first off, thanks a million to everyone that sent my good vibes before and around the time of my peace corps interview this past monday, it really boosted my confidence to know that my fam is behind my endeavors. and so....ive been nominated!! woohooo what does that mean? well, ive passed all the preliminary hurdles - basic info, recommendations, fingerprinting at the french police station, transcripts, interview, all that fun stuff. i hope that someday i have the chance to interview people, because i seriously dont know what i said that convinced her that i was a qualified applicant, but my recruiter fortunately made sense of my ramblings and abhorrent franglais - understood the general message that i am open-minded, excited, and able to learn on the go - and nominated me. this means that i am now in a pool of applicants for a program - all the specifics that i have at this point is that it is to work on english teacher training in asia, leaving in august. not too much to go on, but the the PC is active in Mongolia, China, Thailand, Cambodia and the Philippines, so those are some pretty sweet options.
there are two things weighing heavily on my mind right now, regarding the prospect of actually receiving an assignment: 1) vegetarianism and 2) rural village/my recent breakdown over how "small" valence is. as far as vegetarianism is concerned, i had to fill out a separate questionnaire about my diet, my reasons for being veg (i decided that it would not be so appropriate to mention the fact that veggies are clearly more highly evolved than meat eaters, even though that goes without saying), whether i would be willing to modify my diet for health purposes, and what i would do in the event that my host family or community offered me a meal that was (entirely) meat-based. and as you likely know, vegetarianism has pretty much been the one constant in my life, and recently, after reading such awesome books as 'What we eat: why our food choices matter' and 'The omnivore's dilemma' (HIGHLY recommend both, and next on the list once im back in the states will be 'In defense of food'), ive become even more aware of what i eat and trying not to eat chemicals and choosing local produce when possible and all that fun stuff, and veganism is a real goal of mine....so the thought of putting all that aside is daunting. i know it sounds silly, but i really really dont WANT to eat meat. or fish. frankly, although i responded that i would keep an open mind and that integrating in the community takes precedence (which it does, clearly), i havent eaten dead flesh of any sort in more than 5 years - and even longer for meat and poultry - and i have NO idea how my body would react the first few times...and im sure that barfing would be just as insulting as refusing to eat...so thats an interesting thing to ponder.
the second issue is that i currently feel like im going insane in valence. because it is small. im a city person....so 2 years in a rural village where i am quite possibly going to be the only outsider? i mean, it's a typical thing to consider when applying, but i just feel more than a little shame due to my recent (and ongoing) meltdown. im sure that with the PC i will be so overwhelmed with work and trying to fit in and learning the language and all these things that it might not even become a problem, at least not as quickly as it's been a problem here, but still. i dont think it's a reason not to go - frankly, being a strict veg would be a better reason to not do this....but still, these are the questions and fears that im mulling over right now. just because, now that im nominated, it's a much more real possibility.
i still have to clear medical, aka doctor and dentist visits in la france, yippee! (it's good for my french/immersion over here, tho, so it's ok) and it's certainly not a done deal that i'm going anywhere, but teresa, my recruiter, said that i have a strong portfolio what with my french/language skills and the fact that im already living and working abroad. i'll keep you posted on as the process moves forward...keep your fingers crossed!!
jeudi 31 janvier 2008
vendredi 25 janvier 2008
it must be the full moon
allo. tish came to visit this week and it was chouette. i hope she liked valence at least a little...i picked her up last wed in lyon and we just chilled in town all week. she saw the finest of valence shopping (yah soldes!), went to school with both me and mandy, ventured into the ardeche (departement across the river) not once but 2 times, climbed to the chateau du crussol, loved tasse as much as the rest of us, ate some moroccan couscous, had cooking parties chez mandy and rocked out to the Plastic Penny Band at the Penny Kenny Pub's one-year birthday party...fuuun times. really truly though, it was great to see someone from home and play translator. tish did pick up some essential francais: bonjour, merci, pardon j'adore le fromage, punaise...when she went to school with mandy, the teachers swore up and down that she wasnt american (high compliment) and my kiddos were just awed by her beauty. cuuuteness! and i miss having my mini-mouflon around now!! (and emmanuel - tasse owner - misses her, too!)
now that she's gone and i have to concentrate on school prepping and whatnot, with nothing to really look forward too, ive fallen into my first dire funk of this stint abroad. it basically boils down to the fact that im a city girl - we all know how eager i was to quit bingo-town - and since valence is about the same size as binghamton, well...it's a silly thing to complain about, but the fact remains that there is literally nothing to do. yesterday we walked around in circles. no joke. it was a greve day, we were all off school...i ended up going to the gym and to tasse et glace TWICE. i mean, i love tasse but i dont want to wear out my welcome! and this weekend, just as an indication of now nothing there is here - tout le monde is super psyched for the Monte Carlo car rally. wooooo..errr..non merci. so im reading tons, writing more than usual, and prepping for my Peace Corps interview THIS COMING MONDAY!!!! oh, and i dyed my hair back to super dark chestnut brown. when bored, hair modification is a decent way to spice life up. and running again - after a month off, what with vacances, la grippe (ooh that was a sad week) and tish's visite - helps, too.
mardi 15 janvier 2008
jeudi 10 janvier 2008
bc everyone should know this song
camille: la jeune fille aux cheveux blancs
Je suis à l'âge où l'on ne dort nulle part
les seuls lits d'où je rêve sont des quais de gare
j'ai loué un placard pour mes robes d'hiver
j'ai tué les parents
Oh ! je veux partir sur la seule route
où il y a du vent
je suis la jeune fille aux cheveux blancs
Mon amoureux dit qu'il ne me connaît pas
il vit loin de tout il vit trop loin de moi
sur le plus haut volcan que l'amour ait éteint
il reviendra demain
Oh ! je veux partir sur la seule route
où il y a du vent
je suis la jeune fille aux cheveux blancs
les seuls lits d'où je rêve sont des quais de gare
j'ai loué un placard pour mes robes d'hiver
j'ai tué les parents
Oh ! je veux partir sur la seule route
où il y a du vent
je suis la jeune fille aux cheveux blancs
Mon amoureux dit qu'il ne me connaît pas
il vit loin de tout il vit trop loin de moi
sur le plus haut volcan que l'amour ait éteint
il reviendra demain
Oh ! je veux partir sur la seule route
où il y a du vent
je suis la jeune fille aux cheveux blancs
samedi 5 janvier 2008
bonne annee in the cold
so amy and i returned to the hexagon on the 31st to meet up with some of my friends and ring in the new year. we figured, hey paris is cool right? so we'll just do a nuit blanche and not worry about hotels and hostels for the 31st...amy and i dropped our stuff in the lockers in the Gare de Lyon and set out to find Christine and Nick, who had arrived earlier that morning. even though it had just been a week of looking at sidewalks and avoiding eye contact, it was surprisingly refreshing to be able to people-watch openly again and to goof around in the streets without attracting (too much) attention. i was SO HAPPY to be back in the bastille neighborhood! i felt like i was back home, and i wish i could have spent more that 2 days in Paris...i miss it...so with christine and nick (their first time in paris, aww) we did the Musee Picasso and then picked up Mandy, who was coming in from Montpellier, at the train station. since we had the whole night ahead of us, we decided to just wander up the Seine in the direction of the Tour Eiffel, stopping along the way for nick to take pictures (he's a photographer with some hardcore equipment, which i had the luck of carrying later on in the night ).
we went to the Hotel de Ville, where the outdoor skating rink was set up, and nick made friends with this incredible/bizarre little boy. nick wanted to get a shot of him watching the skaters, so he checked for permission with the mom in his pretty much nonexistent french (he moved here to live with gf christine and is kinda picking up french as he goes, but it's cool that he came here at all, all things considered)...the kid totally ate up the spotlight, swiped nick's camera, snapped dozens of his own pix, then swiped nick's hat and started tektonking. with his tongue hanging out of his mouth. his mom was all "you'd look a lot cuter if you could keep your tongue in your mouth!"...it was strange, i felt bad that we had unintentionally riled the kid up and then just peaced out, but whatever. oh, and the best part about the dancing-tongue-hanging-out moment was that he was wearing a face paint eye patch as well.
we then made our way to Notre Dame, which was spectacular with the Christmas tree outside and the early-evening darkness and the street lamps. it was a little bit of leftover christmas magic! there was a mime-dancer dude doing his thing in the plaza in front of the church, so of course we paused to watch. personally, things like that always creep me out, so i was less than thrilled when nick set up to start shooting him...and even less thrilled when that provoked the mime guy to yell at all of us for watching and taking pix without donating. never mind the fact that nick DID give him money. so that ruined the mood and the dancing man quickly lost his audience.
from there we walked to the quartier latin to find food, but instead we found break dancers in the street...they were good and not bitter at the world. we ended up eating a hassled meal of really bad chinese food (paris + holiday = NOT FUN), then found a tunisian bakery (miam!) and kept walking to the Tour. from then on the night is just a blurry mess - generally paris was boring and overpriced for the holiday. we went to the Tour Eiffel thinking there would be something going on, judging from the number of people in the streets, but there was nothing- no music, no fireworks (just a few personal firecrackers), no count-down, just the every-hour-on-the-hour sparkling. ugh. so we had out own count-down (5 minutes late) and sang Auld Lang Syne (sp?) and toasted to ourselves...and cheered again at 6am(new years EST) and 9am (pacific time for mandy)...i have to admit that for one night people on the street were much more friendly than normal for paris - there were "bonne annees!" par tout and several random encounters with other people out celebrating. we made our own fun for the night, running around St Germain and the Latin Quarter; thankfully nick is super-high energy and kept us going and it wasnt too cold, either. we had thought that bars would be fun for hanging out and enjoying the parisian atmosphere, but everywhere prices were marked up at least 3 times (10E cup of coffee?!) and there wasnt anything really going on to warrant paying so much...and somehow we just never made it to a club or anything...apparently we should have been on the Champs but whatever. we holed up in a cafe for a while, eating mousse au chocolat (cheapest option) while the surly owner shot us looked of hate. whatever, it's not like his business was hopping at that point anyway and we certainly werent preventing other customers from coming in...seriously, this was a guy that gives paris a bad name -we walked in, first thing he said, in english, was "no coffee here. no tea." and then he didnt bring a drink menu, just food. and he refused to bring a carafe d'eau, so we had to buy vittel. and of course when we were leaving there was a girl sitting with a big steamy cafe au lait. what a jerk.
so the nuit blanche was an..interesting...experience, and i would not recommend paris to anyone looking for a new years party unless youre super well-off or have an apartment. the saddest part was that we eagerly holed up in starbucks basically as soon as it opened, after riding the metro for free to stay warm ( we were soo homeless by the end of the night) and relished the warmth, big drinks and comfy seats...
during the rest of our time there, we went to see 'we own the night' (VO for nick!), did some shopping, visited the neighborhoods where amy and i hung out a lot during our semester abroad, went to Shakespeare & Co, ate falafel!! and visited with TANNNYAAA!! yah, i finally got to see her, after thinking that we weren't going to cross paths in france, on 2 jan - we all went out for beers and crepes, walked to the Louvre at night to see the pyramids, and hung out in the hotel (everyone but me and amy were in a great hotel right by the bastille. out ghetto hostel was out at mairie de clichy and was not fun)...then tanya came back to valence with me and mandy on the 3rd, we showed her around, cooked in mandy's new apartment, satisfied our tasse et glace cravings...that was, no doubt, the highlight of my vacation!
we went to the Hotel de Ville, where the outdoor skating rink was set up, and nick made friends with this incredible/bizarre little boy. nick wanted to get a shot of him watching the skaters, so he checked for permission with the mom in his pretty much nonexistent french (he moved here to live with gf christine and is kinda picking up french as he goes, but it's cool that he came here at all, all things considered)...the kid totally ate up the spotlight, swiped nick's camera, snapped dozens of his own pix, then swiped nick's hat and started tektonking. with his tongue hanging out of his mouth. his mom was all "you'd look a lot cuter if you could keep your tongue in your mouth!"...it was strange, i felt bad that we had unintentionally riled the kid up and then just peaced out, but whatever. oh, and the best part about the dancing-tongue-hanging-out moment was that he was wearing a face paint eye patch as well.
we then made our way to Notre Dame, which was spectacular with the Christmas tree outside and the early-evening darkness and the street lamps. it was a little bit of leftover christmas magic! there was a mime-dancer dude doing his thing in the plaza in front of the church, so of course we paused to watch. personally, things like that always creep me out, so i was less than thrilled when nick set up to start shooting him...and even less thrilled when that provoked the mime guy to yell at all of us for watching and taking pix without donating. never mind the fact that nick DID give him money. so that ruined the mood and the dancing man quickly lost his audience.
from there we walked to the quartier latin to find food, but instead we found break dancers in the street...they were good and not bitter at the world. we ended up eating a hassled meal of really bad chinese food (paris + holiday = NOT FUN), then found a tunisian bakery (miam!) and kept walking to the Tour. from then on the night is just a blurry mess - generally paris was boring and overpriced for the holiday. we went to the Tour Eiffel thinking there would be something going on, judging from the number of people in the streets, but there was nothing- no music, no fireworks (just a few personal firecrackers), no count-down, just the every-hour-on-the-hour sparkling. ugh. so we had out own count-down (5 minutes late) and sang Auld Lang Syne (sp?) and toasted to ourselves...and cheered again at 6am(new years EST) and 9am (pacific time for mandy)...i have to admit that for one night people on the street were much more friendly than normal for paris - there were "bonne annees!" par tout and several random encounters with other people out celebrating. we made our own fun for the night, running around St Germain and the Latin Quarter; thankfully nick is super-high energy and kept us going and it wasnt too cold, either. we had thought that bars would be fun for hanging out and enjoying the parisian atmosphere, but everywhere prices were marked up at least 3 times (10E cup of coffee?!) and there wasnt anything really going on to warrant paying so much...and somehow we just never made it to a club or anything...apparently we should have been on the Champs but whatever. we holed up in a cafe for a while, eating mousse au chocolat (cheapest option) while the surly owner shot us looked of hate. whatever, it's not like his business was hopping at that point anyway and we certainly werent preventing other customers from coming in...seriously, this was a guy that gives paris a bad name -we walked in, first thing he said, in english, was "no coffee here. no tea." and then he didnt bring a drink menu, just food. and he refused to bring a carafe d'eau, so we had to buy vittel. and of course when we were leaving there was a girl sitting with a big steamy cafe au lait. what a jerk.
so the nuit blanche was an..interesting...experience, and i would not recommend paris to anyone looking for a new years party unless youre super well-off or have an apartment. the saddest part was that we eagerly holed up in starbucks basically as soon as it opened, after riding the metro for free to stay warm ( we were soo homeless by the end of the night) and relished the warmth, big drinks and comfy seats...
during the rest of our time there, we went to see 'we own the night' (VO for nick!), did some shopping, visited the neighborhoods where amy and i hung out a lot during our semester abroad, went to Shakespeare & Co, ate falafel!! and visited with TANNNYAAA!! yah, i finally got to see her, after thinking that we weren't going to cross paths in france, on 2 jan - we all went out for beers and crepes, walked to the Louvre at night to see the pyramids, and hung out in the hotel (everyone but me and amy were in a great hotel right by the bastille. out ghetto hostel was out at mairie de clichy and was not fun)...then tanya came back to valence with me and mandy on the 3rd, we showed her around, cooked in mandy's new apartment, satisfied our tasse et glace cravings...that was, no doubt, the highlight of my vacation!
highlight of 08: reunion with tanya
nick and mandy: too cool for school at Kilty's in Paris
mouflons in the cold
feeding birds in front of notre dame
paris will never get old
we'll see how this works out. so far people are respecting the smoking ban
teahouses and boats (more photogs from SBS)
tranqility and flowers
take your shoes off and have a coffee
it was a bit of a climb down to the beach; despite the cold water, the wind-surfers were out in full force
doorways and sweet tea
doorways and sweet tea
fish'n'chips in Sidi-Bou-Said
our second day trip, on 28.12, was to Sidi-Bou-Said. this town is at least as touristy as Carthage, but it was totally worth the trip - the buildings are all white stone with beautifully painted doorways and sky-blue trim, there were orange trees lining the streets, cacti and fragrant flowers in people's yards and a strip of beach by the port. although the day started off sunny and warm, the afternoon turned grey and chilly - but we sat on the beach and ran around in the shallows nevertheless! we had tea (twice) at this teahouse that was all old school decor - we took off our shoes and sat on mats on the ground (well, actually it was a wide step, elevated off the floor, but still it was like sitting on the floor); the walls were tiled in yellows and greens and i had a great view of the guy that was making the tea and turkish coffee. the day was chilled out, once again (i swear it was a great time, this trip, but reading these entries it sounds like we didnt do anything!! i dont know why my posts are so lame, sorry)...we lunched in an outdoor, rooftop cafe - vegetarian couscous and orange juice, then desert at the Swedish Teahouse, where they have the best, albeit super super sweet, cakes.
the highlight of Sidi was shopping for earrings for Amy. She bargained - she got 2 pairs for the price of one, not too bad - and i received several marriage proposals. every guy we talked to while she was looking at jewelry insisted that they knew of both of our french towns, never mind the fact that they are small enough that some french people dont even know where they are, and said that i was richer because i was from the south...riiiight...ok, and the best part was when this guy swooped down on me - im serious, literally swooped out of no where - grabbed my hand and started professing my beauty and said that he wanted to 'make me a gift.' the then (forcibly) dragged me to his stall, shooed out everyone that was in there, and offered me anything i wanted. he was going off, in a bizarre mix of french and english, that i could have anything, everything, that we should get married and have 10 or 15 children, that he would give amy 10 camels for me...omg, we were dying. on the floor. it wasnt even creepy, it was just surreal and hilarious. i mean, his jewelry was like, so not even that pretty, so i told him i was already married and i didnt want to have kids and we peaced out, still laughing our asses off. and then, to top it off, we heard "fish'n'chips!" for the second time in as many days, and that did us in for good. we had to sit down bc our abs hurt from laughing. so that was our random afternoon in Sidi.
the highlight of Sidi was shopping for earrings for Amy. She bargained - she got 2 pairs for the price of one, not too bad - and i received several marriage proposals. every guy we talked to while she was looking at jewelry insisted that they knew of both of our french towns, never mind the fact that they are small enough that some french people dont even know where they are, and said that i was richer because i was from the south...riiiight...ok, and the best part was when this guy swooped down on me - im serious, literally swooped out of no where - grabbed my hand and started professing my beauty and said that he wanted to 'make me a gift.' the then (forcibly) dragged me to his stall, shooed out everyone that was in there, and offered me anything i wanted. he was going off, in a bizarre mix of french and english, that i could have anything, everything, that we should get married and have 10 or 15 children, that he would give amy 10 camels for me...omg, we were dying. on the floor. it wasnt even creepy, it was just surreal and hilarious. i mean, his jewelry was like, so not even that pretty, so i told him i was already married and i didnt want to have kids and we peaced out, still laughing our asses off. and then, to top it off, we heard "fish'n'chips!" for the second time in as many days, and that did us in for good. we had to sit down bc our abs hurt from laughing. so that was our random afternoon in Sidi.
actually, this is more Tunis, but the doorways in Sidi were painted similarly
degustation
of course i documented the tea and coffee of tunis bc im a weirdo and strangely obsessed. So if you order 'tea' you get sweet, minty green tea in a little shot glass. if you order 'the aux amandes' or 'the auz pignons' you get a sweet black tea with with almonds or pine nuts floating on top. lovely!! and i also tried turkish coffee for the first time - it's super sweet and thick and had a vaguely fruity aftertaste...it was heavenly. oh, and dates and oranges are cool, too.
tea with almonds
the sun doesnt do this to you, fairy dust does this: ancient dust in carthage and sky-blue happiness
after a day of wandering through Tunis, never quite sure of where we were but never getting seriously lost, and realizing that the city was pretty small, we decided to take a day trip to Carthage to get in touch with our Roman roots. There is a train that runs from Tunis up along the coast, stopping a about a dozen small beach towns, so we bought tickets, hoped that we were on the right train (there were no signs, but it turns out that Tunis is the terminus so you can just follow the crowds and know you're getting on the right train), and set out. By this point we realized that the guide book Amy had bought was as good as useless - it had numerous maps, but few labeled streets - so once we got off the train we just picked a direction and started walking. Luck was on our side and we shortly came upon signs for some of the sites that were listed in the book.
Our first stop was the Tophet de Salaambo, where we bought a photo permit (turns out most places charge 1-3Dt extra for the right to take pix) and a ticket that was good for entry to all the sites. As we would find to be the case at most of the sites, the ruins are just chilling outside, covered in moss and soot, and not well preserved at all. Maybe this stuff just isn't really important? I don't know... And as far as explanations for what we were looking at, well that was usually lacking as well. The Tophet site looked like a graveyard, and the book said something about child sacrifices, so we decided that it was a site where they buried the kids that had been offered to the gods or whatever. Mostly I was excited about the palm trees...
In Tunisia, by which of course I mean from my not-so-scientific observations in Tunis and its environs, there are often about 10 men 'working' jobs that could be done by one guy. Mostly they drink coffee. Which is cool, kinda frenchy, and if it means that one of the 10 is as friendly as the guard that set us on the right path to seeing the other ruin sites, then it's fine with me. We turned out of the Tophet site and were heading back the way we had come, figuring we would see signs to the next site, but the guard came running after us, laughed at us for being out on our own, and pointed us in the right direction...After that point, we noticed another touristy couple wearing huge "MICHIGAN!!" and "COLORADO!!" sweatshirts (although I think they were german, not american) who looked like they knew where they were going, so we followed them the rest of the afternoon.
The star of the ruin sites are the Thermes d'Antonin, which are located in a beautiful garden and surrounded by armed guards. We spent a fair amount of time at this site since I decided to be obsessed with columns and we thought that we might know enough latin to read some of the inscriptions. not so much. Carthage was the nicest day in terms of weather and chilled-out-ness - since it's not in the city, we mostly saw other small groups of tourists. normally i hate that, but when the other option is uber-busy streets and feeling tres conspicuous, I'll take tourists. especially since we were by the Mediterranean!! We found a Monoprix (looove it), bought some picnic food, and lazily soaked up the sun on a nice piece of wall. Another pretty chouette thing about Tunis - there arent pigeons (just in the zoo), but there are street cats. generally they looked in decent health, so it wasnt too depressing. Amy said that it was like that in Madrid too, but I dont really remember...
Our first stop was the Tophet de Salaambo, where we bought a photo permit (turns out most places charge 1-3Dt extra for the right to take pix) and a ticket that was good for entry to all the sites. As we would find to be the case at most of the sites, the ruins are just chilling outside, covered in moss and soot, and not well preserved at all. Maybe this stuff just isn't really important? I don't know... And as far as explanations for what we were looking at, well that was usually lacking as well. The Tophet site looked like a graveyard, and the book said something about child sacrifices, so we decided that it was a site where they buried the kids that had been offered to the gods or whatever. Mostly I was excited about the palm trees...
In Tunisia, by which of course I mean from my not-so-scientific observations in Tunis and its environs, there are often about 10 men 'working' jobs that could be done by one guy. Mostly they drink coffee. Which is cool, kinda frenchy, and if it means that one of the 10 is as friendly as the guard that set us on the right path to seeing the other ruin sites, then it's fine with me. We turned out of the Tophet site and were heading back the way we had come, figuring we would see signs to the next site, but the guard came running after us, laughed at us for being out on our own, and pointed us in the right direction...After that point, we noticed another touristy couple wearing huge "MICHIGAN!!" and "COLORADO!!" sweatshirts (although I think they were german, not american) who looked like they knew where they were going, so we followed them the rest of the afternoon.
The star of the ruin sites are the Thermes d'Antonin, which are located in a beautiful garden and surrounded by armed guards. We spent a fair amount of time at this site since I decided to be obsessed with columns and we thought that we might know enough latin to read some of the inscriptions. not so much. Carthage was the nicest day in terms of weather and chilled-out-ness - since it's not in the city, we mostly saw other small groups of tourists. normally i hate that, but when the other option is uber-busy streets and feeling tres conspicuous, I'll take tourists. especially since we were by the Mediterranean!! We found a Monoprix (looove it), bought some picnic food, and lazily soaked up the sun on a nice piece of wall. Another pretty chouette thing about Tunis - there arent pigeons (just in the zoo), but there are street cats. generally they looked in decent health, so it wasnt too depressing. Amy said that it was like that in Madrid too, but I dont really remember...
i love the columns at the lush Thermes d'Antonin
I literally had to dodge him! Tunis, Tunisia pour noel 2007
for christmas, amy from AU and i headed off to Tunisia, excited to visit a new continent and escape the christmasy overload. i had done a fair amount of reading up on the country before we left, and was expecting that Tunis would be pretty much like any other European city since the country is pretty modern, secular, french and arabic speaking, etc, but i still experienced my first taste of culture shock...the ratio of men to women out and about in the streets was outrageous - ive never seen so many men in one place in my life. there are a lot of pro-women's rights laws on the books, but i dont know where all the women were. it was just a really striking contrast to life in france...for example, we only went to cafes in the colonial quarter - a slightly more touristy area - bc otherwise the cafes were occupied solely by men smoking chicha and absorbed in conversation. we drew more attention than i had expected to, both for being white and for being 2 girls out on our own, and much energy was devoted to avoiding the Mediterranean-style come-ons from male passers-by...for the most part the lines they tried to feed us were hilarious - we got "fish'n'chips!" twice, various "vous etes ravissante," and the like, in arabic, french, english, spanish, italian...no one knew just from looking at us what language we spoke, and in fact we passed as french for the whole week! our hotel guys were wonderful - they never quite decided whether they should speak to us in english or french, were helpful with finding the train station and vegetarian couscous, and enjoyed the fact that amy and i would rock out unabashedly to whatever music they were playing in the lobby, usually reggae or arabic pop. bc thats how we do.
a magnificent tree in the Parc du Belvedere, Tunis
we enjoyed sun and (relative) warmth for most of our visit, much welcomed after the grey and drizzle of france. exploring tunis consisted of wandering and getting lost, mainly in the Medina,where the souks (markets) are located. the prices in tunis also startled us - the first night we went to find sandwiches for dinner (eating veg was a whole different set of issues) and the menu ranged from 1,200 Dt to maaaybe1,500 Dt. ok, so the tunisian dinar is divided into
1 000 millimes, right? and the exchange rate was about 1E to 1.725 Dt - i mean, you dont find food for 1E20, and after doing the math, well, it was pretty sweet for us stipend-earning assistants. anywho, we walked all over the city, mainly trying to find la Grande Mosquee, but i dont think we ever really succeeded, although we did find some other, smaller, but still beautiful mosques. the Parc du Belvedere was lush and wonderful, although the zoo was depressing. we braved the train and the tramway, as well, over the course of our stay; the tramway station was the only time we weren't able to communicate in french - all the signs were in arabic and the ticket guys didnt speak french, so a man behind us in line translated for us so that we could get tickets out to the Musee du Bardo to see the roman mosaics and maghrebin antiquities.
citrus explosion at the farmers market in the Medina, Tunis1 000 millimes, right? and the exchange rate was about 1E to 1.725 Dt - i mean, you dont find food for 1E20, and after doing the math, well, it was pretty sweet for us stipend-earning assistants. anywho, we walked all over the city, mainly trying to find la Grande Mosquee, but i dont think we ever really succeeded, although we did find some other, smaller, but still beautiful mosques. the Parc du Belvedere was lush and wonderful, although the zoo was depressing. we braved the train and the tramway, as well, over the course of our stay; the tramway station was the only time we weren't able to communicate in french - all the signs were in arabic and the ticket guys didnt speak french, so a man behind us in line translated for us so that we could get tickets out to the Musee du Bardo to see the roman mosaics and maghrebin antiquities.
government buildings in Tunis
Inscription à :
Articles (Atom)
