The first few days

The first few days here have been a whirl of people and places. I got in, after a 40-hour journey from Minneapolis on Saturday morning at 1:00am. (The length was due to an interminable layover in Frankfurt - if I never hear "Achtung Bitte" again in my life, I'll be a happy man.) Luckily, I came in freshly showered, having profited from the 6-Euro showers in Frankfurt Airport. Mohammed and one of his friends were there with a sign to greet me, and then we headed back to his place. I had a warm welcome, but I was so exhausted that it took me a while to process what was going on - lots of random buildings and crazy Tunisian driving.

Back at Mohammed's place, I met his girlfriend and fellow AIESEC member, Cherifa. We're now all living together at "our" place. It's in an apartment in Manuba, about 20 minutes outside of central Tunis. The best part about it was coming into a place that was already lived in. There'll be no trips to weird mattress shops like there were in Morocco. It's a home, and it's a great feeling.

Saturday, after waking up after 13 hours, I lounged around a bit, and then tackled the northern suburbs of Tunis in the early evening. There are the famous suburbs of Carthage and Sidi Bou Said (famous for its whitewashed houses with blue trim overlooking the Meditteranean) along with the equally swanky seaside La Marsa. After, somewhat offhandedly, the mother of Cherifa, who was driving us around, asked if we wanted to go back to her farm and spend Sunday there...

An hour and a half later, I found myself in a racing horse farm in Mateur, just outside of Bizerte. It was a great change of pace, and absolutely beautiful. I'll try to post some photos soon. It was also my big introduction to the Tunisian family. First off, as expected, it's very Meditteranean. I'd compare it the most to Italian - there's always something going on, and the family spends all day together, cooking, watching awfully-done Egyptian soap operas, and lots of other things. Seeing people so full of life helped snap me out of the initial bout of homesickness a bit. There was constant joking, and I've never meet someone so consistently loud and chatty as Cherifa's mother - a woman who's gone out of her way to help me feel welcome here.

Now, I'm sitting here relaxing after my first day of "work." I say "work" because all there was today were some introductions at AMIDEAST. The country director, Lee, is a great guy. He did the Peace Corps in the Tunisia back during the first year of the Peace Corps, and he's been out here, leading AMIDEAST since 2001. He's a fan of bright shirts and has the energy of someone half his age. He's taking me out for dinner tomorrow night to show me around. There's also a lot of westerners, mostly Canadians and Americans working at AMIDEAST. They run the gamut - there are your young post-college, buy a car, travel around Eastern Europe, run out of money and end up in Tunisia guys like our tech guy Vin, along with some recent college grads, some summer interns, plus the professional teaching staff. My first introduction was to the three older women who have all married Tunisian men and now live here. It's a trip. One was talking about her mojito party last weekend, it was this weird alternate, but totally normal universe that made me feel at home. There's also some other professional teachers, such as a great young married couple from the USA and Canada respectively, that decided to come and spend a year in Tunisia together. All in all, it's a great group of people.

In addition, AMIDEAST is right in the center of Tunis, so there's plenty to do. I went off and got some lunch, capped off by some Mint Tea, and post-work, I hung out with Vin in his very bohemian apartment that he shares with two Serbian girls who are here doing the Institut Bourguiba - an Arabic Language school here in Tunis. After, I met up with Mohamed and some of his AIESEC friends, and we passed an hour drinking (awful) coffee at a cafe on Rue Bourguiba - the central street in Tunis. (Bourguiba was the president of Tunisia post-independence.)

More to come as I get more settled... Also, I brought along my camera/lenses (permit me: Nikon D40 with the 18-55mm kit lens, a 50mm f1.8, and a 55-200mm VR Zoom Nikkor) to hopefully take some meaningful photos.