Blogs from Tunis, Tunisia, Africa - page 6

Due to a sheer apathy, I have not posted in the last couple of days. As in, I was waay to lazy to leave the little oasis I found on Cap Bon. But I get ahead of myself. One only has to read my journal entries of the day and the night from the 9th to the 10th of August. To say the least, I was a wee bit cranky at my captivity in the Doukhane household in Annaba, and of my 3am scheduled departure time for Tunis. Exhaustion hit me like a hammer in the middle of the day, and it got to the point that I was physically nauseous at the thought of heading back to the activity of the household. The problem with that family was certainly not their energy or generosity- it ... read more

Today we left early for our first weekend trip. Its cramped on the bus but I survive with Asja and Samia cracking jokes and conversations with the others, whether I am actually involved or just listening. I'll need to remember my iPod for future trips, though. The scenery was amazing. Some parts of it remind me of NJ. I didn't expect Tunisia to have such vast stretches of green. We stopped to see ruins, including a theater and a temple, all extremely impressive. I was unaware of how many ruins were here. I'm surprised more people aren't aware of the sites. The history lectures are interesting. We also stopped in an extremely poor mountain town, which used to be mostly French, which you can see from the architecture. We were stared at, expectedly. It was really ... read more

Today we went to the American cemetery. The speaker was probably the best so far. He was very engaging. It was emotional for some of us, too. We then visited some Carthaginian sites. We saw the aquaducts, and some other ruins, and mosaics. Its a humbling experience to be in a country with thousands of years of history, coming from a country that's so young. There were tombs lined up near the museum, and it was depressing to see that visitors had thrown trash into some of them. There is a lot of trash in the countryside, too. While in the cities there are street cleaners everywhere, I don't think they are available in the rural areas. Tunisia has been working on increasing environmental awareness, however. They have statues of some strange cartoonish figure all over ... read more

Today we had classes for the first time. Half of us are taking Upper Intermediate Arabic, and half are taking Art History. All of us take Contemporary North Africa, which mostly consists of the trips, reading, and the experience in general. I'm taking the Arabic course. I hope I am not too far behind the students from Delaware, they finished a chapter ahead of my class last semester. After classes, I had luch at a fantastic Lebanese restaurant, Cafe Fayrouz, with Samia and Asja. I'm getting to know them very well. I probably hang out with them more than anyone else on the trip. After lunch, we visited the US embassy. There were two other American groups there, but they were only in Tunisia for a few days. The presentations by the embassy officers were alright, ... read more

After a Tunisian breakfast in the hotel, we headed to the old medina. It was like in pictures that I had seen inmy Modern Middle East class at Rutgers. There were narrow streets lined with stalls where people tried all kinds of languages to get us to come in and buy their merchandise. They are clever, but I was not surprised. They get a lot of tourists every year, it's the biggest part of their economy. The tour was rushed, however, and with so many students, it was difficult to take it all in. We met some Tunisian students, near the Zaiytuna mosque, who were very nice but with whom I did not get many chances to speak. Lunch at the hotel was good. But it seemed to be filled with non-locals. The lecturer was very ... read more