - The "Amazing Spiderman". Peter Parker, a very smart talented kid, but very confused and torn individual. All he wants in life is to be normal, and be able to be talk to "the girl next door." He has spent his whole life tring to be special, and most importantly special enough to catch Mary Jane's eye. He gets his power, he strong, he smart, and can do amazing things, and now that Mary Jane sees him...he has to push away. He has to run away from her, because he loves her. But, all the while he's busy running he missed her looks, his missed they she talked to him, and she finally made Peter listen, with his heart and not with his paranoid head. She knew the risk and the danger, and she stayed because she loved him, back. So whenever duty called, before he left, he KNEW if he didn't come back, they she was prepared and they had shared a love as pure as life itself.
All heros sacrifice themselves, without regard for their own needs. They believe, that if they can help as many people as possible, then their losses will not be as bad and...after all....they have to be strong enough to take care of themselves, since they are alone anyway. Creating an endless, sacrifical chain. But at the end of the day, the put the suit or "power" up, and continue to push their needs aside because is it worthy to help others and contribute to the greater good after all ? Being hero is an endless thankless, and tough job. But it is a necessary job and is a great deal of responsibilty that takes someone who is dedicated and strong. Strong enough to fight these battles everyday with the thugs, villians, super villians, and the worst enemies...themselves. A fight they will carry one for as long as it takes, to make sure the world is better.
* Last Example, which is my favorite of course, - Superman. Superman is an alien, an outsider, but by the looks of him you cannot tell. He looks a like dork. He doesn't have any game, but he's the guy who is still likable in a "weird" dorky way. Underneath the cover is the most unstoppable force the world has ever known, and because his power, he falls in love with the human race, so much so that he even attempts to become one. He gives of himself constantly because he knows of a different way of life, inheriently, and he was raised by a small but completely loving family...the Kents. He saves the world everyday, and when it matters most he is powerless at the same time; i.e. - when his surrogate father Jonathan dies and coping with the loss of his natural parents and his whole race. He sequesters his "self" everyday to do what is best for the whole world, and he fights all the tangible villians and evils, and struggles with the fact that with all his power, he cannot control the boundless entity that is life. He loves a girl, Lois, but he cannot love her, and be with her the way any "normal man" could. For all that he loves he is not allowed to love the way he wants...needs to. Superman has everything and he has nothing. He is his own greatest battle, he is the greatest hero the world has ever known, and simultaneously the most lonely and fragile being in the whole world.
Heros persevere in the face of adversity, and they take on seemingly endless responsibilities where every result is critical...knowing FULL well...that the chances of success, wholistically, is near futile.
Yet, they hold on, gather themselves, suit up / "power - up" , and go out to save the world...one day at a time, against a world of doubt, pessimissm, hate, anger, and rejection.
whew.
How many of us would put on Superman's cape ? or Spiderman's mask ? or retreat to the Xavier Institute ?
How many of us already do, every day ?
I love comics.
C'est la vie.
So I will continue to watch the movies and read the books, because I believe it's a message anyone and everyone can relate to, and should hear.
I believe there's a super hero in all of us.
Friday, March 04, 2005
To Do ... or Not to Do
Since the first day I arrived, there has been a reoccuring theme and a saying that some dear friends of mine have constantly reminded me.
That phrase being .... simply...."Do what you HAVE TO do."
In lieu of LIFE and the fact that today is Friday. I would life remind anyone reading this, to not forget to Do..what you HAVE TO do. Now, whatever context you take that in is your deal. For me doing what I have to do, is given in a pretty detailed format a few lines under this blog. This weekend will be some what different, but still in the category of "HAVE TO" do's. Life gives us all curveballs, and I've definitely seen my fair share up to and DEFINITELY including this week. So as I complete my ridiculous amount of work for this week, I would to share my official motto of my Tunisian Adventures...with the world.
Do what you HAVE TO do.
Happy Friday everyone.
[ disclaimer - I am not held responsable for any being arrested or incurring more drama on account errant or deliquent " HAVE TO" do meters. ]
Thursday, March 03, 2005
On the ROAD again!
My first Tunisian Road Trip:
So last week Wednesday, I was headed to the Weekly Aiesec mixer in Tunis, after work, except I was pretty late for it after getting out of work, so I decided to forget about it and just go buy some groceries. While there, one of my roommates met me in the Championto buy some stuff as well, and when she arrived she was accompanied by two cool @ fellows : Wassim and Ghazi. So we're talking and Wassim is like" Aiesec Medina, in Manouba, are going away for the weekend Tabarka and Ain Draham ( a sea side and a mountain side town respectively ), if you wanna go I'll make the call. So I thought about it and in two days, the particulars were settled and I was off, with my guy Lotfi. The deal was that for 45 dinars ( ~ 35-40 USD ) you would get transportation, a hotel room, food and entertainment, so I said.DEAL ! It seems to be customary here to just leave for places on Saturday morning, instead of Friday night, soo we left on Saturday morning. I was on time, as usual, well not like usual I guess, but it turned out that Lotfi had just woken up and would about 30 mins late meeting me at the Metro station. So I was kinda panicked and thought that we just might miss the bus and the whole deal would suck! Fortunately, there is this thing known as "Aiesec Time"which is a nice way of saying, nothing EVER starts ( or ends ) on time, and this was no exceptional. Nonetheless I when I arrived there was a herd of people headed to this bus, and I was thinking "Man, there are a TON of @'ers here!" But I quickly learned that Aiesec had just organized the trip and invited the whole school! Of which I think about 60-70 of them responded. So this was totally exciting, except for the fact that I was the only English speaking person on the whole trip. There was one other foreigner, and she was a trainee from Germany. So EVERYONE was speaking Arabic, and the rest were speaking French, so you can guess how excited I was at that point. All I focused on was getting there.
At this point: I'm going to pause to warn you that the following entry will get lengthy and to ease the strain on your eyes I'm going to divide it into sections of my journey. This way if you need to get up and get a drink, walk around the block, or just go to sleep for the night, you can come back and find your place in my "life online" much easier.
No need for thanks, I thank you for your faithful attendance to me adventures. : )
So, on with the regularly scheduled blogging.
The Road to Tabarka:
So I get on the bus ( after waiting an hour and a half to see if I even had a seat on it), and I get the seat at the front of the bus. I'm armed with my ROUGH GUIDE TO TUNISIA ( thank you C$ and KG ), my emergency French notes ( thank you Ms. Carmen G. ), and my trusty camera. So I'm reading along and then one of the girls sitting behind me asked me something in Arabic, as is I would understandand I was like "Crap ! Here we go." Thankfully Lotfi translated after a few seconds of unpleasant silence and I found she and her friend wanted to check out my book. So no I had nothing, and in those few minutes, Lotfi and I actually got into the " Why Bush ? Why does the US try to take over the world ? What's wrong with America?"Discussion. I calmly answered, because "Because we can, and everyone needs a hobby." ( ok, not really, it's just a joke.) Needless to say it was a interesting conversation, as we both had a pretty intelligent conversation on the issues in America, international policy, life in Tunisia, and what it's like to be an African-American male in the US. After all that we are still friends, so things are good. In meantime the girls gave the book back and things immediately took a turn towards Aiesecnessin its most powerful form. I glanced to my left to notice that one of the Aiesec members that organized the trip was going to make an announcement at the front of the bus, with the microphone. He said some stuff in Arabic, and I figured ok sure no big deal. And then it happened. He sat down and another guys came up, started yelling into the mic and singing apparently. I figured this was a popular song, because the crowd went wild !
Now, I understand that it is somewhat more common place to get a bus load of Aiesecers together in other countries, as I have experienced as such. But this bus was full of mostly NON-Aiesecers and they were into it ! So my expectations were completely blown away.
Well for the next, hour they continued on with, what seemed like, and endless barrage of Arabic songs. Didn't matter what they were about, although most were about love, and the only way I knew that is because of the profuse use of the word "Habeebee"( I'm sure it's not spelled that way, but that's how it sounds.) So anyway, I continued to get back into my book for awhile after taking a couple of action shots of the Rowdy bus, and then I hear "Arabic ArabicArabic Arabic American! Arabic Arabic Arabic Arabic "
"JEFF !Arabic Arabic Arabic WILL SING NOW !"
Yes, this would be a great place to that wonderful French term I used a couple weeks ago.
I actually tried to play it off, but the whole bus wouldn't stop screaming and pointing at me, so I decided to try to get booed off instead. So I get up there, and my first thought was to gauge my audience. So I calmly in my most un-offensive and articulate American accent say " Hi, I'm Jeff "how many people speak English?"
...silence...
A couple hands are gingerly raised towards the back of the bus.
OOOK.
So then I say " Well, how many people can understand me, If-I speak- like- this ?"
....silence...
Then I got a few more hands.
OOOK.
So this was going to be humbling if nothing else. So I start to think of the goofiest and easiest song to catch on to, and sign on a bus.
So (for those in @ US you know the answer already ), the "Shark Song"was debuted in Tunisia. The only problem was the bus driver was definitely sleeping when it came to his safety first classes, and was speeding past everyone on these bumpy back roads of Tunisia. So I had one of Aiesecers hold the mic, while I made movements with my arms.
So I asked him to translate as well, and tell everyone to repeat after me. And I started.
From the start only half the bus understood what I was even attempting to do, and the other half either laughed at me or gave me a blank stare, it was GREAT FUN! In fact it go so bad, that some girl just told me to stop all together, and when a few more chimed in, I decided to call it quits. And the Shark song was officially drowned.
After that, they still wouldn't let me sit down, so said "What would you like me to sing?"Also probably not a great idea in hindsight, the answers I got back ( which were few ) were artists and songs like (Lionel Ritchie, Snoop Dogg, Drop it like its hot, Aretha Franklin, I will survive,Rap, Something American etc. So then I was like, "I don't know all the words to these songs, and its better with music. So then they started clapping and another girl tried to sing the words, but they just came out as some hummings and throaty sounds. In the end I ended up singing part of I will survive and we will rock you. And then finally I sat down.
Yea, it sucked.
And I learned that doing the Shark Song on a foreign bus, with a psycho driver, when you don't know the language, and have nothing to hold on to, is asking for trouble.
TABARKA:
Well shortly after my bid for worst bus sing-a-long song ever, I sat down and slouched at further down in my seat. I then noticed that the temperature had dropped considerably (we were after all driving into the mountains), and it started pouring raining. Well, from my years of cold weather expertise, I knew it wouldn't take long for the windows to fog, and they did, unfortunately it was worst on the windshield. So I lean over to Lotfi and say "Dude, the driver REALLY needs to defrost the windows." Lotfi calmly says, its just the right window, he can see fine. So I look at the drivers window...yea bad idea.
Here we are on this country road, in the rain, and the driver only has about a 10" by 6" rectangle to see where he's driving, AND this guy was still doing 70 passing by trucks and cars and anyone else on the road. OH, and the kicker was that the bus is stick shift and he was holding the wheel in one hand, and shifting gears and trying to get the defrost to turn on ! All I could think was to pray, because no one else seemed to notice. All the while everyone else is singing their hearts out without a care in the world! So once again I lean over to Lotfi and say. No dude, SERIOUSLY, he REALLY needs to defrost the windows or have someone wipes the windows down. Well just at that moment, the older gentleman ( a professor I think, who was with his wife ), got the attention of one of the @'ers to give him a tissue ( yes, one tissue ), to wipe off the windshield for the driver.
THANK YOU GOD !
So after that, we got a steady stream of tissues coming to the front and the windows were relatively clear again.
And then. The bus broke down.
For the first time.
We waited a few minutes and the driver started the bus again, after some kicking and a lot of gas.
Well, that happened about 4 more times.
And THEN we finally reached TABARKA !
Once we pulled up, I was captivated by this quaint little sea-side town and the amazing abundance of nature and history that I had now found myself in. So I quickly check into my room and I inform Lotfi that I'm going to take some pictures. Partly because it was beautiful and partly because my caddysense had told me that it was about to rain really bad. One block past our hotel, the street turned away, as if to give way to nature, and there were these huge boulders of coral and stone. You had the sea, trees all around, sand in front of you, and off to the right in was the Castle. Being American, I dont have too many opportunities to see 600 year old castles, so naturally I was mesmerized by its presence. I then made mention of the fact that you could see the storm coming from beyond the castle and heading our way from where we were on the beach. So I started taking pictures, 1- at the castle, 2 of the beach adjacent to me, 3 of the shoreline and lighthouse behind me, and then when I turned around to try to get a few more shots of the castle it was already too late. Rain was hitting my face, and Lotfi had started to slowly walk back up the stairs , from the beach, back to the hotel. Well, not to be upstaged and miss an amazing opportunity, I took a couple more pictures with the sheets of rain coming down. I'm glad I did, because their only some of the most beautiful shots I've ever taken. So then, we started running, sprinting really, and I kind of felt bad because I had accidently, left Lotfi in my dust. ( sorry dude. ) But, it started hailing, yes HAILING, so we were getting pelted now and it was pouring raining.
So from the time we decided to leave and time it took us to get back to the hotel, it took us 8 minutes, and we were completely soaked.
I've always liked jogs in the rain. : )
SATURDAY NIGHT:
So as all ye faithful know by now, the hot water in my apartment is ANYTHING but consistent, and never readily available. So the opportunity presented itself for me to endulge myself in a long lost pastime. LONG HOT SHOWERS !! So yea, 1 hour later, I was still in the shower with the heat on full blast just sitting in the shower it was beyond words. I tried to see how long it was last, and fortunately I was proven wrong. Once I got back to the hotel I was informed that this weekend was actually a SN Cultural prep session ( SN = student ), and they were going to start sessions. I decided to at least see what it was like. Well .its interesting, Ill leave it at that, but not interesting enough to keep me around for the whole thing in Arabic. So I then seized the opportunity to catch up on some much needed sleep.
I woke up 2 hours later, to find Lotfi hangin over my bed and telling me that I had a visiter, one of the Medina @ members. She came in and tells me, in her best English, We are doing country presentations downstairs. So we decided you will have a table for America. You have 10 minutes to be down stairs, all with a smile of course. So now I was kinda peeved, because I had NO IDEA they were even having the conference, and I had nothing to bring for a global village or whatever. So I gathered some t-shirts, pants, hats, and put my drivers license and credit card with the Chicago skyline on it. I go downstairs and I look for my table, and all I can see is this Mexican Flag around. So I was like ummm whos Mexican? And then the @ers told me now, that I was representing ALL OF AMERICA ( both continents of North and South, since they consider them one ). At this point, I got kinda fed up, and was like OK, you want me to talk about the U.S. , thats cool Ill talk about the U.S. BUT, I am not Mexican, and I dont know all that much about any countries north or south of mine, at least not enough to do them justice. So in the end they took the flag down and I laid out my representation of United States of America. So, sorry to everyone else, but the US came down to a Purdue visor and basketball shorts, a Chicago Bears Jersey, an Aiesec Northwestern t-shirt, Aiesec Georgia Tech sweatpants, my ids in my pocket, and a superman t-shirt ( of course). So from then on I proceeded to entertain the small crowd in front of me, with an explaination of my clothes, and ids, and trying to put on my best, southern, eastern, northern, mid-western, texas, and western accents. And I divided the country in to 6 parts. The west, northwest, MIDWEST, east, South, and Texas ( because we all know they are just special in Texas). It was interesting, and I think most of the people ended up understanding me, so thats 5 more people that dont hate the U.S. as much anymore. : )
Discotheque:
After that, there was little Discotheque, thingy inside the Fish bowl. This was apparently some local club, and it was a sea world motif. The dj booth was inside of a whales mouth, and the bar was a boat that was crashed on the shore. Everyone was dancing, but I kinda hung out on the side with Lotfi and chatted. Tunisian dancing is like Diet American, and I mean that in every way possible. People basically pick out their plots and they just wiggle around to some techno music. And those that know me, know how much I care for techno. The cultural moment of the night definitely came when some of the @ers and their friends were trying to teach me how to dance to Arabic music, it was pretty funny, and thank God there are no pictures of that ridiculousness. Not surprisingly Lotfi managed to sneak away and not help me out when I was making a jerk out of myself for now the SECOND time in one day. I soon decided to cut my losses and go to bed. And it was good. ; )
SUNDAY, SUNDAY, SUNDAY !! :
Finally .SUNSHINE !! I could see as far as the eye could allow, and we were packing the bus to head out to Ain Draham, which is about a 20 minute trip, so this was exciting. Just before I left, I expressed my hope that the bus would fixed today as, it was the day we had to return to Tunis, eventually. We out for my daily pictures of the castle, now that the sun was shining it was a bit easier than the hail. We passed the bus driver on the way, and Lotfi kindly asked him how the bus was doing, and as expected he said Its fine. ( or at least that was my interpretation ) So we hop on the bus again and not 5 minutes away from the hotel the bus comes to a screeching halt and runs of on the side of the road. Were not hanging on the side of the road diagonally, so naturally we just assume it was normal at this point. Well, times starts going by and then about 45 mins later, some of @ers start ordering everyone off the bus, in groups. Most had to return to Tabarka as they had work to do. But a small group of us were practically thrown in this car known as a Louage ( Loo Ah- jeh ). Louages are these kind of special taxis that are like little buses or mini-vans and carry about 6-10 people and travel all over the country, and for some pretty good rates. This one was paid for and told to head on to Ain Draham. Which was nice for me. So Immediately this guy peels off, and is seeming trying to see how fast he could go, which wasnt so bad until we reached the mountain roads. ABSOLUTE MANIC ! This guy was nuts, he even tried passing a tour bus on a construction road that was ONE LANE ! There was nothing really between us and the side of mountain, so that was exciting. Well, we got some cool pictures nonetheless and some of which went up yesterday( all the ones with the rolling green hills). Well, we finally get there when the driver just pulls off on the side of the road in town, and basically tells us to get out. So we started walking, which apparently normal, as a lot of tour buses were just dumping people out and they were running everywhere. It was pretty funny to watch a bunch of grown-ups run around have snow ball fights, with the left over snow from the storm the week prior. So on my way, I see wild chickens, and geese, and BO-BO ( Tunisias version of Captain Planet ). We also ran up on a completely desecrated Christian Cemetery. It was a pretty humbling moment, and it was kind of sad to experience. It kind of left you wondering How bad is it when, the dead cant rest in peace. So there was the site of my @ moment for the weekend.
After that, we strolled up a little further to see how the valley opened up to, what seemed to be an endless row of mountains and fog, it was stunning to say the least.
Escape to Tabarka ! :
At this junction we went back to the louage station, where we were told to get out, and experienced Tunisian culture in full effect. Basically all louages have a certain destination, and they wait for enough passengers to eventually leave, it can be quick or it can take forever. This day it seemed to just about take forever. I spent the next 30 mins in the streets of Ain Draham following 8 natives around listening to them beg, plead, brib, or make jokes to convince the locals to take us back north to Tabarka .no one took the bait. We were jumping in front of cars in the streets, they were yelling at drivers left and right, and it then starting to mist a little. The festival was highlighted by a huge argument with this guy ( I cant remember his name so well call him Bob). Bob, was just chillin in one of his guys cars and smoking. Finally one the louages we jumped in front of said .Bob is going to Tabarka. And so he started screaming HEY BOB! HEY BOB ! And then the natives started screaming the same. So finally Bob gets out of his buddys car and he says Whats up? And the other guy we stopped is still in the middle of the road screaming of out his louage saying These guys need to go to Tabarka! Take them to Tabarka! Its your job and so on. So now, were all surrounding Bob, and hes like Nope, Im cool. Ill stay here. And everyone is like OH MY GOSH! COME ON MAN ! PLEASE BOB ! PLEASE ! They even offered him more money than normal, and he turned it down, and walked back into his friends car after about 10 minutes. Finally one amazing guy pulled up and he was going our way, and just in time because it was starting to rain now in the mountains.
BACK AT THE RANCH:
So we finally made it back to Tabarka, and at this point half of our group split up, they just decided to go home, leaving me, Lotfi, and two girls. The girls were friends Esthma and Ines, and theyre funny. Apparently Esthma had family in town, and had seen all the sites here. Ines is Tunisian, but she is also half German, and now lives in Germany, so she was just as much a tourist as I was. So on the way, into Tabarka, we all passed a statue of the great Habib Bourgiba ( the guy who led Tunisia to be independent of France). It was a pretty cutesy mountain/valley/sea side town, and so we proceeded on towards the main objective .the CASTLE!
But before the castle, we walked along the opposite shore, parallel to the Castle, to view what are known as The needles. The needles are this massive rock formations standing out of the sea, its pretty cool. Took some cool pics and then found ourselves looking for souveniers on the beach from the plethora of rocks that were found there. I had my trusty utility pack ( the back pack you see me traveling with everywhere ), so I packed some rocks in there, and loaded up my cargo pants and called it a day. It was kind of nice, and nostalgic of another time I had spent near some mountains and some water in the states, when a large group of us were searching for cool rocks. So I grabbed about 10 lbs worth. ; ) At this point, the rain was really starting to come down, but the 3 of us had made a pact to go to the CASTLE ! So we started our trek back along the beach, and just was we approached the passage to the castle, it really REALLY started to come down, and now it was late in the evening and we were supposed to be leaving in about 1.5-2 hours. Well, we asked a local how long it would take to climb the hill, and he said 2 hours easily.
[ once again, you can apply that nice little French word here. ]
Those who know me the best, also know that when I make up mind I can be pretty stubborn, so this was kno different. I actually kept pushing on to see one more thing despite the jeers from my peers. At this point Ines just kept saying I will Kill you. And I said, ok, just at little further. And she said ok, but I will KILL YOU. So I eventually took that was her way of saying, Im hungry, tired, and soaking wet. I want to get some food in a warm dry place. I wish I could say Lotfi was as nice he simply said Oh dude $%#^^ !! ( since this is a PG-13 blog site, I will leave that out, and up to your imagination). I apologized and said, Sometimes I just get determined. And Lotfi says Yes, you are VERY determined, and stay determined until you are a stubborn S.O.B. And Ines chimes in Your girlfriend must be very sad. Which translated into, How in Gods name does she put up with you? !! So, I just smiled and said .Well you know whatever. Then we found a nice place to eat. : )
Last Supper:
So Ive never been to a restaurant so fresh. Id heard that the fish was good here, being that they are right off the sea, and the closest experience to that was eating in Seattle. We sit down and the waiter brings out this platter with fish on it. This wasnt just a fish platter, these fish were JUST pulled out of the water fresh! It was crazy, and then you could pick by size and thickness, and maybe Im just and inexperienced Mid-western boy, which is very possible, but it was cool nonetheless. So, I tried to get some couscous. Apparently you have to call your order in BEFORE you come to the restaurant, so basically tourists are screwed. It is a bit annoying as every other thing I asked about, or asked for, he either didnt understand, myself or the two Tunisians with me, or they just didnt have. And it wasnt all as complicated as couscous, one was just having a glass of juice. So ca va .cest la vie. In the end, I had some dish with a lot of seafood in it, and it was good.
All in all, the weekend was cool, literally and emotionally, I really needed some time to just take my mind off things and get away from Tunis a bit, and things worked out pretty well, although I ended up spending all of my paycheck for this month...(hmm, yea). I was very tired upon my return, but I made some new friends in the country and from outside of the country, met a new trainee, and some new @'ers. And most important, had some much needed me time.
Moral of the story,theres noting like a nice little road trip to help ease the mind. For all the work I'm doing now, and trying to pick up the language, I foresee much traveling in my future.
Thanks for reading my book. Peace be on to you all, and to all a good day.
See you next time, same BAT - TIME. Same BAT- CHANNEL!
( I love that phrase )
So last week Wednesday, I was headed to the Weekly Aiesec mixer in Tunis, after work, except I was pretty late for it after getting out of work, so I decided to forget about it and just go buy some groceries. While there, one of my roommates met me in the Championto buy some stuff as well, and when she arrived she was accompanied by two cool @ fellows : Wassim and Ghazi. So we're talking and Wassim is like" Aiesec Medina, in Manouba, are going away for the weekend Tabarka and Ain Draham ( a sea side and a mountain side town respectively ), if you wanna go I'll make the call. So I thought about it and in two days, the particulars were settled and I was off, with my guy Lotfi. The deal was that for 45 dinars ( ~ 35-40 USD ) you would get transportation, a hotel room, food and entertainment, so I said.DEAL ! It seems to be customary here to just leave for places on Saturday morning, instead of Friday night, soo we left on Saturday morning. I was on time, as usual, well not like usual I guess, but it turned out that Lotfi had just woken up and would about 30 mins late meeting me at the Metro station. So I was kinda panicked and thought that we just might miss the bus and the whole deal would suck! Fortunately, there is this thing known as "Aiesec Time"which is a nice way of saying, nothing EVER starts ( or ends ) on time, and this was no exceptional. Nonetheless I when I arrived there was a herd of people headed to this bus, and I was thinking "Man, there are a TON of @'ers here!" But I quickly learned that Aiesec had just organized the trip and invited the whole school! Of which I think about 60-70 of them responded. So this was totally exciting, except for the fact that I was the only English speaking person on the whole trip. There was one other foreigner, and she was a trainee from Germany. So EVERYONE was speaking Arabic, and the rest were speaking French, so you can guess how excited I was at that point. All I focused on was getting there.
At this point: I'm going to pause to warn you that the following entry will get lengthy and to ease the strain on your eyes I'm going to divide it into sections of my journey. This way if you need to get up and get a drink, walk around the block, or just go to sleep for the night, you can come back and find your place in my "life online" much easier.
No need for thanks, I thank you for your faithful attendance to me adventures. : )
So, on with the regularly scheduled blogging.
The Road to Tabarka:
So I get on the bus ( after waiting an hour and a half to see if I even had a seat on it), and I get the seat at the front of the bus. I'm armed with my ROUGH GUIDE TO TUNISIA ( thank you C$ and KG ), my emergency French notes ( thank you Ms. Carmen G. ), and my trusty camera. So I'm reading along and then one of the girls sitting behind me asked me something in Arabic, as is I would understandand I was like "Crap ! Here we go." Thankfully Lotfi translated after a few seconds of unpleasant silence and I found she and her friend wanted to check out my book. So no I had nothing, and in those few minutes, Lotfi and I actually got into the " Why Bush ? Why does the US try to take over the world ? What's wrong with America?"Discussion. I calmly answered, because "Because we can, and everyone needs a hobby." ( ok, not really, it's just a joke.) Needless to say it was a interesting conversation, as we both had a pretty intelligent conversation on the issues in America, international policy, life in Tunisia, and what it's like to be an African-American male in the US. After all that we are still friends, so things are good. In meantime the girls gave the book back and things immediately took a turn towards Aiesecnessin its most powerful form. I glanced to my left to notice that one of the Aiesec members that organized the trip was going to make an announcement at the front of the bus, with the microphone. He said some stuff in Arabic, and I figured ok sure no big deal. And then it happened. He sat down and another guys came up, started yelling into the mic and singing apparently. I figured this was a popular song, because the crowd went wild !
Now, I understand that it is somewhat more common place to get a bus load of Aiesecers together in other countries, as I have experienced as such. But this bus was full of mostly NON-Aiesecers and they were into it ! So my expectations were completely blown away.
Well for the next, hour they continued on with, what seemed like, and endless barrage of Arabic songs. Didn't matter what they were about, although most were about love, and the only way I knew that is because of the profuse use of the word "Habeebee"( I'm sure it's not spelled that way, but that's how it sounds.) So anyway, I continued to get back into my book for awhile after taking a couple of action shots of the Rowdy bus, and then I hear "Arabic ArabicArabic Arabic American! Arabic Arabic Arabic Arabic "
"JEFF !Arabic Arabic Arabic WILL SING NOW !"
Yes, this would be a great place to that wonderful French term I used a couple weeks ago.
I actually tried to play it off, but the whole bus wouldn't stop screaming and pointing at me, so I decided to try to get booed off instead. So I get up there, and my first thought was to gauge my audience. So I calmly in my most un-offensive and articulate American accent say " Hi, I'm Jeff "how many people speak English?"
...silence...
A couple hands are gingerly raised towards the back of the bus.
OOOK.
So then I say " Well, how many people can understand me, If-I speak- like- this ?"
....silence...
Then I got a few more hands.
OOOK.
So this was going to be humbling if nothing else. So I start to think of the goofiest and easiest song to catch on to, and sign on a bus.
So (for those in @ US you know the answer already ), the "Shark Song"was debuted in Tunisia. The only problem was the bus driver was definitely sleeping when it came to his safety first classes, and was speeding past everyone on these bumpy back roads of Tunisia. So I had one of Aiesecers hold the mic, while I made movements with my arms.
So I asked him to translate as well, and tell everyone to repeat after me. And I started.
From the start only half the bus understood what I was even attempting to do, and the other half either laughed at me or gave me a blank stare, it was GREAT FUN! In fact it go so bad, that some girl just told me to stop all together, and when a few more chimed in, I decided to call it quits. And the Shark song was officially drowned.
After that, they still wouldn't let me sit down, so said "What would you like me to sing?"Also probably not a great idea in hindsight, the answers I got back ( which were few ) were artists and songs like (Lionel Ritchie, Snoop Dogg, Drop it like its hot, Aretha Franklin, I will survive,Rap, Something American etc. So then I was like, "I don't know all the words to these songs, and its better with music. So then they started clapping and another girl tried to sing the words, but they just came out as some hummings and throaty sounds. In the end I ended up singing part of I will survive and we will rock you. And then finally I sat down.
Yea, it sucked.
And I learned that doing the Shark Song on a foreign bus, with a psycho driver, when you don't know the language, and have nothing to hold on to, is asking for trouble.
TABARKA:
Well shortly after my bid for worst bus sing-a-long song ever, I sat down and slouched at further down in my seat. I then noticed that the temperature had dropped considerably (we were after all driving into the mountains), and it started pouring raining. Well, from my years of cold weather expertise, I knew it wouldn't take long for the windows to fog, and they did, unfortunately it was worst on the windshield. So I lean over to Lotfi and say "Dude, the driver REALLY needs to defrost the windows." Lotfi calmly says, its just the right window, he can see fine. So I look at the drivers window...yea bad idea.
Here we are on this country road, in the rain, and the driver only has about a 10" by 6" rectangle to see where he's driving, AND this guy was still doing 70 passing by trucks and cars and anyone else on the road. OH, and the kicker was that the bus is stick shift and he was holding the wheel in one hand, and shifting gears and trying to get the defrost to turn on ! All I could think was to pray, because no one else seemed to notice. All the while everyone else is singing their hearts out without a care in the world! So once again I lean over to Lotfi and say. No dude, SERIOUSLY, he REALLY needs to defrost the windows or have someone wipes the windows down. Well just at that moment, the older gentleman ( a professor I think, who was with his wife ), got the attention of one of the @'ers to give him a tissue ( yes, one tissue ), to wipe off the windshield for the driver.
THANK YOU GOD !
So after that, we got a steady stream of tissues coming to the front and the windows were relatively clear again.
And then. The bus broke down.
For the first time.
We waited a few minutes and the driver started the bus again, after some kicking and a lot of gas.
Well, that happened about 4 more times.
And THEN we finally reached TABARKA !
Once we pulled up, I was captivated by this quaint little sea-side town and the amazing abundance of nature and history that I had now found myself in. So I quickly check into my room and I inform Lotfi that I'm going to take some pictures. Partly because it was beautiful and partly because my caddysense had told me that it was about to rain really bad. One block past our hotel, the street turned away, as if to give way to nature, and there were these huge boulders of coral and stone. You had the sea, trees all around, sand in front of you, and off to the right in was the Castle. Being American, I dont have too many opportunities to see 600 year old castles, so naturally I was mesmerized by its presence. I then made mention of the fact that you could see the storm coming from beyond the castle and heading our way from where we were on the beach. So I started taking pictures, 1- at the castle, 2 of the beach adjacent to me, 3 of the shoreline and lighthouse behind me, and then when I turned around to try to get a few more shots of the castle it was already too late. Rain was hitting my face, and Lotfi had started to slowly walk back up the stairs , from the beach, back to the hotel. Well, not to be upstaged and miss an amazing opportunity, I took a couple more pictures with the sheets of rain coming down. I'm glad I did, because their only some of the most beautiful shots I've ever taken. So then, we started running, sprinting really, and I kind of felt bad because I had accidently, left Lotfi in my dust. ( sorry dude. ) But, it started hailing, yes HAILING, so we were getting pelted now and it was pouring raining.
So from the time we decided to leave and time it took us to get back to the hotel, it took us 8 minutes, and we were completely soaked.
I've always liked jogs in the rain. : )
SATURDAY NIGHT:
So as all ye faithful know by now, the hot water in my apartment is ANYTHING but consistent, and never readily available. So the opportunity presented itself for me to endulge myself in a long lost pastime. LONG HOT SHOWERS !! So yea, 1 hour later, I was still in the shower with the heat on full blast just sitting in the shower it was beyond words. I tried to see how long it was last, and fortunately I was proven wrong. Once I got back to the hotel I was informed that this weekend was actually a SN Cultural prep session ( SN = student ), and they were going to start sessions. I decided to at least see what it was like. Well .its interesting, Ill leave it at that, but not interesting enough to keep me around for the whole thing in Arabic. So I then seized the opportunity to catch up on some much needed sleep.
I woke up 2 hours later, to find Lotfi hangin over my bed and telling me that I had a visiter, one of the Medina @ members. She came in and tells me, in her best English, We are doing country presentations downstairs. So we decided you will have a table for America. You have 10 minutes to be down stairs, all with a smile of course. So now I was kinda peeved, because I had NO IDEA they were even having the conference, and I had nothing to bring for a global village or whatever. So I gathered some t-shirts, pants, hats, and put my drivers license and credit card with the Chicago skyline on it. I go downstairs and I look for my table, and all I can see is this Mexican Flag around. So I was like ummm whos Mexican? And then the @ers told me now, that I was representing ALL OF AMERICA ( both continents of North and South, since they consider them one ). At this point, I got kinda fed up, and was like OK, you want me to talk about the U.S. , thats cool Ill talk about the U.S. BUT, I am not Mexican, and I dont know all that much about any countries north or south of mine, at least not enough to do them justice. So in the end they took the flag down and I laid out my representation of United States of America. So, sorry to everyone else, but the US came down to a Purdue visor and basketball shorts, a Chicago Bears Jersey, an Aiesec Northwestern t-shirt, Aiesec Georgia Tech sweatpants, my ids in my pocket, and a superman t-shirt ( of course). So from then on I proceeded to entertain the small crowd in front of me, with an explaination of my clothes, and ids, and trying to put on my best, southern, eastern, northern, mid-western, texas, and western accents. And I divided the country in to 6 parts. The west, northwest, MIDWEST, east, South, and Texas ( because we all know they are just special in Texas). It was interesting, and I think most of the people ended up understanding me, so thats 5 more people that dont hate the U.S. as much anymore. : )
Discotheque:
After that, there was little Discotheque, thingy inside the Fish bowl. This was apparently some local club, and it was a sea world motif. The dj booth was inside of a whales mouth, and the bar was a boat that was crashed on the shore. Everyone was dancing, but I kinda hung out on the side with Lotfi and chatted. Tunisian dancing is like Diet American, and I mean that in every way possible. People basically pick out their plots and they just wiggle around to some techno music. And those that know me, know how much I care for techno. The cultural moment of the night definitely came when some of the @ers and their friends were trying to teach me how to dance to Arabic music, it was pretty funny, and thank God there are no pictures of that ridiculousness. Not surprisingly Lotfi managed to sneak away and not help me out when I was making a jerk out of myself for now the SECOND time in one day. I soon decided to cut my losses and go to bed. And it was good. ; )
SUNDAY, SUNDAY, SUNDAY !! :
Finally .SUNSHINE !! I could see as far as the eye could allow, and we were packing the bus to head out to Ain Draham, which is about a 20 minute trip, so this was exciting. Just before I left, I expressed my hope that the bus would fixed today as, it was the day we had to return to Tunis, eventually. We out for my daily pictures of the castle, now that the sun was shining it was a bit easier than the hail. We passed the bus driver on the way, and Lotfi kindly asked him how the bus was doing, and as expected he said Its fine. ( or at least that was my interpretation ) So we hop on the bus again and not 5 minutes away from the hotel the bus comes to a screeching halt and runs of on the side of the road. Were not hanging on the side of the road diagonally, so naturally we just assume it was normal at this point. Well, times starts going by and then about 45 mins later, some of @ers start ordering everyone off the bus, in groups. Most had to return to Tabarka as they had work to do. But a small group of us were practically thrown in this car known as a Louage ( Loo Ah- jeh ). Louages are these kind of special taxis that are like little buses or mini-vans and carry about 6-10 people and travel all over the country, and for some pretty good rates. This one was paid for and told to head on to Ain Draham. Which was nice for me. So Immediately this guy peels off, and is seeming trying to see how fast he could go, which wasnt so bad until we reached the mountain roads. ABSOLUTE MANIC ! This guy was nuts, he even tried passing a tour bus on a construction road that was ONE LANE ! There was nothing really between us and the side of mountain, so that was exciting. Well, we got some cool pictures nonetheless and some of which went up yesterday( all the ones with the rolling green hills). Well, we finally get there when the driver just pulls off on the side of the road in town, and basically tells us to get out. So we started walking, which apparently normal, as a lot of tour buses were just dumping people out and they were running everywhere. It was pretty funny to watch a bunch of grown-ups run around have snow ball fights, with the left over snow from the storm the week prior. So on my way, I see wild chickens, and geese, and BO-BO ( Tunisias version of Captain Planet ). We also ran up on a completely desecrated Christian Cemetery. It was a pretty humbling moment, and it was kind of sad to experience. It kind of left you wondering How bad is it when, the dead cant rest in peace. So there was the site of my @ moment for the weekend.
After that, we strolled up a little further to see how the valley opened up to, what seemed to be an endless row of mountains and fog, it was stunning to say the least.
Escape to Tabarka ! :
At this junction we went back to the louage station, where we were told to get out, and experienced Tunisian culture in full effect. Basically all louages have a certain destination, and they wait for enough passengers to eventually leave, it can be quick or it can take forever. This day it seemed to just about take forever. I spent the next 30 mins in the streets of Ain Draham following 8 natives around listening to them beg, plead, brib, or make jokes to convince the locals to take us back north to Tabarka .no one took the bait. We were jumping in front of cars in the streets, they were yelling at drivers left and right, and it then starting to mist a little. The festival was highlighted by a huge argument with this guy ( I cant remember his name so well call him Bob). Bob, was just chillin in one of his guys cars and smoking. Finally one the louages we jumped in front of said .Bob is going to Tabarka. And so he started screaming HEY BOB! HEY BOB ! And then the natives started screaming the same. So finally Bob gets out of his buddys car and he says Whats up? And the other guy we stopped is still in the middle of the road screaming of out his louage saying These guys need to go to Tabarka! Take them to Tabarka! Its your job and so on. So now, were all surrounding Bob, and hes like Nope, Im cool. Ill stay here. And everyone is like OH MY GOSH! COME ON MAN ! PLEASE BOB ! PLEASE ! They even offered him more money than normal, and he turned it down, and walked back into his friends car after about 10 minutes. Finally one amazing guy pulled up and he was going our way, and just in time because it was starting to rain now in the mountains.
BACK AT THE RANCH:
So we finally made it back to Tabarka, and at this point half of our group split up, they just decided to go home, leaving me, Lotfi, and two girls. The girls were friends Esthma and Ines, and theyre funny. Apparently Esthma had family in town, and had seen all the sites here. Ines is Tunisian, but she is also half German, and now lives in Germany, so she was just as much a tourist as I was. So on the way, into Tabarka, we all passed a statue of the great Habib Bourgiba ( the guy who led Tunisia to be independent of France). It was a pretty cutesy mountain/valley/sea side town, and so we proceeded on towards the main objective .the CASTLE!
But before the castle, we walked along the opposite shore, parallel to the Castle, to view what are known as The needles. The needles are this massive rock formations standing out of the sea, its pretty cool. Took some cool pics and then found ourselves looking for souveniers on the beach from the plethora of rocks that were found there. I had my trusty utility pack ( the back pack you see me traveling with everywhere ), so I packed some rocks in there, and loaded up my cargo pants and called it a day. It was kind of nice, and nostalgic of another time I had spent near some mountains and some water in the states, when a large group of us were searching for cool rocks. So I grabbed about 10 lbs worth. ; ) At this point, the rain was really starting to come down, but the 3 of us had made a pact to go to the CASTLE ! So we started our trek back along the beach, and just was we approached the passage to the castle, it really REALLY started to come down, and now it was late in the evening and we were supposed to be leaving in about 1.5-2 hours. Well, we asked a local how long it would take to climb the hill, and he said 2 hours easily.
[ once again, you can apply that nice little French word here. ]
Those who know me the best, also know that when I make up mind I can be pretty stubborn, so this was kno different. I actually kept pushing on to see one more thing despite the jeers from my peers. At this point Ines just kept saying I will Kill you. And I said, ok, just at little further. And she said ok, but I will KILL YOU. So I eventually took that was her way of saying, Im hungry, tired, and soaking wet. I want to get some food in a warm dry place. I wish I could say Lotfi was as nice he simply said Oh dude $%#^^ !! ( since this is a PG-13 blog site, I will leave that out, and up to your imagination). I apologized and said, Sometimes I just get determined. And Lotfi says Yes, you are VERY determined, and stay determined until you are a stubborn S.O.B. And Ines chimes in Your girlfriend must be very sad. Which translated into, How in Gods name does she put up with you? !! So, I just smiled and said .Well you know whatever. Then we found a nice place to eat. : )
Last Supper:
So Ive never been to a restaurant so fresh. Id heard that the fish was good here, being that they are right off the sea, and the closest experience to that was eating in Seattle. We sit down and the waiter brings out this platter with fish on it. This wasnt just a fish platter, these fish were JUST pulled out of the water fresh! It was crazy, and then you could pick by size and thickness, and maybe Im just and inexperienced Mid-western boy, which is very possible, but it was cool nonetheless. So, I tried to get some couscous. Apparently you have to call your order in BEFORE you come to the restaurant, so basically tourists are screwed. It is a bit annoying as every other thing I asked about, or asked for, he either didnt understand, myself or the two Tunisians with me, or they just didnt have. And it wasnt all as complicated as couscous, one was just having a glass of juice. So ca va .cest la vie. In the end, I had some dish with a lot of seafood in it, and it was good.
All in all, the weekend was cool, literally and emotionally, I really needed some time to just take my mind off things and get away from Tunis a bit, and things worked out pretty well, although I ended up spending all of my paycheck for this month...(hmm, yea). I was very tired upon my return, but I made some new friends in the country and from outside of the country, met a new trainee, and some new @'ers. And most important, had some much needed me time.
Moral of the story,theres noting like a nice little road trip to help ease the mind. For all the work I'm doing now, and trying to pick up the language, I foresee much traveling in my future.
Thanks for reading my book. Peace be on to you all, and to all a good day.
See you next time, same BAT - TIME. Same BAT- CHANNEL!
( I love that phrase )
Wednesday, March 02, 2005
Peer Pressure and Patience
OK,
So I had and absolutely amazing weekend chock full of sheep, chickens, geese, water, big rocks, and castles.
BUT you'll have to wait. Je suis desole.
I have work to do. So those of you out there giving me grief about "updating" , take a minute, chill out, and just look at the fine pictures I just uploaded.
That should hold you over. : )
Hahaha....enjoy ! A tout !
So I had and absolutely amazing weekend chock full of sheep, chickens, geese, water, big rocks, and castles.
BUT you'll have to wait. Je suis desole.
I have work to do. So those of you out there giving me grief about "updating" , take a minute, chill out, and just look at the fine pictures I just uploaded.
That should hold you over. : )
Hahaha....enjoy ! A tout !
Tuesday, March 01, 2005
Word
It's raining again...it has been for days.
Remember what it's like in the rain ?
This is for you.
-----------------------
Word.
One can make the difference
Many can have no meaning
It captures everything,
and holds nothing
Read them and see me,
Listen to them and see my soul
Hear them, and my mind's desire;
Feel them, and my heartache
They are a necessity,
They are a burden,
They fade quicker than light,
They linger longer than time
It is everything,
It is nothing
None are weak
None are powerful
What do you hear ?
How do you listen?
Which you use,
is your choice
But...ALL are you
Can you feel me ?
Remember what it's like in the rain ?
This is for you.
-----------------------
Word.
One can make the difference
Many can have no meaning
It captures everything,
and holds nothing
Read them and see me,
Listen to them and see my soul
Hear them, and my mind's desire;
Feel them, and my heartache
They are a necessity,
They are a burden,
They fade quicker than light,
They linger longer than time
It is everything,
It is nothing
None are weak
None are powerful
What do you hear ?
How do you listen?
Which you use,
is your choice
But...ALL are you
Can you feel me ?
