Tabarka for the Weekend

Today, I'm taking the train to Djendouba, in the Northwest of Tunisia, where I'm meeting up with my buddy Nader and traveling to Tabarka and Ain Draham. I'm bringing my camera, so there should be plenty of photos. I'm especially excited to get into a more natural environment and to explore the Italian castle guarding the town.

The posting has been a bit slow lately because, well, I've been busy with the last week of the session and some personal matters. I'm looking forward to some time off to recharge my batteries a bit.

Ozomatli on CNN

This is a short clip from CNN's The Situation Room. Ozomatli talks about their goodwill tour to the Middle East, and there's a quick mention about Tunisia.

Pop Life

This is an admission that comes with a bit of embarrassment: I've become a consumer of pop music. We're not talking about my Annie phase, this is full-on consumption of Rihanna and Justin Timberlake. And, it's kind of fun. I've been a bit of a music snob over the past few years (which reading Pitchfork does to you), so I haven't been listening to much radio besides my beloved Current - the best station beaming out of Minneapolis, MN.

Here, I really don't have much of a choice when I'm out and about. Basically all the young Tunisians I know have appointed themselves honorary DJs. Be it my neighbor blasting David Guetta or my student Yasmeen somehow turning her cell phone into a jukebox during break (I am now bonding on music with a 13-year old girl - also these new phones have speakers, it's a crazy world we live in), I hear a lot that I don't necessarily choose to hear.

Slowly, I've been worn down. It's partially the fault of Radio Mosaique, which is standard in any cab, even if the driver is 60. My two favorites are also the biggest songs of the summer here: Love is Gone, by David Guetta, and Umbrella, by Rihanna (except for that awful Jay-Z intro).

Two Completely Unrelated Images

Since I've been going out every night this week, I'm going to take tonight off and just relax, watch a movie, and update a few things here. Monday was the wedding, Tuesday was dinner with Lee, Wednesday was a late night at the cafe, and Thursday was a great night at about the coolest place in Tunis, Le Boeuf Sur Le Toit. It's a music place/restaurant out in Soukra, and I headed there last night with some friends to check out Jazz night. I'd seriously recommend it to anyone spending some time in Tunis. Just go with an empty stomach, because to purchase alcohol you need to buy food.

First off, the puppies are freakin' adorable. I took this one last Sunday. They're already bigger and louder. They're starting to walk pretty seriously as well - I have to start looking where I go when I step inside.


Secondly, I'd like to talk briefly about booze in Tunisia. There's a lot available - often at ridiculously high prices. These high prices are combatted by an "interesting" offering of alcohol at supermarkets. Carrefour, for one, has the two beers you can buy in Tunisia, the local Celtia and the cheap import Lowenbrau, along with a selection of whiskies of questionable provenance and quality. Here's an example that Jeremy picked up last weekend:


I think the first thing to note is the fact that the word "special" is used three times on the front label. I don't know about you, but the more times that word is used, the less "special" it becomes - there's such a thing as trying too hard. I think the marketing team over at Guard House Whiskey has a serious redesign job in order.

A Visit to Amideast

On Monday, we had a group of spouses of Congresspeople come through Amideast. They got a quick tour, and then sat in on our English classes with a Tunisian journalist. I had a wife of a Congressman from Boston, and she sat in on my level four class for about 35 minutes. It was a great experience - she asked some questions and got to participate in the class discussion. After they all went over to the American Corner and met participants from the Yes Program. All in all, it turned out to be a publicity coup, since we had some stellar articles written about us the next day in the Tunisian press. Also, the spouses supposedly raved about Amideast, which is always a good thing - and will hopefully translate into more recognition Stateside.

They were all here for only three days - next on the itinerary is Turkey, and then Croatia, and then Italy. It's really not a bad deal - they're staying in some very plush hotels and being ferried around the countries. Gotta love being a taxpayer ;)

Here I've included three of the French-language articles that I got as scans from Lee. Notice that Jeremy makes an appearance in the right photo on the second article.

I've been enjoying myself lately here. I'll post some photos I took at a wedding on Monday as soon as I can. One of the women who comes to Free English Fridays got married, and Kristian and I were there drinking free strawberry juice and doing a bit of schmoozing. Last night I went to the restaurant La Vague (the wave) in Gammarth with Lee and the new teacher, Megan, who graduated from GWU in 2006. We had some excellent cuttlefish, shrimp, and some OK mussels and had some totally drinkable Tunisian rosé. Then we went to an atmospheric Shisha place that is right outside of the terminus of the TGM in La Marsa and had some apple shisha and turkish coffee.

Tea and Chawarma

I came out to Tunisia for a lot of reasons, among them, I wanted to explore North African culture, work on my French and Arabic, and also relax a bit. Well, mission accomplished on the whole relaxing front. As stressful as it can be out here when you really need to get something done, like fix the a/c or internet at Amideast, I've definitely come to further appreciate downtime here. Essentially, when I'm not at work, I'm more or less on vacation.

For example, on Friday night, I went off with Nader and Kristian to a traditional cafe down off of Rue de Paris for mint tea, and then ate some chawarma at a good Turkish place about three blocks off of Ave. Bourguiba on Rue de Marseille. After that, Nader and I took a bus out to Les Berges du Lac and went to Cafe Biwa - which is a hip new cafe right on Lac Tunis. We sat, talked and I drank a tonic (just tonic, remember Berges was developed by the Saudis), and listened to a guitarist cover Eagle Eyed Cherry and REM.

Days more or less follow a pattern of a cafe after work, occasionally dinner out, and then an early bedtime around 10:30 - now that I'm done with season three of Lost, I need a new show. On the downside, I definitely do have less personal time than I'm used to, but I think it's essential here to profit from the local atmosphere, and that involves a lot of cafe time. Overall, I'm happy with enjoying this side of Tunisia. As I mentioned before, it can be frustrating to get certain things accomplished, but it just involves slowing down and talking to people, and normally things work out, although not necessarily at a pace I'm used to. Plus, right now, the weather has been pleasant, if still toasty. Highs are in the mid-90s lately, which is tolerable (when the a/c actually functions at work), but the nights noticeable cool off. Last night at Cafe Biwa, I was glad I was wearing a long-sleeve shirt once the sun went down in typically gorgeous North African fashion.

Tunisian Brik

One of the most famous Tunisian dishes is brik, a fried pastry filled with egg and other spices and toppings. The most basic brik is "brik a l'oeuf," which is a malsouqa pastry (here's a first-hand account of using malsouqa to make a different version of Brik, called "fingers of Fatima") with an egg and spices inside, and then fried and quickly eaten.

The art of eating a brik is making sure that you don't get the egg yolk all over you - often the egg isn't totally fried, and you need to be a creative (and fast) eater to get it down without making too much of a mess. (a note from a cooking site on the runny eggs: "Because of concerns over salmonella, many people are uncomfortable preparing dishes in which the eggs are only partially cooked. Most Tunisians do not share this concern.") Another pointer is to give the brik a quick squeeze of lemon for some extra flavor. There are also plenty of other variations, I've eaten brik with Tuna (which is ubiquitous in Tunisian cuisine for better or worse), and ground beef.

A variation of the brik is the doigt de Fatima, or Fatimah's finger, which looks like a spring roll. I personally prefer them like this, because they're smaller and easier to deal with. Also, I've had some tasty variations with shrimp, as part of a long meal which included some great Couscous Djerbien, which is a fish couscous that originates from the island of Djerba.

Even though travel guides love to sing its praises as a typically Tunisian food, it's not as easy to find as it should be on the street. It's often on the menus in typical Tunisian restaurants, especially in the medinas (old towns) of cities, where a meal will typically include salad, brik, and then a main dish such as couscous, fish, or grilled meat.

A Weekend in Nabeul

This past Friday, I headed out to Nabeul with Kristian, Feriel, Lee, and an AIESECer, Ali, who just started her internship here with a Tunisian company. We went out to check out the English Language Village - which is a university campus converted into a summer camp during late July and early August. Three of the Amideast interns are actually out there working, along with ten students from the Learn and Serve Program. Since I teach an English class as well this month Monday-Friday, I can't make it out for a full session, but Kristian and I figured it was worth checking out.

The Language Village is for Tunisian students who are going to be the future English teachers of the country. The goal is to go out to the village, spend two weeks speaking in English with native speakers, and taking classes on English and English-language culture - on Friday I witnessed a group of about 25 people listening to a selection of songs by the Beatles.

I'll say that I was pleasantly surprised. The village is a lot of fun, and there's a lot of great people out there. At Amideast I meet a lot of younger and older Tunisians, but not many my age. This was a great opportunity to hang out with literally hundreds (there were about 200+ around for the weekend) of Tunisians around my age. A nice bonus was that most of them were female. No complaints. Actually, Kristian and I had such a good time there on Friday that while we made commitments to be back in Tunis with Lee on Friday night, to pack up and take a louage (a shared-ride van) out to Nabeul on Saturday.

Nabeul itself is situated on Cap Bon, a gorgeous part of Tunisia that is home to a lot of wine vineyards, beautiful rolling countryside, and also the country's most popular tourist destination - Hammamet. After we got back out to Nabeul on Saturday afternoon, we went to Hammamet at night. It was quite the experience - it's a "zone touristique" and often feels like Disneyland.

No complaints on the bus to Hammamet.

Carthage Land

More from Hammamet...

The rest of weekend was equally low-key. I got back into Tunis on Sunday night, and lazed away Monday (which was a holiday - "Women's Day") at a Lebanese restaurant called Fairouz, and then a french-themed cafe called "Le Montmartre" in Menzah Six.

Also, for photos. I am going to try something new here. I use the social networking site Facebook for posting photos every now and then, and it's much easier to upload an album's worth of photos there than here. Facebook also allows people who are not members to go through links and see all the photos without joining the site - so, if you click on this LINK here, it should take you right to the twenty-something photos I posted from the weekend. If there's any problems, or it doesn't seem to work, let me know.

Once again - more Photos here.

The Zoo

As I've mentioned before, we have a bit of a zoo out here in Ariana. The dogs, Samra and Ginger, plus the cat, Jihad, make for a full enough household. About a day and a half ago, Samra gave birth to five puppies. She dug a hole for them out in the yard, and she's taking care of them under some foliage. They're pretty damn cute. They haven't opened their eyes yet, and they mostly just squeal and writhe around when they're not all bundled up together sleeping.

Samra checking in.


That dirty dog in the middle is Samra. I thought about giving her a bath, and then remembered she spends every night in a dirt hole.


Don't let the cute face fool you. Ginger is a plant-eating hellion.


Jihad's been holding up well. She's definitely got some street-cat instincts bred into her.

I've been feeding her some cheese everyday (she loves those Laughing Cow wedges - which you can see on her whiskers) to give her some dairy - I think I took her off a bit too early when she was little.

Joe Champs

Tonight, Dan, Kristian and I went to "Joe Champs American Sportsbar Restaurant." It's an American place over in Berges du Lac, which is the huge development being put in along Lac Tunis. The development is being financed by the Saudis, and is basically one of the hottest properties in all of Tunisia. However, since it's a Saudi development, there's no alcohol around, at least until 2010.

Joe Champs is situated right next to a restaurant called "Mississippi," which is essentially a recreation of a river steamboat on dry land. You have to walk over a little bridge to get on it. Frankly, I'm a little bit scared about going there, but I feel obligated to give it a shot (and bring my camera). Joe Champs itself is basically, as the name implies, a recreation of an American sports bar, sans the alcohol (which I would argue is the most important ingredient). Their walls are filled with sports posters, a beer sign or two, along with paraphernalia from all sorts of different sports, including posters from one of the Tunisian teams that did the Paris-Dakar Rally. The menu is pretty straightforward - they have acceptable wings, along with milkshakes, burgers, and a few other things. I opted for the buffalo wings, a chocolate milkshake, and a cheeseburger with "swiss" cheese.

The food was totally average - it's pretty much on par with the crap you get at Applebees, for a bit less money. However, since it's Tunisia and I haven't had a decent burger, it was more than OK. We chatted, watched a soccer game, and made an early retreat. One of the best parts of the restaurant is the ridiculous sports statues randomly placed around the restaurant. There's a memorable one of a basketball player going up for a dunk - the sculptor decided to show the dunk from behind and keep the shorts extra-clingy around the player's rear. You have to see it to believe it - I just about snorted my chocolate milkshake. Until next time, Joe Champs...

A Lazy Sunday Update, Pt. 2

These are some old shots from the Kantara/Palermo Orchestra Concert at the Carthage Festival. Also playing was Thomas Rosencrantz, an American pianist who has worked with Riadh before on the album "Le Minaret et la Tour."






These photos were easier to shoot than, say, Ozomatli, because everyone pretty much stayed in their place (unless someone, ahem, gets me one of these). Luckily, they give the stage a decent amount of light.

A Lazy Sunday Update, Pt. 1

Well, I have just proven that you don't have to be in America to eat Bugles and watch Lost for two hours (I've been rolling through Season Two with a vengeance over the past few days - this is my first time, and I'm digging it). I'm getting to the end of a nice little mini-vacation before the new session starts up on Monday at Amideast, and I figured I should update some old photos that got lost in the shuffle (aka: when I lost Internet). These photos are from a great event I was at about three Fridays ago at the Ambassador's residence in Sidi Bou Said. It was a reception and a private concert for Kantara.

The view from the Ambassador's House. Tough life.

The band with some guests. The Flutist was exceptional - what a crazy guy. I've never seen someone play a flute with so much... vigor?

Brennan and Riadh jamming.


The red-haired woman is a Tunisian singer - she sings all of the traditional songs.


Lee, Zine, and Mohamed. If you're wondering where Lee gets his shirts from, he has his own tailor in Mali.


Garrett, the Ambassador, and me.

Dobet Gnahoré and the Renegade Steel Orchestra

On Thursday, I went with Safia (a Tunisian who did the Salaam Program in the Bay Area a few years ago), Kristian, and Trina to see Dobet Gnahore and the Renegade Steel Orchestra (that's a Dobet song in the background) at the Carthage Festival. Dobet is an amazing singer from Cote D'Ivoire, and I loved her performance. Quite the look too - she'd clearly spent a lot of time on hair and makeup. After her, the Renegade Steel Orchestra played - a large group of steel drummers mostly from Trinidad. They were definitely skilled, and got the audience rocking on songs such as "No Woman No Cry," but it was a lot of steel drums. While they were quite good and did a great choreographed act, after an hour of it I was just fine being done. It wasn't helped by the fact that they were up on a stage - I feel like for steel drums, you have to be up close and personal to appreciate the energy of it.

Taking Photos

The first camera that I have ever owned is the one sitting in front of me right now, my Nikon D40. I picked it up in early March because I wanted to give photography a try. My rationale was that photography gets you out and moving about, and it keeps you interested in aesthetics, light, and the small things that make great photos. Plus, my artistic ability as far as drawing and painting is concerned is about equal to giving a gorilla a case full of Crayola crayons and seeing what happens - I can barely even draw a straight line.

Anyways, I picked up my camera after quite a bit of research. I knew I wanted the speed and flexibility of a SLR, but I didn't want to break the bank on a hobby that might not work out. I ended up opting for the D40, and I've been very happy with it. I think Ken Rockwell, over at my favorite site on photography, puts it best. (I'd also recommend all the other articles on his site, especially for anyone who's agonizing over gear or what they have/don't have in terms of a camera.)

Photography was not something I picked up like riding a bike. I'm still far from being a good photographer. I like taking photos, and I take a lot, and occasionally I get some good ones, but that's it. It took me a while to figure out ISO, shutter speed, aperture, white balance, etc. I'm the type of person that just kind of delves in when I get some new gear - I rarely look at manuals until I'm absolutely forced to (I'm convinced 90% of a manual is common sense). That's why the internet has been so helpful. Also, going to photography exhibitions in Europe and back in the States has helped a lot. If you want to see cool photos (and realize that you still have a long way to go), check out any of the greats like August Sander, Andre Kertesz, or Aaron Siskind, and even newer people like the amazing Wolfgang Tillmans.

Taking photos here in Tunisia has been a big help for me. It aids in the processing of all these diverse memories that I'm so rapidly accumulating right now. Sometimes I look back on albums that happened a few weeks ago and barely remember what happened! My biggest focus is taking photos of friends and people I meet. I think about vacations where people take 400 photos of buildings and statues, and I wonder how often they look back on them (or how often they even could). Ultimately, I'd like to come back with a good collection of memories that I can look back on and even show to my kids one day. Also, with modern technology and all, I can upload these photos to my blog and have my family and friends look at them, and get a glimpse into what I'm doing here. As helpful as text is, photos are a big help with a country such as Tunisia - a country that not everyone can have a mental image in their head of.

The Front Page

Yesterday, I woke up to an email from my Mom about a bridge collapse in Minneapolis. She had just written to let me know that everything was OK. I immediately went to my local news website (Startribune.com), and also opened up CNN and BBC News. The Minneapolis 35W bridge collapse was the leading story on all three. As of today, it's still leading on a lot of national news sites. I'll say this: it's very weird to see a town like Minneapolis on BBC. Especially in a situation like this.

One of the most difficult parts of being away is being away when something like this happens. I've lost both of my dad's parents while I was in France - my grandfather when I was living there when I was seven, and my grandmother in the Spring of 2006 while I was studying in Paris. I didn't get to go to either of their funerals. Luckily, this time, everyone I know is OK, but that doesn't diminish in any way the tragedy of the incident, or my personal connection to Minneapolis and also that bridge. My mother takes that bridge every day to work, and I've driven over it thousands of times during my life. It has a beautiful view down the Mississippi river - including the new Jean Nouvel-designed Guthrie Theater on the shore. All I can do is send my love to my family back in Minneapolis and hope for the best. While distance is fun and exciting, and I believe necessary in developing oneself, it's also very difficult at times like this.